Castlefield Co-owners have been celebrating the success of the recent cycling challenge from Manchester to Paris. Here, Nyle Yates gives a rundown of our biggest fundraising event to date - ‘The Big Castlefield Cycle Challenge’. 

The Big Castlefield Cycle Challenge was a week-long event staged at the beginning of September, which involved co-owners pedalling over 400-miles from Manchester to Paris on a stationary bike.

This activity was an enthralling and physically taxing cycle adventure that would make even Bradley Wiggins want to roll back over and hit the snooze button. This story will take us all over the globe (Paris) and almost halfway back again (Watford) and is sure to have more twists and turns than a helterskelter. 

 The idea was originally birthed by Castlefield’s Give Back Group (GBG), in order to plan a fundraising event that anyone could take part in, which involved exercise and some level of challenge ... But the question was; what exercise could we do that most people would want to participate in, without having to do 3 months of training? … cycling!  

However, the weather in Manchester during July was a constant stream of rain for almost a solid month. “What are we going to do?” rang the cries... “We can’t do a cycling challenge indoors... or can we?” 

Turns out, you can. The concept was simple: we pedal from Manchester to Paris on a spinning bike in the office reception. 

The group then put together an uncomplicated plan: using a stationary exercise bike planted in the entrance of our Piccadilly office, the Castlefield team would attempt to collectively cycle from Manchester to Paris (424 miles). All we needed to make this happen was a stationary exercise bike, legs and a dream. 

With the shiny new static exercise bike hired and delivered (shout out to Hire Fitness NW Limited), and a myriad of different reasons; from a bake sale, complimentary breakfasts and other goodies, to entice Co-owners into the office to sit on the saddle over the coming 6-day period. We were good to go. Everyone, including receptionists and fund managers signed up to take part in the challenge, and on any given day when leaving for your lunch or other matters, you could see people with a sweaty brow going like the clappers, knees a mere blur on those metal pedals, each one with only the goal in mind. Whenever legs got tired or morale got low, other Co-owners were on hand to provide motivation – holding up pictures of the Eiffel tower, wafting croissants under the riders’ noses or placing a glass of champagne just out of reach. 

These motivational pushes seemed to work as the team defied all the odds and made it to Paris by Wednesday lunchtime - 2 and a half days early! But, not to be deterred by such frivolities as finishing the challenge the Castlefield collective continued pushing on with more determination than a Tesco shopper with a wobbly trolley near the exit, with a renewed goal to work towards. And so started phase two of the challenge – ‘Pedal for Pints’. The GBG announced that for every mile cycled past Paris, they would add 10p to the finish line bar tab, and 10p to the challenge’s JustGiving page. On the final day this was then upped to 20p. There was also a hope that the cyclists might even make it all the way back to Manchester. 

After two-and-a-half-more-days pumping pedals on the bike the Big Castlefield Cycle challenge came to an end, and just like a sat nav with low battery, they just missed out on making it all the way back. Watford was our final destination, which despite being many miles and accents away from Manchester, somewhat felt like home, of course it being technically classed as ‘the North’ (if you’re a Londoner). This brought the grand mileage total to an incredible 733 miles! Which is definitely something to write home about. Cyclists also managed to add an extra £40 to the bar tab and Just Giving pot. 

So far, we have managed to raise around £600, with sponsorships still coming in. We are so proud to be supporting our four chosen charities for this year; Walthew House, EMERGE, Booth Centre and Greater Manchester Youth Network (GMYN).

If you’d like to help us out in supporting these incredible charities, please head over to our JustGiving page: Castlefield Partners is fundraising for The Charity Service (justgiving.com)

Written by Nyle Yates