FED:Cadel's bike raises $75,000 for charity

AAP General News (Australia)
08-25-2011
FED:Cadel's bike raises $75,000 for charity

By Belinda Merhab

MELBOURNE, Aug 25 AAP - Troy Upfield reckons Cadel Evans' ride to victory on the Champs
Elysees might have had something to do with his success in raffling off the sporting hero's
bike.

He bought Evans' bike at a charity auction in June and had decided to raffle it off
for his own charity before Evans became Australia's first Tour de France champion.

"I think we would have sold most of the tickets but certainly, the day he won, we sold
quite a few," Mr Upfield said.

The BMC SLR01 bike, which Evans rode as defending world champion in Geelong last year
and in the 2010 Giro di Lombardia, has raised $75,000 for the Cerebral Palsy Education
Centre's equipment and teaching aids fund.

Mr Upfield, a cyclist, paid $16,000 for it when he won the bike in an auction for a
Tibetan school.

"I'm always trying to find opportunities to raise money for the fund and I picked it
up, looked at it and I thought, I don't really need it hanging up on my wall," he said.

"Cadel has supported our charity in the past so I spoke to Cadel and I said, `Look,
I ended up buying the bike, I'm going to raffle it, do I have your support, would you
back it?'

"He said, `Sure, done,' so we called it the bike that keeps giving."

Mr Upfield and his wife Josie established the fund in 2006, after one of their twin
daughters, Lily, began attending the centre.

"It was very early on in the piece that Lily needed a lot of equipment to function
what we would call a normal life," he said.

The fund provides expensive equipment such as standing frames, wheelchairs and walkers
to children with cerebral palsy.

Selecting the winning ticket from a barrel of 1500 on Thursday, Melbourne Lord Mayor
Robert Doyle said it was important that the city was accessible to all, including those
with disabilities.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard's partner, Tim Mathieson, had been scheduled to draw the
winning ticket, but arrived late after his flight from Canberra was delayed.

AAP bm/mn/sn

KEYWORD: EVANS (PIX AND VIDEO AVAILABLE)

� 2011 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.