The Acorn Charity Sponsored 100k Bike Ride smashed all records on Saturday with 683 riders registered to take part on the day raising over £50,000. The Acorn Bike Ride is in its seventh year and has grown every year with more and more cyclists joining to help raise funds for Acorn’s two charities – helping people with dementia and their carers in the Ripon and Harrogate area and for research into scleroderma at Leeds General Infirmary.
The bike ride started at Bishop Monkton and followed a 100k circular route through Boroughbridge, Helperby, Easingwold, Sheriff Hutton, Linton on Ouse and Marton-cum-Grafton before returning to Bishop Monkton. The route was marshalled by over 50 volunteers and lunch was provided at Sheriff Hutton with tea and cake at the finishing point in Bishop Monkton. St John’s Ambulance were on hand to deal with medical emergencies, Chevin Cycles of Otley with mechanical difficulties and signage was provided by HACS, Imageco and Marsland Timber. Lunch was generously sponsored by Tesco, Zubrance, Fyffes and Greencore, and Bettys kindly donated their famous Fat Rascals for every rider completing the route. The whole event was sponsored for the seventh consecutive year by Lights4Fun.
The Acorn Sponsored Bike Ride began as a challenge for Acorn supporters in 2007 and has now become a very popular date in the cyclists’ calendar. Everyone is encouraged to join in from serious road cyclists to enthusiastic amateurs and a number of tandems are usually expected to complete the route. This year, the number of registered cyclists increased by over 100 from last year and the amount raised increased from £32,000 to £50,000.
Acorn Chairman, Louise Hanen, said:
It is extraordinary how this event has grown. Each year we are delighted to welcome more and more cyclists who help to raise funds with their sponsorship and we could not, of course, run this event without our fantastic volunteers who not only marshall the event, help at the start and finish, but also bake a huge number of excellent cakes so our cyclists are rewarded for their efforts at the end! £50,000 is an astonishing figure and one which will make such a difference in the community, enabling us to support many people locally with dementia and to continue important research into scleroderma at Leeds General Infirmary.
There are prizes for the two cyclists generating the largest amount of sponsorship money who will receive a ladies’ or gents’ mountain bike which has generously been donated by Chevin Cycles of Otley and Wetherby Bike Shack. As soon as all the sponsorship money has been collected, these will be presented. Photographs of the event are on the Acorn Charity Facebook page.
Although the Bike Ride is not a race, individual cyclists posted some fast times despite the weather with Jason Harper of the Cappuccino Club reaching the finish in 2 hours and 46 minutes and the fastest ladies were Linda Wilson and Christine Orr in 3 hours and 25 minutes. One of the oldest riders was 76 year old Peter Marlow who also took part last year.
The next Acorn event is the annual Jim Jackson Tennis Tournament at Ripon Tennis Centre on Sunday 2nd June. This is an all-ability event for ladies’ and mixed doubles pairings and details of this event and how to enter are on the Acorn website at www.acorncharity.org.uk
