CEO of Birmingham Assay Office completes 50 mile charity bike ride

Michael, CEO of the Birmingham Assay Office, cycled the 51.71 mile course in aid of Cyclists Fighting Cancer, a charity which gifts bicycles to children who have been affected by cancer.

In preparation for the gruelling ride, Michael took to running and cycling up and down the hills of the Cotswolds. After setting himself a target of four hours, he trained longer and harder in the days leading up to the event.

The Cotswold landscape and the weather on race day were punishing, but Michael still managed to complete the course in four hours and 11 minutes.

Einstein was an unlikely source of inspiration for Michael as he rode along the course, as he explains: “How did he [Einstein] help? You probably think I’m about to quote his very famous bicycling quote, ‘Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving’. Well having got that in, it wasn’t actually that thought that accompanied me.

“What I had going on in my head was something much more apt: ‘Not everything that can be counted counts; and not everything that counts can be counted’. My four-hour target could be counted but it didn’t really count, but the happiness and joy we are going to bring to some kids with cancer when they get a new bike really does count, but it can’t be counted.”