Tour De OROC Fundraising Update - Ben O'brien (21st February, 2024)

The 2020 Fortuity OROC is a fundraising event for the Macquarie Homestay Stage 2 construction. It has raised almost $660,000 in previous runs. Ben O'Brien, Chair of the Fundraising Committee, discusses his training rides and the challenges of riding on the same roads as cars and wildlife. There is still an opportunity for sponsors to get involved, especially with the jerseys. The event holds the Guinness World Record, which they want to maintain. The fundraising is going well, with close to $75,000 raised so far. They are also looking for more rider participation, with two former Olympians joining the ride. The event website has all the information for sponsorship and registration. All the gears are in motion for a massive ride across the Orana region with the 2020 Fortuity OROC. The whole event raises money for the Macquarie Homestay Stage 2 construction for the CWA Guesthouse. And throughout the event's previous runs has contributed almost $660,000 towards the organization to date. In studio with us again to give a full brief of how the event is going is Ben O'Brien, Chair of the Fundraising Committee attached to the South Dubbo Rotary Club. Good morning again and welcome back on. Thanks Keegan. How are you today? I'm alright. I hear you've been doing more training rides. Yeah, I might have snuck a little bit over to Mudgee over the weekend and did a little ride from Mudgee up the hill end and back. It was pretty epic. I was going to say, I don't think that's sneaking over. That's quite a distance. Yeah, I don't think it was the distance that was the problem, it was the elevation. Oh yeah, rightio. Two and a half thousand meters of climbing or close to it. Right, okay. When you put it in that perspective, yeah, that's quite severe. Yeah, yeah, there's a fair bit of temptation to get in the car and forget about riding. I can imagine so. Something you mentioned briefly before is, I didn't even cross my mind, you're using the same roads obviously as other cars and there's stories all the time of kangaroos and wildlife jumping out and sort of colliding with cars. Is that just a concern? When you're out riding, is that something that crosses your mind? It's a legitimate concern, yes, and as I may have been mentioning earlier, our mare has actually been hit by a kangaroo on a former ride. Yeah, that's right. It's quite a problem. I never, it never even crossed my mind. Yeah, so you need to have eyes inside your head and watch out for the kangaroos. So yeah, it's a concern, all the wildlife's a concern, and they're probably bigger concern than the cars on the road actually. What sort of speeds are you doing, I don't know about the elevation of Mudgee, but what are the speeds you're doing on a normal road? Normal road, if it's nice and flat, some of us, we'll have two pelotons on the Tour de group will average around 30, 31, 32, and the slower group will be around 25 to 27. I will say though, over at Hill End on the weekend, I've got the top time, top fastest time going down, 86 k's an hour. On a bike, yeah, right, okay. So that's sort of the point where if a kangaroo or something wanders out on the road, that's the worst moment possible. That would, yeah, you don't have a lot of time to think when you're on the road. No, I wouldn't think so. Back to the actual event though, I hear the chance for potential sponsors to get involved with the event, specifically more so with jerseys, it's probably coming to a close soon, isn't it? Yes, our jersey manufacturers need all of their logos and designs, final designs by tonight, so if anybody's still sitting on the fence and thinking about getting on as a sponsor, today's the day. Yeah, that's really cutting it close. Yes, it is a little bit, but after that, we're still taking sponsors, so the riders are looking for sponsorship, and we'll be still raising money through the raffle, so there's other opportunities to get on board, but if you want to be on our attempt to get the Guinness World Record, today's the day to get your logo in. And I don't know, did I hear you correctly last time, did you say you set the record last time, or you attempted last time but didn't quite get there? No, we did set the record last time, so we've had it in 2000, I'm not sure of that date, but we collected the record in 2013, we lost it to a group in England who were also cycling, raising money for autism, and I think subsequently, they have tried to get it back off us by doing a marathon, but we've got it in 2009 and 2022, so we're on a bit of a roll here, we'd like to stay at the top. It's obviously a bit of back and forth between the two groups in different countries, with the international competition. Yeah, we have been emailing them and telling them to lift their game a bit to make it a bit more real, but yeah, at the moment we're the title holders. We're chatting with Ben O'Brien, the Chair of the Fundraising Committee, attached to the South Dubbo Rotary Club for the 2024 Tour d'Oroc, we'll take a quick break, we'll come back, wrap it up, and see how far you've gotten with the fundraising so far for the Macquarie Homestay. Quick break, back in a sec. You're on Zoo Breakfast. This is Zoo FM, your home of Dubbo's best music from the 80s, and now for your Wednesday morning, we're chatting with Ben O'Brien, the Chair of the Fundraising Committee, attached to the South Dubbo Rotary Club for the 2024 Tour d'Oroc. Mate, how's the fundraising going? Going really well. We had a little bit of a tally up last night, and I think we're up to close to 75,000, so meeting our expectations at this time, and we've got plenty more work ahead of us, but very happy we were ahead at this stage, a month out from the start of the ride. That is a monumental effort, with still a month before the ride begins. More so, how's the rider participation numbers going? As you say, you're a month out, so. Yeah, we'd also like to try and finalise our rider list by tonight, if we can, too, because we have the riders' names down the side of the jersey. We're up to 26 riders, so we've still got capacity to take a couple more, so if anybody's up for something that's a little bit more than your Sunday stroll on a bike, something a bit serious, then we're still looking for people, yes. I hear you have some surprise big names riding with you this year. I've heard some whispers of. Absolutely. There's not so much of a whisper. We can confirm that we've got two former Olympians riding with us this time, Sarah Carrigan and Brad Magee, both gold Olympians in 2004 at Athens. Really they're terrific people, they're both very much still involved with cycling as a sport as coaches, and for me it's just inspirational to be able to sit next to these people and understand what's made them tick, and we'll have plenty of time to chat with them, because we'll be on the bike for several hours a day. Yeah, very fair point. Those are some high-performing athletes, but surely it obviously shouldn't put off your everyday cyclist from taking part. Yeah, absolutely. They're retired. They might have retired. But you've got to pump them up a bit, all right? Absolutely. And that's the way we've structured the ride with two groups, so then we have a group there that is for riders that are, let's say, not as high performance, so it's not that arduous a ride. We meet very frequently and have lots of rest, and we're very well supported with a crew that can take care of flat tyres and fix a bike, but also have full supply of anything you want in terms of food and meals, and sometimes they might give you a massage. You're funny. That's always a good added extra in there. Cheers for coming back in, Ben. It's much appreciated. Thanks, Keegan. That was Ben O'Brien, the Chair of the Fundraising Committee attached to the South Dubbo Rotary Club for the 2024 Tour de Auroch. They are up to 90 sponsors. They only need 17 more to break their own world record for the most sponsors on a jersey. But you have to get your sponsorship in by tonight. That's the cut-off. They can't print any more on the jerseys after tonight. You can still sponsor the event, but you won't help them break their own world record. I can't believe I'm saying it's their own world record. They've already done it before. Let's help them do it again. You can head to www.tourdauroch.bike to sign up as a sponsor, or if you'd like to participate as a rider, all the details and registration form are on there. Of course, with all funds going to support Macquarie Homestay with their Stage 2 construction that's now in place. Thanks for coming in, mate. I'm sure we'll chat again soon. You're on Zoom breakfast.