On 9 November, 25 leading property professionals from the UK will swap their suits for lycra and jump on their bikes to cycle 450 km from Milan to Cannes for the start of the retail property fair Mapic.

On 9 November, 25 leading property professionals from the UK will swap their suits for lycra and jump on their bikes to cycle 450 km from Milan to Cannes for the start of the retail property fair Mapic.

The inaugural bike ride will be sponsored by five parties including headline sponsor CBRE and carbon sponsor Henderson Global Investors.

The cyclists will follow the roads on which Mark Cavendish took his historic 2009 Milan-San Remo victory. Participants will include Ciaran Bird, Malcolm Dalgeish and Rhodri Davies from CBRE UK and Paul Nicholls, head of asset management at Henderson European Retail Fund.

As well as riding the Milan-San Remo route, riders will cycle through the Alpes-Maritime region before heading down to the coast to Cannes in time for the opening day of Mapic on 13 November.

Children's charity Coram will both partner the Cycle to Mapic and be a team sponsor. Cycle to Mapic support Coram’s Adoption and Life Education programmes. Coram Adoption is the largest voluntary agency in the UK and finds safe and loving homes for the most vulnerable children. Coram Life Education is the UK’s largest healthy living programme, giving over 800,000 children the skills and knowledge they need to make healthy life choices each year.

Ciaran Bird, managing director of CBRE UK, said: 'We are really excited about the Cycle to Mapic ride, especially to ride on arguably some of the most scenic roads out there. I’m pleased that CBRE is the headline sponsor for this event which is a great way to bring business people together and also to raise money for a great cause.'

In October, the Expo Real property fair organised a similar bike ride for charity which ran from Cologne to Munich. Around 200 cyclists took part in the 580 km Expo Bike ride.

Mapic will be held in Cannes from 13-15 November.