A team of sportsmen representing Dutch poultry companies, which came together in the Dutch Poultry Centre (DPC), have raised over €35,000 for the fight against cancer.
In early June, they climbed the French mountain Alpe d’Huez (alt. 1860m, 15km, 21 curves, and an average slope of 8.5%) by racing bike several times in one day during the large fund raising event ‘Alpe d’HuZes’. More than 5000 ‘athletes’ participated in this Dutch-run annual event and raised almost €12.4 million for cancer research.
The DPC team consisted of seven cyclists (John Kox, Joost Winters and Theo Hoen of Vencomatic, Diederick Feiter of Hotraco, René van der Muuren of VDL, Gerrit van der Linde of Heering Transport solutions and Geert van Tiburg of Marel Stork Poultry processing).
For team captain Theo Hoen(CEO of the Vencomatic Group) it was the second time he participated in this emotional event. He climbed the mountain five times, by which he remembered family and friends who suffered from cancer, whereby he – standing on the sideline – turned his powerlessness into a power to support patients and medical researchers to beat this devastating disease.
Presentations during the event showed what is done with the money raised and what results have been obtained since the first event nine years ago.