Lewis Moody has set off on a seven-day, 500-mile charity cycle challenge from Newcastle Red Bulls to Twickenham, with the former England captain using the ride to raise money for MND research. The journey begins on Sunday 14 June and ends on Saturday 20 June, when the riders are due at Allianz Stadium ahead of the Gallagher PREM final.

The ride is drawing in people close to Moody’s own story as well as some of the best-known names from the game. Kathy Weir and her son Hamish will ride alongside him, while Moody’s wife Annie and sons Dylan and Ethan are also taking part. He said having Kathy and Hamish with his family would be “incredibly powerful,” adding: “There’s a real sense of carrying the baton forward.”

For Moody, the challenge lands at a time when the cause is personal as well as public. He was diagnosed with MND last year, and the route is threaded through places that shaped his career and life, including Leicester, where he won his first league title with Leicester Tigers, and Oakham School in Rutland, where he boarded as a teenager. Doddie Weir died from MND in 2022 at the age of 52, and Moody said: “Doddie did so much to change the conversation around MND, and in many ways this ride feels like continuing something he started.”

Across the seven days, former players including Martin Johnson, Jonny Wilkinson, Jason Robinson, Phil Vickery, Martin Corry and Tom Croft will join different stages, while Kenny Logan, Geordan Murphy and Alan Chambers are set to ride the full route with Moody. The course also passes through Ripon, Worksop, Worcester, Gloucester, Bath and Bracknell before the group delivers the match ball to Allianz Stadium on 20 June. Moody said: “This ride is about raising money, of course, but it’s also about showing the MND community that we’re still fighting, still driving awareness and still refusing to accept that this disease cannot be beaten.”

The final stretch gives the event its point. By the time the riders reach Twickenham, the challenge will have tied together memory, loyalty and a public plea for research funds, with Moody returning to the game’s biggest stage while carrying a cause that has changed his life.