AN ATHLETE'S £1,000 bike has been stolen days before he is due to cycle 112 miles in a charity event.

Paul Hutchings, 37, of Normanton Road, Brighton, is taking part in an Iron Man contest tomorrow.

His his light-blue special-ised Sequoia racing bike was taken from bike racks at the back of Brighton station on Tuesday.

Only the week before he spent £100 on servicing it ready for the event.

Mr Hutchings believes the new racks are insecure and says thieves will find it easy to take bikes from them. He said: "Anyone with a simple Allen key could undo these racks in ten seconds and remove the bikes. Southern Railways should put a sign up telling people not to use them and replace them with secure ones."

Mr Hutchings, a market researcher who lives with his wife Jackie and their two sons aged eight and five, left his bike at the station when he went to a meeting in London. He caught a train at 10.30am and when he returned at 4.30pm the bike was gone.

Mr Hutchings has been in training for the Iron Man contest for nine months and is raising money for the World Development Movement to tackle the underlying causes of poverty. The event involves a 112-mile bike ride through Dorset and Somerset, a 2.4-mile swim across a lake and a marathon. Angmering Cycle Shop has lent him a bike to use for the race.

A spokesman for Southern Railways said yesterday: "We aware there is an issue with the racks and they are being changed today. However, police actually have CCTV footage of Mr Hutching's bike being removed by someone cutting through the padlock so the theft was not caused by the racks."

Anyone who would like to sponsor Mr Hutchings can go to www.justgiving .com/ironman_paul