I have never felt moved enough to respond to letters in newspapers before but I am stunned by the selfishness of Roger Lee in his letter entitled Cycle Mayhem (Letters, June 19).

As you may guess, I took part in the London-to-Brighton cycle ride this year, in aid of the British Heart Foundation. The ride is expected to raise around £2.5m for the foundation, a point that seems to have been missed.

On a personal note, I had to pay £23 to enter and £14 to get the train from Brighton to Clapham (no subsidy for a charitable event by the rail companies, even though they knew the trains would be full).

I got up at 4am to start the ride at 7.30am, cycled 58 miles in 80 temperatures and raised £200 for a very good cause, a cause that Mr Lee may, in fact, need himself one day.

Would his hour delay be worth it then?

There were signs out weeks in advance on the roads into Brighton warning of the disruption the ride would cause.

I, too, am a car driver as, I expect, are a large percentage of the participants in the cycle ride so I pay road tax already. And, if I'm on my bike, I'm not "chewing" the roads up in my car.

Is an hour delay really such a bad thing when many lives will be saved by this event?

I hope you publish something in response to Mr Lee, be it my letter or another, pointing out these 27,000 annoying people are actually doing some good as I believe everyone has a heart, in theory at least.

-Phil Window, Durrington