Man vs MiTo: Alfa MiTo races Iwan Thomas through London

Man vs Mito London Race

Alfa Romeo has staged a race between an Alfa MiTo and athlete Iwan Thomas over a 3.8 mile London course to promote UK Athletics.

Alfa Romeo sponsors UK Athletics (UKA) by divvying up cars to high-profile athletes. Good for the athletes; good for Alfa.

So with the domestic athletics season upon us someone at Alfa had the bright idea of giving the MiTo and UK Athletics a bit of publicity by having a race.

The race – between an Alfa MiTo and former European and Commonwealth 400m Champion, Iwan Thomas – is round a 3.8 mile course in London, which starts and finishes at Tower Bridge.

Looking at the stylized map Alfa sent us of the route (below), it looks like at least half of it will be far from scenic London as it appears to run along Lower and Upper Thames Street – most of which is one long underpass.

But it matters not, a chunk of the route on the way back looks like it goes up Queen Victoria Street and past Bank up to the City before dropping back down to Tower Bridge, which is at least out in the open.

The MiTo is being driven by European and Commonwealth 110m hurdles Champion Andy Turner and World and European Long Jump medallist Chris Tomlinson is navigating – with a map, for goodness sake. But the car they’re using – the Alfa MiTo 1.3 JTDM-2 which has emissions of just 95g/km – doesn’t have SatNav. But it is Congestion Charge exempt – perfect for this little PR outing.

Amusingly (and sadly not the case) Alfa’s press release for this outing states that the 1.3 JTDM-2 boasts 285bhp! It’s a simple typo with the space missing between the ‘2’ and the ’85bhp version’. If only.

Anyway, the point of this is for Joe Public to guess the outcome on Alfa’s Facebook page. Alfa will be running a series of films with clues over the next month with the result of the contest – Man vs MiTo – announced at Aviva London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace on Friday 5 August. The winner gets a £550 Alfa Romeo Bike.

A complete rip-off – on a smaller scale – of the Top Gear Marathon outing.

But a bit of fun, nonetheless.