An intrepid team of nearly 30 scientists, engineers and support staff from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) have taken on an ambitious mission to cycle between the institute’s two UK sites, Southampton and Liverpool, this weekend to help fight ocean plastics.
The team set out from the Southampton site early Friday (September 13) morning to tackle nearly 3,900m of hills over more than 260 miles, or a total of nearly 7,500 miles between them.
Their goal, as they ride through eight counties, stopping overnight in Cirencester and Much Wenlock, is to raise awareness of microplastics and fund new laboratory equipment at NOC, the UK’s leading ocean research charity, to help understand and fight their threat to the ocean.
Charmaine Richardson, NOC’s Innovation Centre Coordinator, from Itchen, was inspired by a group of NOC staff who cycled from the Liverpool site to Southampton in 2017, for fun.
“We’re all passionate about what we do for the ocean at NOC and especially issues like microplastics,” she says. “So I thought we could do the same journey, but in reverse, while also raising awareness and money for critical specialist equipment that will help us to protect it.
“We’re all amateur cyclists and it’s the furthest most of us has ever ridden in such a short time, so it really is quite daunting. But the support we’ve had so far has been amazing and that’s driving us on. That we all work at NOC, a leading ocean research charity, combating the challenges facing the ocean, is that extra push. This is something extra we can do. But as sustainable commutes between offices go, it has to be at the extreme end.”
Today (Friday), will see the group of 27 riders, plus one support driver, cycle around 80 miles to Cirencester, followed by an 80-mile ride to Much Wenlock on Saturday, and then a final push of 90 miles up to Liverpool on Sunday.
The riders, who all live locally to Southampton, except two who live in Liverpool, span multiple nationalities, including British, Irish, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and Filipino working across NOC, including a sediment core curator, robotics engineers, applied scientists, technology and engineering experts, software and machine learning specialists and staff from procurement and logistics.
The team thanks sponsors Nortek and Robosys Automation, supporters Lemon and Jinja Limited & University of Southampton’s Atrium and NOC Cafes and British Cycling, who supported route planning.
As well as taking on the challenge to ride to Liverpool, the team is also signed up to the Love to Ride September cycling challenge, hoping that the training miles they have been putting in will also see NOC high on the Southampton leaderboard.
Be part of the fight against microplastics and support their cause at: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/noccyclechallenge