Celebrating its 50^th Anniversary year in the professional AV industry, leading UK AV distributors CIE-Group will mark the occasion in September with their biggest charity challenge ever, as they enter 2 teams to take on a 550 mile cycle challenge across France in just 3 days.

The teams – made up of budding CIE-Group employees – will cycle from St Malo in the North of France to Bordeaux in the South, covering more than 550 miles in the saddle.

This will be the 7^th year that CIE-Group staff have taken on a charity cycle challenge, having so far raised in excess of £13,000 for Cancer Research, The British Heart Foundation and local children’s charity Derby Kids’ Camp.
The Teams – riding under the guise of ‘HDBaseTeam’ – are sponsored, once again, by UK AV Signal Distribution brand CYP, with the team name offering a nod towards the vast range of HDBaseT products launched by CYP over the past two years.

This will be the second year of sponsorship from CYP and CYP Sales Manager Gareth Rolls is a particularly enthusiastic supporter; “It gives us great pride at CYP to sponsor the CIE-Group team for their 50th Anniversary cycle challenge. Everyone here at CYP will be following the teams' progress and willing them on through the three day arduous ride. We encourage everyone in the AV industry and beyond to pledge their support by donating to this fantastic cause".

The three HDBaseTeams will leave the UK on Wednesday 25^th September, cycling from St Malo in the early hours of Thursday 26^th and aiming to reach Bordeaux in the rather later hours of Saturday 28^th.
Cycle team Captain (and CIE’s Group Sales Director), Steve Collin explains “Reaching our 50^th Anniversary is a huge milestone for CIE-Group and it is important to the Company and the staff to mark the occasion with an event we can all be proud of for many more years to come.
“Our three chosen charities have been there for many staff members over the Company’s years and we want to make a huge effort to show our gratitude.”

Cycle Team member and CIE-Group Marketing Director, Chris Edwards, has a very personal attachment to the local charity Derby Kids’ Camp; “For the past 14 years I have been volunteering for the Charity which provides free holidays to many of the local area’s most disadvantaged young children. Over the years, I have had the pleasure to work with thousands of young children to provide them with what is most likely the first holiday they have ever experienced.”  Chris added “The support of the CIE-Group cycle team over the past 7 years has fully funded more than 70 children’s holidays. With the efforts of the cycle team this year we look forward to that number being more than 100 children.”

CIE’s HDBaseTeam urge all readers, customers, friends and colleagues to please ‘Give a little to help a lot’ this year simply by texting HDBT50, £5 to 70070

This year’s CIE-Group cycle teams include:
Steve Collin (Group Sales Director)
Martin Featherstone (CYP Product Manager)
Chris Edwards (Marketing Director)
Lauren Bamford (AV Account Manager)
Kevin Sherwood (Sales Director)
Andrew Short (Senior Technical Support)
Brent Hill (Account Manager)
Arnout Andrews

We start the Challenge from St Malo at 08h00 on Thursday 25^th September. From there we head west into the undulating Brittany countryside of green fields and granite houses.  This sounds wonderful, but being veterans of six previous challenges we know the 'undulations' are extremely painful and challenging on the thighs! We will be fortunate to finish the day on the Atlantic coast; our first nights stop near La Baule, to soak our weary legs before supper!

Day 2; a mere 212 miles!! We will follow the coastal road South past many well known seaside resorts; we will be going through what can only be described as ‘regret’ whilst many sensible folks will appreciate La Rochelle!  From there we head inland, skirting round Rochefort and Saintes to the Charente River which leads us to Cognac for the second night (hopefully!).

The final day’s route leads through pristine vineyards (hands off!) towards the rich soil of the Dordogne valley - even more vineyards to challenge us as we pass by Bergerac and St Emilion aiming for Bordeaux. Our finish will be at the Chateau Lafitte, on the outskirts of Bordeaux, where we will aim to celebrate our achievement as a team.