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2007 Tour de Cure |
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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by Joel Liefke
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Sunday, 17 June 2007 |
Ride: Tour de Cure
Location: Redmond, WA
Date: May 19, 2007
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Another year and yes another Tour de Cure is in the books. Anytime I can ride my bike and get money for a good cause, count me in. This year I again joined “Team Salty” to support the American Diabetes in their fight against diabetes, as my good friend Jim and my mother-in-law Annie, both suffer from Diabetes. Now I’m sure you are wondering, why is it called “Team Salty?” Well Jim, when biking tends to sweat salt instead of actual sweat, so he inherited the nickname of ‘Salty,’ and so came to be ‘Team Salty!’
As far as donations go, I was a little lower than last years total, but was still able to raise $575 for this great cause with our team pitching in a total of $1,720! Our goal was $2000 for this year and gives us something to strive for next year. Thanks to the following people for being so generous and sponsoring me this year:
· Teresa Horgan
· Susan Davidson
· Urban Forestry Services (Jim & Annie Barborinas)
· Curt Whitton
· Zack and Adele Barborinas
· Curtis Graves
· Lloyd and Gloria Butler
· Ed Cho
· Shanlenn Colby
This year the ride was completely different than in years past. There was no mamoth hill after only 1.5 miles of riding (known as Inglewood) and the hills that were present were mostly long and at a decent % incline. Our team opted for the 45 miler and we start out around 9am, 7 of us in all and me sporting the Dalmation colors proudly…love the new Champion Systems wear, fits like a glove! And the Greyhound Juice kept the legs nice and toasty during and after the ride. If you’re not using this stuff, you need to as it has greatly helped my legs from not only cramping but loosening up. It’s all natural and the Super Strength is a true champ!
The first part of the ride was pretty uneventful until 2 of the riders got flats, but those were easy fixes. Since we had varying levels of experience, the first 15 miles went pretty slow ~1.5 hours through some nice rolling hills and great wooded scenery on the Woodenville and Bothell countryside. The last 30 miles for me was a hammerfest as for some odd reason, if I stop biking (and there were a lot of food/rest stops), my legs tend to cramp and not recover well, which I’m working on, but alas it still occurred right after our first stop. So I decided to hammer the last 30 miles on my own and finish the ride out. I hooked up w/Eric from Lemond Fitness and the two of us took turns pulling for the remaining 20 miles, which consisted of a few good hills finishing up the ride in just around 3 hours.
One key moment along the way was me passing my buddy Mark and his wife on their Pepto Pink Rodriguez tandem, complete w/pink tape and every pink accessory you could imagine. Now that doesn’t sound all that impressive until you see Mark, he’s about 6’3, shaved head, and proably a 2 foot long ZZ Top-esque goatee…so the mere image of seeing this made the sternest of people chuckle. Mark, you crack me up bud.
After the ride, we sat down in the always popular Tour de Cure beer garden, sponsored by Red Hook and ate our free Chipotle burritos before heading out. Again, another successful year at the Tour de Cure and for a great cause. Until next year…
Joel Liefke
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