Micheldever staff get on their bikes for charity

Over 50 staff from Micheldever Tyre Services, led by CEO Paul Fox, took part in the British Heart Foundation London to Brighton cycle ride on Sunday 17th June and raised an impressive £15,000 for this important charity. All bar two of the Micheldever team made it successfully to the finish over the gruelling 55 mile course which starts at Clapham Common, South London, and finishes on Madeira Drive, Brighton, which eight miles after the demanding climb of Ditchling Beacon is a welcome relief. Whilst some of the riders were experienced racers others were novices on their first organised ride, which made it all the more notable.

BHF is the UK’s principal heart charity, whose purpose in life is to help achieve a world where people don’t die prematurely from heart disease. They fund pioneering research, provide vital prevention activity (like persuading people like us to ride our bikes) and ensure quality care and support for everyone living with heart disease. The organisation has the key objective to “within a decade halve the number of people in the UK under 75 who die from cardio-vascular disease”.

The £15,000 that the Micheldever team raised for BHF was in part from individual private sponsorship together with generous donations from Pirelli, Bridgestone, GT Radial, Kumho, Continental, Goodyear, Michelin, and CAM Systems.

The ride was not without incident, and highlights included: Andy Tidball completed the ride on his lovingly restored 1972 Dawes Mirage bicycle; he also sustained a puncture and rode 2.5 miles off the course and back to a  local Halfords to effect a repair; team members sustained five falls (luckily none serious) and eight punctures; Dave Dineen completed the ride 13 months to the day following a hip replacement; 30 of the team camped in London the night before the start fuelled by an amazing evening BBQ and slap up breakfast; fastest time was Paul Smith in three hours, but he does take his cycling extremely seriously; Paul also sustained a speeding ticket for doing 40mph just before the finish in Brighton whilst in a 30 MPH limit; and the poseur award for the flashiest race bike went to Retail Operations Director, Mark Harley.

The entire event much of which took in country roads closed to motor traffic across the attractive Sussex Weald, was extremely well marshalled with refreshment stations en route. Spectators cheered and clapped along the route and an estimated crowd of 10,000 cheered the riders along the finishing straight. The 2013 ride will now be firmly on MTS’s calendar of events.