Thank you for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

We are a small team of people that currently work with Hilton Worldwide, based out of the Corporate Offices in Watford and would like to explain a little more about this challenge and more importantly who will benefit as a result.

We did it!...

I am pleased to report that we have successfully completed our Cycle Challenge in Devon!

 

4 x 99 Miles covered

4 x 10,000+ calories burnt

Several Aches and pains (but no injuries)

I have uploaded some of our photo’s on this page and the others can be found at a link contained at the bottom of this update.

The four cyclists were Richard Harvey, Stuart Carr, Yukon Lee and Darcy van Wyck, with invaluable logistical support provided by Lynn Grieveson.

Heading out from Bristol on the Friday morning, we made our way to Ilfracombe for the start of the challenge. We completed our last minute preparations (and photo calls) and started off at 11:30am on Friday 4^th June.

During the journey, we took in some spectacular scenery around the North Devon coastline (and steep climbs and drops), before heading inland towards the popular ‘Tarka Trail’ from Bideford.

As we found out, the trail North to South is about 15 miles of a largely uphill cycling. At the end of the trail, we headed on towards Hatherleigh and then on to Okehampton.

We spent the first night in the village of Lydford where we were all grateful for a good meal and rest to prepare for the next day.

Setting off at 10:30am on Saturday morning, we continued along ‘Granite Way’. While the cycle route had been quite well marked for the route up to this point, we did manage one wrong turn and headed up a hill to find a dead end on a farm road. Thankfully coming down the hill was considerably easier than going up and we were able to identify the correct turn to get us back on track.

We picked up the Plym Valley trail for the final 10 mile stretch that took us into Plymouth and down towards the ‘Barbican’ area where the cycle came to an end.

Richard Harvey: "I am very proud of what our team has been able to achieve with this challenge and are very grateful to everyone who has shown their generosity to assist us with both the fund raising, and also with the costs and logistics of being able to stage the event."

Our Pictures are available to view at the following link: http://picasaweb.google.com/rharveyuk/20100604HiltonMcCycleChallenge2010#

Thank you once again for all of your support and encouragement! We quite literally could not have done this without you!

 

Why we did this challenge...

There were several different reasons for completing this challenge.

One of the inspirations for completing this was for one of the participants, Richard Harvey who has been on a weight loss journey since July of last year and has lost (up to end of March 2010) over 7 stone (equivalent to 100lbs or 45 kg). This challenge will help him keep his focus on his journey.

Through discussions with the Team, we decided as a group that this would be a worthwhile challenge to complete and would allow us to raise money for different causes through the Hilton Registered charity, Hilton in the Community Foundation.

Sadly one of our team passed away at the end of last year. Jo had been intending taking part in this challenge so we wanted to complete this in her memory also.

Where your money goes...

Any money donated as part of this event will benefit the Hilton in the Community Foundation. This is a charity that helps causes local to areas where Hilton Hotels operate, to benefit the lives of children in particular.

As an example, some of the money raised will be donated to provide education and learning equipment for children at a school in Ethiopia.

The majority of the funds raised however will be used to benefit local worthwhile charities and organisations for the benefit of children both in Watford and in the surrounding areas.

About the Challenge...

The challenge will be in the form of a long distance cycle to take place over 2 days at the beginning of June. Costs for running the event will be covered by the individual participants so all the money donated directly or through our Just Giving page or directly will be for the benefit of the charity.

The challenge itself will be to complete a cycle in Devon, Coast to Coast. This route will take us from Ilfracombe on the North Coast of Devon, down past Dartmoor and then arriving in Plymouth on the South coast at the end of the second day.

The journey will cover approximately 105 miles over the two days and will also allow us to incorporate this into the annual Hilton Fund raising event, 'Around the World in a Day', taking place on Sunday June 6th.

The key objectives of the Around the World in a Day event are:

• - To clock up miles to help us cumulatively travel the circumference of the earth, 24,901.55 miles, in just one day

• - Raise all important funds for a local children’s charities and causes

• - Most importanly to have fun!

• 
  

  About this page...

• This page will be updated regularly to keep people posted of what is happening with the challenge preparation and also how our fund raising is going. Every penny raised through this challenge means a great deal to us all.
• We will also ensure that we update pictures as soon as we are able.

Please pass on this link to anyone else who you think may be able to contribute to this!

•  

About Just Giving and your Donation...

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - We raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.

Thanks and kind regards

Hilton Maple Court Cycle Challenge Team