Original peloton back on the bike

Two decades ago, a group of cycling enthusiasts with children at Floreat Primary School had a simple idea for a charity event: ride bikes, raise money.

They had modest expectations and goals, initially. “We thought we would do a ride down south,” original group member and Trench Health and Fitness managing director, Peter Trench, said.

“One thing led to another and before we knew it we were riding from Albany to Perth supporting Youth Focus.”

He said the cyclists’ plan developed from their desire to do something to give back to the community.

That first ride involved just 24 cyclists, with the event known as the Hawaiian Ride for Youth having raised more than $26 million for mental health charity Youth Focus in the ensuing years.

The ride also aims to encourage young people to talk about mental health during visits to schools along the way.

The 2022 ride is set to go ahead later this month, from March 22 to 26, placing it among the state’s largest and longest-running fundraising bike rides.

More than 200 riders will cycle from Perth to Albany on either the coastal, inland or Wheatbelt route over four and a half days.

The occasion will be marked with the creation of the Heritage Peloton, a group of 16 of the original 24 riders joined by their spouses and children, who will ride the original route taken in 2003.

Mr Trench, who is the senior trainer for the event and has cycled in the ride every year (bar one when he was injured) will ride alongside his son James.

“I think there’s about nine young riders; they are sons and daughters who are part of the peloton this year so that’s been a great thing, created a lot of enthusiasm and it’s good to have a bunch of youngies riding around with a bunch of oldies,” Mr Trench told Business News.

Hawaiian Ride for Youth chair Christina Matthews said the ride was hoping to celebrate its 20th anniversary year by raising a record amount of money.

“I think the most we have ever raised in a year is $2.5 million, so we are really going hard and trying to break that record as a celebration of the 20th anniversary,” Ms Matthews said.

The event’s most successful year was 2017, when 173 riders raised $2.5 million for Youth Focus’s free counselling service.

The 2022 ride has already broken records, with the largest ever contingent of female riders participating.

Former Youth Focus chair Phil Renshaw has participated in 12 rides and said the biggest change he had noticed was the way school students interacted with the presentations given by the riders about their mental health challenges.

“I think the ride has done that and the riders standing up and telling their stories has really helped to breakdown that stigma,” Mr Renshaw said.

“You may get a question about your bike, but the questions are more about, ‘How did you feel when that took place?’ or ‘I’ve got a friend that has said this to me in confidence and I don’t know what to say to her’.

“There have been the major changes, but that’s been the most telling one: the willingness of the kids to be really open about their own challenges and what’s going on in their life.”

Mr Renshaw said he thought this connection to the cause was one of the reasons the ride had continued to be so well supported over the years.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 restrictions prevent riders from visiting schools in person this year, with presentations to be shared by video instead.

Fiona Kalaf, who is the former chief executive at Youth Focus and has participated in the past four rides, agreed.

She said the sense of connection riders got, as well as the mental and physical health benefits, kept riders coming back.

Ms Kalaf said the ride’s strong business links had also encouraged more people to get involved.

Property group Hawaiian has been a naming rights sponsor since the ride’s inception in 2003.

Budget Car and Truck started to sponsor the ride in 2004, and Avoca Insurance Brokers have been involved since 2006.

All up, there are 50 sponsors for the 2022 ride, including event and team supporters.

Ms Kalaf said the business community was heavily involved in cycling, with many prominent businesspeople taking part in the sport.

“The other thing as well is, everyone says cycling is the new golf, so it is a great way to network with business colleagues,” she said.

Ride on

In 2021, charity bike rides raised about $11 million for different causes in the state.

The largest fundraiser by a significant margin was the MACA Cancer 200 – Ride for Research, which raises money for the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research.

A record 1,550 riders signed up for the two-day event in 2021 and raised $6.9 million. The MACA ride has been held annually since 2012, first managed by a US-based fundraising organisation and operated by the Perkins in-house since 2019.

The move in-house has been well received, with fundraising up from $4.1 million in 2018 to almost $5 million in 2019, and $6.9 million in 2021.

The 2020 ride was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other large fundraising rides include Ronald McDonald House Charities WA Ride for Sick Kids and the offroad event Gibb Challenge, each of which raised about $500,000 in 2021.

Solaris Cancer Care ran its final Red Sky Ride in late February, with 32 riders raising more than $215,000.

Solaris Cancer Care chief executive Francis Lynch said the ride had been a great success, generating more than $4 million over 15 years, but the board had decided to look at new fundraising options from 2023.

“Even though the riders of the Red Sky Ride and Solaris have tried to expand the ride over the past two or three years, it really feels like it had plateaued,” Mr Lynch told Business News.

“The decision was to put our energy and effort into newer ways of being able to generate funds through events through the next couple of years.”

Mr Lynch said the event, which runs over four days, required a large commitment of time and money from participants.

He said the organisation was considering fundraisers with lower barriers to entry to encourage broader participation and promote awareness of the issues.

LifeCycle for Canteen is one of the oldest fundraising bike rides, starting in 1998.

In 2021, only the on-road version of the event went ahead, raising $177,600 for cancer charity CanTeen.

One of ride still in operation is the Ride Against Domestic Violence, started by WA politicians Tony Buti and Tony Simpson in 2016.

Last year, the ride raised more than $100,000, with corporate support from the likes of property group BGC.

The Fathering Project is hoping to bring its bike ride, named The Big Push, back to WA in the coming months, after holding it on the east coast last year.

Several bike rides have been discontinued over the past few years including The Great Santos Bike Ride and the ECU Freeway Bike Ride.

Compiled with assistance from Claire Tyrrell