Nick Bell, long-time manager of the Rothschild family's Haras de Meautry, will be embark on an epic challenge next month when cycling the length of France to raise money for the racehorse aftercare charity Au-Delà des Pistes.
Bell's quest begins on June 15 from France's northernmost racecourse, Le Touquet on the English Channel, and over the course of the next 11 days he will make his way to the southern racecourse of Hyères, which lies on the Mediterranean, cycling 1,118km in the process.
Born in England, Bell, 63, has been based in Normandy for more than two decades. In recent years, he has suffered a series of health issues including a hip replacement which was followed by a diagnosis of incurable chronic pulmonary sarcoidosis and prostate cancer. Despite this, he completed his first charity cycling challenge in 2021 for Down Syndrome Kerry and then Kerry Mountain Rescue in 2023, only missing a challenge in 2022 when recovering from spinal surgery.
He says, “I've always had in the back of my mind to do an epic journey while I still can. Therefore, I came up with the idea of cycling from the most northerly racecourse in France to the most southerly and it seemed particularly apt, considering my career, to do this ride in aid of Au-Dèla des Pistes, a charity that is involved with the retraining of ex-racehorses.”
You can follow Bell's progress via daily updates on his Instagram account @nickbell2072 and via @audeladespistes as well as on Nick's YouTube channel, and any sponsorship would be gratefully received via the challenge's Go Fund Me page.
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