Ben O'Brien & David Hayes - 2024 Tour De OROC Update (11th March, 2024)

Ben O'Brien, Chair of the Fundraising Committee for the 2024 Tour de OROC, discusses the world record breaking attempt of the most logos on a jersey. The fundraising efforts have reached over $100,000 so far, with a target of $250,000. David Hayes, Director from Dubbo City Toyota, talks about their support for the event by providing support vehicles and sponsoring a raffle with a RAV4 hybrid cruiser as the prize. The money raised will go to Macquarie Homestead, a facility that provides care for people in Western New South Wales. The tour will start next Monday, with the first day being a challenging 160-kilometer ride. There are currently 28 riders participating, with the option for others to join for a day. The Kid Laroi, Young Cook, 20 Minutes to 9, Zero FM Breakfast, brought to you by McDonald's and Dubbo and Wellington, the new McCrispy, it's the next big thing you can try today at Mac, it's available only after 10.30am. Now in studio with us this morning again is Ben O'Brien, who's the Chair of the Fundraising Committee for the 2024 Tour de OROC, it's a bicycle tour of hundreds of kilometres, it's an incredibly decent effort across the Orana region, raising funds for Stage 2 of the Macquarie Homestay, as well as David Hayes, who's the Director from Dubbo City Toyota, who's a major sponsor of the event. Good morning guys. G'day. Morning Kirk, how are you today? I'm alright, and I'd like to congratulate you, you're the first time I've had two people in the studio on two microphones. Yeah good, let's hope they work. So far they're alright, but it might just go to silence halfway through it. I'd like to start with you Ben, the world record breaking attempt, at your own world record, may as well put it out there, of the most logos on a jersey, how's it going? It's going really well, we've sent the jerseys off to be printed, so there's a bit of a cap there now on how many new sponsors we can take on, but we're pretty sure, unofficially, that we've got more logos on this year's jersey than what we had on the 2022 jersey, so looking good. Unofficially? Unofficially. Got to dot the i's, cross the t's, but you're pretty sure you're there? Yeah, there's a little bit of a mountain of paperwork to send off to the Guinness record people to get that ticked off, but yes, once we get the ride finished we can turn our focus attention on that. Fantastic. Ben, your total for the fundraising efforts was about $250,000, how's the fundraising looking so far? Yeah, that's our target, we're a long way short of that, but we're going along really nicely and I think having a few more sponsors on board this year is really helpful, so I've got to say a big thanks to all the people who have come on and sponsored us, particularly Toyota and ZOO FM and 2DU, so we've had a terrific response from our sponsors, I think we're close to $100,000 or just over at the moment, so it's going really well. That is absolutely fantastic. David, I understand Toyota, from what I've heard, is supplying support vehicles for the Toyota OROC this year, what sort of vehicles are they supplying and how many, what's sort of their purpose? Yeah, look, that's always part of the sponsorship, Keegan, I've been involved since 2013, since we first got the Toyota OROC, yeah, Matthew Dickerson wasn't optional when I had that first conversation with Matthew about becoming the sponsor for Toyota OROC, but it's a great cause, but we certainly supply support vehicles for the ride as well as some cash sponsorship, and the purpose of the vehicles really, you know, one of the vehicles tows the big caravan with all the food for all the riders because we've got to be fed and we consume an amazing amount of food, that's one of the logistical bloody problems with the Toyota OROC, but we consume an amazing amount of food, there's also a front and a rear vehicle behind each peloton, we'll probably have two pelotons this year, I imagine, Ben, and so there's flashing lights and signs, just trying to warn the traffic that there's cyclists on the road, it's obviously fairly dangerous to be on highways, but we do have support vehicles and Toyota provides the vehicles to do that, so very happy to do that. Now speaking of the cars in general, there's a raffle that's running and it's an absolutely excellent prize and offer as far as I can see, could you give us a rundown, David, on what sort of, what's on offer and what sort of car and its features? Yeah, well it's a RAV4 hybrid cruiser and a very, very