London to Brighton 2026: Riding for Something Bigger

Some challenges begin with a goal.

Others begin with a reason.

On Sunday 13 September 2026, Casa Argentina founder Max Pistone will get on his bike and take on the London to Brighton Cycle 2026.

There will be plenty of kilometres ahead of him. There will be hills. There will undoubtedly be tired legs, uncomfortable moments and probably a few occasions when Brighton feels considerably further away than it looked on the map.

But this ride isn't really about cycling.

It's about the reason for getting on the bike in the first place.

Max is taking on the challenge in support of Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, with a personal fundraising target of £1,000.

And when he told the Casa Argentina team about his decision, we wanted to do more than simply wish him luck.

So we decided to take the first step with him.

Casa Argentina has donated the first £100 towards his £1,000 target.

Because some things are bigger than business

Those of you who have followed Casa Argentina for a while will know that we talk a lot about creating special moments.

We talk about the people around the table.

About families getting together.

About Sunday asados, birthdays, celebrations, conversations, friendships and those apparently ordinary moments that years later somehow become the memories we treasure most.

Food might help bring people together, but people have always been the important part of the story.

And this is one of those occasions when that belief goes well beyond food.

Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity supports seriously ill children and their families, helping to give children the opportunity for fuller and longer childhoods.

When you think about that for a moment, the significance of supporting a cause like this becomes difficult to put into words.

Because behind every hospital door isn't simply a patient.

There is a child whose story is still being written.

We don't yet know what those stories will become

Today, they are children.

Children who should be thinking about friends, football, music, toys, school, adventures, getting muddy, asking far too many questions and deciding what they want to be when they grow up.

And one day, who knows?

Some might become doctors.

Some might become nurses, teachers, engineers, scientists, artists, chefs or designers.

Some might build companies.

Some might become the entrepreneurs of the future, creating businesses, employing people and inventing things that none of us have even imagined yet.

Some may change their communities.

Perhaps one of them will even change the world.

But before they become any of those things, they deserve the opportunity to simply be children.

To grow.

To dream.

To discover who they are.

And to have as many tomorrows as possible in which to do it.

That's what makes this challenge particularly special to us.

So, Max decided to ride

There are much easier ways to spend a Sunday in September.

A long bike ride from London to Brighton probably isn't one of them.

But that's also the point.

A challenge should ask something of you.

It should occasionally hurt.

It should make you wonder whether you can actually do it.

And ideally, when you cross the finish line, it should mean something beyond simply being able to say:

"I did it."

For Max, every kilometre of this ride will represent something much more important.

It will represent the friends, customers, suppliers, colleagues and members of our wider Casa Argentina community who decided to get behind a cause that matters.

And hopefully, when the legs start complaining somewhere between London and Brighton, that will provide a pretty good reason to keep pedalling.

Casa Argentina is starting with £100

Max has set himself a target of raising £1,000.

We didn't want to simply share the fundraising page and ask everybody else to contribute.

We wanted to go first.

So Casa Argentina has donated the first £100 + £25 Gift Aid.

Not because £100 alone changes everything, but because every meaningful target has to begin somewhere.

Now we'd love to see where our community can take it.

This is where you become part of the story

If you've bought a steak from us...

If you've shared one of our empanadas around your table...

If you've opened one of our Friday emails...

If you've recommended Casa Argentina to a friend...

If you've supported our business over the years...

Or even if you've simply followed our slightly crazy journey from the sidelines...

then you're already part of our community.

And this time, perhaps we can create one of those special moments together.

Not around an asado.

Not around a box arriving at someone's door.

But around something much bigger.

A community of people deciding that helping seriously ill children and their families is worth getting behind.

And on 13 September, there's only one job left

We raise as much as we can.

Max gets on the bike.

And then he pedals.

London.

Hill after hill.

Kilometre after kilometre.

All the way to Brighton.

Hopefully without questioning too many of his life decisions somewhere along the way.

And when he eventually reaches the finish line, the number on the cycling computer won't be the number that matters most.

The number on the fundraising page will.

Our target is £1,000.

Casa Argentina has put in the first £100.

Now let's see what happens when a community gets behind it.