Richard Newey sets off on Gruelling ‘Race Across America’ to raise money for Sabre

Risk Manager aiming to cycle 3,050 miles... in less than 10 Days!

Davis Langdon LLP employee, and Sabre Trust supporter, Richard Newey has just crossed the start line in the toughest endurance event on the planet, the infamous and gruelling Race Across America (‘RAAm’).

This annual cycling race, which is approximately 1,000 miles longer than the Tour de France, draws together teams and individual cyclists from all over the World, who proceed to compete on a tough route from south-west to north-east of America. The 2009 edition is the 28th running of the event.

The RAAm consists of one stage, live to the very end. The race started on 17th June 2009 in Oceanside, California, and proceeds through the Mohave Desert, into Northern Arizona, through the Colorado Rockies, across the windy prairies of the mid-West, before winding its way down to the finish line in Annapolis, Maryland... a grand total of 3,050 miles.

Richard is aiming this year is to complete the race as a solo-entry in less than 10 days. To do this, Richard will be riding for an average of 20 hours and more than 300 miles per day!

Richard at the Start Line

As if that wasn’t a challenge enough, Richard is expecting to experience a temperature range of between -6°c and 45°c, high winds and dust, and numerous climbs topping out at over 3,500 metres high.

Richard’s training has been ongoing for the last 9 months, and has seen him cover training rides of up to 300 miles. Training camps have taken place in both the UK and Spain, and have been supplemented with the services of a sports psychologist and chiropractor. In addition, the use of oxygen-tents to assimilate riding at altitude, ‘heat-rooms’ to assimilate riding in the extremely hot temperatures and rides through the night to familiarise himself with cycling in the dark, have all featured within the training regime.

Supporting Richard will be an 8-strong ‘Team Sabre RAAm’, who will be armed with 3 vehicles and all the supplies needed to tend to Richard’s every need, 24-hours a day, throughout the challenge. Nutrition, strategy, navigation, health and bike maintenance are all catered for, leaving Risk Manager Richard to concentrate solely on completing this formidable challenge.

Richard is aiming to raise £45,000, which is enough money to completely build on of the Sabre Trust's new kindergarten schools in Ghana. The concept for the kindergarten school has come from an innovative CSR collaboration between Davis Langdon and Ove Arup & Partners, and the school has been designed to support the Sabre Trust’s work on implementing the government curriculum, by providing a significantly enhanced learning environment. Richard’s fundraising efforts will be married to the physical efforts of his colleagues, who have been out to Ghana to assist with the management and construction of the first prototype school.

Please do follow Richard’s progress via his website on www.richardnewey.co.uk, or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/teamsabreraam.

If you are inspired by Richard’s challenge and would like to support him with a donation, please do so at www.justgiving.com/richardnewey or click on the widget below!