Trek 1500 Road Bike: Members of my
family contributed to a fund so I could
get this bike for a combined birthday
and Christmas gift. [ Photo: Trek Bicycle
Corporation ]

One reason that you haven't heard much from me in the last few days is that I've been shopping for a new road bike to ride in the 2006 cycling season. If you've read Operation Gadget for a while, you probably know that I like to participate in endurance cycling events and occasional duathlons, and I trained extensively for the 2005 Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope Washington DC Fundraising Ride.

As the events I've trained for involve more mileage, it's become increasingly clear that I needed to switch from a mountain bike to a road bike. My wife Kathleen decided that this year was the best opportunity we would have for some time to get a good road bike for me, so she told my friends and family that she was starting Dave's Road Bike Fund and invited them to contribute to it for my birthday and Christmas.

I didn't know anything about this, so I was loading up my wishlist at Amazon.com with a Video iPod and accessories for it.

When the surprise was sprung on me three weeks ago, my initial reaction was: Oh boy, now I can get an iPod and a road bike. Reality set in when I looked at how much money I would need to buy both without making significant compromises in iPod capacity or road bike performance.

I decided to buy a Trek 1500, the top-of-the line model in their Alpha Aluminum line. The suggested retail price of this bike is $1150 and I paid somewhat less than that at the dealer I chose, Jay's Cycles in Princeton, NJ. Trek makes a lot more expensive bikes, but, I felt that the 1500 was a good combination of price and performance for someone making the transition from mountain to road biking at my skill and training level.

I also want to say that my decision to purchase a Trek was heavily influenced by my experience covering the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team during 2005. My friend Bruce Turner from AMD put me in touch with some people at Trek like Michael Sagan who really believe in the products they make. I was able to learn a bit about Trek's design approach for pro-caliber bikes, embodied in the F-One partnership with other Discovery Team sponsors, and how that's improved Trek's bikes that I can afford. I felt that the 1500 was the right bike for me at this point in my life-- the full carbon fiber bikes will have to wait.

I'm planning to pick up my new bike tomorrow and I hope to be able to post some up-close photos of it within a few days. I rode it for about 10 minutes before I bought it, but I'm hoping for good weather, strong sun, and light winds one day before Christmas so I can get a longer ride in and post an article about the experience.

Technorati Tags: Trek 1500, Video iPod, road bike, Tour of Hope, cycling, Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team, Trek, AMD, Christmas gifts

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (2)

On Sunday, The Boston Globe reported that the Food and Drug Administration is holding two days of hearings beginning today on Direct-to-Consumer advertising. Among the issues expected to come up at these hearings are the roles of Lance Armstrong, Dorothy Hamill, and other celebrities who are featured in advertisements for prescription drugs or pharmaceutical manufacturers.

The Globe article points out that Bristol-Myers Squibb is very concerned that the role Lance Armstrong plays in its advertising be differentiated from the involvement of many other celebrities in pharmaceutical industry advertising. It says:

Bristol-Myers Squibb hopes the FDA distinguishes between questionable past practices and current advertisements that harness celebrity star power to raise awareness of health conditions affecting millions.

"Lance has been used in corporate advertising relative to the BMS brand, not in product advertising," said Tony Plohoros, a company spokesman. "We believe there is a significant difference in advertising that focuses on corporate brand building, or disease awareness, versus individual product advertising."

Participants in the Tour of Hope should pay close attention to these hearings. I think that sponsorship of disease awareness events like the Tour of Hope are the aspect of pharmaceutical company marketing that is least likely to be changed by the Food and Drug Administration, but we have to watch carefully and react quickly if the FDA acts too aggressively.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope, Lance Armstrong

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I spent a long time on Sunday morning trying to collect my thoughts on the cancellation of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope Baltimore to Washington DC Fundraising Ride and the Tour of Hope Grand Finale on The Ellipse. In the end, I was frustrated and ended up being late for a college hockey game that I had to officiate.

