Bustard Ride

Hello,

Two cycle rides of a quite different type this week…

Firstly, a huge thank you to the team who pulled together and delivered last week’s amazing OVO Energy Tour Series cycle race in Salisbury, which was held as part of the recovery programme.

From start to finish the event was absolutely brilliant and particular thanks go to those staff who volunteered to work as marshalls and ensure the 8,000 or so people who lined the streets to watch the race were able to safely enjoy the event. 

If you didn’t manage to catch it, the race was shown on ITV4 and is available to watch here. As it is being broadcast in 100 countries, it showed to a worldwide audience what a great city Salisbury is and how it is getting back to normal.

We’re under no illusions that the second ride will draw slightly smaller crowds…our very own Tour de Wiltshire rolls off the starting line at County Hall on 21 June as we set off on a 130-mile bike ride around the county to raise money for the mental health charity, Wiltshire MIND.

The idea for the marathon cycle emerged from last year’s staff engagement forums after all three of us made the mistake of admitting that we are keen cyclists.

Quite a few of you challenged us to turn our passion for pedalling towards a useful purpose – and the Bustard Ride was born.

Our thanks go to Steve Manning, from the environmental health team, who came up with the idea and has put a considerable amount of his own time in to planning the ride.

From Trowbridge, we will cycle a scenic anti-clockwise route around all of our community areas, taking in Warminster, Salisbury, Amesbury, Marlborough, Devizes, Malmesbury, Chippenham and Melksham, before arriving back at the start.

We’ve all taken the day off to complete the challenge and we’ll be joined on the adventure by Chief Constable Kier Pritchard from Wiltshire Police and other colleagues in the organisation and our EPIC staff engagement group will also be supporting us – more details on their involvement will follow in our next update.

Kier’s presence will at least ensure we aren’t tempted to break any speed limits along the way!
Rather than setting any records, our focus is on completing what will be a gruelling nine or ten hour challenge. So it’s no coincidence we’ve picked the longest day of the year to do it!

Wiltshire MIND does an amazing job in campaigning to ensure that everyone experiencing a mental health problem can get the support and respect they deserve. It’s an organisation that is very close to all our hearts, and they need every penny they can get to continue their priceless work.

We’re keen to raise as much money as possible – if you’d like to support us, our JustGiving page can be found at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/bustard-ride-wiltshire

Alistair, Carlton and Terence