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2018 Prudential RideLondon Celebrities
Scroll down for full biographies
Sam Attwater
Jonny Bellis
Richard Burr
Olivia Carnegie-Brown
Pamela Cookey
Jess Eddie
Gail Emms
Sophie Faldo
Bryony Gordon
Sally Gunnell MBE
Kelly Holmes
Mark Hunter MBE
Martin Johnson
Lemar
Louise Minchin
Naga Munchetty
Dermot Murnaghan
Emma Pooley
Lizzie Simmonds
Heather Stanning
Bryan Steel
Leon Taylor
Rory Underwood MBE
Melanie Wilson
Amy Williams MBE
document date: 29 June 2018version: 1.1
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Sam AttwaterCharity: The Children’s Trust
Sam played Leon Small in the BBC1 soap EastEnders and its online
spin-off EastEnders: E20 and also won the sixth series of Dancing
on
Ice in 2011. He has also appeared in numerous West End
productions including Dreamboats & Petticoats and The Rocky
Horror Show.
Jonny Bellis
Jonny was one of Britian’s big cycling hopes when he burst onto
the scene to win a bronze medal at the 2007 World Championships
Under-23 Road Race. The following year he was part of the Great
Britain road race team at the 2008 Olympic Games and signed for one
of
the biggest teams in cycling, SaxoBank. But a near fatal crash
while on a scooter in Italy led to Jonny being out of action for a
year. He decided to retire from competitive action in 2015 and is
now a coach.
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Richard BurrCharity: Great Ormond Street Hospital
Richard is a former finalist on the Great British Bake Off. He
reached the final round in the 2014 edition of the show and earned
a record five ‘Star Baker’ awards in the process. The
father-of-three is a builder by trade and has three
daughters. Earlier this year he ran the Virgin Money London
Marathon as part of the ‘Baker’s Dozen’, a team of 13 former Great
British Bake Off contestants.
Olivia Carnegie-BrownCharity: SportsAid
Olivia is a British Olympic rower who won a silver medal at the
2016 Rio Olympics in the women’s eight boat. She was also part of
the team that won the European Championships
gold medal, also in 2016. This is the second year that Olivia
has taken part in the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100.
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Pamela Cookey
Pamela is a former England netball international who won two
Commonwealth Games bronze medals in 2004 and 2010. She played for
Team Bath and Surrey Storm during a playing career
that saw her win two English league titles. She also played for
the New Zealand team Northern Mystics.
Jess Eddie
Jess was a member of the women’s eight team that won silver
medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics – the first British team in history
to do so in this
discipline. This is the second year that she has participated in
the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100.
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Gail Emms
Gail won a silver medal at the 2004 Olympics when she joined
forces with Nathan Robertson in the mixed doubles competition. The
pair also won the World Championships and Commonwealth
Games in 2006, plus a European Championship title. Gail also won
a gold medal in the mixed team competition at the 2002 Commonwealth
Games.
Sophie FaldoCharity: Great Ormond Street Hospital
Sophie was the winner of the 2017 Great British Bake Off, the
first series to be shown on Channel 4. She is a former army officer
who is
a keen cyclist, having got into the sport while rehabilitating
from a back injury she sustained while rowing.
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Bryony Gordon
Bryony is a newspaper columnist and author. She is a regular
columnist for The Daily Telegraph and has written three books: The
Wrong
Knickers: A Decade of Chaos and Mad Girl. Her third book Eat,
Drink, Run: How I Got Fit Without Going Too Mad has just been
released.
Sally Gunnell MBECharity: Great Ormond Street Hospital
Sally is one of Great Britain’s finest female track and field
athletes. She famously won a gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona
Olympics in the 400m hurdles and then followed it up a year later
by winning the World Championships
in Stuttgart in a world record time of 52.74 seconds. She also
won five Commonwealth gold medals and one European Championship
gold. Following retirement, she has appeared on numerous TV
shows.
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Kelly Holmes
Kelly famously won an historic Olympic double in Athens in 2004,
winning the 800m and 1500m – the first British woman to do so.
Kelly also won medals at World Championships, European
Championships and Commonwealth Games during an illustrious
career. She is riding the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 46 for the
second time having completed it the first time in 2016.
Mark Hunter MBE
Mark won an Olympic gold in the lightweight double sculls at the
2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and came agonisingly close to
repeating the feat four years later with partner Zac Purchase at
the London Olympics only for the Danish team to come through in the
final stages
to snatch gold from them. Mark also won two World Championships
gold medals and after retiring from the sport in 2013, he took on
the NOMAN Barcelona to Ibiza race and won the 200-mile ocean rowing
race.
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Martin Johnson
Martin is a former World Cup winning rugby international
captain, widely regarded as one of the greatest locks to have ever
played. He toured three times with the British and Irish Lions,
becoming the only man to have captained them on two separate tours.
