The London to Brighton bike ride is an annual charity cycling event in the UK, covering approximately 54 miles (about 87 km) from Clapham Common in London to Brighton seafront. It’s organised by charities such as the British Heart Foundation and Alzheimer’s Research UK, among many others, raising funds through participants’ sponsorship. It is a non-competitive, charity-focused London-to-seaside bike ride that brings together thousands of cyclists for a good cause each summer.

Turners Hill Free Church enjoys being located directly on the road that cyclists take on their route. Each year, the church becomes an ‘unofficial stop’ where cyclists can take a break.

The church car park is transformed into an outdoor café, providing cakes, sweets, treats (which are baked mainly by the congregation), teas, coffees and much-needed water. The whole church gets involved, from serving the cyclists to chatting with them and learning their stories, and the church children stand and cheer with banners, handing out water to the cyclists as they come up the steep hill.

This year also included a prayer board for any prayer requests, which was very popular and started some good conversations as well as live singing of worship songs as cyclists rested.

Peter James, Pastor at Turners Hill, said, ‘The church has been doing this for many years. Many of the cyclists who enter each year will often stop specifically to visit, say hello, and enjoy some refreshments, thanking us for our generosity. It has been a great blessing for us as a church in our outreach’.