Hospitality Rides: No Turning Back

Thirty industry leaders, 400km+ and two charities that truly matter.

In eight weeks’ time I’ll be getting back on a bike for the third time to take part in Hospitality Rides, tackling 400km plus across some fairly mountainous terrain in Vietnam alongside 30 fellow industry leaders.

That may surprise you for two reasons.

1. I am not a fitness fanatic.

Anyone who knows me well will confirm this immediately. These charity rides are exactly that for me, a genuine challenge. I’ve got strong calves so I am respectable on the flats. I’m a big lad so gravity tends to put me at the front on the downhills. But the steep climbs are brutal.

Properly brutal.

Overall, I am resigned to the fact that my natural habitat is somewhere near the back of the pack, usually within polite conversation distance of the doctor. Finishing, for me, is the victory. Ranking would be wildly ambitious.

Training here in Scotland does at least offer hills. Plenty of them. The advantage is that they come with beautiful lochside stretches, winding mountain passes and genuinely spectacular scenery. There are worse ways to spend a Saturday morning than climbing through the Highlands before stopping for excellent coffee. I am looking at you Mohr84.

I am also painfully aware that my London counterparts are often circling Richmond Park on repeat. Character building, I am sure. But give me open roads, fresh air and a decent flat white at the side of a loch.

What Scotland does not offer, however, is tropical heat and humidity. Vietnam will add that particular layer of punishment. If Taiwan last year was anything to go by, it is the long, grinding uphill sections where the heat becomes relentless and you are painfully aware of every life choice that brought you there. Thankfully, at the top there is always a cheering group of much fitter hospitality leaders who drag me through the final metres.

2. We were meant to be going to Cuba.

However, if you have been paying attention to geopolitics, you will know that heightened tensions and naval blockades involving the USA make that plan somewhere between unwise and downright foolish.

So, in a matter of days, Hospitality Rides founder and friend Katy Moses rerouted the entire operation to Vietnam. An extraordinary logistical pivot. Geopolitically reassuring. Topographically and meteorologically less so. Or, in simpler terms, much hotter and with considerably more mountains.

But that is the point. This is about stepping outside comfort zones to raise meaningful funds for two charities that sit at the heart of our industry.

LTC

LTC - the Licensed Trade Charity has been quietly supporting people in hospitality for over two centuries. It provides practical financial assistance, wellbeing support and mental health resources to those working in pubs, bars and the wider licensed trade.

Behind every successful venue is a team working long hours in a high pressure environment. When life tips unexpectedly through illness, redundancy or family crisis, it is often this charity that steps in. I started washing pots at thirteen and worked my way through kitchens and dining rooms. I know how exposed people in our sector can be. This is hospitality looking after its own.

Only A Pavement Away

Only A Pavement Away connects people facing homelessness, prison leavers and veterans into employment within hospitality. I was proud to be one of the first ambassadors and involved before its official foundation.

What began as an idea has become a movement. It is one of the clearest examples of hospitality using its scale and humanity to change lives. Jobs create stability. Stability creates dignity. Dignity creates long term change.

I have seen first hand the impact this charity has had. It is not abstract. It is real people rebuilding real lives.

Digging Deep

From our previous rides in Kenya and Taiwan, what I have learnt is that these challenges demand three things.

Training. Willpower. Teamwork.

There is also the minor detail that you get on a bike almost straight off the back of an eighteen hour flight and then repeat the process day after day for five days. Your body does protest. Loudly.

The team, however, are always extraordinary. Thirty leaders pushing each other up hills that feel vertical. Credit to Katy for bringing together a group that somehow makes the impossible feel possible. There are tears. There are moments of frustration and doubt. There is the occasional quiet fury at a gradient sign that reads eleven percent but feels closer to vertical. And yet, collectively, we get through.

How can you help?

If you are reading this and wondering how you can help, there are a few ways:

1. You can donate via JustGiving. Every contribution genuinely matters.

2. I have sponsorship space on my cycling jersey. For £300 your company logo will travel 400km across Vietnam and I will personally thank you on social media.

3. You can support the charities directly. Follow them, share their work with your teams and explore what they do. This is about awareness as much as fundraising. There may well be someone in your network who needs their support right now.

This is not about personal heroics. It is about

an industry showing up for its people. More than £1m has already been raised for these fantastic charities.

And if that means dragging myself up another humid mountain, so be it.

See you on the road. And remember to pass wide.