The 2018 Dallaglio Cycle Slam
Dallaglio RugbyWorks’ epic cycling challenge takes on the French and Swiss Alps, Italian lakes and stunning scenery of Slovenia and Croatia where the 1,800km journey concluded in June 2018.
The event saw up to 200 dedicated riders commit to cycling ambitious and physically challenging European routes over a three week period. The event is split into three stages of five days cycling with 30 Core Riders completing the whole three week challenge alongside Lawrence himself. Andrew and I participated in stage 1 of the Slam. The Dallaglio Foundation is one of the Charites which Mentzendorff is proud to support.
The Dallaglio Cycle Slam is all about the challenge, camaraderie and teamwork, and it’s also a lot of fun. We were lucky to be joined by an incredible mix of supporters and celebrities who share a passion for cycling and supporting the charity. There were daily fines for performing some sort of cycling misdemeanor during the day. Andrew and I climbed nearly 12,000 meters on our bikes over 5 days passing through three countries.
Dallagilo RugbyWorks, established in 2009 by England rugby legend Lawrence Dallaglio, helps young people tackle life in a positive way. Their programme RugbyWorks, uses rugby to transform the aspirations of young people – 14 to 17 year olds at increased risk of long-term unemployment, criminality and imprisonment. We deliver an intensive, long-term skills development programme based on rugby, through which they aim to get teenagers outside of mainstream education into sustained education, employment or training.
RugbyWorks engages teenagers who have been permanently excluded from mainstream education and enrolled in Alternative Provision schools through the sport of rugby. This target population comes from chaotic backgrounds with high levels of social risk factors such as troubled families, criminality and unemployment. They have much lower success rates in education and employment compared to pupils from mainstream schools. RugbyWorks is designed to help these young people onto a positive pathway to achieve sustained education, employment or training with a particular focus on exposing them to various vocational opportunities.
We know there are a huge range of factors leading to students being excluded from mainstream education. And, for whatever that reason, we don’t believe that should signal exclusion from mainstream society too. Mentzendorff is proud to support this charity.