This year’s Team Absa, the celebrity riders representing the headline sponsor at the Absa Cape Epic, will be using the world’s premier team mountain bike race to raise funds for the Diepsloot Mountain Bike Academy, which uses mountain biking to make a fundamental difference for young people in the Diepsloot area.
A text message initiative, allowing both Absa employees and the general public to make donations to the Academy and win prizes in the process, was launched by Dan at Absa headquarters with members of Team Absa, and special guest Mark Fish, the former Bafana star who is a former participant in the Epic.
Diepsloot Mountain Bike Academy chairman and Absa employee Andre Ross, a member of Team Absa, explained the importance of the project, and team-mate William Makgopo, a member of the academy, echoed Ross’s sentiments, to an audience of media and Absa employees.
At a cost of R20, a text with the word ‘Epic’ to 49227 will see the entire amount donated to the Academy, with a grand prize of a R100 000 Project One Trek mountain bike and a team entry into the 2015 Absa Cape Epic up for grabs. The eleventh edition of the Epic – and the ninth Dan will be hosting – kicks off at Meerendal Wine Estate in Durbanville with the prologue on Sunday 23 March, and finishes at Lourensford Wine Estate in Somerset West on Sunday 30 March.