Virtual ride brings relief to hungry
TWO EKURHULENI cyclists have done their part to assist with hunger and food security by raising more than R100 000 for SA Harvest in a 361km virtual bicycle race.
Dion Guy and Aiden Choles from Benoni were supposed to ride in the annual 36One Mountain Bike Challenge in Oudtshoorn on April 24 but the sporting event was postponed to later this year due to the lockdown.
The cycling enthusiasts decided to do the v360 Ultra on Zwift challenge.
Zwift is a multiplayer online cycling and running training programme that allows users to interact, train and compete in a virtual world.
On the afternoon of April 24, about 110 cyclists hopped on their indoor training bicycles to see who finished first in support of SA Harvest through a BackABuddy fund-raising campaign.
“A lot of us saw this as a great opportunity to do this for a purpose rather than just doing it for ourselves,” Guy told The Star yesterday.
“Vulnerable communities are severely impacted and the need for food is on the increase. In support of sustainable development goal number two for no hunger, we will pay forward the calories we burn on this ride towards food and hunger support by donating to SA Harvest,” the cyclists said.
The Zwift system tracks the calories that participants burnt in training as pizza slice equivalents, which are about 285 calories each so the cyclists raised money for SA Harvest by donating about R12 for each pizza slice burned. The participants could also ask friends and family to sponsor pizza slices or donate R1.50 for every kilometre they raced.
Guy said the race wasn’t all fun and games because they started with 130 cyclists who signed up and 110 cyclists who started the race, however, only about 50 people were able to complete the 360km.
“It was a tough race, people were taking up to 30 hours to complete it and on an indoor bicycle that is a very long time… ” he said.
Guy said that they chose a long and difficult distance to make the race more meaningful for the cyclists. “The winning time was done by one of the top Ultra cyclists in the country and I think it was just under 13 hours,” he said.
The v360 Ultra on Zwift challenge raised R110 276.25 on BackaBuddy by yesterday afternoon which exceeded Guy and Choles’s initial R25 000 goal by about R85 000.
Guy added that although the v360 Ultra was a once-off challenge, they were considering doing another campaign. |