Lakewood Ranch, FL – ADA Tour de Cure 2016

Once again, Four TeamOne Champions showed support for the Southwest Florida Tour de Cure in Lakewood Ranch. Dawn, Diana, Seresaa and Z participated in the ride. The course selected was the 37-mile course starting from downtown Main Street. Main Street is the downtown shopping, dining, and events center where everything happens.

A few days before the ride, the weather was checked, and it was predicted to be chilly, starting out in the 50’s and only going into the lower 60’s. They were prepared for a cool day of riding. It was a nice route, with mostly straight runs of opened road, and of course the infamous Florida wind.

Lakewood Ranch Tidbits

Lakewood Ranch is an unincorporated master planned community in southeastern Manatee County, Florida, built on part of what was previously a timber ranch owned by members of Milwaukee’s Uihlein family. It is part of the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population for the 34202 ZIP Code Tabulation Area, in which Lakewood Ranch is located, was 15,335 at the 2000 Census. Started in 1995, Lakewood Ranch has an 8,500-acre (3,400 ha) master-planned community within it, consisting of seven villages.

The Ride

The team started the day early by texting around 3:10 am to ensure everyone is up and ready. At 4:45 am we are on the road driving from Orlando to Lakewood Ranch. The day turned out to be clear, comfortable, and of course windy. The temperature did start out in the 50’s, but by 8am it was in the low 60’s. Perfect for riding!

The ride was planned as a very casual ride for the team. After the first few miles, they connected with a faster-paced group. This ride turned out to be one of the most challenging in terms of pace — the wind was brutal that day, but the team pushed on and kept the intensity and speed up.

Towards the end of the ride, in the last 10 miles, members of the larger group, TeamOne included, kicked it up a notch and finished strong. TeamOne members ended up averaging 19 mph for the entire ride (37-mile route). The group moved so fast that none of the rest stops had time to be set up. Everyone traveling in the echelon only had the water they initially had with them and nothing else. What an experience to travel at these speeds and distance for some riders who are a custom to having a least one replenishment stop every 14 – 22 miles.

After the ride, one of the riders from another team who happen to be Congressman Vern Buchanann, complemented Diana on the ride. Diana had ridden hard all the while keeping up with the main group. Towards the final 4.5 miles, everyone gave it the last hard push while pulling around 20+ mph. Diana gained this ability to excel because of all the hard work she had done over the past year and a half. Diana started with an average around 8 mph on September 4, 2014, averaged 15.4 mph at last year’s ride, and now averaged 19 mph. Diana stated, “consistency and training are the keys to the improvement”.

Dawn also kept in stride with the fast paced group. Dawn missed the ride last year because she was recovering from a concussion 9 miles from the finish line in the Orlando Tour de Cure last year.

The main goal was to support Melissa and the Tampa ADA team. TeamOne is happy to have had the opportunity to participate in the ride and encourages our community to continue to support this worthy cause.