Frank and I blazed across the Tour De Cure finish line yesterday morning at about 11:30 a.m. We were welcomed by dozens of enthusiastic volunteers clapping, cheering, and ringing bells; each one thanking us for riding to help raise money for diabetes.

Thank you Performance Bike Shop for sponsoring Frank and I on this ride! We sincerely appreciate it and the money went to a great cause, helping raise money to find a cure for diabetes.

Thanks also to the hundreds of volunteers who provided top notch support for this ride. You made a huge difference whether you were managing registration booths, manning food stations at rest stops, providing safety support and mechanical assistance, loading bikes on the UPS truck for the return trip, or performing one of the many other vital services that helped make this an incredibly well-organized and fun event.

Your hard work was greatly appreciated!

This was an incredibly well-organized ride, with over-stocked rest and fueling stations every 10 or 15 miles. Bike Gallery had a tune-up tent at each rest stop to provide mechanical support for each rider's bike, and there were massage tables, free Burgerville burgers, beer gardens, and live music waiting for us at the end of the ride. Buses took us back to the finish line, and UPS semis trucked our bikes back too.

Jeff and Amy from California - if you're reading this, Frank and I really enjoyed chatting with you on the bus ride back to the starting line and thanks for driving all the way out to Oregon and participating in this event.

The ride was shortened to 75 miles due to a a forest fire that blocked the last 25 miles of the planned course, which completely bummed me out. This would have been my first century ride, and I was eager to go the entire distance. I had trained for it and felt I was ready, but I'll have to wait for another ride to prove to myself that I can survive the torture of riding 100 miles.

I'm still happy to settle for an 18 mph average that included a grueling above-category climb up Mt Hood to the 6000-ft Timberline summit, and a smoking 44.5 mph top speed back down the mountain. And not that we were keeping track , but our pass ratio was over 200 to 1 - with the one rider who passed us coming fresh from a shorter starting point in the race. It was a charity ride, not a race, but there's nothing wrong with a little self-induced competition thrown in to help get us up the hills and through the windy flats.

We scored on sponsor freebies at the end of the ride too, stocking up on all kinds of gadgets for our kids. That always makes for a fun time back home, dividing up the loot between the kids and watching their eyes light up in delight.

I'm hooked on charity rides, and will be keeping an eye out for the next one in our area. They're a great chance to contribute to a worthy cause and make a difference in the world, and they're also great motivators for getting in better shape or working off a few more pounds around the waist.