Riding Together For a Shared Cause
Introducing Team Rynkeby, Europe’s largest cycling charity initiative. As part of our company-wide commitment to supporting causes and communities outside of our industry, we’ve sponsored Team Rynkeby's latest ride and even have a Jacobi rider on the team!
Team Rynkeby assemble under the Arc de Triomphe on the last stage of their race.
The name Team Rynkeby covers a group of cycling teams from across Europe who come together once a year for a sponsored cycle to Paris to raise funds for children with critical illnesses.
Each team completes the ride from wherever they happen to be based, meaning the distances covered in the 2025 ride were anything from 1,000 to 1,300km.
Every team member pays for all aspects of their involvement in the ride – this includes hotels, safety equipment, and weather-proof clothing – while sponsorships cover the main costs. With the necessary overheads covered separately, all the money raised from donations are given directly to the children’s charities in their entirety.
Olaf presenting his colleagues at Jacobi with a certificate to recognise their sponsorship to the organisation.
This is where Jacobi comes in, having been one of the sponsors for last year’s ride. We also have our own rider, Olaf Schmolinski, Jacobi’s Business Development Manager for EMEA.
Olaf was one of 43 team members in Team Rynkeby Flensburg. Together, the team raised €130,000 with initiative’s full and final total over €9,000,000. Since its inception back in 2002, the initiative has raised over €100 million.
Olaf joined Team Rynkeby in 2025 to mark his 60th birthday and, having been diagnosed with cancer some time before, he was incredibly motivated to raise donations and complete the ride alongside his team. A father and grandfather, Olaf was keen to help to support families experiencing critical illnesses.
“We had the opportunity to talk to affected children, with their parents and siblings too,” said Olaf. “It was overwhelming to see what we can achieve with our initiative, and the deep and sincere gratitude of those families touched me deeply.”
Fighting for donations and training together during the cycling season quickly turned a team of strangers into a team of friends. The group were in for a week of emotional highs and lows when the ride itself arrived. Through strenuous climbs, pouring rain, flat tyres and even sickness, the team stuck together, successfully tackling each challenge. Supported by one another and the public – who provided lots of applause, encouragement and spontaneous donations – the team reached their final stop bonded and inspired from the experience.
“If any cyclists are reading and wondering if they should join Team Rynkeby, my answer is definitely yes!”