Charity riders for Malawi education initiatives given pomp welcome by Billy Bilsland Cycles on arrival in Glasgow
The four charity cyclists who embarked on a epic adventure from London to Glasgow last Saturday, have completed their six-day ‘Pedal-with-a-Purpose’ challenge and were welcomed with pomp on their arrival by their main sponsors, Billy Bilsland Cycles.
Billy Bilsland Cycles has a strong link with Malawi sport as the shop — through its manager, Neil Bilsland — also supported Malawian cyclist, Macpherson Mbeya to participate well at the UCI Cycling World Championships by loaning him three top-of-the-range bikes for different disciplines.
Neil Bilsland also generously lent out bikes to Malawian athletes to compete in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and together with MacPherson and Malawi Cycling Federation president, Malombo Kayira, they were on call as the Pedal-with-a-Purpose finished their 500-mile (790km) cycling adventure.
The charity challenge was expecting to raise about K30 million (£25,000) towards supporting grassroots education initiatives in Malawi, a dynamism named ‘Think Malawi’, which was founded by one of the riders, Steve McInerny of Peckham Cycle Club.
On Billy Bilsland Cycles’ Facebook page, Neil reported that they had “a great afternoon at the @thinkmalawi arrival party to welcome the #pedalwithapurpose guys to Glasgow after their cycle from London”.
“We met some inspiring people and have laid some seeds for future collaborations to support the work that benefits young people and support the growth of cycling in Malawi.
“Thanks to everyone for their hospitality at the YogaBarn inside Pollok Park for the authentic Malawian cuisine and tasty cakes,” Neil said, who also reported that he had the pleasure of spending the day with Macpherson and Malombo in Dundee during the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships Gran Fondo Time Trial.
“Macpherson was a little sore after a few crashes at the MTB marathon on Sunday but still managed to complete the event — his first ever Time Trial and 3rd event in 4 days.
“He’s also now a fan of Haggis, Neeps and Tatties, washed down with Irn Bru. That boy is also made of girders,” he said.
The six-day Pedal-with-a-Purpose adventure passed through London, Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, East and North Yorkshire, County Durham, Northumberland, Cumbria, Dumfriesshire and Lanarkshire.
The grassroots education initiatives that Think Malawi undertakes in the country range from making reusable sanitary pads, enabling girls to stay in school, building desks to innovative remote learning projects as well as Ladder to Learning literacy project.
As solidarity, they were seeing off last Saturday at View Tube Café in London by Malawi High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, His Excellency, Dr Thomas Bisika, who wished them “the best of luck on their ambitious cycle ride”.
The High Commissioner now concludes that he and his office are very proud of the generosity of everyone involved in the charity initiative and congratulated the riders for their noble cause.
“I followed them through their online updates and I was amazed at the enthusiasm they attached to their challenge,” he said.
“They were actually enjoying themselves as surely they passed through some landmark places all the way to Glasgow.
“For all those who supported the initiative, we don’t it for granted as it will enable Think Malawi to fund education projects which are run by Malawian organisations — a virtuous circle which benefits thousands of children in Malawi.”
The seeds for assisting Malawi were sown after the founder and trustee of Think Malawi, Steve McInerny crossed through Malawi on his epic ride from Cairo to Cape Town in 2004-5 along with a team of hardy riders.
McInerny and the others stopped in Blantyre where McInerny’s mother, Kate Hauxwell was a teacher at St Andrews International High School and during the short stopover, McInerny identified a gap in girl child’s literacy — thus Think Malawi was born which was then formally registered as a charity in UK.
Having been supported by Billy Bilsland Cycles, McInerny also announced during the ride’s online updates that they were looking forward to meeting Macpherson Mbeya, a developing Malawian professional cyclist — who is a clinical officer from Mzimba District.
He participated in the Gran Fondo, a 60-mile Cross-Country Mountain Bike Marathon at Glentress in the Tweed Valley and concluded with a 14-mile time trial in Glasgow.
Mbeya’s participation has been facilitated by Scotland-Malawi Partnership, a civil society network coordinating that supports and represents people-to-people links between the two nations.
Billy Bilsland Cycles supported Macpherson with a 51 Cervelo Caledonia with Ultegra; a 51cm Cervelo P3 Di2 and a Genesis Mantle HT and Mbeya was quoted as saying this is the first time in his life that he had seen, let alone used such bikes.
“I never dreamed that I would get to ride a bike that’s the correct size for me,” he said. “I’ve had to modify the road bike which I use in Malawi, which is too big for me. I’m really looking forward to competing in Scotland, to meeting friends there and to representing my country.”
Organised by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), this is the inaugural championships awarded to Glasgow and across Scotland that has attracted more than 2,600 athletes to win over 200 rainbow jerseys.
According to UCI’s website, the championships are set to be held every four years in the year preceding the Olympic Games, brings together various disciplines of cycling for them to be held as part of one event, including the UCI Road World Championships, UCI Mountain Bike World Championships and UCI Track Cycling World Championships.
The inaugural event, whose funding is from various local and national bodies, including the Scottish Government and UK Sport, hosted 13 individual UCI World Championships — the biggest ever cycling event as in total, over 190 world champions will be crowned.
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