MORE than 380 cyclists donned spots and floppy ears in a canine-themed bike ride on Saturday.

People of all ages got dressed up as dalmatians for the annual Acorn Dalmatian Bike Ride, in aid of St David’s Hospice Care.

The ride has become established as an important event in the St David’s Hospice Care fundraising calendar and has so far raised thousands - with this year’s event expected to add even more to the total.

This year, cyclists could choose from four different routes, including a shorter 24 mile route ride and the longest route of 58 miles.

Gemma Sandhu, event organiser for St David’s Hospice, said: “It just keeps getting bigger and bigger each year.

"Everything has worked like clockwork for the event which has been great.

“We started on Friday where our team went out on the routes and made sure they were all signposted and we have prepped in advance.

“For this year’s event we started planning the 2018 event the day after the Acorn Dalmatian Bike Ride in 2017.

"This year has been great, we’ve had a vintage ice cream van, a bouncy castle and a face-painting stall.

"It’s a great event for the family and The Priory has been very accommodating for us.”

The Acorn Dalmatian Bike Ride was set up by David Rees seven years ago as his father-in-law, John Dixon, had been cared for in his last days at St Anne’s Hospice (now St David’s), Newport.

To say thank you to the hospice and staff for their work, Mr Rees and a team of cyclists teamed up for the first Dalmatian Bike Ride, aiming to raise £2,500 - which was the cost of care for one patient.

However, the team ended up raising more than £10,000 and decided to carry on running the event annually.

“The money the event brings in is incredible,” said Mrs Sandhu.

“Dave is really fantastic and this event is his baby.

"He works so hard to put this on each year.

“We’ve had a great time and we would like to thank our volunteers, The Priory and our sponsors Acorn.”

l In Thursday’s edition of the Argus previewing the bike ride we said it was £72,000 from a fundraising total of £500,000 across five years.

This should have said from a total of £250,000. We apologise for the error.