THE Tour Down Under is over for another year but a different peloton of cyclists could soon be coming your way.
Electricity Industry Superannuation Scheme chairman Mark Day is promoting a new fundraiser, the Rabobank Supercycle, which will see up to 40 riders travel 1000 kilometres through South Australia's Mid North and Murraylands this April.
Money raised through the ride will be donated directly to Cancer Council SA's accommodation facilities in Adelaide which is a place to stay for regional cancer patients and their carers when they visit the city for treatment.
Mark had the idea at a conference in Melbourne where he and a colleague listened to a speaker talk about a similar initiative.
"They run a charity event each year and get senior executives to tap their mates on the shoulder to donate funds to the ride," he said.
"They target the top echelon of executives in Melbourne and Sydney and recently 32 riders raised $850,000. "We came out of that and thought, 'gee, we should try and do something like this', with the superannuation industry as a cornerstone."
The tour will leave Adelaide on April 22 and has overnight stops at Clare, Wallaroo, Melrose, Burra, Morgan and Mannum. The distance each day ranges from 117km to 176km.
"I think it will be a challenging ride," Mark said.
"The first day is 168km, which will sort the wheat from the chaff, but we will average about 143km a day.
"By anyone's book, that's a fair amount of time to be riding each day, about 6-8 hours, day in day out.
"But it should be beautiful as well.
"We're going through some of the great districts of SA, such as the Clare Valley, Adelaide Hills, Lower Flinders Ranges, and the Riverland."
Mark says the fundraiser is likely to raise a significant amount of money because it provides a challenge for its participants.
Their challenge is to raise $250,000.
He supports initiatives such as Movember and Vinnies CEO Sleepout, but believes the challenge of riding 1000km in seven days will make the SuperCycle stand apart.
"Let's face it, pushing facial hair out for 30 days is not a really big ask," Mark said.
"But because of the size of the SuperCycle and how much work and training is required, people should understand the size of the task and give generously.
"We have investment managers and administrators, and any number of lawyers and accountants that supply the superannuation industry, and they have been great supporters so far.
"Rabobank has agreed to have one of its Tour de France pro-team riders participate in part of the event, which is very exciting."
After coming up with the idea of a road cycle event, Mark and the newly formed SuperCycle committee had to decide on the right charity to support. It was about finding a cause that unanimously resonated with the committee.
"We spoke to several groups about their charities and what they did and eventually settled on the Cancer Council," Mark said.
Rather than donate the money to research, the committee chose to support remote accommodation services for cancer patients.
"When patients and their carers come to Adelaide for chemotherapy and radiotherapy, they are provided inexpensive accommodation through this service," Mark said.
"And I think it's great that city people can do something to help out country folk."
Seaview, Greenhill, and Flinders lodges are the three locations set to benefit from the fundraiser.
Prof Brenda Wilson, Cancer Council SA chief executive says she is grateful for the support from SuperCycle.
"Those lodges provide subsided motel accommodation to rural and regional South Australians who are undergoing cancer treatment," she said.
"Money raised by SuperCycle will help Cancer Council SA continue to provide this important service to thousands of people each year."
*Full report in Stock Journal, February 9 issue, 2012.
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