Rare opportunity to cycle up Box Hill
A small London-based charity is seeking cyclists to join their ride on Sunday 24 June, which includes a section of the 2012 Olympic road race route. Ganet's North Downs Adventure is a 46 mile charity ride aiming to raise £10,000 for an award-winning primary school in Malawi.
The ride starts close to historic Hampton Court, and passes into the Surrey
countryside, across the scenic north downs and then back along a stretch of the
Thames to Hampton Court. It passes through Esher, Cobham, Epsom, Hook, and
Kingston, and special permission has been obtained from the National Trust to ride
up the famous Zig Zag Road up to Box Hill, where Mark Cavendish, Bradley Wiggins
and the other riders will do battle for Olympic gold this summer.
The ride was initiated by Steve McInerny, founder of Ganet's Adventure School Fund
and an avid cyclist. Steve first came across the school during a Cairo to Cape Town
cycling expedition in 2005, and has been working with the school's director Gertrude
Banda since then.
Steve writes "Bicycles are used everywhere in Malawi, to carry everything from logs
to passengers to animals, so a sponsored bike ride here in the UK is a very apt way
to raise funds for the school."
Ganet's Adventure School Fund is aiming to get 100 riders on the ride. The emphasis
will be on making it a friendly and social event, with riders divided into groups of 10,
led by an experienced cyclist to show the way.
All profits from the ride go to Ganet's Adventure School, a primary school in Malawi.
The school recently won a Pan-African award for entrepreneurship in education, and
urgently needs funds for classrooms and other projects to support its growing
numbers of pupils.
The entry fee for the ride has been set as low as possible, at £12. The fundraising
target is a very achievable £80 per rider, 100% of which goes direct to the school in
Malawi. This is made possible because the charity and the ride are organised and
run by volunteers.
Ganet's North Downs Adventure is a part of Bike Week 2012, the UK’s biggest mass
participation cycling event. Bike Week’s aim is to get more people cycling, more
often.
May 1, 2012