In an effort to boost employee well-being and encourage a culture of physical activity, whilst supporting a great cause, a group of employees organised a 106km bike ride, which was open to all across Armstrong Works. The bike ride aimed to not only highlight the benefits of exercise, but also to provide a platform for colleagues to challenge themselves and served as a reminder of Veterans who find themselves with post-Service struggles.
To date, over £3,000 has been raised by Pearson Engineering for Walking With The Wounded. In May 2024, a group of Person Engineering colleagues participated in the Cumbrian Challenge with the charity, hiking over fells close to Grasmere.
Walking With The Wounded is a UK military charity dedicated to helping veterans. They provide veterans and their families with the tools they need to rejoin civilian life, including employment support, mental health resources, and care coordination.
The ride coincided with the 111th edition of the Tour de France, so it seemed fitting to name our ride out as the Tour de Tyne. The team started and finished at The Cycle Hub, based on the Quayside, Newcastle upon Tyne. After leaving the Cycle Hub mid-morning, the team headed North with a pit stop at Kirkley Cycles, 14 miles in, before continuing their ride on country lanes, up to the outskirts of Morpeth then heading across to Scots Gap. Nearly 40 miles in, the group stopped for a coffee break at Kirkharle Coffee House before reaching the challenging Ryal’s Hill, with stretches of the hill reaching a 12.9% gradient. Shortly after the climb, the teams’ legs needed a rest, so they stopped for a well-deserved lunch at The Swinburne Arms in Stamfordham. The rest of the ride was smooth sailing, riding past Armstrong Works (the 100km mark) along Scotswood Road, on to William Armstrong Drive then right along Newcastle Quayside back to the Cycle Hub. The group completed the 106km ride in 4 hours and 6 minutes.
The key organiser of the Tour de Tyne challenge from Pearson Engineering added:
“It was a cracking day out, enjoyed by all! We pushed our personal limits on those steep climbs, strengthened our relationships across the group through this shared experience and we all discovered a newfound sense of accomplishment.”
If you would like to make a donation, please contact us.
From everyone at Pearson Engineering and Responsive Engineering, well done to all of the cyclists who participated in the Tour de Tyne bike ride challenge to raise donations for a fantastic UK military charity.
Our battle proven minefield breaching products provide armoured vehicles with the capability to defeat anti-tank mines. Whether intended for deliberate breaching or to support ‘freedom of manoeuvre’ for fighting vehicles, our blast-resistant ploughs give Commanders the option to move unimpeded and in doing so, maintain a battlefield advantage.
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Our highly configurable rollers have saved countless lives, limbs and assets on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and have succeeded in ensuring ‘freedom of manoeuvre’ for soldiers around the world. Provided as either a full-width ‘route proving’ variant to actively check routes for the presence of Improvised Explosive Devices, or as a track-width ‘self-protection’ variant, our rollers are designed specifically to meet the needs of wide-ranging operational requirements. Our continued Research & Development and our approach to customisation provides confidence to those who use them.
Like all of Pearson Engineering’s products, our assault gap crossing solutions are designed to be modular, to be interchangeable with other mobility and counter-mobility equipment and to support ‘freedom of manoeuvre’ on the battlefield. In a time when units are tasked to ‘march divided and fight united’, independent manoeuvre support is key.
Our range of Mine Clearance platforms and tools provide Armed Forces and other organisations with scalable solutions for mine clearance, explosive ordnance disposal and the defeat of improvised explosive devices. Our platforms and their tools can also be used to create mobility challenges for adversaries. Proven around the world, these mine clearance platforms and their tools are designed specifically to meet the needs of different operational contexts from large area clearance to support logistics and peace keeping operations through to clearance in complex terrain.