The Rickshaw Challenge 2018 kicks off on November 9, featuring an all new rickshaw, built by McLaren.
Now entering its eighth year, The Rickshaw Challenge sees young people supported by the British charity ride more than 400 miles over eight days. Starting on Friday November 9, the riders will set off from Calais, pedal 31 miles through the Channel Tunnel, before heading north through England and Wales towards the finish line at BBC Media City, Manchester.
Since 2011, The One Show’s Rickshaw Challenge has raised more than £21 million for BBC Children in Need, with every penny making a difference to the lives of children and young people across the UK who need it most.
This year’s team of riders is made up of Abby, 16, from London; Harry, 17, from Plymouth; Kayla, 16 from Derry/Londonderry; Kieran, 18, from South Wales; Maisie, 16 from Southampton and Phoebe, 19, from Leicester. Their ride for this epic journey will be the custom-built McLaren Rickshaw, designed from the ground up to be more accessible and functional than the previous generation rickshaws.
Designers and engineers from McLaren Applied Technologies and McLaren Racing have come together to build a rickshaw that puts the riders’ needs first. Each design feature is a manifestation of the team’s intent to build a better rickshaw. Inspired by the iconic rickshaw silhouette, the new design is focused on improving accessibility, rather than creating a lightweight, high-performance vehicle. As such, the new design features a rapidly reconfigurable seating system, enabling a wider range of riders to take part, an innovative drivetrain system that improves reliability and integrated outrider braking mounts that improve safety.
McLaren is supporting BBC Children in Need not only by building the rickshaw, but also with internal fundraising activities that will take place alongside the challenge.
Viewers will be able to follow Team Rickshaw’s progress each day on The One Show. The full route – including a real-time update of the rickshaw’s progress – is available at pudsey.viewranger.com
Jonathan Neale, Chief Operating Officer, McLaren Group, said:
“We are incredibly proud to be supporting this year’s BBC Children in Need Rickshaw Challenge, which lays the ground for our long-term support of this important charity. The team have thrown their heart and soul into building an accessible and well-engineered new rickshaw, for an amazing and rewarding project. All of us at McLaren will be cheering on Team Rickshaw with every turn of the wheel.”