What a wonderful day to ride!
Thank you all for making the 2019 Tour de Cure Orlando great! You did an amazing job assisting me in raising $1,550 for the American Diabetes Association. This was a tough year to ask for donations considering all the major tragedies that happened throughout the nation. This is why I really appreciate you for what you do!
You were part of Orlando’s TeamOne’s efforts which raised over $21,182. TeamOne 2019 consisted of 17 individual riders. Considering everything everyone was going through this year, I’m always humbled and grateful for the donations we have received thus far because every penny counts. I have an ADA Tour de Cure shirt sticker for display on my cubicle in honor of every donor. You can see these in the image of yellow jerseys to the right that displays the names of my friends who donated and assisted in my climb to being a 
Champion for Diabetes. Every team member made it to Champion.
On Sunday, March 31st, I participated in the American Diabetes Association Lake Nona Tour de Cure 52 mile ride. The temperature started in the high 60’s. Today was advertised to be a beautifully mild day with the notorious Florida wind not being a problem at only 2 – 10 mph with 12-mile gusts.
The 52, 63, and 102-mile rides started first at 7:30 am. The 10 and 25-mile riders followed at 9:30 am.
I was riding the 52-mile course and it started in TeamOne fashion, all together in a group, as we crossed the starting line. It started off as a brisk morning 65 degrees but Mother Nature was warming the morning up nicely. One the sun appeared and the light breeze began to blow at an average 3 – 6 mph provided much more warmth, which kept the temperature at an average of 77 degrees which was great for riding.
We passed the first rest stop at the 9 miles marker at about 18 mph, as it has become a standard for this group. This only meant that now we are committed to making it to the second rest stop at the 23.5-mile marker. We approached the second stop at 22.8 mph and only stopped for 10 minutes. The third stop was only 13 miles away which we approached at 18.75 mph and again only rested for 10 minutes. We met up with the 25-mile members and snap a team photo. We took off with only one more rest stop which was 12 miles away. We approached the last and final rest stop at 19 mph for another 10 min break.
When we left the last rest knowing we were on the home stretch with only a 10 miles remaining. I started to pay for a mistake I did the night before when I only slept 2 hours. I was wrapped up with servicing the bike late in the evening instead of early in the day. This started to affect my energy levels about 6 miles out. At the 5 miles marker I bonked (means you hit an invisible wall) my speed went from 20 mph to 14 mph in a matter of a block. I only had less than 4.5 miles to go and it was very hard pushing into the wind trying to keep my speed steady. One of my old riding partners came along and took the lead position shielding me from the wind. We use to ride to work in San Diego 2 – 3 times a week. Years later he is helping to the finish line. Thanks to his help my average speed didn’t take a nose dive. I finished at a respectable speed 16.8 mph but not where I wanted to. 🙁
Today, the rest of the team finished the strong by charging down Tavistock Blvd while fighting the now 11 mph headwind with a sense of accomplishment.
Our fifth year running, this ride was a great ride. It was one of the smoothest rides to date. We rode once again as a team, in a line, and it looked great to see the “SAIC” jerseys all lined up moving past everyone for the fifth year. We were ten riders strong on the 52-mile course. A sight to see as 10 team members riding together across the finish line. A perfect day without incident!!! 🙂
I believe that “A person’s true wealth, is measured by the good they do in this world!” … for this, you should feel wealthy and very good about yourself!
Images of the day can be seen on the team story page: https://teamonecycle.com/2019/03/lake-nona-fl-ada-tour-de-cure-13/
Event Day Statistics
This is the course charted for the 50-mile route.
Consumption (during the ride)
- 8 pcs – Pickles slices
- 12 oz – Pickle Juice
- 12 oz – Water
- 48 oz – INFINIT* Sports Drink
*INFINIT (ifinitnutrition.us) Sports Drink is a powder that mixes with water and provides a customizable amount of amino acids, caffeine, calories, electrolytes, flavor, protein, and/or sodium.
