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London-Tbilisi; Rally for Charity
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The Rally London to Tbilisi is an annual charity sporting event established and co-chaired by Levan Vasadze and Lord Gillford, sponsoring the following charities Saphekhurebi, The Shooting Star Children`s Hospice, and SOS Kazakhstan Childrens Orphanage. Its central goal is to help the charities in their work and to provide rally riders with a unique travel experience. The rally encompasses a demanding and an adventureous jurney across Europe traditionally ending on its edge in Tbilisi at Bagrationi 1882, a beautiful sparkling wine factory in Tbilisi, with a big reception and celebration, with the riders` loved ones flying in to see the riders finish and joining them on a romantic evening in Tbilisi.

This year however, the rally is going further onwards from Tbilisi to Astana, adding a second stage. If the experiment is successful, the rally may continue in following years to add various second stages to the traditional London to Tbilsi 11-12 day route. The riders are free to join both or any of the two stages. In case of joining the second stage, they will need to drive (or ship) their bikes to Tbilisi, with the help of the Rally staff and ride on to Astana with the rest of the team.

The Cost of registering with the rally is 500 pounds (to cover the rally`s admin costs). To participate in the rally, please contact us until our registration form is ready.

The Rally is not a race, but a friendly, unique yet demanding sporting experience, during which the riders are offered an opportunity to cruise through Europe West to East and see its unparalleled beauty and diversity, camp, stay in small and big towns, run into various adventures and help each other out while the rest of the world watches them make their way online. Normally, those riders who want to do so, would write notes on their impressions during the day and e-mail them to the site administration to have them uplinked on a daily basis and to be kept in the archive of the rally. For urban bike riders it is a unique opportunity to join an organized and cultured group of individuals for a humane cause and a truly phenomenal ride experience.

== London-Tbilisi-Astana 2009 ==

Dates: Departure from London - Sat 15 August 2009 Arrive to Tbilisi - Tue 25 August 2009 Arrive to Astana - Fri 4 September 2009

== Rally Route ==

Day 1. London to Saas Fee (113 + 920kms), via Reims, Dijon, Lausanne.

Day 2. Saas Fee to Mezzolombardo, which is near Trento (469kms), via Simplon Pass, Lake Como and Sondrio. Through the middle of the Alps into Dolomites.

Day 3. Mezzolombardo to Zagreb (598kms), via Cortina and Udine. Dolomites in first half.

Day 4. Zagreb to Sofia (798kms). About 9 or so hours with borders.

Day 5. Sofia to Istanbul (459kms). Short day of ONLY 6-7 hours riding.

Day 6. Rest Day in Istanbul. Service bikes and change tyres to off-road types.

Day 7- 10. Istanbul to Tbilisi with night stops at Sinop, Rize, Batumi, Tbilisi. This follows the 2007 original route and assumes a short Day 9 with several hours at the Georgian border.

Day 11. Tbilisi to Baku Azerbaijan. Overnight crossing the Caspian to Turkmenbashi.

Day 12. Mari.

Day 13. Samarkand.

Day 14. Bukara.

Day 15. Tashkent.

Day 16. Tajikistan.

Day 17. Almaty.

Day 18. Kazakh Steppes heading for final destination........

Day 19. Finish in Astana!!!!!!!!

Who are they

CO-CHAIRMEN

Levan Vasadze

Levan Vasadze was born on December 20, 1970 in Tbilisi (Georgia). He is married and has 6 children.

He has a MS in Geophysics from Tbilisi State University and MBA from Emory, Atlanta USA.

Levan has been a business executive for many years including the First Vice President of SIstema Corporation and CEO of Rosno, Russia`s leading insurance company.

In 2006 he was awarded Person of the Year in Russia`s top 100 CEO contest in Kremlin by RosBusinessConsulting.

Now he is a Chairman of Prometheus Capital Partners, at the same time, sponsoring various projects in religion, education and sport. Part-time he is involved in managing his own assets in real estate, financial services and Georgian sparkling wine production.

Levan used to play for the national Georgian rugby team and still has a keen interest in sports.

Lord Paddy Gillford

Lord (Paddy) Gillford started his business career in 1983 with Hanson Plc. and was seconded to the Home Office shortly afterwards to advise the Rt. Hon Douglas Hurd CBE, then Home Secretary.

In 1993 Lord Gillford founded a company of his own - The Policy Partnership Limited.

From 2000 to 2004 he was the non-executive Chairman of the Board at Cleveland Bridge UK Ltd, Europe`s leading bridge and large steel construction company.

In March 2006 Lord Paddy was elected to the Board of Directors of OJSC Polyus Gold as Independent Director. In 2007 he was appointed Chairman of Eurasia Drilling, the largest drilling company in Russia, He is a founding patron of the Ukrainian British City Club.

