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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.