SIX-YEAR-OLD Joe Appleford visited 44 churches during an eight-hour charity bike ride to help preserve Oxfordshire’s famed spires.

Joe cycled 20 miles from Woodstock to Farmoor, via Oxford, as part of the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Ride and Stride event on Saturday.

The youngster powered up steep gradients such as Cumnor Hill with no gears to raise £100 for church restorations.

He then spent an hour on a bouncy castle.

The Wootton Primary School pupil said: “I wasn’t feeling tired, I just didn’t want to stop.

“I had enough energy and I wanted to go on but we only had 20 minutes to get to the next church and it was quite a way, so we didn’t go.”

Mum Anna, 39, from Wootton, near Woodstock, who accompanied him, said: “He just absolutely loves it, he just wants to cycle everywhere.

“It was amazing because he hasn’t got gears, he just pedals so fast, his legs just go round and round.

“I have got gears on my bike and I was finding it hard to keep up with him.

“He just never stops from the moment he gets up to the moment he goes to bed – he’s like the Energizer bunny.”

The youngster’s journey saw him ride from 10am until 5.50pm, cycling from Woodstock through Begbroke, Kidlington, Wolvercote, Summertown, central, South and West Oxford, North Hinksey, Botley, Cumnor and finally Farmoor.

Joe’s feat beats his 2008 event record when, aged four, he cycled 14.5 miles in seven-and-a-half-hours to 19 churches – with the help of stabilizers.

The youngster, who has been cycling since he was two, follows in the tyre tracks of his dad Peter, 41, who rode nearly 100 miles, visiting 86 churches, in 2007. This year he visited seven by canoe.

Mrs Appleford, from Castle Road said: “He’s just such a determined little soul that he says he’s going to break his record and he just goes for it.

“I thought we might get as far as Botley but he just wanted to go on and on and up Cumnor Hill.

“I was exhausted afterwards, I was shattered but he spent an hour on a bouncy castle.”

The sponsorship cash will go to Wootton Church and the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust.

Trust secretary Martin Thompson said: “It’s absolutely outstanding, well done him.

“It really is amazing to complete it without gears as that makes a hell of a difference and is very hard work.”