Well known veteran cyclist Mick Ives of Team Jewson MI Racing will be swapping the saddle he has spent countless hours in for a rather more different one when he rides over jumps at a National Hunt meeting at Cheltenham next month for the Injured Jockey’s Fund.
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Even for a cyclo cross expert like 72 year old Mick from Coventry, who is the only rider to ride the Tour de France route solo in a day less than the race, this is quite a departure after a 56 year racing career. But on Wednesday May 2nd, whose pre cycling ambition was to be a National Hunt jockey, will swing his leg over a horse for charity. The latest of his charity efforts which have so far raised over £50,000.
Last year Mick, whose main sponsor Jewsons are also associated with top trainer Jon Jo O’Neill’s training establishment, rode (his bike) from the stables at Jackdaw Castle in the Cotswolds to Cheltenham racecourse, then Hereford race course, Warwick and Stratford courses and back up to Jackdaw, 150 miles in eight and a half hours including time spent meeting and greeting.
During his long career Mick, has won five UCI Master’s Cyclo Cross Championships, countless other UCI World Championship medals. Having held a professional licence for 16 years, he raced in 18 different countries and has won over 1,500 races over the years.
Mick, who for many years has been a leading light in the LVRC said: “Cycle racing is a tough sport and riders take risks and have terrible accidents from time to time, but I reckon none compare with those faced by National Hunt jockeys, that is why I was so keen to help.”
“As a young lad my ambition was to become a National Hunt jockey as I was brought up in the world of racing, being able to ride at eight and did not own a bike. But my parents considered the sport to be far too dangerous. It was only when I left school and had to get to work and technical college and cycling was the onlyway to do it. In my first week at college I met two members of Warwick Cycling Club in my class. This turned my attention away from being a jockey to becoming a racing cyclist .. and the rest as they say is history.”
To learn more about Mick’s challenge on Wednesday 2nd May, contact him direct on 02476 304009, or mickivesbikeking@gmail.com .
