Yorkshire cyclists take on a tough alpine challenge and raise thousands for charity!

Yorkshire cyclists take on a tough alpine challenge and raise thousands for charity!

5 January 2015

 Members of a charity cycle team who took on the Austrian alps in a tough five day ride in September last year have reached their target of raising a fantastic £50,000 for charity.

The annual Tour of Europe ride is organised by the Barnsley based retail property developers Dransfield Properties Ltd.

For the 2014 ride the company fielded a 19 strong team who covered 400 miles cycling from Trieste in Italy,  climbing 14,000 ft. into the Austrian alps before arriving in the southern German city of Munich.

The riders, who come from across the UK, supported Action Against Cancer (AAC) and Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research (LLR)   –  a third of the funds raised every year is donated to other charities and groups nominated by the team of riders through the Dransfield Foundation.

The team are now busy planning the 2015 ride which its hoped will go from last year’s finish point in Munich to the German capital of Berlin.

The annual Tour of Europe ride was started in 2007 taking a route from London to Paris. In the last seven years the riders have covered more than 2,600 miles through five different countries – they’ve stopped off at Lyon, Marseilles, Portofino, Rome, Dubrovnik, Trieste as well as last year’s finishing point of Munich.

The riders cover a  leg of their journey every year with the aim of getting back to London by 2022 – since the annual ride was founded more than £330,000 has been raised for charity through the fundraising efforts of the team.

The money donated to LLR will help support the Trial Acceleration Programme and at AAC it’s helping to support ground breaking research programmes headed by Professor Justin Stebbings in London. The research focusses on developing new diagnostics and treatments to improve the survival prospects and the quality of life for millions of cancer sufferers worldwide.

The team will be visited the charities over the next few weeks to find out more about the research projects their fundraising is helping to support. 

Mark Dransfield, Managing Director of Dransfield Properties Ltd, said: “We’d like to thank everyone who has sponsored and supported us in the 2014 challenge – we are overwhelmed by people’s kind contributions to our nominated charities, we really do appreciate every penny that is donated.

“We had some very tough climbs to face but the team did really well in both the cycling and more importantly the fundraising.”

To see more pictures from the 2014 Tour of Europe visit the Dransfield Properties website at www.dransfield.co.uk or you can like Team Dransfield on facebook or follow the cyclists on twitter @teamdransfield

Picture shows the team at the finish line at Marienplatz in Munich, the 2014 riders were Mark Dransfield,  Paul Dransfield, Tony Gibb, Andrew Malley,  Dean Draper, Will Downing, Tim Downing, Alec Cammish, Thomas Meagher, Philip Prince, Alex Prince, Christopher Morrison, Matthew Rigby, David Simpson, Chris Haigh, Christian Cox, Nick Rees, Lee Newsham and Mark Yardley.

For further information, contact:

Public Relations Department, Dransfield Properties Ltd
Tel: 01226 360644
Email: pr@dransfield.co.uk