He also led Leicester
Tigers to consecutive Heineken Cup victories and to six league
titles. After retiring in 2005, he was appointed the team manager
of the England rugby union side, a position he held from 2008 until
2011.
Lemar
Lemar is an English R&B singer-songwriter and record
producer who also appeared on this year’s Dancing on Ice. Lemar had
a run of chart success in the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia
after making his name on the first series of British talent show
Fame Academy.
Lemar has had seven top 10 UK singles and sold more than two
million albums. He is one of the most successful artists to come
out of a reality TV show. Lemar has also won two Brit Awards and
three MOBO awards to date.
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Louise Minchin
Louise is one the most recognisable faces of early morning
television as one of the presenters of BBC Breakfast, a job she has
been doing since 2006. She also regularly presents on BBC radio and
other television shows including The One Show. Louise is also an
international
triathlete and competed at the World Triathlon Championships in
Chicago in 2015 in her age category. She has recently released a
book on this called: Dare to Tri: My journey from the BBC Breakfast
sofa to GB team triathlete.
Naga MunchettyCharity: Action for A-T
Naga is the second BBC Breakfast presenter to be taking part in
the 2018 Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100, joining her colleague
Louise Minchin. Naga has also been the business editor on Newsnight
and presented current affairs and
news programmes across the BBC channels. She appeared in the
2016 edition of Strictly Come Dancing and is a very good amateur
golfer.
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Dermot MurnaghanCharity: Great Ormond Street Hospital
Dermot is one of Britain’s most popular newsreaders. He
currently presents his own show on Sky News and before that was the
main
presenter on BBC Breakfast for five years. He has also presented
for ITN and was the host of the BBC quiz show Eggheads for five
years.
Emma PooleyCharity: World Bicycle Relief
Emma is one of the greatest British women cyclists of all time.
She won the World Championship time trial title in 2010, two years
after winning a silver medal in the same discipline at the 2008
Games. She won six UCI Women’s Road World Cup one-day races, as
well as several stage
races including the ten-day Tour de l’Aude and the British time
trial championships on three occasions. She is also a world-class
triathlete and has won triathlons and duathlons around the
world.
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Lizzie SimmondsCharity: SportsAid
Lizzie is an international swimmer who competed in two Olympic
Games as well as World, Commonwealth and European Championships.
She specialises in backstroke events, and is a former European
champion in the 200-metre backstroke.
Simmonds represented Great Britain at the 2008 Olympics in both
the 100-metre and 200-metre backstroke swimming events. She also
competed at the London 2012 Games in the 200-metre backstroke
swimming event, coming in fourth place.
Heather StanningCharity: SportsAid
Heather Stanning is one of Great Britain’s golden brigade from
the Rio 2016 Olympics where she won her second Olympic gold medal
alongside Helen Glover. Heather also has two world titles, two
European titles and four World Cup victories on her CV and,
alongside Glover, formed one of the most successful ever
British
Olympic partnerships. Heather has now retired from rowing and
has returned to the Army. She continues to take on challenges,
however, and completed the London Classics last year, finishing the
Virgin Money London Marathon, Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 and
two-mile Swim Serpentine.
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Bryan SteelCharity: SportsAid
Bryan is a former professional cyclist who represented Great
Britain at four Olympic Games: 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004. Over the
course of those four Olympics, Steel won a silver and bronze medal
in the team pursuit. Bryan
also competed at 14 World Championships, winning four silver
medals and a bronze, and three Commonwealth Games, winning two
silver medals and a bronze.
Leon TaylorCharity: SportsAid
Leon represented Great Britain at three Olympic Games in diving
with the highlight coming at the 2004 Games in Athens when he won a
silver medal alongside Peter Waterfield in the men’s synchronised
10-metre platform competition. It was Britain’s first medal in
diving since 1960.
In total, Leon was a member of the Great Britain team for 16
years, also winning medals at the Commonwealth Games and European
Championships. Since retiring he has become a commentator for the
BBC and is the voice of diving at all major championships.
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Rory UnderwoodCharity: Alzheimer’s Research UK
Rory scored a record 49 tries for England’s rugby union team
during an illustrious career between 1984 and 1996, making him his
country’s leading try scorer of all time. He
also won six British Lions caps and played for Leicester Tigers.
He was also an RAF pilot.
Melanie WilsonCharity: SportsAid
Melanie is an Olympic rower who competed at both the London 2012
and Rio 2016 Games, winning a silver medal at the latter as part of
the women’s eight crew. Mel has been working as
a doctor in London since 2016 and ran her first Virgin Money
London Marathon in April.
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Amy Williams MBECharity: Action Aid UK
Amy became the first British athlete to win a gold medal at a
Winter Olympics when, in 2010, she won the skeleton competition in
Vancouver. She was forced to retire just two years later due to
persistent injuries and has since become a popular TV presenter and
commentator. She has
co-hosted Ski Sunday and was one of the BBC’s main pundits for
the 2018 Winter Olympics. She has also presented The Gadget Show
and appeared on Top Gear.