English
Wiggle on track for 24 hour BBC Children in Need fundraiser
Wiggle will be helping to give Pudsey Bear the ride of his life at a 24 hour Trackathon tonight as part of a fundraiser for the BBC Children in Need Appeal.
Teams of riders will take to the track at Calshot Velodrome, in Fawley near Southampton, for the charity relay event which will see Pudsey Bear passed non-stop from one team to the next as they each take on one-hour stints in a bid to cover as much mileage as possible in the 24 hour period. A total of eight teams are taking part, each doing three shifts, and first up at 5pm tonight will be home side the Calshot Crusaders. Wiggle has supplied the Calshot team with Wiggle jerseys as well as sports nutrition, chamois cream and warm up cream. Two Team Wiggle riders, Jon Cannings and Richard Pearman, who are also Wiggle staff, will be taking part.
At last year’s event, teams covered 588.89 miles, so this year the heat is on to beat that with the target set at 594 miles – the equivalent of riding from Calshot to Inverness.
Calshot rider Malcolm Holmes said:
“We’ve been training for the past few weeks for what is undoubtedly going to be a fierce challenge. We’re hoping the spectators will really get behind us and spur us all on to great things. It’s definitely going to hurt, but it’s all for a great cause. All money raised will go to the BBC Children in Need Appeal so we’d really appreciate any donations – please donate via our Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/Calshot-Crusaders. Please make the riders’ suffering more worthwhile by donating more Pudsey Pounds!”
He added:
“It’s bound to be a very competitive event with all the teams sizing each other up and having a lot of fun. After our first shift at 5pm, we are then scheduled to ride from 1am until 2am and again from 7am until 8am on Saturday.”
Martin Talbot, Wiggle’s director of marketing, said:
“The 24-hour trackathon sounds like a painful but very worthy fundraiser. Everyone at Wiggle wishes all the riders the best of luck. We’re proud to support the Calshot team and hope the event raises lots of money for such a great cause.”
Other teams taking part include the British Triathlon Federation, Chippenham Wheelers, New Forest CC, Bournemouth Arrow, Poole Wheelers, Birmingham CC and Team Midland Racing.
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