Birmingham Velo: Business riders raise £123k for charity
Businesses from across the Midlands raised more than £123,000 for good causes from taking part in last month's Velo Birmingham cycle ride.
The Velo Birmingham Business 100 challenge smashed its £100,000 target for the 100-mile event, which started and finished in the city and passed through the Black Country, Staffordshire and Worcestershire.
The funds raised by the business cyclists on Sunday, September 24, are on top of the £2 million expected to be raised for charity by Velo Birmingham’s individual participants from across the UK.
There were 15,000 cyclists in the inaugural closed-road event which saw thousands of people line the streets.
The Business 100 riders began the day in an exclusive starting wave led by Velo Birmingham ambassador and England Rugby Union World Cup-winning captain Martin Johnson .
With £31,126 raised, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham Eye Cycle Team won the prize of an all-expenses trip for four riders to take part in the 2018 Cape Argos, an annual cycle event in Cape Town, South Africa.
Surgeons, patients and their families joined forces to raise money for sight-saving equipment as part of the QEHB Eye Appeal.
The prize was donated by Vrlo Birmingham’s official wine partner, Klein Constantia.
Walsall-based HomeServe – including chief executive Martin Bennett – rode in aid of The Royal British Legion, specifically for the Legion’s Pop-in Centre in Birmingham. They raised £20,689.
