PROVISIONAL ITINERARY - London to Monaco 2018 - 19th to 25th September 2018

Day 1: London – Dover (134km / 84 miles)
Day 2: Dunkirk – Roubaix (120km / 75 miles)
Day 3: Mondorf – Strasbourg (189km / 118 miles)
Day 4: Strasbourg – Basel (139km / 86 miles)
Day 5: Martigny- Ivrea (170km / 106 Miles)
Day 6: Ivrea – Albenga (185km / 115 miles)
Day 7: Albenga – Monaco (96km / 60 miles)

UK / France / Belgium / Luxembourg / Germany / Switzerland / Italy / Monaco

Founded in 2016 with long-standing Blue Marine Foundation (BLUE) partner Winch Design, London to Monaco was launched to help BLUE raise awareness and funds to support its conservation efforts around the world.

This year’s ride, organised by Just Pedal, will run over 7 days, departing from London with a celebrity send-off before carving its way through 8 countries and celebrating with a champagne finish at the Prince’s Palace in Monaco.

“London to Monaco was a real chance to make a difference. If you care about the oceans, I’d urge you to get involved.”

– Eddie Jordan, TV presenter and former F1 team owner and driver

“London to Monaco is good for the planet. And as a passionate repeat rider I can also say, it’s good for the legs, heart, and the soul too.”

– Bill Springer, Forbes

“It was the best charity ride I’ve ever taken part in. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a challenge who also cares about our ocean.”

– Tiffany Cromwell, Canyon-Sram Pro cyclist

LONDON TO MONACO - It's back in the saddles for our ocean enthusiasts as they show how much they care by pedaling all the way from London to Monaco in September 2018.

Founded in 2016 with long-standing Blue Marine Foundation (BLUE) partner Winch Design, London to Monaco was launched to help BLUE raise awareness and funds to support its conservation efforts around the world.

This year’s ride, organised by Just Pedal, will run over 7 days, departing from London with a celebrity send-off before carving its way through 8 countries and celebrating with a champagne finish at the Prince’s Palace in Monaco.

Well known for his ocean conservation work, Albert II (Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi; born 14 March 1958) is the reigning monarch of the Principality of Monaco, and head of the Princely House of Grimaldi. He is the son of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, and the American actress Grace Kelly. His sisters are Caroline, Princess of Hanover and Princess Stéphanie. In July 2011, Prince Albert married Charlene Wittstock, now Princess Charlene.

It's all hands to the pumps in the UK with the Blue Marine Foundation raising awareness of ocean matters with their London to Monaco bike ride and lobbying efforts around the world. One of their key objectives is to raise the total area of protected sea areas so that by 2030 around 20% of the ocean might be conservation areas. They are also keen to stop over fishing, to get us back to a more sustainable level, unlike the Cleaner Ocean Foundation, another British charity that is developing what will be the the world's largest portable water filtration machine concept: SeaVax.

Other ways of helping the ocean economy to recover is to stop emptying our waste into the seas as though it was some giant tip with no consequences. We simply have to start respecting water and the way to do that is to educate the public and lobby politicians.

There are many other organisations around the world with similar objectives, including research and beach cleaning, each one tackling ocean problems in their own way.

MONACO LIFE SEPTEMBER 17 2016 - CHARITY CYCLE FIRST FOR YACHT INDUSTRY

A sea of blue swept across the palace gates at 11:30 Tuesday morning, as a few dozen cyclists arrived on the last leg of the London to Monaco Cycle for charity, which started out on Sunday, September 18. As most of the riders are involved in the yachting industry, the arrival coincides with the launch of the Monaco Yacht Show Wednesday.

Cheers, applause and red and blue pom-poms greeted the riders, only 22 of whom completed the entire 1,500 km, while others joined in for chapters, or in the case of F1’s Eddie Jordan, pedalled the last leg.

The cycle initiative comes from Winch Design, an award-winning architect company and long-time partner of the Blue Marine Foundation, to mark the company’s 30th anniversary. To celebrate, Winch flew their entire staff of 74, although some arrived Tuesday via bicycle, from London to Monaco, and hosted a private dinner for the company at Les Deux Frères in neighbouring Roquebrune before the team returned back to the office the following day. “We left a temp in the office to answer the phones, ‘Someone will call you back tomorrow’,” Andrew Winch jokingly told Monaco Life. (One Winch employee talked about the excellent office environment and how Winch pays for the staff to eat lunch together everyday at the pub).

Blue Marine Foundation’s Head of Partnerships, Sara-Jane Skinner, who bought a bike only three months before departure date, was the only non-pro female to complete the 10-day trek. “It was incredible. We all share a common passion to save the sea and doing this massive physical goal together is parallel to the challenge that we face in marine preservation.”

HSH Prince Albert, along with his right-hand environmental man, CEO and Vice-President of the Prince Albert Foundation, HE Bernard Fautrier, were on hand to welcome all 50 cyclists. Prince Albert addressed the crowd light-heartedly, “You must have sore legs, sore backs and sore …” before adding, “Thank you for your achievements and, above all, for our oceans and seas that really do need all of our attention.”

Blue Marine Foundation’s Chris Gorell Barnes, along with co-founder George Duffield, and CEO Clare Brook, thanked Prince Albert for being “a marine conservation visionary” and his support “to save the most important resource our planet has, our beautiful oceans” and then presented the prince with a framed gift.

Chris and George created the Blue Marine Foundation in 2011. “Prince Albert showed our 2010 documentary on overfishing called ‘The End of the Line’ in Monaco. After this exposé, we decided to start a Foundation that would bring together marine preservation and the yachting community. Prince Albert quickly became the patron Saint of the Blue Marine Yachting Club and Winch Design has supported us from the beginning,” Chris told Monaco Life.

Of course, the bond that is formed from the camaraderie of an endurance challenge can always be measured by the best nickname. In the case of the London to Monaco Cycle, jovial hollers calling “Swizzle stick”, given to a cyclist surnamed Swizzle (the rest can be presumed), could be heard across the palace courtyard.

To date, £200,000 has been raised towards two projects targeting ocean protection, in the Aeolian Islands north of Sicily and the remote island of Ascension in the tropical Atlantic. Donations can still be made at JustGiving.

LINKS & REFERENCE

http://www.monacolife.net/charity-cycle-a-first-for-yachting-industry/

BLUE GROWTH

Blue Growth is the long term strategy to support sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors as a whole. Seas and oceans are drivers for the European economy and have great potential for innovation and growth. It is the maritime contribution to achieving the goals of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

The 'blue' economy represents roughly 5.4 million jobs and generates a gross added value of almost €500 billion a year. However, further growth is possible in a number of areas which are highlighted within the strategy.

A Blue Growth strategy consists of developing areas with a high potential for jobs such as:

a. aquaculture

b. coastal tourism

c. marine biotechnology

d. ocean energy

e. seabed mining

WORRYING TREND - We are keen to clean up the English Channel, but that means cleaning all of the world's oceans where they are constantly circulating to cool the planet.

We are worried that with the present rate of decline of wild fish stocks, fish farming is seen as a popular alternative, that ironically, depends on fish meal from wild fish to produce salmon and other high value produce.

That may be seen as an un-sustainable practice as population growth generates a conflict between land usage for agriculture and housing, but we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. SeaVax is one possible means to clean up our polluted oceans and seas to help regenerate healthier waters, provided that the economics of operating these boats can be solved.

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