With less than ten days until the Rugby World Cup, a host of the sport’s legends will be in action at Brands Hatch this Thursday (10 September) for Cyclothon UK.
A 12-hour endurance relay road cycling race, and entry to the venue is free to spectators. Cyclothon UK was created by former England Rugby prop Victor Ubogu and his corporate hospitality company VU Ltd, and is a regular late summer fixture at the Kent circuit. The event offer a luxury experience, with provision of pit garages, hot showers, changing rooms, breakfast, lunch and dinner, complimentary all-day massage, mechanical support, high value prizes, a champagne winner’s podium and the chance for all riders to mix with sporting stars.
The event is open to cyclists of all abilities and includes a Home Nations Challenge Trophy, for which the Rugby stars will be competing. Competitors for this will include past masters Craig Chalmers, Peter Rogers, Graham Dawe, Alix Popham, Ian Gough, Sophie Hemming, Shane Williams, Ryan Jones, and Lee Mears. With hundreds of international caps between them, supporters will be able to see who still has the stamina and cycling power to lead their Home Nation side to victory.
The event has also attracted a number of sporting charities and helped raise over £200,000 for various causes so far. The RFU Injured Player’s Foundation has entered teams every year as they work to raise funds for catastrophically injured rugby payers. Also joining the rugby community will be teams from the Matt Hampson Foundation and J9 Foundation, Springbok legend Joost van der Westhuizen’s charity. In addition, many of the corporate teams taking part are able to nominate a charity of their choice.
Ubogu said: “We started the Home Nations Challenge as a lot of my old rugby mates have got into cycling and every year we get more and more ex-players looking to race at Cyclothon. When we launched, I was confident that my fine squad of English Bulldogs would conquer the track. I knew we had some fit and strong cyclists. However, I underestimated the determination of Team Jocks led by Craig Chalmers and Scott Hastings and the sheer madness of Colin Charvis, Alix Popham and the Welsh boys who stayed in the bar until 5am, got on their bikes two hours later and still beat our entire team! Team Bulldogs have since retreated and retrained but we are yet to steal the cup away from the Welsh!”
Spectator entry to the event is free and last minute entries are still being taken for solo riders and teams from 4-8 people. To register, you can contact VU Ltd on 0871 871 5300, visit www.cyclothonuk.com or follow updates on twitter @cyclothonuk