Auto Industry Gets On Its Bike for 2016 Paris Motor Show

Lycra-wearing members of the automotive industry have been presented with a fresh training target with the introduction of a new annual charity challenge, The Motor Show Ride. The inaugural ride will be from London to the Paris Motor Show, on 26-28 September, raising funds for industry charities BEN and WOMAC, for which the 2017 beneficiary charity will be Jo’s Trust, supporting women affected by cervical cancer and their families.

Covering 486km over three days, the ride will follow the iconic route from London to Paris via stopovers in Calais and Amiens.

Riders will enjoy a professional peloton experience, with motorcycle outriders to ensure safe passage and ride captains amongst the group to keep the group working together. A support team comprising a mechanic, a sports therapist and a paramedic will be on hand to keep body and bike in good shape throughout.

The idea was conceived by Charlie Raincock, Director of automotive and sports specialist, Performance Communications, and Nick Hanmer, CEO of Club Peloton, a grant making charity which has organised similar fundraising rides for the property industry to Cannes for the past 10 years. Hanmer comments:

‘Our ride to the annual MIPIM conference now regularly attracts over 100 riders. Our vision is to develop a similarly aspirational annual ride for the automotive industry that generates significant funds for our charity partners. We’ll start with Paris this year and then develop a ride to Frankfurt for next.’

Anecdotal evidence of cycling interest from across Performance’s automotive industry clients and media provided the inspiration for Raincock: ‘Cycling has enjoyed huge growth as a sport in the UK over recent years, and the auto industry has clearly not been immune to the sport’s charms. It seemed an obvious step to do something similar to the MIPIM ride for our sector and pair it with a major show, like Paris.’

A steering committee has been developed to fine tune the ride details which includes keen cyclists Graham Biggs (BMW), Mike Jeffery (FCA), Jonathan Griffiths (Jaguar Land Rover), Dominic Vizor (Nissan) and Pietro Panarisi (Skoda).

Kelly Neal, Events Manager at BEN is looking forward to getting her team behind the ride and sees it as an exciting addition to the calendar: ‘I really like the ambition and the experience of the team behind this ride and am thrilled that BEN has been given the chance to be part of it from the start.’

With almost four months of summer before the ride departs from London, interested riders will benefit both from Club Peloton’s online training resources and organised training sessions to get fit for 100 miles per day by September.

A place on the ride will cost £999 and each rider will have a fundraising target of £1000.

To secure your place, sign up at here