Tour de Cure Event Day – A Personal Story

Wow, time passes fast when you are having fun … I have been representing SAIC by participating in the ADA tour de Cure for a total of 15 years including the 11 years since I started participating in the Orlando area.

Thank you all for making the 2021 Tour de Cure Orlando great! You did an amazing job assisting me in raising $1,800 for the American Diabetes Association. This is was a crazy and tough year to ask for donations considering all the events that happened throughout the nation. This is why I really appreciate you for what you do! Not only did you help me … but you also afford me the ability to share the wealth with others on the team and allowing them to become a champion.

You are part of Orlando’s TeamOne’s efforts which raised over $6,428. TeamOne 2021 consisted of 6 individual riders. All my donations started rolling in with a couple of days remaining but all of you came through in a big way! 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 dry erase board in my home office 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.

The Ride

On Sunday, April 18th, I participated in the American Diabetes Association Lake Nona Tour de Cure – 2nd Virtual Tour with other TeamOne members (Catherine, Jonathan, Shawn, and Z). Riding with us virtually and in spirit was Bab Fecteau (Mount Rogers, VA), Susie Schmitt (North Orlando), and Seresaa Setzer (Orlando). The temperature started in the high 70’s. Today was an overcast day with a looming chance of rain in the forecast for later. We all hoping for the rain to arrive later in the evening. The notorious Florida wind was very much present from 7 – 17 mph with 20-mile gusts.

The group was hoping to participate in the metric century (69 miles) this year but because of the weather forecast stated a 60% chance of rain by 12 noon, we decided on an impromptu 30-mile ride starting at 8:15 am. It is hard to get motivated for a virtual event when the in-person contact is at a minimum but we did our best.

The ride began in TeamOne fashion as every other year, all together in a group, as we crossed the imaginary starting line. The day began as a warm morning at 78 degrees. We welcomed the overcast which kept the weather cool but did nothing for the humidity now at 91%. All in all, it made for great riding weather because the overcast shaded us from the sun.

We started at a nice and slow warmup pace of 15 – 16 mph for about 3 miles as we enjoyed the scenery. At on or about the 3-mile mark we took off with only one rest stop on this ride which was 15 miles away, where we stopped for a 10 min break. While at the rest stop we posed for a team picture to send to the ADA team. We started to head straight back to the point of origin.

When we left the rest stop knowing we were on the 15-mile home stretch. Of course, we would run into an old friend, how would you have a great ride if not for the wind on the return? The winds picked up to 5 – 10 mph coming from the south-southwest, it seems as if it had it in its mind that the team was not working hard enough. The wind started to pick up and it changes direction to west-southwest to provide a good workout for the team which incidentally is the direction we are heading into, Fantastic!!! 🙁 🙂

When we reached the last turn onto Tavistock Blvd with only about 2.5 miles remaining our old friend decided to give us some help again with resistance training. The wind shifted and was coming from more the west than southwest now directly in our face at about 17 mph. The team finished strong by charging down Tavistock Blvd while fighting the headwind with a sense of accomplishment.

We rode once again as a team, in a line, and it looked great to see the three “SAIC” and one Leidos jerseys all lined up moving down the street for the fifteenth year. We were four riders strong in this event. A sight to see as team members ride together across the finish line. A perfect day without incident!!! 🙂 Also a shout out to Bob Fecteau, Susie Schmitt, and Seresaa Setzer who rode at their locations but still finished as one with us.

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/2021/04/lake-nona-fl-ada-tour-de-cure-15/

Event Day Statistics

This is the course charted for the 30-mile route.