Firstly - whilst this Page has been set up by Brandon Pilling, it is the fundraising page for the entire Italian Classics Challenge Team (see photo below). 

Secondly - thank you for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page and reading our story, a story that started (way) back in 2019 when this same group of people took on a ride from Barcelona to Bilbao to help raise money for Bolton Lads & Girls Club.  At the time, BLGC had a vision to raise a substantial amount of money to upgrade their visionary but aged facilities (still one of the biggest Youth Centers in Europe) to ensure the Youth Work undertaken there could be maintained to the highest order of magnitude.  Much has happened since then, with COVID and now the tragedy that has unfolded in Ukraine; events no one in 2019 could have predicted.  Under COVID restrictions, BLGC like almost all Charities suffered; opportunity to raise and receive support funds were severely limited, and of course the work that the Club provides on a day in/day out basis (7 days a week - 51 weeks of the year) was curtailed and the doors to the club for the first time ever fell silently shut. 

However, behind the scenes, the work of BLGC had to continue as this was a period when the Club had to still be there for Young People.  ZOOM took over physical interaction, and the Club continued to provide all it could in a time of crisis.  And despite significant fund-raising restrictions placed upon it, the vision to re-open a completely renovated BLGC remained and the completion of Phase 1 will see the doors  to the "new" BLGC facility finally open again, the first week of July 2022.

Of course the wider vision for BLGC does still remain the same, and the task to complete the vision of what was started will continue to ensure the Club simply remains "relevant" so it can continue to provide the support to Young People it has been doing since 1889.  So what we have decided to do is to “get back on our bikes" to once again create a moment to highlight the incredible work that BLGC does and humbly ask for a few of your hard earned pounds to help ensure BLGC continues in its vision.

We do fully understand that now, with unprecedented cost of living increases, may not seem to be a good time to be "shaking the tin", but these increases hit all walks of society and so you can be assured your donations, how big or small will all be gratefully received, and not a penny of it will be wasted.  

As always, we will be funding the ride ourselves from our own pockets.  We will then take our own bikes and legs and will, over 7 riding days take on two of the Cycling Monuments - Il Lombadia (133.5 miles & 14.6k feet of climbing, and the mighty Milan San Remo ((187 miles & 7.5k feet of climbing) along side x3 big days in the Mountains (including riding over Col de Bonnette at 5,380ft)....please see photos(above in the gallery) for more details.  This is not going to be an easy few days for any of us, but we call it a Cycling Challenge, so it needs to be just that!   

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.  And if you are a UK tax payer, don't forget to click the Gift Aid link - the Government tops up your donation an additional 25% of the donation value (representing the tax you have paid on your donation), so it really is money for nothing.