One good idea I had on Sunday was to compare the coverage that The Washington Post provided last year versus this year. After all, the one of the goals of the entire Tour of Hope program is to raise awareness of the importance of adult participation in cancer drug clinical trials. Awareness can only come from publicity, whether it comes in the form of advertising or media coverage.

Last year Susan Kinzie wrote a great piece called 'Live Strong' Tour Cruises to the Mall:

Early yesterday before the mist had burned off, bicyclists strapped on sleek helmets around their ears, safety-pinned numbers on friends' backs and waited. Then a black SUV rolled into Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda. People ran after it and crowded around cheering, reaching over their heads to snap photos, a bright yellow band on almost every other wrist.

Lance Armstrong had arrived....

People strained to see him, teetering on tiptoes or squeezing through the crowd with pictures for him to sign. A woman with blond curls wiped away tears. A little boy on his dad's shoulders grinned like crazy....

This is the kind of publicity that we need in order to advance our causes.

Compare that to what made it into The Washington Post on Sunday. The biggest article that referred to the The Tour of Hope was Heavy Rain Wallops Area, Prompting Evacuations in Northern Maryland. It said:

The triumphant finale of the Tour of Hope cross-country bicycle ride, lead by seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, was also washed out after rain flooded some of the roads on which the cyclists -- including 1,500 local riders -- were supposed to travel.

The event had been scheduled to culminate in a festival on the Ellipse, which was canceled. But at the last minute, when the rain faded briefly to a drizzle at around 1 p.m. Armstrong thrilled fans by riding down Constitution Avenue with his 25 Tour of Hope teammates to celebrate the end of the nine-day, cross country bike relay that raised more than $1.5 million for cancer research.

That was pretty much it, other than The Associated Press article by Jim Litke, Sportsview: For Armstrong, Good to Be King, which spent more time on Lance's 70 days of retirement than the 10 days of the Tour of Hope.

I think Chris Brewer from The Paceline did the best job of putting in perspective everyone's frustrations at the ride cancellation and the Tour of Hope National Team's exhilaration at finishing their coast-to-coast ride. His article includes some great photos of the flooding at The Ellipse and of the abbreviated post-arrival event that took place inside The J.W. Marriott in Downtown Washington.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Continue reading "Public Relations Opportunity for the Tour of Hope Muted by the Storm" »

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The plans of at least 1,000 cyclists to participate in the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope were abruptly changed before 7:00am this morning. Upon arriving at the 50-mile route start at Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland, we all learned that the ride was cancelled. That was a huge disappointment, but it was understandable given the huge amounts of rain that had fallen overnight. And the rain continued to fall as we stood there, trying to figure out what to do next.

The riders who had used the shuttle from the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Washington knew what they had to do; They had to get on any available bus back to where they started. Most of us who drove in this morning stood and waited for Lance to come and speak to us.

More on the situation at the race start after I return home. Riders should feel free to add their reaction to the bad news.

Update on October 9 at 11am: It's hard for me to look back on Saturday and come to any other conclusion than that the organizers made the right decision. In the end 7.25 inches (18.4 centimeters) of rain fell in two days at Reagan National Airport in Washington. I know how much we all wanted to ride yesterday, but I didn't want anyone to get hurt either.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

A special welcome to the participants in the 2005 Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope. Operation Gadget is a website about electronic gadgets and sports technology, edited by Dave Aiello. Dave Aiello is a two-time participant in the Tour of Hope Fundraising Ride in Washington, DC. Our site has gone wall-to-wall with Tour of Hope coverage for the last 10 days.

