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news
Stars join David Walliams for £1 million Sport Relief John O'Groats to Land's End ride
Comedian David Walliams will be joined by a team of celebrities next month in an attempt to raise £1 million for Sport Relief through a non-stop cycle relay from John O’Groats to Land’s End.
The charity endeavour, called The BT Sport Relief Million Pound Bike Ride and which we first reported on last month, was officially launched today, and riding with Little Britain star Walliams will be Jimmy Carr, Fearne Cotton, Miranda Hart, Russell Howard, Patrick Kielty and Davina McCall.
The team will set off from John O’Groats on an as yet unspecified day in the coming weeks with the target of reaching Land’s End almost 1,000 miles and 80 hours later, riding around the clock in relays. While not on the bike, the celebrities will be taking a breather and cheering on their team-mates from the luxury team bus that will accompany them on the journey.
The ride – which will be undertaken on Dolan Prefissio frames – will be the subject of a BBC documentary that will be shown in the lead-up to the Sport Relief Weekend, which takes place from Friday 19 to Sunday 21 March, and which promises to show the team as they “battle the elements at all hours of the day as they each take turns to cycle through wind, rain, and rough terrain.”
Of course, the first thought that will come to any cyclist who’s completed or even just contemplated riding the length of Great Britain will be why the chosen route doesn’t start at Land’s End to take advantage of prevailing winds. We don’t know whether that’s by accident or design, but we imagine that the team’s reaction when they discover that the ride could have been easier had they gone in the opposite direction will make for good TV.
Walliams, no stranger to fundraising challenges for Sport Relief, acknowledges that tough challenges lie ahead, but says that the prospect of reaching the fundraising target, which will help vulnerable people in the UK and elsewhere around the world, will keep the team motivated.
“As if swimming the English Channel in 2006 wasn’t enough I’ve now roped in a team of people to help me rise to the challenge for Sport Relief again,” he says. “It’s a phenomenal undertaking and going to be really tough but we’re all training hard to make sure we all get to Land’s End and hopefully raise a million pounds for Sport Relief. I’ve seen what money raised through Sport Relief can do and it really does make a difference. It will be this keeping me going through the tough journey ahead.”
Anyone wishing to sponsor the team can do so via the Sport Relief website, and BT, which is supporting the ride, has declared 26 February “Chat for Change” day and will be donating 1p to Sport Relief for every call made from a BT and a Plusnet home landline on that day.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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21 comments
I love (or is that hate) the fact that celebs take a few days off from earning their megabucks to do something that, ok on this occasion is a slight challenge (for them, as it would be for me!) but it's us mere mortals that are meant to be impressed and dig in to our pocket.
The kid that cycled round his local park is more inspiring than these lot.
Road cc should challenge them and keep their tempo up, show them how it should be done.
As has been said hardly a challenge. Bit of a beanfest for the 'celebrities' really, notice that the bikes all have their names on, so looks like they will get to keep them after the event. No doubt they will be having a full kit out and it won't be from Aldi so kit including bikes about £8,000. Then there is the cost of that luxury coach, fair chunk of cash to come off the donations to cover the costs.
Or am I just being cynical and everything will be donated free of charge.
Dont be silly, its already been paid for, by the BBC :0)
At least russell howard is doing it, I have plenty of time for him. Hilarity at Komedia in Bath last spring/summer.
It has crossed my mind...all down on the drops or aero bars. I expect they will be heading down the a38 through thornbury, bristol, up past bristol airport and down toward taunton. I am up for taking a 'flexi-day' from work. Any idea when they will be here?
I am definitely up for that Simon!
Quick squirt of Torq Energy in the direction of McCall for good measure...
Maybe we should get a chain gang together to coincide with when they're heading through the south-west and breeze past with a cheery wave?
They should do it on the camperbike, then they can do away with the cost of a luxury coach.
camper-bike.png
That's just ridiculous - they basically need to ride less than 40 miles each a day each at 13-14mph average, and that's giving them the benefit of the doubt taking a more scenic 1000miles to do it in. I'm hardly a strong/fit rider and that would be a piece of piss to do, even fixed as suggested above.
To get a donation from me, they'd have to do it on the beer bike... http://www.beerbike.co.uk/ I'd even let them have an extra day or two, and maybe even non-alcoholic beer.
yeah, not a patch on Shearer and Chiles last year. now *that* was a bike ride
or james cracknell riding from northern france to girbraltar in six days and then swimming across to africa
even going up kilimanjaro (with porters) is more arduous than this, surely?
your suggestions to make the challenge more donation-worthy, please...
Its daft, does anyone truly believe that this is a challenge? Dave, Tony, Oli lets get a luxury coach to support us on the gruelling ride along the railway path from bath to bristol and back...generous public; give us millions for the effort we put in.
I realise its for charity and its a great cause but do something that mere mortals couldnt, eddie izzard style.
i see Patrick Kielty has photoshop'd the hair off his legs..
Yeah, Dick did it in 1 day 23 hours and 46 seconds in 1965 before the Forth Bridge was built!
The current record is still 1 day 20 hours and 19 seconds by Gethin Butler, so it was an amazing ride back then.
He is still quick now round the velodrome in his mid 70's, and looks amazing on a bike, very stylish.
Maybe with those tattoos they should get Fearne to do it on a fixie?
yeah, the whole thing. on her own. into a headwind.
davina's okay, at least she's got a bit of chutzpah. fearne cotton? i remember someone saying that trying to hate her was like trying to hate the lint in your washing machine
miranda hart i like though. anyone else watch hyperdrive when it was on?
Dick Poole is the coach at the Velodrome I ride in Reading, and he did it on his own in under 2 days in 1965! Now that is a tough challenge...
that's some ride. the current record's not that far off two days... and it was further back then!
I wasn't very impressed when it looked like it was 5 riders doing it, now it's 7!
So lets say 900 miles(although I thought it was more like 875) is divided by 7 riders means each rider does 128.5 miles over 100 hours, which makes the princely sum of just under 33 miles a day each.
Luckily they will have the luxury coach to recuperate in after the marathon sessions on the bike!
What makes it worse is one of them is Davina McCall!
the latter. though i personally would love to see the former
So David Walliams is riding the whole lot in 80 hours and the others are there for company? Or are they just doing 142 miles each in relay? I might be missing something...