Leicester Cyclist Maps Pudsey Bear Shape for Charity Ride

A cyclist recently finished a themed bicycle journey, tracing a path that formed the outline of Pudsey Bear to support Children in Need. Rebecca Laurel spent approximately five hours cycling around Leicester on Saturday, covering a distance of 50 miles (80km). Her route was recorded on Strava, an application for tracking physical activity, where it depicted the form of the BBC charity’s mascot. “It’s quite slow when you’re zigzagging through the city centre,” stated the 25-year-old. This particular creation has, to date, generated over £370. It was undertaken following a challenge issued by BBC Radio Leicester during a discussion about her earlier design, a skeleton-shaped ride completed around Halloween. Ms Laurel commented, “I just pick themed rides based on the season.” She added, “Christmas, Halloween, Easter. I did a crown-shaped ride for the coronation.” Ms Laurel recounted that her initial involvement in cycling began after the London 2012 Olympics, at which point she and her brother became members of a cycling club. Nevertheless, the practice of designing her routes to form shapes of animals and other thematic objects emerged during the lockdown period. She explained, “I was planning a route just to see how long it was.” “And I got about two thirds of the way through and thought, ‘oh, this looks a bit like a llama’.” She continued, “So I plotted the rest of the route to make it look like a llama.” “And then I thought, if I add some antlers and a red nose, I can make a reindeer.” “Then it kind of went from there and it was quite popular on social media.” “So I thought, ‘yeah, I’ll do some more of these’.” Her latest creation required “a couple of hours to plan” and drew inspiration from her earlier designs. Ms Laurel indicated that her subsequent themed ride is projected to cover approximately 90 miles (145km) and will depict the form of a snowman. For updates, follow BBC Leicester on Facebook, X, or Instagram. Story ideas can be submitted to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk or through WhatsApp at 0808 100 2210. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC bears no responsibility for the content found on external sites. Information regarding our policy on external linking is available.