The Buyer | Peter Dean at the heart of the 2025 Bike to Care Bordeaux peloton

“If all 100km bike rides were like this I would do one every day!” grinned US sommelier Sudeep Rangi as we whipped alongside each other, through the rolling countryside of Bordeaux’s Entre-Deux-Mers on Day 1 of Bike to Care Bordeaux 2025.

It was hard to disagree with him as the vines of Pomerol made way for cereal crops, waterways and then ancient woods whose cool depths gave blessed relief from the intense heat of the afternoon.

As with many of the other 100 or so riders that take part in Bike To Care, I don’t know Sudeep terribly well but we say Hi every year and usually spend a few miles alongside each other catching up. He’s a biothecist based in Paris these days but he doesn’t forget his bartender past, using his bike to fundraise for young, diverse sommeliers – opening paths for them and helping to even out bumps in the road through the Sommelier Scholarship Fund.

Like Sudeep and his cycling buddies, each of the international teams on Bike To Care collects money for a hospitality charity of their choice. The main condition is that you have to cycle 200km over two days which this year was across Entre-Deux-Mers to Saint-Émilion and then a route around the Left Bank of Bordeaux.

I’m part of Hatch Mansfield’s UK team and have been since Louis Jadot’s David Stephen had the brainwave post-Covid of finding a way to help the beleaguered hospitality industries.

Bike to Care was dreamed up and, in the four years that the event has been staged, we have collectively raised over €1.5m, €400k of that this year. And chapeaux where they’re due – almost half of this year’s total (a record €180k) was raised by the UK team for Hospitality Action, most of that coming from a charity gala dinner and auction held at London’s Nobu Hotel.

Hatch, and the organisers of Bike to Care Bordeaux, have underwritten all costs so that every penny collected reaches their destinations in full, rather than some charity events where the first few thousands are paying for participants to effectively ‘have a jolly’.

Led by Lynch-Bages, Giscours, Haut-Bailly and (this year’s new addition) Montrose the host châteaux have laid on some money-can’t-buy dinners and lunches to ‘oil the cogs’ and keep the wheels turning.

Hard to whinge about aching thighs when there’s a First Growth in your paw.

Admittedly Bike to Care is one of the few marathon bike rides where you come home weighing more than you did going out.

Unlike the stiff breeze and pouring rain we endured two years ago when Bike to Care was last in this wine region, the weather was kinder this year, although at 32°C the 108km ride on Day Two could not be described as plain sailing.

For the first 20km I was wondering how many Ns there are in Perineum, as I struggled for comfort, the last 20km I was clinging on for dear life, the mirage of a cold Super Bok luring me on.

“You’re not a medium!”

The UK team was primarily made up of hoteliers – owners and managers – and a more convivial bunch you’d be hard-pressed to find. Ask them to pass the spuds and your plate is filled silver service style with fork and spoon… this is an accommodating crowd whose success has been founded on how to say Yes. Very politely. Over four years the in-jokes have multiplied to such an extent that there’s a frat party air to proceedings. It's no wonder that we still train through the winter so we can do this thing.

Despite that, it’s still hard to shift the ‘winter plumage’ and, as most non-cyclists will point out – with averted eyes – there’s no hiding place in Lycra, especially with advancing years.

“You’re not a Medium!” team member Dave Connell quipped when I was asked for my jersey size “Did I say that too fast?” he grinned. He was right you know – I had to go up two dress sizes before I stopped resembling an over-filled merguez. The bespoke jerseys did feel awfully snug this year.

Us cyclists are used to taking a bit of flak, though, I have a mug on my desk (a Christmas present from my policeman brother-in-law Paul), that reads ‘Bike Wanker’ on the side as testament to this. He rides a motorbike and could probably only get one leg into an XL jersey… I still get joy from remembering the day I took him out cycling. No wonder we call them ‘plod’!

That’s right, we MAMILs are the target of a good deal of cynicism but usually it’s from people who have to get off and push their bike over a speed bump.

The Bike to Care Bordeaux routes

As for the two cycle routes this year – they were nicely judged with the organisers finally managing to solve the problem of not turning Bike to Care into a race – get the speed freaks to start 15 minutes after the rest of us. Benjamin Sanson, the coach and technical organiser, was also nicely chilled this year unlike last time when he had the appearance of someone whose testosterone implant had imploded. After a quadruple espresso.

At the risk of repeating myself, it’s hard to beat cycling through wine country – there’s a connection between you and the landscape that mirrors the symbiosis that’s core to producing wine itself. And you travel at a speed where you can actually take it in and get to grips with the topography of a wine region – the specific characteristics of different appellations start to make sense.

Then there’s that sheer thrill of passing iconic estates and many enormous chateaux that you’ve never heard of – amazing just how many of those there are in Bordeaux. One of those, Château de Portets in Graves, was our starting out point on Day One, a magnificent estate on the left bank of the Garonne with vines hugging the riverbank, an old toll tower from the days when they would have collected a levy for wine headed downstream. And none of us had ever heard of the place.

Visiting iconic estates are, of course, pinch-yourself moments and lunches at Cheval Blanc (very classy with the grand vin plonked on tables without any ceremony as if it was a vin de table) and Château d’Armailhac were memorable affairs as were the dinners at Haut-Bailly, Giscours and Montrose – the latter a gala dinner whose wine list coaxed a quiet “Feck me!” out of the lips of former Decanter publisher John Stimpfig.

It was also a first opportunity to taste the House’s first vintage of Montrose Blanc.

The climb up the cobbled hill into Saint-Émilion was also a very special moment which had everything but the cheering crowds, although you could be forgiven for imagining those. Except perhaps for those riders doing the ‘walk of shame’.

So OK 100km a day, let’s be honest, is not that hard a ride but it does require some degree of effort and there were times when the going got tough – one of the Belgian team went missing on Day One, for example, his navigation had gone up the spout and he put in some unwanted extra miles. Curious though that this ‘accident’ saw him redirected back to Cheval Blanc where we had earlier had lunch. Weird that ;)

With an annoying chest cold the last 35km stretch of Day 2 (32°C plus headwind) was also pretty chunky I found. For the last hour I was hanging onto the back of our group, desperately not wanting to get ‘spat out’ the back of the peloton. But as I was struggling I thought this is really just a First World problem – at least I haven’t had to close a restaurant this year, or deal with a colleague’s mental health, or tried to find accommodation after losing my tied house.

Those are real hardships and the work Hospitality Action has performed over the centuries to help those facing these sorts of scenarios is why we in the Hatch UK team care so passionately about supporting them.

Bike to Care does have its cushy side, as the Insta selfies with priceless wines testifies but, in this era where lateral, multi-national organisations seem to be losing their efficacy, it’s refreshing to see that the global wine industry, organising a complex international event that is now entering its fifth year, continues to have a meaningful impact where it matters.

On behalf of myself and the Hatch Mansfield UK team we would like to thank everyone who helped us support Hospitality Action in 2025. And a very big thank you to our hosts in Bordeaux for another unforgettable few days.