10 days ago, TCIO Deputy CEO Benjamin Southworth joined a group of people from the London startup scene in an epic undertaking – a charity cycle ride from London to Paris. Below, Ben shares his thoughts on the experience….

If you had said to me when I was a nine year old lad halfway up a tree with grass stains on my knees and a penknife in my pocket, that I’d be 31 and working for the Government, I wouldn’t have believed you.

I bring this up not only to wallow in my halcyon summers, but because I’ve just spent three days thinking about how things turn out. The reason for this contemplative monologue? Techbikers.

Techbikers is the name that was given to Head of Google Campus Eze Vidra’s madcap scheme to get a collection of cyclists from the London tech community to cycle from Paris to London in two and a half days – all for charity.

The goal? To raise £20,000 for Room To Read. Room to Read is a non-profit organisation that was founded on the belief that world change begins with education from the youngest level. In the past ten years, Room to Read has provided six million children with better access to education, established 1,592 schools and 13,170 libraries, published over 700 children’s books in 27 local languages, and sponsored 13,160 girls throughout their secondary education.

As befits the startup community, this was not some three month detailed plan, cemented through multiple meetings and a full training plan. Nope, it was a 37 day ad-hoc planning sprint: a fully agile, just-in-time deal. That said, if only for the pun, we did have a steering committee.

We knocked up a quick website, a donations page, turned to Twitter and emails to drum up support, and got to work.

Before we knew it, we had 40 riders signed up. All giving up their time and £150 deposit, committing to raise £650, and of course cycling 300km with 39 other strangers, all for “sheer hell of it.”

Eze, being the resourceful chap he is, had enlisted Gerry Newton (of Cyclr ) to help. Gerry and his small crew were the whirling dervishes of promotional tweets and sponsorship – they blagged and borrowed anything they could get their hands on that would make our lives easier – from coconut water to single-speed bikes from Foffa.  Meanwhile, TCIO banged the drum at every event, with every email, and every tweet we could to get the word out.

With 10 days to go before departure, things were looking grim: we were a long way from hitting our fundraising target, and it looked like the wheels had come off the whole idea. An emergency meeting was convened, the brutal truth was laid out, we had to “double-down” and all pull our weight… We emerged invigorated and the emails starting flying faster than particles in Hadron Collider, and each with the same force.

Within this arching narrative, it is important to introduce the hero, Abraham Choi, who appeared like a ninja from the shadows. With a week left to go, Abe skilfully handled the logistical nightmare of organising 40 medical forms, contact sheets, dietary needs, travel plans, tee-shirts, jerseys and hire-bikes all with a smile. Like a wise parrot he’d find me in Google Campus, with a little word – ” can you tweet about needing a jersey sponsor?” or ” Do you know someone who can…?” – luckily we always seemed to.

Thankfully the money rolled in.  Like a sturmey-archer 3 speed hub, the Friday morning departure eventually rolled around.

At 6am, St.Pancras international was invaded by 40 of London’s tech finest. All bleary eyed and hunting for caffeine: it was the finest rag-tag, bedraggled, motley assortment of individuals I have ever seen.

As a keen cyclist all my life, I’ll admit to sizing up the likely “competition” and making my own judgments as to those who might not survive the first mile… My mind was frantically reminding me “it’s not a race, it’s not a race…” – although you could see in the glimmer of many an eye that in fact it was. For everyone there was at least some competition – whether against their own stamina, their will-power, their friends, or simply against failure.

After a last minute delivery of more coconut water, we sprinted for the Eurostar to get us to Paris. After a few more coffees and giggles we arrived at Gard Du Nord… After a little detour around the Metro system, we gathered our bikes, threw our gear in the van, and cycled…

And that’s exactly what we did for the next 48 hours. We’d stop for lunch and dinner, and we would laugh uproariously at childish descriptions of chaffage, of bruised bottoms, of stories of our past, we’d let the endorphins and adrenaline carry our weary souls to bed by 11. Shattered and giggling.

We became a unit, a determined crew, a rolling stock of laughter and hope, barrelling through the beautiful French countryside.

We hopped the channel on the ferry, and we were back in the UK, and the confusion was apparent, even to our support van driver who took a junction or two to remember which side of the road was which.

Sunday. The last day. The weather was damp, cold, grey but the breakfast was an English affair of flesh, beans, bread, cereal, coffee, cakes, and second helpings. There was a sadness in the air, but an excitement to finish – a last hurrah. We all knew this would be the toughest day, with three monster climbs over the South Downs and the Thames Valley.  The weather was not on our side. We rolled on, the hills got harder, the rain got harder, the wind blew hard, we rolled on… The road became a river, we rolled on….

We stopped, 25 miles from home, to regroup and take on coffee… We were soaked, we were elated, we could almost smell home. We felt strong, we felt vulnerable, we felt honest, we felt alive… We laughed and joked, we worried about the conditions, we warmed up and looked to roll on.

A decision had been made.

The weather was too bad to carry on. The roads were flooded. Our cycle guides deemed we go no further: it was too dangerous, a disaster was foretold. The rain would claim one or all of us.

No one wanted it to end this way. We started as many, but we were going to finish as one. We don’t stop because of something as trivial as “rain”… It fell to Abe, the hero of the start, to be the hero of the finish. In a speech that came from Aaron Sorkin himself he explained that we were a “we”. And we were not splitting the group.

The bags and bikes were loaded in to vans and trains and we headed to Clapham Junction to complete the final seven miles as a crew. The disappointment subsided. As we rolled in Bonhill Street to a hero’s welcome from friends and family, we hugged, we high fived. Had I not been so overwhelmed by what I had experienced, I would’ve cried. My synapses were overloaded, my emotional pistons clogged by the sheer volume of amazingness.

We ate pizza and clinked beers. We were home. We had done it. We had sent emails, we had raised £20,000. We had cycled from Paris to London.

I’m still not sure what happened, we, a group of “us” became a “one”, we achieved what some thought they could never do, we did it for something bigger than us, we were powered by belief, we rode over every hill and through the storm to emerge triumphant.

That’s what being in a startup is like.

I know of no better metaphor for what and why we at TCIO love what we do, and we can’t wait to do it all again.

ALLEZ!