We will continue to post information about the Tour during the weekend in Washington and after we return home. In the meantime here are a few highlights of our recent coverage:

• Dave Aiello's Flickr Photo Stream with shots from his Treo 650's camera where available
• Jeff Tredup Interview. 2005 Tour of Hope National Team Member.
• Map of 50-Mile Course for Tour of Hope Baltimore to DC Fundraising Ride
• Weather forecast for Washington, DC on October 8
• Links to Tour of Hope coverage on ThePaceline.com
• All the articles about the 2005 Tour of Hope from Operation Gadget
• All the articles about the 2004 Tour of Hope from Operation Gadget

If you have any comments or suggestions email me at daiello [at] operationgadget.com.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

I'm leaving in a little while to head to Maryland for the start of the 2005 Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope Baltimore to Washington Fundraising Ride. The ride starts at 7:00 am Eastern Time on Saturday morning. Weather conditions are expected to be poor with rain and some wind in the morning. As a result, I don't expect to be able to do much in the way of live blogging of the 50-mile ride.

Hopefully, the conditions will improve as the day goes on. Wish us all luck.

Fellow riders, if you want to reach me and you don't have my mobile phone number, email me at daiello [at] operationgadget.com. I have my Treo and I will call you back.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jeff Tredup: Member of the 2005
Tour of Hope National Team
[ Photo: Tour of Hope ]

A few weeks ago, I interviewed Jeff Tredup, a cancer researcher at Bristol-Myers Squibb who is a member of the 2005 Tour of Hope National Team. I first met Jeff at the dedication of a segment of The Lawrence-Hopewell Trail that took place at BMS's campus in Hopewell, NJ. He lives in Pennington, NJ, which makes him the only member of the Tour of Hope National Team who lives in my home area.

I asked Jeff how he got into riding a bicycle? He said he started riding as a kid, and at the time he thought of riding a bike as his little bit of freedom on the road. He got into mountain biking in 1991 when he moved to New Jersey from Illinois. He joined the Princeton Freewheelers, a large local biking organization and more or less switched to road biking. Jay Stevenson of the 2003 Tour of Hope team is also a member of the Freewheelers.

Tredup said that he got into drug research after studying plant genetics in college. He started working in an immunology lab at the University of Illinois after graduation. He got his job at Bristol-Myers Squibb in 1991.

I said, "You were diagnosed with thyroid cancer more than four years ago and your bio says that you still have detectable cancer cells in your body. What does that mean in terms of your prognosis? Are you still under treatment?"

Jeff said that his thyroid cancer spread into his lymph nodes, which makes it very difficult to totally eliminate, but he's doing well enough today to participate in the Tour of Hope as a National Team member.

Tredup first applied for the Tour of Hope National Team in 2004, but had to widthdraw his application because he had a recurrence and had to go through a second round of radiation.

I was surprised to learn that Jeff hadn't participated in the Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Ride before, since the first two years of the ride were short and relatively easy to complete. He said that he didn't participate last year because he broke his collarbone while trying to recover from his second bout with cancer.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Continue reading "Interview with Jeff Tredup, Tour of Hope National Team Member" »

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Chris Brewer reported that Day 8 of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope saw the team riding through Tropical Storm Tammy as they passed through Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina:

When Team D approached Greenville, SC at midnight last night they got their biggest surpise of the Tour yet. As the rain came down and they were basically alone on the road with their immediate support staff, up rolled none other than Lance Armstrong and his Discovery Channel teammate George Hincapie! The duo rode with the squad into George's adopted hometown, and Team D will have a "war story" to tell for the rest of their lives.

[ Registration required to view most articles on ThePaceline.com ]

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Chris Brewer wrote an article on The Paceline about following the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope National Team during Day 7 of their ride across the United States. The most interesting part of this article for Operation Gadget readers is Chris' description of the communications technology that Trek Travel has implemented to keep the Tour of Hope in contact with itself and the rest of the world:

It was a unique experience to witness the behind-the-scenes action from the CentCom {Tour of Hope command vehicle} perspective. Trek Travel makes sure that a fresh driver is piloting every vehicle each stage, and then several Trek Travel / Carmichael Training Systems managers take alternate shifts coordinating each stage's transition and execution. For the CentCom staff it's all about communication involving 2 cell phones, 1 satellite phone, 2 close-range radios, a GPS messaging system, and a laptop computer with a GPS mapping system. Add in numerous documents, route guides, maps, etc. and the Centcom staff is in-touch and in constant operational management mode around the clock.

