Are you a runner or a rider?

Endurance running and hardcore biking have overtaken golf among high achievers. Joshi Herrmann on the City types who take it to the max

T WASN’T so very long ago that London’s leaders of business and finance tended to be por tly gentlemen who spent a good proportion of their work time at long City lunches and their leisure time on the golf course. That breed hasn’t died out altogether, but they are outnumbered these days by proponents o f a di f f e re n t exe cu t ive li f e s t yl e : borderline professional competition on the road and on bikes.

We learned earlier this year that Bank of England boss Mark Carney, 49, will run this month’s London Marathon. The governor ran the Ottawa marathon four years ago, clocking a time of three hours and 48 minutes. The Canadian is running with some other City high overlords — including Barclays group chief executive Antony Jenkins, Goldman Sachs’s co-head of investment banking Anthony Gutman and Travelex boss Peter Jackson — to raise money for Cancer Research UK and the Francis Crick Institute. He is aiming to contribute £150,000 to the charity’s £160 million investment in the medical research centre, due to open in King’s Cross next

The City has become a veritable Olympic training camp in recent years

year. They won’t be the only financial bosses trotting around the course.

The City has become a veritable Olympic training camp in recent years, filled with MAMILs (middle aged men in Lycra) in place of athletes. On an average morning, some streets in the Square Mile are crowded with extremely well-paid blokes (and a smaller number of women) running in the latest fitness gear, or perched atop eye-wateringly expensive bikes. A Bank spokesman wouldn’t be drawn on exactly where the governor trains, but he has been seen running in the early mornings, and sometimes dispenses with the official car completely and commutes by foot.

A s ur ve y of 3 15 hi g h ea r ner s in London’s financial district conducted by Saxo Bank recently found that more than half believe cycling has become the sport of choice among bankers, particularly those who earn £150,000-plus.

Two of the country’s most famous entrepreneurs, Sir Alan Sugar and Sir