For the 10th year in a row in 2015, Dutch cyclists climbed 6 times up the famousroad between Bourg d’Oisans and Alpe d’Huez in an event organized to raise money for the KWF, a Dutch Cancer Society.
The Dutch cycling event, Alpe d’HuZes, takes place at one of the main mountains in the Tour de France and is climbed several times in succession under the motto “Never, ever quit!”.
Fiber Optic Center was proud to support the TE Connectivity team, in their quest to fight cancer, in this year’s Alpe d’HuZes event on June 4th.
The goal of this event is to raise money for cancer research. Alpe d’HuZes adheres to a strict no-overhead policy so must run on volunteers and all costs are the responsibility of the participants themselves. Every euro donated goes to the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF) / Alpe d’HuZes fund without any administrative or other costs being allocated. The mission of Alpe d’HuZes is to facilitate and inspire people to lead “Happy and Healthy lives in Harmony with cancer”.
Team TE Connectivity included Jeroen Duis (team captain), Alex de Gast, Maarten van Gaal, Marc Hammink, and Niko Klop.
From the Team: “For the event we got out of bed in the morning at 2.00 after a very short night. The team has been sleeping very light since most of us were quite excited on what kind of results we would be able to achieve. At 2.45 after eating some pasta as breakfast, we went to le Bourg Orsains and went to the starting line where we got some safety instructions and a pep talk and then we started in one of the first starting groups at 4.30. Here we made a group picture in the dark and actually this has been the only moment that the whole cycling team was together.
When going uphill we all had different speeds so we didn’t arrive on the top at the same moment. Going up the first few times was OK since were well trained. Of course there are quite some sad story’s passing during the cycling. For example from a father named Roel who participated at the alpe d’Huzes 2 years ago, with a happy and healthy family where now he was cycling for his youngest daughter Noor of 6, who has been treated just a few weeks for gland cancer and received a stem cell transplantation for this. Of course knowing this story from one of the gatherings and then reading some encouraging words on the road for Roel definitely touches you each time you pass this. In the bends people could light candle’s to remember the ones that had passed or light a candle for the ones that are under treatment.”
From Jeroen Duis, “So going up for the last ride, I met at the last moment Marc, all the other team members finished already so here Marc and I went together across the finishing line, knowing that at that moment Maarten performed 4 climbs, Niko 5 climbs and Alex 6 climbs. And for Marc coming in for the 6th cycle and myself for the 5th time you can imagine the feeling it gives when passing the finishing line when you’re completely exhausted since you’ve been cycling uphill for 15 hours, knowing that we raised >23.000 Euro with our team and seeing your team next to a wealth of other supporters. With this great finish at 19.45, the event was closing at 20.00 we were able to see some other (big) teams finish and congratulate them with a great round of applause.
An astonishing total amount of almost 15 million euro was raised. The exact number will be announced in October since people can still donate extra’s based on the performance. We went home with a great feeling and pain in most of our muscles and cycled down again.”
On behalf of everyone at Fiber Optic Center, we would like to congratulate the cycling team of TE Connectivity for their valuable effort and contributions and for allowing FOC to be a part of their amazing journey.
