Every year we love to get involved with Comic Relief; it’s just one of the many charity events we participate in here at Gravytrain, and this year was no different! After our 24 hour race at Le Mans via the Playstation last year, we thought we needed to do something a little bit more physical for this year’s Sport Relief event.

So, the Gravytrain team threw down the gauntlet for Sport Relief last week with a gruelling 12 hour Bike ride to the Eiffel Tower in the centre of Paris. Well, at least that was the plan! We seemingly underestimated our own fitness levels as we managed to cover the full 342 kilometres in just eight hours and forty minutes. Not only were we surprised by our stamina and fitness, but we were also delighted to have comprehensively beaten our own target whilst raising some significant money for Sport Relief in the process.

Clad in our best sporting attire we took the reins of the spin bike one by one to complete 20-30 minute stints in order to cover the full distance from our office in Hampton Hill to the Eiffel Tower. The bike ride was supposed to be in no way competitive between us, as it was a team effort purely for charity, however, it soon turned into a mini competition to see who could cover the longest distance before having to take a break. That achievement went to one of our Web Developers, the fiery haired Craig who left us all in his wake as he covered 24.5km in just 30 minutes.

Of course, with every competition, there is always someone bringing up the rear and in this case, unfortunately, it was one of our Social Media Exec’s, Nick, who covered the shortest distance as he only managed a distance of 11.9km in 20 minutes, and then nearly passed out…nonetheless every little helps. Thanks Nick!

Furthermore, we also worked out that Alex, our Business Development Executive, who covered 16km in 25 minutes, would lap Nick a total of 13 times if they were to cycle the Indianapolis 500. This was just one of our many findings.

The spin bike used was lent to us by motive8, a health and fitness consultancy group based just a stone’s throw from Gravytrain HQ, and they now plan to beat our time to the Eiffel Tower, something we expect they’ll do since they are trained athletes! Thanks for all your help guys and good luck trying to beat our time.

So far we’ve raised £745.00 for our efforts, however there is still time to donate. Simply visit our Sport Relief sponsor page in order to give what you can to help change lives in the UK and across the world’s poorest countries. It’s a great cause that we love getting involved in and one that we all feel proud to have taken part in.

Well done team!