Thinking of starting a charity event? Tips from the Calder Divide Challenge!

When Adrian Wright’s riding buddy, Will Norman, died of cancer during lockdown, he and his other mountain bike friends couldn’t mark his passing as th …

By stwhannah

Get the full story here:

Thinking of starting a charity event? Tips from the Calder Divide Challenge!

I absolutely love this bit:

An event needs to be about something or someone. People want to connect to things that are real. They want to be able to read stories and feel a link to other lives. An event should celebrate your local area and be based on what is distinctive about where you live. Every patch of our land has a unique story, a natural feature, historical character or particular trail that is worth celebrating. As an event organiser your job is to weave these into a story that says to riders from across the country ‘this is what you experience if you travel up here to ride on our trails.’

I think it sums up pretty well what I hope our adventure stories in the magazine achieve too.

You certainly couldn’t tell that it was the first time Adrian had organised an event. From start to finish we wanted for nothing apart from a fresh pair of legs.

Coincidentally, it was also my first bike packing trip, the temptation of a local start and a campsite halfway round was impossible to resist. The friendliness of the event volunteers and fellow riders plus perfect weather made for a special weekend. As a bonus, we also got to explore and link lots of corners of our area that were as yet undiscovered to us. The drop down to Yateholme was a unexpected suprise.

Thanks to all, maybe Jennride next…

I rode this event (and all of the route as not really biked in the Calder valley before). Aside from my complete lack of any riding preparation it was a wonderful event, lovely team at the start and finish, and at the overnight campsite too.

Even though I did the “short” route I still clocked over 3000m of climbing in around 12 hours of riding (split between the two days).

The whole event is what I love about small but superbly organised things like this, and I’d strongly recommend putting your name down for next year. I might even do some training and ride the long one in 2023.

Entries for next year have opened today and I’ve put myself down for the 126 mile gravel option. This year was superb and even though I only did the “short” route it was still a tough two days. I’d recommend it to anyone wanting to stretch themselves.

https://www.calderdividetrail.co.uk/best-bikepacking-mountain-bike-and-gravel-bike-yorkshire