sought after vehicle actually, been in really short supply for the last couple of years, it's probably, it's one of the, it's the original mid-size SUV, started that segment off really, but it's still one of the best selling and the RAV4 hybrid's an amazing car, it's almost a family size car, as they grow, each model comes out, they grow, they're a little bit bigger, but it's just a fantastic round town family car, but hybrid also, so very, very good on fuel and very, very reliable, so there'll be a brand new one of those available and for only $50 a ticket, so the message really is, for all those people out there that are thinking about how do I donate to this cause, the best way is just to go online to the Toyota AROC website and buy a ticket in the raffle for the RAV4, it's $50 a ticket and all the money's going to go to Macquarie Homestead. You guys obviously offer the RAV4 at Dubbo City Toyota, what sort of other cars and services do you offer? Oh, I look plenty, yeah, we offer a full range of Toyota vehicles and we also have a Lexus franchise as well, so Toyota's a well-known brand, but not here to sing the praises of Toyota, we're just happy to support Toyota AROC, because it supports the Macquarie Homestead, I really believe in that, it's a great facility for all the people in Western New South Wales, even though it's in Dubbo, it's for the people of Western New South Wales and all of our customers are out that way, so that's kind of one of the reasons we're pretty interested in supporting it. When I had a chat with someone from Macquarie Homestead, I think it was a couple of weeks back, they were telling me about the sheer distance some people travel to attend the Macquarie Homestead when they're receiving care here in Dubbo, and it's just, it's absolutely mind-blowing, I think it was someone from Broken Hill that did a two-day trip, stayed overnight and then went back on the bus, and that is a huge distance. Yeah, it's such an amazing facility, it's really important for those people, you know, let's say you're about to have a baby and your doctor tells you not to move too far away from the hospital for two weeks before the baby's born, to stay at the Macquarie Homestead is so much better value than trying to stay in a motel locally, all due respect to the motels locally, it's really an important facility, and even post-operative, sometimes people have to stay on for post-operative care, and you know, maybe one or two weeks and they can stay at Macquarie Homestead for good value, and it's really just important for those people. 100%. Ben, the rider participation, I think we're only, what is it, a week out now, how is it looking for the amount of riders that you've got? We've got 28 riders, plus or minus a few, a few are coming on late, and a few are putting their hand up saying they can't participate for various reasons, but the number is 28, it'll probably go up and down a little bit, we do have two-day riders joining us on the first day, and I understand that there's a bunch of riders going to join us when we ride back into Cobar on the last day, so we're still, we're probably not looking for too many more riders to join us for the whole tour, but we're certainly open to anybody who's interested in coming for a ride for a day and supporting the Tootie O'Rock. 100% guys, well thank you for coming in, anyone can go ahead and head to, what is it, tootieorock.bike to try and buy tickets for the raffle, we're at four there on offer, and it's what, $50 a ticket? Yep. Absolutely brilliant. The raffle closes on the 23rd, now the tour is starting next Monday, just a quick rundown, what's the sort of first day looking like? The first day is looking pretty tough, it's one of our, or it is the equal tyre for the longest day, it's 160 kilometres, so that's... Starting off strong. Starting off strong, and I have had a look at the long-range forecast, it's not too hot, but it's not going to be cold either by the time we hit Canamble, so it'll be, it'll be a tough day, but luckily the next day is a fair bit shorter going up to Walgett, so we'll be able to take it a little bit easier on day two, so yeah, looking forward to kicking off and getting on the, and spinning those pedals. Well best of luck to both of you, I understand you're both doing it this year, I would not be able to cover that distance, there is absolutely no way, it is just such a feat, it's hundreds of kilometres. I'm sure we'll chat beforehand, but if we don't, good luck for next week. Thanks, Kagan. Thanks, Kagan. Cheers, guys.