Fighting Chance, a youth-led, not for profit organisation for young Australians with disability, holds an annual cycling event the ‘Tour de Chance’ to raise funds for young adults with disability. This year the organisation will say farewell, to the tour on its fifth and final journey from Sydney to the Gold Coast.

The Tour de Chance riders will hit the road on Saturday, February 24, kicking off with 24 riders and picking up two more on Sunday. They leave Fighting Chance headquarters in Frenchs Forest at pre-dawn to begin its 1060 km journey to the Gold Coast.

For the first time, the tour will begin in Sydney and head north on its valedictory run, with an eight-day schedule and almost 8400 metres of climbing along the way.

An early start should avoid the chaos of Sydney’s traffic and by taking the Palm Beach-Ettalong ferry the tour helps cut out the rider unfriendly motorways.

Tim Powell, chairman of Fighting Chance and founder of the tour, was the sole participant of the first Tour de Chance and is sad to call stumps on the ride, but thrilled and grateful for the $1.25 million raised to date and the benefits this has brought to Fighting Chance and its 200 interns.

“I’m overwhelmed when I look and see the second hub at Botany and expanded places at French’s Forest, direct results from the funds raised on the fourth run, the Melbourne-Sydney Tour in November 2016,” Tim said.

“We have a $1 million target this year – it’s ambitious but will put Fighting Chance well on the way to self-sufficiency as it drives to grow and deliver benefits to 1000 Australians with disability.

“This is a tough ride but nothing like as tough as the challenges faced by our Fighting Chance interns. Our biggest task is to turn these physical efforts into donation dollars and then to bring meaningful and positive change to the lives of the interns, current and future.”

The tour will head north to Diamond Beach on Sunday, February 25 after their first overnight stay in Stockton on day one.

The riders are proud to ride to raise funds for Fighting Chance each year, an ever growing not-for-profit looking to expand their outside of Sydney in the coming years to providing meaningful employment and opportunity to young adults with disability.

Donations can be made to the tour riders to support their journey as well as the growth of Fighting Chance via http://tourdechance.com.au/