The 2017 Dis-Chem Ride for Sight will be a special cycle event in many ways.
It will represent the 10th year of Dis-Chem Pharmacies being the naming sponsor of this prestigious event, now in its 29th year.
The race will be held on February 19 and will start and finish at the Boksburg City Stadium, corner of Jubilee and Dudley Smith roads, Boksburg South.
The event has raised almost R4-million over the past nine years and this entire amount has, and will continue to be, donated to the UCT research project dedicated to finding treatments for genetic retinal blinding conditions such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP), macular degeneration (MD) and dozens of other rare and devastating forms of retinal vision loss.
The South African National Council for the Blind has recently joined the organising team from Retina South Africa and will focus on promoting tandem cycling for blind athletes.
In another new initiative associated with the event, Retina South Africa has partnered with the metro and East Rand Cycling to transform cycling within the metro.
There are numerous benefits for cyclists with the event having been embraced and supported by the metro that will make available technical and managerial expertise and infrastructure to support the event.
This enhances the cyclists’ safety enormously on the day.
The 116km race has once again been selected as a seeding event for the 2018 Cape Town Cycle Tour.
Novice cyclists and those who are not yet confident to participate in the longer ride can enjoy all the buzz of this premier event by riding in the shorter Vita-thion 62km challenge.
Online entries are open and you can enter on www.cyclevents.co.za or www.dischem.co.za.
Entries will close on February 5.
All cyclists who enter the donation draw (minimum of R40) stand a chance to win special lucky draw prizes valued at over R100 000.
These funds will be matched by the Dis-Chem Foundation.
The high value lucky draw prizes on the day have become a feature of this event and this year will be no exception.
For more information contact Retina South Africa on 011 450-1181 or email to national@retinasa.org.za.
You might also be interested in reading:
No walk in the park for these triathletes
Get involved in a sport this year
