The 9th annual Cyclothon UK took place on Thursday and was once again delivered with aplomb by my amazing team.
A beautiful sunrise marked the start of the 12-hour relay race with 25 teams eager to lift the Cyclothon Trophy. Furniture Village showed us once again how a garage should be decked out…. a beautiful leather sofa bed, complete with bedding and scatter cushions, amazing massage armchair and even a chargeable side table complete with Bluetooth speakers!
A safety briefing from our brilliant MC Anthony McCrossan and a welcome by me and they were off. Record lap times and fastest up the hill times were set early on in the day when all our cyclists were still full of energy and fuelled by an epic Brands Hatch breakfast!
The sun shone, but a brisk wind gave the cyclists a bit of challenge. The rugby girls and boys put in a variety of performances and were all on fabulous form. Chris Whitehead’s bike arrived with a flat tyre, covered in cobwebs and snails – signs of considerable training!
The afternoon was peppered with prizes from Schwalbe, Elemis and Swerve. NamedSport energy bars and gels were handed to anyone feeling fatigued and moods were lifted thanks to a delicious afternoon tea. One of our garage hosts even ran an impromptu yoga class for her garage riders. Athlete Angels once again provided restorative massage for sore limbs and Gary’s Bikes provided restorative mechanical expertise to sore bikes!
It was a closely fought race and congratulations to Darke and Taylor 1 for winning Cyclothon 2019. I do feel sorry for Team LSEG who were pipped into 3rd position by the smallest of margins, 0.1 seconds, as they made a dash for the line by the winners in 2018 & 2017, Team Sumo Digital 2. For the full results please visit http://dbmaxresults.co.uk/results.aspx?CId=16421&RId=280&EId=1
Great music, lots of laughs and a huge effort from the riders to raise considerable funds for their chosen charities made the day go super fast. Fundraising took place for GamesAid, Atlas Foundation, Action Medical Research, Sobell House, Help for Heroes, Action Medical Research, Bone Cancer Research Trust and HQR Charitable Trust; to date over £25,000 has been raised taking us past the £350,000 mark since the event began.
There really is something quite special about the Cyclothon and that is mostly down to the riders themselves. Their energy, humour, rivalry, and competitive approach no matter how good or bad they may be makes for a very entertaining day!
Thanks again to our sponsors Schwalbe, Furniture Village, Swerve Cycling and Sega for their continued support of the event. Also thanks to Elemis and NamedSport for contributing products to our Goody bag and thanks to all the Rugby players Chris Whitehead, John Hall, Lee Mears, Tamara Taylor, Laura Keates, Charlie Hodgson, Gavin Kerr, Ian Gough, Peter Rogers and Graham Dawe for giving up their valuable time to ride for The Bulldogs and The Dragons… so glad the Bulldogs triumphed this time!
Many thanks to all the riders that took part and made it a brilliant day. See you all again for our 10th edition of Cyclothon on Thursday 10th September 2020.