Tour de Cure Event Day – A Personal Story

On Sunday, March 27th, I participated in the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure Florida in Lake Nona. Yes, we have gone back to somewhat normal to an in-person event. It been several years we have not had an in-person event because of the pandemic. The temperature started was 65 degrees all day. Today was another overcast day. The notorious Florida wind was very much present from 9 – 10 mph with 19 mph gusts.

The group participate in the 50 miles this year starting at 8 am. We all were very motivated for this event because this is when we can catch up with the rest of the friends who cycle!

The ride began in TeamOne fashion as every other year, all together in a group, as we crossed the starting line. The day began as a warm morning at 69 degrees. We welcomed the overcast which kept the weather cool accompanied by an unheard of very low humidity for Orlando of 65%. That is 25% more than last year,! All in all, it made for great riding weather.

We started at a nice and slow warmup pace of 8 – 11 mph for about 2 miles as we were enjoying the scenery and sharing the road with our other 25-mile group. On or about the 2-mile mark, we took off to the first rest stop on this ride which was 12 miles away, where we stopped for a 10 min break. If that was all that happened it would have been a wonderful ride … that would have been too easy … The group reached the 7 mile mark and sped up even more. Compare to last year this is no problem. This ride should have been a ride in the park (pun intended). However I had to fall back for a rest while the rest of the group pushed on.

I caught up to the other Team One member about 7 miles from the finish line, the home stretch. Unlike last year this was a better ending ride. We rode once again as a team, in a line, and it looked great to see the group sporting the TeamOne “Team of Champions” jersey all lined up moving down the street for the seventeenth year.
We (SAIC) were seven riders strong and also Shawn DeLuca, a champion from Leidos, rode with us in this event. Shawn, a TeamOne member, wore the Team of Champions jersey. A sight to see as 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/2023/03/lake-nona-fl-ada-tour-de-cure-17/

Event Day Statistics

This is the course charted for the 50-mile route.