Over 105 cyclists, dressed in purple, white, and green to honour 100 years of women’s suffrage, set off from Princess Mary Stadium in Cleckheaton. They began a 290-mile ride to London, retracing Jo Cox MP’s journey from Batley and Spen to Westminster. The ride marks 10 years of The Jo Cox Way.
00:00Hi, I'm Kim Leadbeater. I'm the member of Parliament for Spend Valley, but I'm more importantly Jo Cox's sister.
00:04And I'm here at the start of the 10th Jo Coxway bike ride.
00:07An amazing atmosphere, loads of people, loads of nervous people, full of trepidation for what is going to be an absolutely amazing event.
00:14It means so much to us as a family that, you know, nine years after Jo was killed, ten years since the first bike ride took place in 2016,
00:21people have come together once again to remember Jo, celebrate the message that she gave us of having more in common through the power of cycling.
00:28And from that first ride, there were about seven or eight people that took part, and now we've got over 100 riders.
00:34Importantly, more than half of those are winning.
00:36Jo campaigned for a 50-50 Parliament and women's equality, and I'm proud to see that in the Jo Coxway this year.
00:42So we're extremely proud and extremely grateful to the volunteers who organise this event every year to make it bigger and better than ever.
00:48My name's Kath Lyons. I'm from Skeptom.
00:51I'm a bit apprehensive about the Jo Coxway, but I've done it three times before, so I do know what to expect.
01:03I think that's why I'm apprehensive.
01:06Looking forward to the ride.
01:08I think it's a great way to remember Jo.
01:11And also, there's so much agro, and you can be arbitrary on it, comments made on things like Facebook.
01:21It's nice to do things as a group and actually remember things and be kind to each other.
01:29My name is Ken Avery, and I'm one of the cyclists on the Jo Coxway ride.
01:36I managed to do it last year and really enjoyed it, and so I'm back again this year.
01:45Why do I cycle?
01:48Well, one of the main reasons I cycled is because of my health.
01:54I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and follicular lymphoma nearly 15 years ago.
02:01And so I used cycling as a way of trying to keep fit and for exercise.
02:08My name is Sifras Mian, and 10 years ago I set up the Jo Coxway.
02:13Never did I imagine that the event would keep going for 10 years, and never did I imagine that we'd have so many people.
02:21The reason for setting it up was, like so many people, I was shocked and horrified by what happened to Jo.
02:28And, you know, I thought that what we were seeing did not represent the UK that I kind of recognised.
02:35And so the idea really was to do a bike ride that went from Jo's constituency down to London,
02:41which was where she represented the people from her constituency.
02:45I wasn't from, you know, this area.
02:47I'm not from this area.
02:48You know, I'm 80 miles away.
02:49But I really felt that a bike ride that brought people from different parts of the UK together
02:56so that they could, you know, ride together just demonstrated, actually, the diverse nature of the country that we've got
03:03and the fact that, actually, most people, you know, help each other and kind of want to get on.
03:09And, you know, 10 years on, you know, that message is still very, very important.
03:14And it's kind of, I guess, the ride is a living embodiment of that very important statement that Jo made in the House of Parliament,
03:22which is that we've got more in common than that which divides us.
