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The Canal Cycle Challenge

Events

Cycle for St Basils, to stop the cycle of homelessness.

  • Start Date: 26th Apr, 2025 @ 8:00am
  • Closing Date: 26th Apr, 2025 @ 5:00pm
  • Location: Digbeth, Birmingham

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The Canal Cycle Challenge

Help St Basils to end the cycle of homelessness

Challenge yourself to cycle the historic canal system of the West Midlands and help prevent youth homelessness.

Starting and finishing at St Basils in Digbeth, choose between a challenging 47.5-mile route through Walsall and Wolverhampton or a shorter 23.5-mile ride via Great Barr and Tipton.

By raising funds and awareness through a competitive and friendly cycling challenge, we aim to provide essential support to local young people at risk of homelessness, who are in increasing need of our help.

Secure your place

What's On Offer at The CCC? 

Earn your medal

This year, you can choose between a 23.5 or 47.5 mile cycling challenge, earning yourself a medal in the process.

Treat your bicycle

Get your bicycle pampered by our friends at Gear Up- another charity dedicated to helping young people learn skills and confidence for gainful employment.

Meet your community

Meet fellow cyclists, companies and families from all over the West Midlands who are passionate about ending youth homelessness.

Eat and drink well

You'll be welcomed with a morning hot drink, waters and then greeted with a free meal post-event.

Event Information

Timings

  • Check in and start time for the long route begins at 8am and closes at 10am.
  • Check in and start time for the short route begins at 10am and closes at 11am.
  • The event ends at 5pm, and we encourage participants on both routes to return by this time.

Price

  • Take advantage of our Early Bird pricing—just £12 for the short route and £18 for the long route until March 21, 2025. After that, prices increase to £15 and £20, so book early and save!

Amenities

  • St Basils Head Office will be used as our main Start/End point, where you can grab hot and cold drinks, refill water bottles and use the toilet facilities before heading off. We will also be providing food, which will be available at the end of the challenge. Small donations for the food provided are welcomed.
  • Special thanks to our friends from Gear Up, who will be at the start point to service participants bikes free of charge, before they set off.
  • For those who would like to continue celebrating their cycling success, there are several pubs, bars and restaurants which are within a 10-minute walking (or 5-minute cycling) distance of the start and end point.

Fundraising

  • You will get a fundraising page automatically set up for you through our platform Enthuse, which is really easy to share with friends, family and colleagues, and really helps our cause to help end youth homelessness in the West Midlands.
  • You will receive updates with tips and tricks on how to secure support and donations to your page. Every £9 raised helps us pay for a night’s safety for a young person at risk, meaning that it’s very possible you could home a young person for multiple nights, and even weeks!

Sign Up Today

Click here for our Terms and Conditions.

FAQs

 

How long does it take to complete?
  • An average cyclist with a well maintained bike should be able to complete the short route in around 3 hours and the long route in around 5 to 6 hours.
When will me/ my team start?
  • The long route riders set off between 8am and 9am, and the short route riders between 9am and 10am. Each rider will be given a ‘wave’ time closer to the event and these are in 15 minute blocks (eg – if you are doing the long route you may be given a time slot of 8:15am). 
Do we have to be back at a certain time?
  • The event finishes at 5pm, so everyone, regardless of their route or when they set off, must be back by 5pm.
What is the tow path/ terrain like?
  • It varies from hard tarmac, concrete, and compact gravel to grass and sometimes muddy patches. But the muddy patches are not very long.
Are there check points?
  • Yes, the short route has 1 check point and the route has 2. At these check points are marshals, water, and energy treats, but no toilets.
What happens if I have bike troubles?
  • You should phone the emergency number we give you at the start, and our friendly mechanics from Gear-Up will come out to you.
What kind of bike should I use?
  • We suggest Mountain, ATB, or Hybrids. A road bike could suffice, but be mindful that this is a canal tow path and the terrain does vary a lot. That includes brick steps going over bridges and next to locks.
How much do I need to raise?
  • As much as you can! The registration fee simply covers the cost of putting on the event, so we really rely on fundraising to make these events impactful to our young people. Each £9 raised helps us pay for a night’s accommodation for a disadvantaged young person. You could aim for 10 nights, a month- some people have even fundraised to cover a whole year! Once your fundraising page is automatically set up, we will give you tips, tricks, and we’ll even have someone on hand to be on your side and answer any queries, every step of the way.
What does the money raised go to?
  • St Basils works with young people to enable them to find and keep a home, grow their confidence, develop their skills, increase opportunities and prevent homelessness. We rely on the support of fundraisers like yourself to prevent youth homelessness for young people aged 16-25. We help 4,000 young people every single year, and are short of £9 per young person per night to provide accommodation. Browse our website for more about St Basils.

 

Thanks:

We would like to say a massive thank you to the Canal & River Trust for supporting this event.

File:Canal & River Trust Logo v2.png - Wikipedia