• Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

North East Connected

Hopping Across The North East From Hub To Hub

Biking Over the Transporter for the Tees Valley Challenge

Screen Shot 2015-05-13 at 09.42.55WORKPLACES across Darlington and the Tees Valley region are inviting their staff to join a fun, free competition this June to see who can get most members of their team riding a bike.

And to get things rolling Tour de France Hub chairman Sir Rodney Walker will lead a spectacular cycle ride across the top of the iconic Tees Transporter Bridge this Saturday (May 16).

In its inaugural year, the Love to Ride Tees Valley Cycle Challenge is sponsored by Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and Redcar & Cleveland Councils.

Running from Monday, June 8 to Sunday, June 28 for three weeks, the aim of the challenge is to give local people an incentive to get on their bikes in a friendly atmosphere of ‘friendly competition’ and team work – log one or more bike trips on the challenge website – be they regular, new, or rusty cyclists.

Contrary to most cycling events, Love to Ride Tees Valley is all about encouraging people to simply hop on a bike so that they can experience the benefits of riding first hand.

People can cycle anywhere they like, anytime they like over the three-week period. The organisations that get the most staff riding for just 10 minutes or more will win prizes.

Individuals new to cycling and those that encourage new cyclists to give it a go receive guaranteed incentives such as 100 cinema tickets, and everyone logging a ride goes into a set of weekly prize draws.

As well as individual prizes for logging rides, people can join in their workplace team or department and compete for a set of team prizes.

The Tees Valley Challenge is part of Love to Ride’s National Cycle Challenge, so workplaces can compete for both a set of great local prizes and high level national giveaways, such as a trip for two to New Zealand, new bikes and European get-aways. Love to Ride is partnered nationally with CTC, Cyclescheme and Bike Week so that all areas of the UK are participating together.

Locally, the Challenge Managers are joining up with existing schemes and support available to local residents, such as confidence building workshops, ‘try-a-bike’ sessions, bike maintenance and cycling clubs who organise cycle events on a regular basis. They aim to bring all groups together to facilitate a truly accessible and socialable opportunity to help people build confidence and share their enjoyment of cycling.

There will be a live league table on the Challenge website showing which organisations are currently in the lead.

There are a whole host of prizes that people can win just by participating including a new bike, 100 cinema tickets, local spa and restaurant vouchers and much more.

Registrations are still open and it’s free to participate.

For more information, and to register, go to www.lovetoride.net/teesvalley

By admin