When Knight Frank Cycle to MIPIM was postponed, there was huge disappointment from all involved. Many of the ride captains moved swiftly to organise alternative rides: a London-Bristol-London epic, a very hilly two-day jaunt around the Cotswolds and a 1,500km (the distance from London to Cannes) relay around Regent’s Park in London.
“It all began with the unsurprising but very disappointing announcement on Monday that Cycle to MIPIM was being postponed, just four days before we were due to leave,” said ride captain Christian-Spencer Davies.
“Personally, I was looking forward to this even more than previous years: having just closed my company after 25 years trading, I needed a bit of headspace. The intensity and the physical exertion of the six day journey cycling to MIPIM have always be thoroughly therapeutic and the training helps me get out of bed through the dark winter months.”
So why not use the traditional MIPIM ride training ground, Regent’s Park, and just elongate the morning laps a bit. A lot, in fact. To complete the 1,500km equivalent ride down to Cannes, a team of MIPIM riders (and some friends) would need to ride 428km a day. That would mean averaging 30kph from 7am to 10pm. A tough challenge, just like the cycle to MIPIM, but one that riders completed with gusto and smiles on their faces, just like they do on the real six-day ride.
Alongside the need and want to not let months of training through the dark and wet winter go to waste, riders were also keen to make sure they continued to be able to collect sponsorship money for the ride’s charities, including principal beneficiary Coram.
Dr Carol Homden, chief executive of Coram, said: “Every year hundreds of people cycle all this way to demonstrate their compassion, their passion for cycling and their commitment to the children of Coram, to breaking that cycle forever. But this year they have dug even deeper. They couldn’t go to Cannes so they stayed in London and they have got their bikes on the dreary, wet, London roads and they have cycled and cycled and cycled their hearts out to honour their promise. That is character in action. That is the industry at its best and that is Coram’s best of friends.”
Club Peloton chief executive Nick Hanmer said: “It’s true what they say, that people’s true colours come out in a moment of crisis.
“We have been overwhelmed by the response of riders to keep riding, to raise money for charity, to deliver on their promise, by sponsors to commit to us, to Club Peloton and Cycle to MIPIM.
“We are heartened, not only by the way people have rallied without any call from us to keep riding, but to raise money too. It is quite obvious that Coram and our other supported charities are a great pull and draw for people to get out there and ride.”
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