Rat Race London - Moving up a Gear for a Dramatic Season Climax!

Rob Howard / 15.08.2007

Mountain Biking Through London?

It may be hard to picture an adventure race unfolding in London, but the Rat Race really does transform a city into an urban adventure playground and London is a surprisingly adventurous place.

Nick Gracie is a man with a daunting task – joining the Rat Race team as Course Planner and Race Director on his home turf and now working full-time to deliver this epic. And it\'s some task. Already Nick and the Rat Race team have been accessing special permissions from 14 London Borough Councils as well as other authorities in the City as diverse as the Police and Parks rangers.

To take this event to the multitude of interesting locations it will visit – whether it\'s great parks, rivers or canals or through the doors of huge great office buildings is all part of the fun and this is an event for anyone and everyone – whether you want to go hard or simply compete and complete and have a really interesting weekend away in London – Rat Race style!

Nick comments: \"People don\'t necessarily know about the adventure possibilities on their doorstep – even in a huge metropolis like London. The city has great parks, masses of water, brilliant architecture both old and new and we intend to use it all to create a superbly varied and engaging event. The Rat Race is renowned for finding the best of a city and introducing you to the downright quirky en route – be prepared for the quirkiness – we have plenty of it planned!\"

London Calling

The Rat Race has been staged over the past 3 years in Bristol, Edinburgh and Manchester and has seen hundreds of competitors descending zip wires from sky scrapers, abseiling football stadiums, getting their heads shaved in barber shops (!) and descending flights of stairs on mountain bikes. It has also been the subject of many TV features for Channel 4.

For 2007 the organisers have been working with agencies across the Capital to bring out the best of London\'s adventure landscape; with the help of Visit London the Rat Race team are busy planning their route to include some famous landmarks as well as taking the event along a \"road less travelled\" – unearthing some of those hidden gems that makes London such a pleasure to explore, whether you live there or you are a visitor to the city.