Tour de Cure Event Day – Tom’s Story

What a Ride! Everyone from TeamOne made it, with only two incidents!!!

I suspect most of you, like me, wondered if I could ride 50 miles considering I hadn’t been on a bike since Carlie, now 29, was a baby in Tampa.

Thank you all for making the 2015 Tour de Cure Lake Nona great! You did an amazing job helping me raise over $1,800 for the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

You were part of TeamOne’s efforts which raised over $18,237. TeamOne 2015 consisted of 19 individual riders. We are humbled and grateful for the donations we have received thus far because every penny counts.

On Sunday March 15th, I participated in the ADA Lake Nona Tour de Cure 50 mile ride. The temperature started in the low 60’s. It was advertised to be a beautifully hot day without the expectation of the notorious Florida wind.  The 50, 63, and 102 mile rides started first at 7:30 a.m. The 10 and 25 mile rides followed at 8:30 a.m.  All the rides started on time. The breeze and the sun kept the temperature great for riding. I am told the wind was less tasking than the normal Florida wind (I was glad for that).  This ride was the best ride I have had (first and only ride thus far).

We rode as a team in line, and it looked great to see the ten strong “SAIC” jerseys in a line moving along at ~17 MPH.  We had others ride in the 50, as well as some 10, 25 and one 101.  The ten that rode together started off as 14 when we thought we were going to average ~14 MPH.  After 13 miles we lost 1 since we were riding at 17 MPH most of the time and then at the half way point we lost another 3 which decided to ride at the originally planned 14 MPH.

Since this was Florida the route was flat, which was nice.  However, when I got to the last mile I realized the event coordinators probably should have had us go in the other direction since the only hill (overpass) was approximately one mile from the finish.  This moderate hill did give me some trouble since after I crested the top I could not get my loaner bike to shift back off the small crank until I was almost off the hill.  I missed the opportunity to benefit from the slope and lost connection with my group (they were acting like horses that caught sight of the barn).  Fortunately I was able to get back into the middle of our group by the finish.