Carmichael Training Systems also deserves a lot of credit for how smoothly the Tour of Hope National Ride has gone so far.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here are the latest forecasts for The Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope's Baltimore to Washington, DC Fundraising Ride on Saturday, October 8, 2005:

• Weather.com: "Mainly cloudy and rainy. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the mid 50s."
• AccuWeather: "Rain. Winds from the W at 9 mph." Amount of precipitation expected to be 0.8 inches.
• National Weather Service: "Showers likely, mainly before 9am. Cloudy, with a high around 68. Northwest wind between 10 and 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible."

Definitely bring the rain gear.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Kathleen hasn't been feeling too good in the past few days, but on the way home from our weekend trip to visit friends in Boston, she planned my week leading up to Saturday's Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope Baltimore to DC Fundraising Ride. She told me, "You have to ref on Wednesday night, so you need to do your long route on Tuesday and Thursday this week in order to be ready for Saturday."

This was going to be a challenge for the following reasons:

1. At work, Weblog Improvement, I'm very close to finishing a major new weblog for Chris Nolan, a journalist based in San Francisco, and her co-bloggers.
2. On the bike, I've had equipment problems lately {flat tire, chain problems} that the folks at Newtown Bicycle and Fitness have been helping me work out.
3. Due to a combination of a lot of things, I haven't ridden my 23-mile route since August 14. Instead I've been riding mainly 10 to 15 mile routes right around Newtown.

All along my route today, I was worried about making the cutoff time for the 50-mile ride on Saturday. Over the 50-mile course, we have to maintain a speed of 14 miles per hour. I finished my 23-mile ride today in 1 hour 32 minutes 46 seconds at an average speed of 15.4 miles per hour.

Performance Forte Team MTB Pedal Mud-shedding alloy body, dual-sided entry, dual-force retention spring with adjustable entry/release tension. 4 degrees float. Compatible with Shimano SPD cleats. Wt: 370g/pr.

What I found most interesting about my ride today was that I shaved 10 minutes off my best time this Summer and I haven't been riding this distance as often as I should. The best explanation I can come up with for this success is my vastly improved equipment. I believe we're seeing the first indication of how much Performance Forte Team MTB Clipless Pedals and Perl Izumi Vagabond II MTB Shoes improve my riding. That 10 minute savings is between 10 and 11 percent of my previous ride time. That's pretty huge when you consider that the cost of that improvement was only about $80.

Read on for some information about my 23-mile training route and why it's probably more intense than either half of the Baltimore to DC Fundraising Ride that I'm doing on Saturday.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Continue reading "23-Mile Pre-Tour of Hope Ride Proves the Value of Inexpensive Bike Upgrades" »

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier today I received the following email from my friend Cecil Ledesma who is riding with me in the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope Baltimore to DC Fundraising Ride:

I wanted to see if you received your official rider # and packet in the mail. I have not. Should I be worried?

Kathleen and I were returning home from a weekend in Boston, so I hadn't seen what arrived at our place on Saturday. I told Cecil that I had exchanged emails with a Tour of Hope organizer who told me that the rider information packets were being mailed at the end of last week.

When we arrived home at about 4:00pm today, we found an envelope addressed to me from the Tour of Hope which had been sent from Trenton, NJ (about 10 miles from our house). This contained a 13-page magazine that says 2005 Registration Packet on it.

Last year, DC Fundraising Riders received a lot more stuff in the pre-ride mailing. This year, they only sent us the informational booklet. I guess this means that there will be a lot more to pickup at the Packet Pickup that will take place at the JW Marriott in Washington on Friday or at Howard County Community College on Saturday (beginning at 5:00am).

My wife and I will have to adjust our strategy at the start this year. We have to arrive earlier and she will have to park the car, because my jersey will not have a number affixed to it before I arrive. I'll probably want her to take some of the stuff they give me at the Packet Pickup, so I'll have to go register and come back to the car. It almost makes me wish I had time to go into Washington on Friday night to pickup my packet at the hotel.

