The occasion was the flagging off ceremony of Tour de Difference, a cycling expedition organised by Make A Difference (MAD) in the City Centre Mall premises on Sunday. MAD is a youth volunteer network working for the underprivileged children and has undertaken
Tour de Difference to collect funds for offering English education with Cambridge curriculum to the underprivileged children.
A team of five hobby cyclists namely Raichand a student of KMC, Sudith Xavier, Prashanth Reddy, Rainer D’Souza, Philip Bongartz and Sebastian Thele duo from Germany will peddle their bicycles for 4,240 kilometres for 45 days across the nation. The journey which begun in the city on Sunday will conclude again in the city on September 23. The bicycle riders will visit the Indian cities including Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Vijayawada,
Chennai, Vellore, Bangalore, Mysore, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram and Cochin.
Speaking to Deccan Herald, the exited cyclist Raichand said that taking part in Tour de
Difference would be a lifetime experience for him.
“Being a member of MAD, I am very glad about the initiative. Selling each km for Rs 100 would help MAD to raise the necessary fund for providing English education to deprived classes. As far as the journey is concerned, it is going to be tough, especially because of the heavy downpour in few places. But we would not mind, as we have done enough preparations to face the challenges,” he said.
He informed that they would travel for about eight hours a day.
Member of Mangalore Bicycle Club, Dr G K Hebbar who too joined the cyclists to some distance, appreciated the effort of MAD.
“Tour de Difference is a marvellous programme, for it raises fund for a good cause. Moreover, choosing bicycle as a medium of transport would attract more number of youth and children to opt for cycling,” he said.
Deputy Speaker Yogish Bhat flagged off the expedition. KMC Deputy Medical Superintendent Anand Venugopal and Cyclist Shamim Rizwi participated in the inaugural event.
Mangalore Bicycle Club and Mangalore Coastal Round Table have supported MAD in their initiative.
The team of three namely Raichand, Prashanth Reddy and Rainer D’Souza began their expedition on Sunday while the rest three will join them in Goa on Monday.
