The third annual Tilnar Cycle Challenge which is sponsored by Allen Ford, www.hamiltoncarpets.co.uk, www.its.co.uk & Hammer Nutrition took place on Sunday 25^th June 2017.   It was a great success which is expected to have helped raise in excess of £10,000 for charities across the UK and beyond through entry donations and personal sponsorship. The Challenge inspired people around the country and across the world, no matter what age or ability to get on their bikes and see how far they could cycle.

The premise of the challenge is simple to INSPIRE people to see how far they could cycle for charity.  Cyclists could cycle for up to 15 hours between 6 am and 9 pm although many chose to cycle for much less than this.  The Tilnar Cycle Challenge raised money directly for 3 charities Cancer Research UK, Porridge and Rice & Re~Cycle by donating £5.00 of each £7.95 adult entry fee and £3.00 of every £4.95 child entry fee to the charity selected by the entrant.  The challengers also had the opportunity to raise sponsorship for their own favourite charity.  Entries increased again this year with hundreds of riders taking part from many different countries across the world including riders from Mexico, America, Switzerland, Bermuda and Kenya.

The Tilnar Cycle Challenge inspired riders of all ages and abilities to take part and many cycled further than they had ever cycled before.  A number of events were organised for the Tilnar Cycle Challenge including school events and planned circuit events.  One School event which was a terrific success inspired 50 primary school children (a 1/3 of the whole school) to take part and it inspired them to cycle 1270 laps of their grass circuit – a total of 254 miles between them!!   One 5 year old boy was inspired by the challenge to cycle over 5 miles and a number of pupils cycled over 10 miles on the grass in the 90 minutes.  The children loved the challenge and parents were amazed at how far each child cycled.

There was a fantastic adult event for the Tilnar Cycle Challenge in Essex around a 33 mile signed circuit.  Most of the challengers rode more than 1 circuit with many riding over 100 miles on the day.  The stories received from many of the 2017 challengers are truly inspirational.  Georgina Cleere rode 232.5 miles (7 laps of the Essex Circuit) to win the Global Female Distance Category. One of the challengers, Corinne Black, climbed over 16,000 feet in a 130 mile ride around Durham.  Our male distance winner, Dale Waterman,  won a very tight category rode 234.2 miles around the North-East of England.

Over 50 of our international challengers, led by David Kinyast rode over 100 miles in the Tilnar Cycle Challenge from Nairobi in Kenya to Namanga which is on the border with Tanzania. 100s of cyclists smashed personal milestones in the Tilnar Cycle Challenge.  One of the most notable was 10 year old, Charlie Yardy, who smashed his personal best by 70 miles to win the U18 category to ride 101 miles on the day. One of our favourite stories came from two 6 year olds who, whilst riding 11 miles in the challenge, were heard to say “keep going, it wouldn’t be called a challenge if it was easy” J

The Tilnar Cycle Challenge was the idea of Tom Hawes, a keen cyclist and the owner of the Fair Trade supplier, Tilnar Art, who gives his time to run the Tilnar Cycle Challenge www.tilnarcyclechallenge.org .  Tom was thrilled with the success of the Challenge and how it continues to grow.  He said, “After the huge success of the Tilnar Cycle Challenge this year and with the fantastic support that we will be receiving from our new Global Sponsors for 2018, I am confident it will continue to grow into the huge one day celebration of cycling that becomes one of the main targets for Serious, Leisure, Family & School cyclists.  The inspirational stories and positive feedback we have received, from cyclists of all ages and abilities, means we are sure the challenge is going to keep growing into an inspiring sporting event that will raise tens of £1,000s for charity over the coming years.”

Tom hopes that the inspiration stories will mean many more will Get Inspired by and Get Involved in the Tilnar Cycle Challenge on 24^th June 2018.  The Tilnar Cycle Challenge is very grateful to its 2017 sponsors, Allen Ford, Hamilton Carpets, www.its.co.uk, Bike Bible,  Hammer Nutrition, Kalas and Cycle Plan who provided Free Insurance to all participants for the day.

Tom Hawes – Tel – 01277 362 816 Email: ride@tilnarcyclechallenge.org

For more information, please look at our website www.tilnarcyclechallenge.org and Facebook pages www.facebook.com/tilnarcyclechallenge  & www.facebook.com/groups/TilnarCycleChallengers  to read about some of the inspirational stories that we are already receiving.