The Broadgate Estates Cycle To MIPIM 10th anniversary ride could not have gone better. More than 100 riders from across the real estate industry, including 11 from the original team, donned their Lycra, applied their chamois cream and pedalled 1,500km from London to Cannes for this year’s MIPIM conference.
Starting at Coram’s headquarters in Bloomsbury, WC2, riders were able to get a sense of what they were raising money for. And on the penultimate night of the six-day ride, fundraisers heard from Coram chief executive Dr Carol Homden, who had flown out to support the cyclists on the final push, about how the £253,000 raised by the ride so far this year was helping some of the country’s most vulnerable children.
During the first five days of the ride, Coram placed six children in new, loving homes and since it has been supported by Cycle To, the charity has changed the lives of more than 17,000 children. Over the 10 years the ride has been taking place, more than £2m has been raised.
Cycle To chief executive Nick Hanmer said: “It is hard to believe it is the tenth Cycle To MIPIM since Peter Murray and 16 fellow riders made the journey completely unsupported. They began the history of a fundraising cycle challenge. In that time, the property industry has weathered some serious downturns, but the support and generosity for the ride has never waned.”
While there may have been cold starts for the riders – dropping to -7°C on one very nippy morning – and bright sunshine in the afternoons on this 10th anniversary ride, there was plenty of the usual networking and fuelling. See below for what it takes to feed the Cycle To peloton.
Alongside individual fundraising efforts this year, corporate sponsorship came from:
Title sponsor: Broadgate Estates.
Team sponsors: Wilmott Dixon, Argent, Savills, AHR, Sitematch, Elliot Wood, Invest in Nottingham, Newforma.
Crew sponsor: Knight Frank
Mechanic sponsor: Berkeley Group
Coffee sponsor: Coffey Architects
A peloton rides on its stomach
So, what exactly is required to fuel 104 cyclists riding a combined 113,626km?
