The Black Sheep Man Ride 2018 aims to raise awareness for men’s mental health worldwide. The global event is intended to begin a dialogue about the challenges and issues that people can face.
Thirteen men take their lives each day in the UK. One in five men in Australia suffer from a mental illness. Men are four times more likely than women to resort to suicide in the USA. But sadly there is still a stigma associated with admitting to suffering from, or even discussing mental illnesses.
Black Sheep hopes to raise awareness, engage local communities and encourage conversation about this issue across multiple continents.
As part of the events, five self-supported teams of two will cover 1,000km in five days from 3 October, and you will be able to follow the journey daily on Instagram.
Then, on 7 October, Black Sheep will be organising 15 group rides around the world. Each location will be hosting a 200km ride that is free to join, and you can find out more details and how to enter here.
Black Sheep will also be releasing a limited collection kit called Chaos 2.0 on 26 September. The profits will be donated to batyr, an organisation dedicated to improving young people’s health and wellbeing.
Finally, if you can’t make it to any of the rides personally, Zwift will be hosting a number of events in association with Black Sheep. The Man Ride Bunchie series has weekly group training rides that have been set up to encourage discussions about mental health during the hour long rides.
That will culminate in the Zwift Man Ride Day on 7 October, with three opportunities to join at 7am BST, 7am PDT and 7am AEDT.
In addition to the riding, there will be a series of podcasts that will provide weekly discussions about mental health and the challenges people face in their daily lives, even if they look like they have it all sorted.
Whoever you are, join the Man Ride and do your bit to encourage positive change and attitudes towards mental health. Help shine a light on depression, anxiety and suicide, show your support and improve the dialogue surrounding these issues.