Adventure Syndicate encourages school children to 'match the miles' in daily distance challenge

The Adventure Syndicate - a collective of female endurance cyclists aiming to inspire and empower more people to take on adventures by bike - is challenging school children to match their miles as they ride upwards of a century a day through France.

Adventure Syndicate's 'The Quad' team members - Lee Craigie, Rickie Cotter, Jenny Tough and Jenny Graham - are riding up to and over 100 miles a day, from Bristol and then through France.

Schools are encouraged to collectively 'match the miles', with a live leaderboard logging both the team's ride and school's achievements across the country.

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The team began their adventure on Sunday April 22 and they'll be riding until Sunday April 29. Schools can compete as a whole, or select specific classes or year groups - and riding can be completed in or outdoors - there's information on how to sign up or get involved here. 

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The school that logs the most miles will receive a visit from seasoned adventurers Craigie and Cotter as well as an exclusive showing of their brand new film, Divided.

The 'Match the Miles' initiative forms part of the Adventure Syndicate's 'Inspiring, Encouraging and Enabling Schools Project', which saw them receive cash from the Sporting Equality Fund to work with five schools across Scotland; engaging with pupils and especially teenage girls.

The team will teach camping, riding and bike maintenance skills in a bid to improve "levels of self-esteem, resilience and confidence that will last them a lifetime" - particularly among young women who might not otherwise take part in physical activity.

Discussing the year long project, Syndicate director Lee Craigie said: "encouraging young women to be adventurous and self-reliant is a different engagement strategy to the traditional competitive sporting one,"

"The confidence-raising possibilities that come from realising they can travel great distances by bike and carry everything they need to eat, sleep and have fun along the way can change how girls view the world and what they’re capable of achieving in it.”

The challenge coincides with the release of stats from a YouGov survey, commissioned by Evans Cycles, which show that one in five parents have a child who can't ride a bike.

The survey, published alongside the release of Evans Cycles' new HOY bikes, showed that 22 per cent of parents in London had a child who couldn't ride, and that 32 per cent of parents would not let their kids ride unsupervised despite the fact that 84 per cent were allowed to themselves once over the age of ten.