Ninth annual Tour DaVita bike event to be held in NC to raise awareness on kidney disease

DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. (NYSE: DVA), one of the nation's largest and most innovative health care communities, announces North Carolina as the host of the ninth annual Tour DaVita® bike event. Over the course of three days, riders will bike nearly 250 miles to raise awareness of kidney disease and funds for medical missions in the United States and abroad.

"Tour DaVita is designed to empower our teammates to explore new heights," said Steve Priest, chief wisdom officer for DaVita HealthCare Partners. "It's a chance for riders to give back to the health care community, while pushing themselves beyond their achievable limits with the support of fellow teammates, friends and family members. The ride is not a race, but a chance for nearly 600 riders to get together for one cause to help make a fundamental impact on the communities in which we live and serve."

The ride begins on Sept. 27 with cyclists pedaling through the Piedmont Region surrounded by lush pine forests and rural farmland from Sanford to Pinehurst, North Carolina.

Sept. 27 – Participants will ride 64 miles on a loop through a mix of forest and farmland in Sanford, North Carolina.

Sept. 28 – Following a portion of the Tour de Moore cycling route, this day features two options on a route from Sanford to Pinehurst, North Carolina. Riders can choose a 69-mile route or a 101-mile route.

Sept. 29 – Riders will complete a 65-mile loop in southwest Pinehurst on the final day of the event.

Riders participating in this year's Tour DaVita include DaVita HealthCare Partners teammates, physicians, corporate sponsors, teammates' family members, eight current DaVita Kidney Care dialysis patients and two kidney transplant recipients.

To participate in the event, riders each raise a minimum of $750 in donations and pay their own travel expenses. Their individual fundraising combined with donations from DaVita HealthCare Partners and other corporate sponsorship is expected to contribute more than $1.2 million for Bridge of Life, a program of DaVita Village Trust.

Bridge of Life is the primary program of DaVita Village Trust, an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded by DaVita HealthCare Partners. Its mission is to improve kidney care and chronic kidney disease awareness while saving lives through early-detection testing, kidney care education and increased access to dialysis treatment in underserved communities around the world.

Tour DaVita, which is organized by Backroads, the "world's #1 active travel company™," has previously taken place in Tennessee/Alabama (2007), Wisconsin (2008), Michigan (2009), Washington State (2010), Connecticut/New York/Massachusetts (2011), Iowa (2012), South Carolina (2013) and Oregon (2014).

To date, Tour DaVita has helped raise more than $6.1 million for nonprofits dedicated to raising awareness for kidney disease, providing kidney screenings and expanding access to dialysis care in developing countries. Participants have collectively ridden more than 638,000 miles over the course of eight years.