I am writing this to express my sincere thanks for your support and your donations on my behalf for the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure! Your contribution helped to make the Tour de Cure Colorado 2008 the biggest ever, and one of the biggest in the nation! I can’t thank you enough for your donation. I’d like to share a the day and people with you below.
The 2008 Colorado Tour de Cure was a huge success thanks in no small part to all of you! The final tally isn’t done but we are well over our goal of $500,000 and the projected final is likely $650,000. That puts the Colorado Tour in the top two or three Tours in the country!
Thanks to all of you, I surpassed my personal goal of raising $1,000 for the American Diabetes Association which is incredible to me! The Red Rider Team, which I co-captained, exceeded our goal of $50,000!
I would like to share some photos with you all that capture some highlights of our incredible day volunteering and riding the Tour.
Special thanks to my riding partner and biggest supporter, Kathleen Vasa for taking most of these pictures! Thanks to Kathleen’s husband, Bob for his support and understanding of Kathleen’s passion to help find a cure for diabetes!
A very special thanks to the members of my bike club, Club Hypoxia, who gathered a group of our northern members and caught up to us during the Tour! Your arrival really made a very special day, even more so! You are all the greatest!
Kathleen and I had a fun time riding the metric century (62 miles). Ok, so we may have had way more fun than was legal, but it was all in the spirit of finding a cure for diabetes! Really! 
The rides are over, it is time to CELEBRATE!
This shot shows approximately one third of the riders with diabetes on this year’s Tour! Notable people in this picture, Mike (second row down, third from the right,) Mari Ruddy who started the whole Red Rider program (second row down, third from the left,) Bob Avritt who was one of the three team captains of the Red Riders along with Mari and Mike (top row, second from the right) and Team Type 1 in white!
We believe this may be the largest gathering of cyclists with diabetes ever to occur! The sea of red before, during and after the rides was inspirational. Thanks to Mari Ruddy who dreamed this up, didn’t take no for an answer and then surrounded herself with a bunch of folks to make it happen! Also, thanks to all of the Red Rider sponsors who paid for our jerseys, t-shirts and water bottles (plus a good helping extra that went straight to the American Diabetes Association!)
Thanks again everyone! It was one amazing day and an amazing year getting there. We could never have done it without all of your support. A very special thanks to everyone who rode with us and those that got up well before the crack of dawn to volunteer with us and those that came just to cheer everyone on!
Thanks too to Mari Ruddy who created the Red Riders, chaired the Red Riders subcommittee and co-captained the Red Riders team with me as well as Mike Carter. Last but not least a final thanks to Sara Prevost who is the Director of the Colorado Tour, Sue Glass who is the Executive Director of the Denver office, Peter Fryer who is the Event Manager, all of the other staff at the American Diabetes Association without whom NONE of this could have happened!
Oh, just one more, really…
A very special thanks to Tami Box for the incredible job you have done as committee chair. For sharing your mother’s story with me. For believing that the sum of my life can, has, and will continue to inspire others with Type 2 Diabetes to take their health seriously. Providing hope that they can make a difference in their own lives by my example.
For your mom… For my mom… For all people living with diabetes…Thank you!
Now it is time for us to take a breather and then start the process all over again for the 2009 Tour where our goal will be to raise a million dollars for the American Diabetes Association!
Thanks again!
