England sporting legend Lawrence Dallaglio is on his final ever sponsored bike ride - after raising a staggering £4m on seven mammoth treks. The World Cup rugby hero has spent the past 14 years taking part in and planning the gruelling rides across Europe.
The extraordinary effort has drawn parallels with the sponsored walks carried out by cricket icon Sir Ian Botham. All the money raised has gone to help some of the most disadvantaged kids in Britain in cities like Liverpool, Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow, Newcastle, Birmingham and London.
Dallaglio is currently in the middle of his final ride, alongside Wham star Andrew Ridgeley and 2003 World Cup winning captain Martin Johnson. He broke off from the ride - he calls a ‘Cycle Slam’ - to speak to Mirror Online from his base in Italy.
He said: “I estimated that over all the rides so far, supporters of Dallaglio RugbyWorks have cycled some 500,000km. And Martin has done a fair number of those kilometres alongside me. As has another good friend and long-time supporter, former Wham star Andrew Ridgeley. I am proud to have them alongside me again for this final one.”
He added: “At well over 6 foot tall you can’t say either me or Martin have the natural physique for a cyclist. However, when we retired, we both discovered cycling was a good fit for us; a low impact sport with challenging training that’s a great way to keep fit.”
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“We also discovered that like rugby there’s a great camaraderie amongst cyclists, especially when faced with a common challenge like the Slam. When you’ve been on a bike for seven or eight hours you also get that euphoric feeling of achieving something. Believe me, this feeling is heightened when you’ve been on a bike for almost a month!”
Dallaglio explained how the money helps children. He said: “Our work is often a vital lifeline for many disadvantaged young people excluded from education. In the last academic year for which there are records, 4000 young people were excluded from mainstream education in the UK. That’s 102, young people, mainly from disadvantaged backgrounds, removed from education every week.
“Our mission is to ensure that those young people are also not excluded from society and therefore have an equal chance to be in Education, Employment, or Training.”
Wham star Andrew Ridgeley said: “When friends introduced me to RugbyWorks and the positive impact it has on those young people with whom it works, I realised how fortunate I’d been to have good guidance and support as a youngster and felt compelled to take part in the Cycle Slam in order to help raise funds and awareness in support this excellent charity.”
“Over the course of a decade’s worth of Cycle Slams, Lawrence, I and many others have put ourselves to the test of surmounting some of Europe’s most demanding mountain passes and whilst he’s not built like a pro cyclist, the same will power, grit and determination he brought to his World Cup winning rugby career, always gets him up and over the the challenge in front of of him.”
The first ride started on 12th February 2010 in Rome and in 2012 he was joined by Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff.
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