They wanted strong community involvement, they wanted to support work in Ballarat that would directly affect Ballarat people, and they wanted to honour their great friend Bruce Stafford, who had died with cancer.

Ballarat Cycle Classic hit the roads. The first event, with about 200 participants, hit the roads 10 years ago after a solid year’s planning and lobbying. Entering its 10 anniversary event, Cycle Classic has raised more than $1.4 million for the Fiona Elsey Cancer Research Institute.

Peter Martin, Gavin James and Rob McClure were proud of how much the event had grown and evolved as they caught up on Tuesday afternoon, to reflect over coffee.

“What we did initially was to try and get in-kind donations, services or something we could sell, and to try and get the community involved,” Mr James said. “That’s still how it is today. Not one cent goes to anything else but research. That’s always been our mantra and had to be because we want the community to trust us.”

They chose cycling to try and maximise community involvement and a chance to ride the national road cycling course. The Reach4Research Cycle Classic has since added in mountain biking, a walk and is now introducing a run and pet walk.

Organisers are expecting more than 2000 participants, plus pets, for the two-day 10^th anniversary event from February 18.

The trio initially approached Bruce’s wife Julie, who was a passionate cancer research advocate. Working closely with the Institute’s honourary director George Kannourakis and then-City of Ballarat chief executive officer Anthony Schinck to launch the event, the Classic relies strongly on generous local businesses and the Ballarat cycling community each year.

And the trio continues to look for more innovative ways to make their fundraising efforts bigger, usually chatting over coffee.

Details or to register: www.reach4research.com.au.