Simon Wood

Hump Day: Big Ride

I’ve been a keen follower of Morgan Spurlock’s Failure Club project, where individual give themselves a do or die goal. I set myself a goal. After I came off my bike last year, my health took a hit and I had to re-examine a number of things. I didn’t want to accept the possible outcomes. I wanted to bounce back. So one of the goals I set myself to regain my my cycling mojo. It was something I wasn’t sure was possible. To prove that, I set myself the goal of finishing a 100km ride in under 4hrs (which I did at the Tour de Fuzz), compete in the Mount Diablo Hill Climb Challenge (which I’m signed up to do next month) and finally, compete in a big, timed ride, which is now upon me. A week on Saturday, I’m taking part in Levi Leipheimer’s Gran Fondo. It’s a picturesque but tough ride that starts in Santa Rosa and runs through wine country and out to the ocean. Gran fondo is Italian for big ride and this is a big ride. Around 7,500 people are taking part. I rode in this event a couple of years and it’s a wild ride, so I’m looking forward to it, even if it does have some chest busting, knee breaking climbs.

This year, not only am I taking part, I’m riding for a cause. Seeing as I’m riding for me, I decided to ride for others. I’m riding on behalf of VeloStreet’s Cycling Initiatives Program, LiveStrong, Forget Me Not Farm and local school programs. VeloStreet’s Cycling Initiatives Program and LiveStrong are particularly important to me. VeloStreet endeavors to improve road safety for cyclists and as someone who has been injured in car-bike crashes, any improvement is a good one. Prostate cancer is something that runs in my family so LiveStrong is an important cause. So far, I’ve set myself a target of $1,000. So far, I’ve raised $700 and with your help I can make it a little more. I’ll even sweeten the deal by promising to send any contributor a copy of one of my upcoming titles.

You can donate here.

Remember, I’ll put in the miles if you’ll put up the cash. 🙂

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