In his spare time he enjoys surfing holidays with his 3 children, motorcycling of course and whenever possible, helicopter flying

PARTICIPANTS

Tully McWhirter

After completing university in both Brisbane and Melbourne, Tully held various positions in the Australian financial markets before moving to London in 2005. Tully is the trader for Longacre and specialises in distressed debt and special situation investing.

Roman Khomenko

Dr Roman Khomenko 40, describes himself as a quiet pensioner from Moscow. He is a life long member of the Harley Owners Group (HOG) and is passionate about motorbikes. He is a keen traveller who has travelled the world in pursuit of adventure and is also a master SCUBA diver!

Richard Anderson

Name: Richard Anderson Profession: CFO for Eurasia Drilling Company Limited Public Boards: Transocean Limited;  Boots and Coots Inc; Vanguard Natural Resources LLC Age: 55 (hard to believe) Address: Missouri City, Texas—but living about 50% of time in Moscow Favorite Movie: Dr. Strangelove Favorite Book: How the Irish Saved Civilization Favorite Food: Texas Style Three Alarm Chili Children: Four—aged 26,24,23,19 Wife: Miya Motorcycle: I will be buying one like Paddy s

'''Dominic Prucha ''' Dom is 31 years of age, enjoys a very active lifestyle being a professional surf and snowsports coach, which have allowed him to travel and work all over the world over the past 13 years.

Having been fascinated by motorcycles from a very early age, at 11 he began racing motocross, 20 years on and still enjoys nothing more than a day at the track or out free riding with his friends. On the road his bike of choice is currently the Honda Cb1000R.

Doms love of his sports could only be matched by that of good food and film, favorites being, Japanese, seafood and dishes from the Czech Republic, which is where most of his family are from.

Movies which he would rate as classics would be True romance, Happy Gilmore and Point Break, for which he could probably recite the dialogue word for word.

Nick Perks

Nick was born on April 13th 1981 and is based in London. Nicks main interests include mountain climbing (currently planning his 3rd of the seven summits this year, Aconcagua in Argentina) whilst also surfing and Scuba Diving.

Nicks love of motorbikes started mainly from adrenaline seeking and adventure, on the road his current bike of choice is a Ducati 1098s, but will ride Will`s GS Adventure on trip to make sure I get there!

Other than sport and bikes Nick is a keen traveller, making his way around the world on various trips, taking time out to do this one as it includes riding a motorbike for a very long time in one direction, charity, friends and beer! His favourite movies are The Big Blue, The Hangover and Ronin

Toby Butterwick

Toby lives in Bahrain with his wife, Sam, and 2 year old son, Oliver.

Toby has been an adman longer than he perhaps should have been. He`s currently client services director of an advertising agency, Gulf Marcom. He`s been living outside the UK since 1998 and has worked in Russia (virtually non-existent Russian now, regrettably), Dubai and New Zealand for big multi-nationals as well as local independent agencies. In the current climate, he`s keeping his head down in a reasonably stable part of the world.

Toby got into biking while working on the BMW Motorrad advertising account in London in 89/90 and bought his first proper bike, a K75S, from his client. Since then he`s been a committed Beemer rider with a succession of KТs. Sadly, the Gulf is not the most bike-friendly place on earth, so two wheels have been replaced entirely by four for the last few years.

Toby has done a fair bit of touring in Europe, but has never managed to make it further east than Austria. He also enjoys golf and sailing.

Kulveer Ranger

Kulveer Ranger is 34 and a born and bred Londoner. As the Mayor of Londons lead advisor on Transport Policy, he sees the rally as a great opportunity to raise money for children`s charities and to also experience how nineteen different counties tackle the challenge of transport.

Kulveers road to City Hall began at University College London where he studied architecture. Having then spent his early working years in sectors such as fashion, start-up businesses and IT, he found himself – more by accident than design – spending the last ten years in management consultancy.

During this period Kulveer began his affair with politics, initially working on campaigns for the Conservative Party and writing a weekly column for a national Asian newspaper for almost three years.

He fought in the 2005 general election and in 2007 became Vice-chairman of the Conservative Party with responsibility for Cities. In May 2008 the new Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, offered Kulveer a key role in his team.

Kulveer will have been a biker for exactly one year when he departs on the 2009 rally to Astana. He drives an Alfa Romeo GT, rides a Honda CBR600F, cycles on a Speciaized Globe Centrum and, for better or worse, is dedicated to Tottenham Hotspur and the English (Test match) cricket team!

Ross Dibsdall

Tim Whyte

Paul McKenna

Fabrice Gregoire

Mason Haynes

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