Four keen cyclists who work for a local housebuilder are training hard for a charity ride to raise money for both Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Sustrans.
The employees, who work for Persimmon Homes Yorkshire, plan to ride 80 miles with other like-minded people from the business community in the Carter Jonas Pedalthon charity ride, which takes place on 22nd May.
The Persimmon team, who all come from York, comprises of chief quantity surveyor Paul Saunders, senior quantity surveyor Simon Winship, design manager John Birkin and development co-ordinator Richard Hosie. All are keen cyclists but are stepping up their training in preparation for the ride.
Richard said: “During the winter months you tend to not ride as much so right now we are training hard. We want to raise as much money as we can.”
The course, which will see climbs of up to 6,000 ft, begins at Ripley Castle, near Harrogate and then heads west taking in the outstanding scenery of the Yorkshire Dales. Riding into Wharfedale, the cyclists will enjoy stone walled countryside and winding lanes before heading towards Kidstones Bank and a tough two-mile climb, featured in Stage One of this year’s Tour de France. From the top it’s a quick descent into Wensleydale and then on to Masham before crossing the finish line in Ripley.
Richard added: “It’s great to be helping such worthy causes, especially by doing something that we all enjoy. We are just hoping for good weather so we can take in the spectacular views.
Sustrans is a leading UK charity working with communities, policy-makers and partner organisations enabling people to travel by foot, bike or public transport for more of their journeys every day.
The Yorkshire Air Ambulance provides a lifesaving rapid response emergency service to five million people across Yorkshire, covering major cities, motorways as well as rural and isolated locations. The charity needs to raise £9,990 per day to keep both of Yorkshire’s Air Ambulances maintained and in the air.
Simon Usher, deputy managing director at Persimmon Homes Yorkshire, said: “These men are no strangers to challenging charity rides having been part of the company’s coast to coast ride for St Leonard’s Hospice in 2012. Although it’s not a competition, we have high hopes that they could be the first team over the finishing line.
“Our technical department might be a bit quiet on the day of the ride but we still wish our Persimmon team the very best of luck.”
David Aspland , Carter Jonas’ head of Commercial in the Northern region, said: “We are delighted to welcome the Persimmon team to our Pedalthon challenge. It promises to be a one-off ‘sweatworking’ event for enthusiastic cyclists in the business community enabling them to have some fun in the scenic Yorkshire countryside, whilst raising money for charity.”