By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
A $16 MILLION Tour de Cure cancer fundraiser will include Geelong as part of its signature ride for the first time this year.
Four Geelong riders – Byron Mitchell, Paul Beretta, Steve Young and Susie Harris – will ride along a winding coastal route from Adelaide to Melbourne with the tour’s 90-strong peloton.
The signature tour will arrive in Geelong on 1 May and depart for the final leg of the eight-day ride on 2 May.
Mr Mitchell, a teacher, said he often had students in his St Ignatius College classes whose families had been affected by cancer.
“My mother-in-law is suffering cancer and there wouldn’t be many families that have been untouched by the disease,” he said.
“By raising many millions of dollars since 2007 the Tour de Cure has funded over 180 cancer research, support and prevention projects, leading to 13 cancer breakthroughs.”
The Tour de Cure requires each rider and support staff to raise significant money.
The Geelong team has organised two events to help them raise funds.
The team’s Hunt for a Cure is a bike-based scavenger hunt around Geelong, the Bellarine Peninsula and the Surf Coast on Sunday. More information about the hunt is available at huntforacure.com.au.
Dine for a Cure is a fundraising dinner at Fyansford Hotel on 17 March, featuring Geelong’s three-time world mountain bike 24-hour champion, Jessica Douglas, and Peter Fletcher, who aims to become the first person to row unassisted from New York to London.
