TOUR DE ROCK

BEHIND THE SCENES

When the Tour de Rock bike team leaves Victoria on Saturday, its members will have trained more than seven months and tackled the 19 per cent grade of Mount Washington.

The 14-day fundraising tour, sponsored by Coast Capital Savings, will take the riders to community halls and schools. The longest single stretch will be the 140-kilometre route in the north from Port McNeill to Sayward.

Trek Bicycle Store of Victoria donates the use of new bicycles and tunes them.

Owner Bill Fry visits mid-tour, maintaining the bikes to give riders the best chance of tackling the “hump” to Port Alberni and the seemingly unending hills between that city and Tofino.

“It’s priceless, what they do,” said Jan Buehler, spokeswoman for the Canadian Cancer Society.

Food on the road is sponsored by Thrifty Foods and packed into a motor home donated by Triangle RV and fuelled by Peninsula Co-Op.

Since 1998, the Tour has raised more $21 million for the Canadian Cancer Society.

TOUR SCHEDULE

• Saturday, Sept. 24 — Travel by vehicle to Port Alice • Sunday, Sept. 25 — The ride starts; Port Hardy and Port McNeill • Monday, Sept. 26 — Woss and Sayward • Tuesday, Sept. 27 — Campbell River • Wednesday, Sept. 28 — Comox, Courtenay and Cumberland • Thursday, Sept. 29 — Union Bay, Qualicum and Parksville • Friday, Sept. 30 — Port Alberni • Saturday, Oct. 1 — Tofino and Ucluelet • Sunday, Oct. 2 — Nanaimo • Monday, Oct. 3 — Nanaimo and Ladysmith • Tuesday, Oct. 4 — Chemainus, Lake Cowichan and Duncan • Wednesday, Oct. 5 — Shawnigan Lake, Mill Bay, Sooke and West Shore • Thursday Oct. 6 — Oak Bay, Victoria and Sidney • Friday Oct. 7 — Esquimalt, Saanich and Victoria • Friday Oct. 7 — Finale, 4:30 to 6 p.m. at Centennial Square, Victoria — Times Colonist