Former Cheltenham Town striker Jason Eaton is off to France next month.

Not for a holiday, however. The one-time Cheltenham hot-shot, who scored the only goal of the game when the club won the FA Trophy at Wembley in 1998, is taking part in the London to Paris charity cycle ride.

It is the second time that Eaton, now 48, has taken part after completing it for the first time last year.

“We have to ride 320 miles in four days,” he said. “I managed it last year and it’s such a big thing to do. I get a real buzz out of it. There’s about 35 of us in our group and we’re hoping to raise £100,000 for charity.”

These days Eaton, who left Cheltenham in 1999 after helping them to win promotion to the Football League and hung up his boots at the age of 38, has little direct involvement in the beautiful game aside from watching his eight-year-old son Louie play for Yatton.

Cycling has replaced football as his main sporting pursuit - Eaton’s former Cheltenham team-mate Bob Bloomer is also a keen cyclist - and he has been preparing hard for this year’s Paris marathon which gets under way on Wednesday 19th July.

“I’m in full training,” said Eaton, a director of a health club. “I’ll ride up to 100 miles a day. I do a lot of hills up the Cheddar Gorge. I do alright going up the hills.

“I’ve always been pretty fit and I don’t really give up on anything.

“Last year I did a few time trials and it gave me a real buzz. It’s similar to scoring goals in football and I’d not had that sort of feeling since I stopped playing.

“When I talk to Bob (Bloomer) these days we don’t talk about football, we only talk about cycling!”

Anyone who wishes to sponsor Jason should visit https://www.action.org.uk/sponsor/jasonandsaraheaton2017