In any event, if you are riding on Saturday and you haven't received your Rider Information Packet, you should be receiving it in the next couple of days.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I just checked the forecast for Washington, DC on several different weather services for Saturday's Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope Baltimore to Washington, DC Fundraising Ride. With five days to go, there is some disagreement in what the weather conditions will be:

• Weather.com: Showers, between 47 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit, chance of precipitation 60%
• Accuweather: "Clouds giving way to some sun", high of 64 degrees Fahrenheit, winds out of the North Northwest at 16 miles per hour with gusts up to 32
• National Weather Service: "A chance of showers. Partly cloudy, with a high around 61. Chance of precipitation is 30%."

Let's hope for no rain and light winds, but start thinking about what we'll do (how we'll dress, what our family members will wear, etc.) if it's raining on Saturday.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This morning I checked my Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope Rider Donation Page, and found that donations received as a result of my 2005 appeal have exceeded $1,000. Check donations have begun coming in recently. They took longer to be processed than credit card donations did.

Thanks to everyone who is supporting the Tour of Hope again this year. I published a list of my donors for 2005 here on Operation Gadget yesterday and I'm adding the names of new donors as their donations are received.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Qualcomm has contributed its OmniTRACS fleet location network technology to the 2005 Tour of Hope National Ride. Here's an example of the kind of up-to-date progress map you can get to follow the National Team:

Tour of Hope National Ride Current Location Map: Uses Qualcomm OmniTRACS Fleet Location Network and Google Maps to display the current location of the Tour of Hope National Team. This image is was current on September 30, 2005 in the early afternoon, when the team was southwest of Phoenix, Arizona. [ Image: Tour of Hope ]

That's a really cool use of GPS technology!

If you're interested in keeping an eye on the National Team's progress across the country, visit http://tourofhope.org/ride/2005_national_route/current_location_map.htm.

When you visit that page, use the controls on the map to zoom out at least two or three zoom levels. I did this before I took the screen shot of the map showing Greater Phoenix. I doubt that most people will be able to identify the location of the National Team at the default zoom level.

I was shocked when I saw this map, because it looks so similar to the map I produced of the 50-mile Baltimore-DC Fundraising Ride Course a few weeks ago. I'm glad to see that we're employing state of the art technology.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Chris Brewer, chief operator of ThePaceline.com and 2003 Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope National Team Member, is writing a daily update on the 2005 National Team's ride across the country. Here are the reports I've found so far:

• Tour of Hope: Day 1, The Start in La Jolla
• Tour of Hope: Day 2 Part 1, Team A Rides on Interstate 10 in Arizona
• Tour of Hope: Day 2 Part 2, The Tour at 110 degrees Fahernheit
• Day 3, Dr. Harry Slocum solos to finish on Category 2 climb in Hanover, NM
• Day 4, Ride through Austin and the "Lance Thanks Austin" Concert
• Day 5, Rally at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston
• Day 6, Lance Joins the Team as they pass through Jackson, Mississippi
• Day 7, Chris Brewer views the Tour from the perspective of the chase vehicle affectionately known as "Centcom"
• Day 8 overnight, National Team groups stay on pace despite heavy rain, Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie join the ride at midnight near George's U.S. home of Greenville, SC

I will update this article as Chris publishes more reports from the road. [ Registration required to read articles on ThePaceline.com ]

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope has published a list of local events during the 2005 National Ride. These events will be coordinated with the passage of the National Team through the city. The events are as follows:

• Thursday, September 29 at 10:00am, La Jolla, California at Scripps Green Hospital
• Friday, September 30 at 11:00am, Phoenix, Arizona at Maricopa Unified Schools
• Saturday, October 1 at 4:00pm, El Paso, Texas at El Paso Cancer Treatment Center
• Sunday, October 2 at 3:45am, Austin, Texas at Texas Capitol Grounds (team transition only)
• Sunday, October 2 at 4:00pm, Austin, Texas at Auditorium Shores (Lance Armstrong event)
• Monday, October 3 at 12:00 noon, Houston, Texas at M.D. Anderson Ambulatory Clinical Building
• Tuesday, October 4 at 11:00am, Jackson, Mississippi at UMC Cancer Institute at Jackson
• Wednesday, October 5 at 11:00am, Atlanta, Georgia at Centennial Olympic Park
• Wednesday, October 5 at 5:00pm, Greenville, South Carolina at South Main Street and Camperdown Way
• Thursday, October 6 at 10:00am, Charlotte, North Carolina at Buddy Kemp Caring House
• Saturday, October 8 at 9:00am, Washington, DC at The Ellipse (Grand Finale)

If you live in any of these areas, change your schedule and plan to attend! The experience of seeing the Tour of Hope National Team is truly unique. Their motivation is incredible. Everyone I know who has attended one of these events has told me that they had a great time.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The 2005 Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope National Ride will begin today at 10:00am at Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla, California.

It's hard for me to believe that the coast-to-coast ride is beginning today. I wish the riders good luck, particularly Jeff Tredup-- a researcher at BMS from Pennington, NJ who I had the opportunity to interview two weeks ago.

We're only 10 days away from the Baltimore to DC Fundraising Ride and the Washington, DC Grande Finale on The Ellipse across from the White House. If you're in the Washington area on Saturday, October 8, come down and see about 1,000 people ride in support of cancer research.

If you still haven't made a donation to this worthy cause, visit my donation page at http://www.active.com/donate/DCride/dave_aiello and help out. You'll be glad you did.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I want to thank my friends and family who are sponsoring me in the 2005 Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope Baltimore to DC Fundraising Ride. They are:

• Kathleen Aiello
• Ernie Aiello
• Jennifer Colangelo
• Ken DeGhetto
• Carol Ann and Bradley Forrest and their kids
• Mark Graber
• Julie, Robert, and Emma Howson
• Joyce and George Kuykendall
• Mary Kuykendall
• Pat McClure
• Lisa McGrath
• Howard and Marion Medow
• Ramona Morel
• Joe and Jennifer Pilaro
• Sesh Rengaswamy
• Claude and Louise Sanford
• Ray and Carole Weisner

I'll add my other sponsors to this list as I'm told about them by the ride organizers.

So far this year, my sponsors have contributed $960 to the cause of cancer research. This is less money than we raised together in 2004, but I think that many of us donated what we could to Gulf Coast Hurricane Relief and gave a bit less to other causes that raise money at this time of year.

It's going to be a great thrill to ride on behalf of my sponsors. I'm taking their stories and those of their loved ones who have been affected by cancer with me to Washington. I'll have a lot of stories and photos from our trip here on Operation Gadget in the 2005 Tour of Hope Section.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've had a hard time making time to write for Operation Gadget for the past week. On Friday, Kathleen and I were in Maryland attending her brother John's graduation from a three year on-the-job training program. It turned into an all-day affair because most of Kathleen's family was there to attend and celebrate afterward.

This week I've been working on two different projects for clients of my Weblog Improvement consulting business. I'm working on a huge set of deliverables for my friend Chris Nolan, a journalist based in San Francisco. It's so much work that I probably won't be done until the end of next week.

Today I finished a small project for Harris Salat, a writer and producer who blogs about food and exotic culture. He calls his blog He ate well and I've had fun reading his articles during breaks in the stylesheet and template wrangling.

I'm trying to make time to ride my bike because otherwise I'll show up for the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Ride without enough miles in my legs. So far this week, I took one afternoon when I otherwise might have written some articles for Operation Gadget and hit the road instead. I'll probably have to do this again tomorrow.

