A 15-member team is cycling from Barcelona to Paris to support cancer research and care.
Dubai: Nine days into the challenge, Guido De Wilde is taking a well-earned rest somewhere between Spain and France — the first break in a journey that has already raised Dh2.285 million (around $622,000) for charity.
The 68-year-old stage 4 colon cancer survivor set off from Barcelona on July 1 alongside 14 other riders, with the team aiming to cover 3,333 kilometres and more than 54,000 metres of elevation gain before reaching Paris 25 days after their departure.
This is not De Wilde’s first fundraising ride — but it is, by a significant margin, his biggest challenge yet.
All about the ride
Cycle Against Cancer, the team founded by Guido, is taking on the challenge in support of Al Jalila Foundation, the Dubai-based organisation that funds cancer research and patient care programmes.
Thirteen of the 15 riders are based in the UAE, with two joining from abroad. The group includes cancer survivors, business leaders and members of the UAE cycling community, with many taking part in memory of loved ones they have lost or in support of those still battling the disease.
Before the team’s departure, His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dubai Health, met with the riders to show his support for the cause.
How he got here
Guido’s own diagnosis came during the Covid-19 pandemic. Recovery, he says, was never something he approached passively.
“While I was going through six months of chemotherapy, I was already training at home on a virtual cycling system, doing yoga three times a week and working with a personal trainer I’ve trusted for 17 years,” he says.
In July 2021, he stepped away from his corporate career, although he prefers not to describe it as retirement. “I repurposed my life,” he says.
Taking on a 3,333-kilometre ride at the age of 68, while living with the experience of cancer, is his way of proving a point — to himself as much as anyone else. “It’s also proof to myself, and hopefully to others, that a diagnosis doesn’t have to be the end of an active life.”
This is Guido’s second major fundraising challenge, not his first. In May 2022, he completed a solo ride from Brussels to Bergamo in Italy, covering 1,200 kilometres over seven days and raising $100,000 (approximately Dh367,250) for Al Jalila Foundation. The ride effectively marked the beginning of Cycle Against Cancer as an initiative.
Four years later, that solo effort has evolved into a 15-member team taking on a challenge nearly three times the distance.
Carrying more than a bike
Almost everyone on the team is riding with someone else in mind.
“One of our riders is also a stage 4 cancer survivor. He battled bone cancer, and there is an unspoken understanding between us,” Guido says. “Beyond that, almost everyone on this team is carrying someone with them — whether it is a family member they have lost or someone who is currently undergoing treatment. That shared purpose is what makes this team different. Everybody understands why they are doing it.”
He hopes the ride’s impact extends far beyond the team itself.
“I want people to feel that hope is not just a word; it is something you can physically carry across a continent,” he says. “My greatest wish is that the message we want to deliver reaches people who are receiving a diagnosis, going through treatment, or even beginning their recovery.”
Built on a childhood in Flanders
Long before this journey, Guido grew up cycling through the Flemish countryside of Belgium, where he says cycling is not simply a pastime but a way of life.
“I was raised in a family where the values were all about honesty, integrity, doing the right thing, keeping your promises and being kind to people. We weren’t rich, but we were always taught to help others.”
He never imagined that the bike he rode as a child in Flanders would one day carry him through a battle with stage 4 cancer. “But looking back, the discipline and the mindset were already being built.”
Guido and the team are expected to arrive in Paris by the end of July.
