Four-time Olympic gold medallist Laura Kenny OBE (née Trott) and her fellow team pursuit gold medal winner Elinor Barker are the latest athletes to join the glittering line-up of sporting stars at Action Medical Research’s Champions of CycleSport Dinner.
Laura Kenny has become Great Britain’s most successful Olympic female competitor after winning the team pursuit and the omnium at both the 2012 and 2016 Games. She rides for the Matrix Fitness Pro Cycling team, as does Elinor Barker. Joining them on the red carpet at Battersea Evolution will be Team GB road cyclist Geraint Thomas MBE, who made it to the final of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games men’s road race. Geraint will be the guest of Protect Your Bubble at the children’s charity event on Thursday 24 November 2016.
Also attending the seventh annual Champions of CycleSport Dinner, supported by Maserati and Garmin, will be Jody Cundy MBE, fresh from his double gold victory in the Rio Paralympics, JLT-Condor’s Russell Downing, Dean Downing, 2012 Olympic champion Dani King MBE and Movistar’s Alex Dowsett.
Sir Dave Brailsford CBE and Rochelle Gilmore, Team Manager for Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling, will be joined by Stephen Roche as well as Scottish former professional road racing cyclist David Millar and Roger Hammond, Team Manager at Madison Genesis.
Peter Denton, Region Manager of Maserati North Europe, said: “The Action Medical Research Champions of CycleSport Dinner is a great opportunity to help raise money for such a worthy cause. Through the Maserati brands’ involvement in cycling we have been able to see first-hand how Action have continued to develop the event into an evening that everyone interested in cycling and supporting such a great charity should want to attend. We are delighted to be able to offer our support to make this another special evening.”
Dawn Ramsay, General Manager of Garmin UK, said “Garmin is delighted to be working with Action Medical Research to support the Champions of CycleSport Dinner for another year. It’s wonderful to have the support of such accomplished sportspeople to help raise vital funds for such a worthwhile cause, whilst simultaneously championing the fantastic sport of cycling. We’re looking forward to seeing what this year’s event has in store.”
The high-profile Champions of CycleSport Dinner, also sponsored by BDOVELO, reflects Action Medical Research’s passion for all things cycling and guests can mingle with some of the world’s greatest cyclists while helping fund vital research for sick and disabled babies and children.
Chris Grove, partner at BDO LLP, said “BDOVELO is delighted to be able to support Action Medical Research and the excellent work they do by sponsoring this tremendous event for a third year.”
Last year’s sold-out dinner raised almost £250,000 with auction prizes including a trip for two to Mallorca with Team Sky on their January training camp and the chance to spend a day in the Madison Genesis team car with Roger Hammond at the Tour of Britain. Chris Froome’s signed yellow jersey and a six-week training plan from Rowe & King were also up for grabs.
This year’s ceremony will be opened by former rowing world champion and double Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell OBE; and the auction, which will be sponsored by Keepmoat, is set to include a signed painting of Chris Froome by Paul Oz as well as tickets to the Tour de France with Team Sky.
For more than 60 years Action Medical Research has been saving and changing children’s lives and has spent more than £115 million funding medical breakthroughs, including helping to introduce the first polio vaccines in the UK, discovering the importance of taking folic acid before and during pregnancy to prevent spina bifida, developing the use of ultrasound in pregnancy and testing the rubella vaccine.
The charity is currently funding research into conditions including prematurity, stillbirth, epilepsy, meningitis, cerebral palsy, brain cancer and some rare and distressing conditions. A handful of Bronze-level tables are left for the Champions of CycleSport Dinner.
www.action.org.uk/champions-cyclesport