I guess it's good to be this busy, but I'm feeling pressure from every direction. Maybe I should look back at some of the suggestions I made in the Productivity and Organization section of this site.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last week I took advantage of a great sale and bought a pair of Peformance Forte Team Mountain Bike Pedals and Pearl Izumi Vagabond Mountain II cleated shoes from Performance Bike. Up to now, I've been riding with pedals that have toe clips on them, which I knew was taking away from my biomechanical efficiency.

Performance Forte Team MTB Pedal Mud-shedding alloy body, dual-sided entry, dual-force retention spring with adjustable entry/release tension. 4 degrees float. Compatible with Shimano SPD cleats. Wt: 370g/pr.

I've wanted to make the switch for a long time, but I've always been concerned about the process of acclimating myself to clicking my shoes into pedals that act very much like ski bindings. When I use toe clips, it's easy to pull my feet off the pedals. The clipless pedals, however, require you to turn your foot at the heel so that the cleat on the bottom of the shoe rotates and clicks out of the binding mechanism. You have to do this at a point in the pedal rotation where you have little or no weight on the pedal you are trying to detach from. You can fall if you fail to detach your foot properly.

I installed the pedals yesterday, put on the shoes, and rode around on the grass in my back yard, trying to master the process of clicking my shoes in and out of the pedals. I only fell once.

Today I went on my first long ride with the shoes and pedals. I rode 15.6 miles in 1 hour 6 minutes 7 seconds. I don't think I've been this nervous on a bike since I was a kid. The sensation of having my feet locked to the pedals didn't feel too weird while I was riding at a normal speed, but at times when I was braking and I needed to put my foot on the ground I felt a momentary sense of panic. This happened two or three times on the ride-- but I didn't crash.

I now realize why so many road bikers break collarbones while riding. They get themselves locked into their pedals and have difficulty getting out of them in emergency situations that call for deft bike handling.

I need to do much more riding over the next two weeks. If I'm able to do it, I'm sure I'll lose the nervousness I feel before I ride in The Tour of Hope Washington DC Fundraising Ride.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

If you're participating in the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Ride, doing the 50-mile route, and asking to be informed about shuttle services to the start line as I did, what was your reaction when you read this passage in an informational email that we all received last week?

As you know, shuttles will be made available for your convenience to transport you to the ride start locations. Many of you selected the shuttle option upon registration. However, as you will see from the shuttle schedule below, departures to the 50-mile ride start in Howard County from the JW Marriott will depart between 4:30 - 5:00 AM. If you wish to reconsider driving to the ride start, there is ample free parking on the campus at Howard County Community College. You will then be shuttled back to your car at the college campus after the Grand Finale activities on the Ellipse.

You probably asked yourself, "Are there any hotel options close to the start?"

Yes. Marriott has a number of good options. Search using the city "Annapolis Junction, MD". The rates drop on Friday night in some of these hotels because they house government workers and contractors during the week.

Hilton has a hotel in Columbia, MD. I would recommend choosing the "Search all brands" option on their site when doing a search.

Kathleen and I are staying at one of the Marriott properties and driving our car to the start. Kathleen is going to meet me at the finish at The Ellipse, so she will probably drive from the start to a Metro station and take the train in to Washington. We will have other family there with us as well.

As a reminder, the start locations of the Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Ride and an approximate map of the 50-mile ride course can be found on here on Operation Gadget.

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Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

2005 Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Ride:
This is our best guess at the 50-mile
route map. I used Gmaps Pedometer
to convert a cue sheet to a map. Click
on the picture of the map to see the route
in a Gmaps Pedometer window.
[ Image: Gmaps Pedometer / Google Maps ]

Bryan Katz, a fellow Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Rider and Rensselaer alumnus, sent me a cue sheet for the 50-mile route of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Ride along with the following question:

OK Mr. Gadget... is there software anywhere that would translate the route sheet to a map?

The easiest way I know to do it without a GPS tracking file is to plot the map using Gmaps Pedometer, which is what I did. Kudos to Maria Norton who told me about Gmaps Pedometer back in August.

