Cycle to Restore The Gift Of Sight

Cyclists are gearing up to ride the Dis-Chem Ride for Sight on 16 February. This popular and enduring event is now in its 32nd year and is once again a seeding event for the Cape Town Cycle Tour – a testament to its reputation for quality and safety.

The race is divided into two distances – the 116km Super Classic where some of the country’s top cyclist will compete for the Ernest Hunt Trophy, and the 62km Vita-thion Challenge for the novice and fun cyclists. The event starts and finishes at the Boksburg stadium in Jubilee Road.

This is a partnership with the City of Ekurhuleni and Dis-Chem together with volunteers from Retina South Africa, Springs Wheelers, Hamnet Emergency Communications, Red Cross, BestMed Road Rangers and East Rand Cycling organisation.

The cream of South Africa’s cyclists will compete for a share of the R82 000 cash prizes, but the fun riders also have a chance to win big prizes in the lucky draw. An additional donation draw allows ticket holders to win a KTM Road Bike from Cycle Lab or one of two holidays at Michamvi Sunset Bay Resort in Zanzibar. These donations will be matched by the Dis-Chem Foundation and the funds go to genetic testing for children from financially disadvantaged families.

Online entries are open at www.cycleevents.co.za, but close on Monday, 3 February. All pre-entries will receive a superior Dis-Chem goodie bag.

For residents of Boksburg, the following roads will be affected by heavy traffic with partial or full road closure. Residents are requested to be patient and allow extra time to access surrounding areas which will be under pressure from 06h00 to 13h00.

Where possible please avoid:

Jubilee Road, between Dudley Smith and Barry Marias – partial road closure,

Barry Marais, Van Wyk Louw Street, Besembos and King Fisher roads,

Essenhout and Keurboom roads – full road closure with access for residents ONLY.

All roads leading to North Boundary Road – Trichardts, Rondebult, Elsburg, Van Dyk, Osbourne and the R103.

The R23 will be particularly busy around the Carnival City area and roads leading to the R23 in the Dal Park One area and Elsburg Road in the Helderwyk areas.

All proceeds from he event go directly to finding treatments for retinal blinding conditions such as Macular degeneration, Retinitis Pigmentosa, Stargardt Dystrophy, Usher Syndrome and other rare blinding conditions. Over the past 32 years over R10m has been raised by this event.

For more information visit www.retinasa.org.za