New England Classic

Registration is now open for the 2009 Tour de Cure!

Thank you for being one of the extraordinary riders in the Tour de Cure. Thanks to you we raised over $15 million in 2008 to support the critical efforts of the ADA to fund research, education, advocacy programs. But we have even more to do. The CDC recently announced the number of Americans with diabetes increased from 20.8 million to 23.6 million and another 57 million have pre-diabetes. This growth is astonishing and we need your help–please sign up to ride today!
http://tour.diabetes.org/site/TR/TourdeCure/TDC005008030?pg=entry&fr_id=5560

To register online, go to the Tour Web site and LOG IN with your previous year’s user name and password BEFORE registering for this year’s event. That way you will have instant access to your user profile and e-mail address book from your last online fund-raising campaign. If you need your user name and password again, you can request a reminder by clicking “Forgot your Password?” in the upper right hand corner of the Tour Web site.

By registering now, you take advantage of the discounted “early bird” registration fee. There are 2.8 million more reasons to ride. All you need is one.

Sign up today

Sincerely,
The American Diabetes Association

New England Classic dates for 2009:
150 : July 11-12
550: July 11-17

2009 Minimum Fundraising requirements:
150: $600
550: $2000

Do you remember someone’s number, but not their name? Here’s a list of rider numbers and volunteers. You should have gotten everyone’s e-mail addresses in the final newsletter, but if you need someone’s e-mail address, contact Faith.
continue reading » »

The New York juggernaut of Team MoPHOTOS was unable to ride NEC this year because they are off on a cross-country tour to, as they say:

• To raise money for East Cost Assistance Dogs (ECAD) and MercyFirst
• To bring light to suicide awareness

They left Seattle, Washington on June 30 and are expected to arrive in Torrington, Connecticut at ECAD on August 16.

Team MoPHOTOS is made up of NEC alums Eugenia Nascimento, Steve O’Connor, Harry Penn, Tom O’Connor, and Chris Pullman, together with fellow rider Eric Wong.

We wish them all the best and if anyone out there lives along or near the route, wave hello. As of this writing, they’re in North Dakota Minnesota.

Team MoPHOTOS cross country bike ride site.

Good luck!

Little Stephen Sehr of Indiana is all growed up. From way back when, riding as a stoker on a tandem with his mom, Barbara, until last year, putting the Connecticut speedsters to the test, Stephen has been a long-time supporter of the NEC.

Where was he this year?

Stephen is now a newly-minted freshman at Purdue University and had to spend the summer earning money towards his education and couldn’t participate this year. But he sent along a photo racing as a member of the Purdue Boilermakers cycling team.

Jim “I beat anorexia” Evans has posted his 2008 pictures.

Euphoric mother greets less than euphoric daughter

Photo: Jim Evans

Unbeknownst (I love that word) to me, Leigh Chinitz (Rider #11) had better luck finding WiFi than I did and kept a daily log of the days events.

Leigh Chinitz (Rider #11)

(He has the 2004 map, our route was different)

See if you know:

• Who beat anorexia?
• Who is the sadistic woman at rest stop 3 on day 4?
• What’s on TV?
• How wonderful is Faith?

Maps, cue sheets, and elevation profiles are available. You can get to them by clicking “About” on the upper right of any screen, then “Routes, Cues, & Profiles”.

If you have GPS data or anything else you’d like posted, write to admin.

At the risk of leaving someone out (because I certainly will), here are some thank yous.

First and foremost, thank you to all the sponsors. Your donations are what this is all about. On behalf of the 24 million Americans with diabetes, thank you for your support and commitment.

Thanks to the riders. It was tough, it was fun. It was a swell week.

Thanks to the volunteers. It can’t be done without you.

Thanks to Bob and Erik, our mechanics who really went above and beyond the call to keep us all going.

Thanks to Bill Lacy who organized this whole thing for, like, what? 120 years in a row now? It runs like clockwork.

Thanks to the organizing committee members who divide up the chores to make it all a bit easier for everyone

Thanks to the route markers who keep us from getting lost.

Thanks to the cities and towns we pass through for granting us permits.

Thanks to the staff of the American Diabetes Association, especially Faith Linsky, for putting together another spectacular event.

And, from all of us - the riders, volunteers, and persons living with diabetes - thanks to the American Diabetes Association for taking the lead in fighting this disease.

The night before the last day there is always a little ceremony acknowledging the feats and contributions of the volunteers, organizers, and riders. This year was a little different in that in addition to all the rest, we were all spellbound as the story of two riders who had faced tremendous obstacles and are with us on the ride. Those tales are for a later post, but they were indeed inspiring.

It’s a very warm day. Very warm. And sunny. We left the Franklin Pierce campus and were greeted almost immediately by several New Hampshire style uphills. The kind that aren’t terribly steep (at least by White and Green Mountain standards) but they go on forever. A few of those, then back to Massachusetts where the riders can smell the barn. Quick rest stops. Long pace lines. Nothing stands in the way of getting back. Because as much as we all love the ride, it’s been seven long, hard days on the road and the site of one’s own home and hearth is most welcome.

So we’re all in. And all on our way back to where ever it is we came from.

See  you next year.

Join us July 11 - 17, 2009 for the 2009 New England Classic.

We start the day with a screaming downhill out of the lodge straight down Mt. Killington. You can reach 50mph there if you try. Unfortuately, there’s a stop sign at the bottom on a very busy road, so you have to stop. No sliding through.

Speaking personally, the first part of the day, up the first rest stop is arguably the prettiest part of the trip. Idylic pastoral scenery right out of a picture postcard, courtesy of the Vermont tourist board. Plus, they recently repaved the road, so it was actually easy to navigate. (Vermont has terrible roads, and some pretty vicious drivers as well.)

The route follows the river and eventually crosses the Connecticut River back into New Hampshire where we head for some more significant hills. These hills, though, are of a different style than those in the White or Green Mountains. In those, roads tend to go up, then they come down. In the Monadnocks, the roads are not as steep, but they can go for miles. Miles and miles and miles.

From Keene, to where we end at Franklin Pierce College, there are endless very high grades. But now were at the college where they have one of the better cafeterias of the week. Tonight will be presentations, and saying good bye in preparation for the final day back to Woburn tomorrow.

People should start arriving on Woburn (at Chomerics, 77 Dragon Ct) somewhere around noon.