Everyone has a Story

Fun in the Finger Lakes!

Amy Young, her daughter and I had the privilege of helping out at the Finger Lakes Tour de Cure this weekend. The weather was perfect! This Tour is in its infancy being in its second year but it is definitely growing with almost double the riders from last year! The routes themselves are challenging but absolutely beautiful. Many of these routes have gorgeous views of Seneca Lake as you roll through the country side. As you may know, this area is known for its NY wineries. Two of these wineries volunteered their establishments to be rest stops. No wine was poured for the riders, however, just water and Gatorade. Isn't it fun to say that I stopped at a winery during a rest stop? :)

This event is much different from the Saratoga Tour. The most obvious is the number of cyclists. The Saratoga Tour has been in existence for 16 years. It actually started out as a ride many year ago in and around Albany. They ventured along Wolf Rd and even had rest stops at McDonald's! Gasp! Amy Young was able to grow this event from the size of the Finger Lakes Tour this weekend to the size it is today. Amy worked many years to secure and grow her committees of volunteers and riders. All the support our local Tour has from the community has made it the premier event it is today. Without our community the Saratoga Tour would not be the #1 Tour in NY or ranked among the top 3 tours in the entire country.

Everyone has a story. No matter what size the Tour is - 300 riders at the Finger Lakes or 1,800 at the Saratoga Tour - there is one common denominator. Everyone there wants a cure for diabetes and so many attendees are affected by this disease. I wrote in an earlier blog about our local riders' stories and the Finger Lakes was no different. 

We were waiting for the start of the metric century when I noticed about 10 people all with red t-shirts with a beautiful young woman's picture on the front. I thought at first they were a cycling team, but it became apparent that they were cheering on other riders. They were in fact, a family who had just lost their beloved family member to diabetes. She had diabetes since she was 11 years old and had so many complications. The complications became too much and she passed away in April. Her family which included her parents, husband and sister and many more were there to show support against this disease. Their emotions were raw and hard to contain. They were especially emotional when our Red Riders came to the front and Amy had everyone on the count of 3 shout out the name of who they were riding for. What an emotional moment for everyone, especially this family. How hard it must have been for that family to shout out the name of their daughter/mother/sister. I only got to talk a few families at this Tour but I know there are so many stories that are similar to this one as well as stories of hope and courage.

It is moments like this that inspire us. All these riders came out on a beautiful day to ride these many (and sometimes steep!) hills to say "We are cycling to bring attention to this disease. We are fundraising to bring much needed money to research to hopefully eradicate it. We are funding education and advocacy to help those who need to learn about it and to have legal support with discrimination.We are here to say you will not be forgotten and we will fight for a cure!"
So even though the Tours are all different the the sentiment is the same:

Together, I know we can Stop Diabetes!

For more information on diabetes please go to www.diabetes.org

Save the Date!! The Saratoga Springs Tour de Cure is scheduled for Sunday, June 3, 2012.