The Tour de Rock gets underway down Vancouver Island over the weekend, starting a nearly two-week, 1,200 kilometre trek through most major communities. (Tour de Rock)

By Alex Rawnsley

major fundraiser

Annual Tour de Rock prepares for 1,200-kilometre ride down Vancouver Island

Sep 20, 2024 | 4:59 PM

NANAIMO — An emotional and gruelling trek is about to begin once more.

Sixteen riders from businesses and emergency services across Vancouver Island will form the peloton for the 2024 Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock, including Nanaimo RCMP’s Cst. Ian George.

Tour spokesperson Tiffany Parton said the riders and their entourage will travel to the north Island on Saturday, Sept. 21 and make final preparations for the start of a 13-day, 1,200-kilometre journey through nearly every community on the Island.

“We train them for seven months straight, three days a week and it’s a very gruelling training process obviously given they ride 1,200 kilometres. But nothing can prepare you for the communities and people that they meet along the way and all of our honorary riders.”

The event, first run in 1997, serves as a major fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society.

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Money collected, around $30 million over the history of Tour, goes towards pediatric cancer research as well as ensuring kids and families battling a cancer diagnosis can have an authentic camp experience.

Both Camp Goodtimes in Vancouver and Camp Pringle in Lake Cowichan serve as hubs for families needing a distraction from treatment.

“Camp is a place where kids and families can go to be normal, to escape the diagnosis, to experience magic and other kids who have experienced the same thing as them, there’s also a family camp that gives respite to families who have gone through something that’s completely unimaginable.”

Increased research efforts and treatment options has also helped kids diagnosed with cancer face a much higher chance of survival.

Parton said a diagnosis used to be “a death sentence”, but now 84 per cent of kids diagnosed with cancer survive and thrive.

Cst. Ian George (left) from the Nanaimo RCMP receives his official Tour jersey during a ceremony in August. (Tour de Rock)

After rolling out from Port Alice on Sunday, the group plans to make stops in Qualicum Beach and Parksville on Sept. 26, then Nanaimo on Sept. 29 and 30.

The ride wraps in Victoria on Oct. 4.

Parton said it’s not just the sixteen riders who make the trip, they’re supported by dozens of other volunteers, alumni and other personnel ensuring their health and safety.

“It takes a village to run Tour, it’s a machine from start to finish from the beginning of this week all the way through. Tour is made up of hundreds of events all the way along, then on tour specifically we’ll have anywhere between 20 and 30 stops that we go to.”

Donations to Tour de Rock can be made online by visiting the event’s website.

As of the start of the ride, roughly 30 per cent of their $1 million goal had been collected.

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