There are a couple of unresolved issues with the route as I've plotted it:

1. The route through Rockville is a little messed up. The cue sheet isn't clear on the turns when you're skirting around the downtown area. I'm guessing that the route will go from Norbeck Road/MD 28 onto Wootton Parkway, but the cue sheet doesn't say that.
2. In that same area, I followed the wrong road between Muncaster Mill Road/MD 115 and Norbeck Road. This is probably why the route length I've plotted is only 47.78 miles long.

I'll correct those problems and update the article when I have time.

Updates:

1. Bryan Katz provided the URL for the cue sheet: http://www.tourofhope.org/ride/2005_dc_ride/dc_ride_route_log.pdf.

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Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Attention Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Ride Applicants! Cecil Ledesma just pointed out to me that the deadline for raising the $500 minimum donation is Monday, September 19, at 11:59pm Eastern Time. That's about six days from today.

The organizers impose a cut-off so they can ship out registration packets in time for qualified riders to receive them. If the organizers do what they did last year, they will count donations received after the deadline toward a rider's fundraising total.

Last year I raised $1,000 by September 15. We probably won't make it to $1,000 by the 15th this year, but we may make it to $500 by then. If you want to help out, all you need to do is click on the big Help Dave ride the Tour of Hope button. You'll be sent to a page where you can make a tax deductible donation to the Tour of Hope by credit card. Instructions are also there for making a donation by check. Thanks for your help.

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Posted by Dave Aiello at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Another thing I found out yesterday was the two start locations of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Ride:

• 10-mile route: Glen Echo Park, Glen Echo, MD [ Google Map ]
• 50-mile route: Howard County Community College, Columbia, MD. [ Google Map ]

Those of us who need a place to stay can start looking for hotels in the area now.

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Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night I got an email from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope regarding shuttle services between the start of the 50 and 10-mile ride routes and the finish line at The Ellipse in Washington, DC. The message began:

Thank you for registering for the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope DC Fundraising Ride. We are delighted with the overwhelming response to this year's ride. We have reached our capacity of 1,500 riders and registration is now closed.

I said to myself, "Yikes! The total amount of money that the Lance Armstrong Foundation has received from my donors is only $355 at the moment. I better not be closed out." Then I re-read the email and information about the DC Fundraising Ride on the web, and I realized that the Tour of Hope organizers accepted 1,500 registrants who agreed to try to raise $500 or more.

The question now becomes: How many of the 1,500 will successfully raise $450 beyond their initial $50 contribution?

I think most of the 1,500 that registered will succeed in raising the extra $450. Last year, about 900 riders successfully raised more than the $500 minimum required to ride. If more than 900 surpass that figure this year, we can expect to see the $800,000 fundraising total exceeded as well.

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Posted by Dave Aiello at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The M.D. Anderson Cancer Center published an article in its September 2005 about the important contribution that the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope is making to boosting participation in cancer clinical trials. According to the article:

The challenge of increasing trial participation is great. Of the 1.3 million Americans diagnosed with cancer (of all types) each year, only about 3% participate in clinical trials, {Maurie Markman, M.D. Anderson Vice President of Clinical Research} says: "If only 3% of our population continues to participate in clinical research trials, that’s going to slow down our ability to gather critical information to help the next generation of cancer patients."

New drugs and new combinations of existing drugs need testing to improve cancer survival rates.

"The only way to know if any of the exciting new drugs are safe and if they are more effective than current treatment is to do trials," Markman says. "We’re on the brink of a potential revolution in our understanding and treatment of cancer. We understand more about biology today, about unlocking the secrets of cancerous tumors, than we could have ever imagined 10 years ago. However, it’s slow, meticulous work that demands the absolute protection of patients who potentially are going to be research subjects. There is no cutting corners, period."

The article goes on to point out obstacles to clinical trial participation and the potential for immediate and long term victories against cancer through greater participation in clinical trials. This is why we're all riding in The Tour of Hope.

The Tour of Hope will stop at the M.D. Anderson in Houston on October 3. If you are in Houston, you can be there and make the promise.

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Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)