So here’s the idea. We get as many riders (intermediates to advanced) that we can to ride our self made “Little Giro” – or Giretto d’Italia for cancer under the LIVESTRONG banner. This will consist of just the first 5 stages of the actual Giro, done about 5 hours in advance of the Pros, but covering every km that they cover. The fact that the founder and worldwide ambassador for LIVESTRONG™ , Mellow Johnny himself, will be riding “right behind us”, makes the event all the more perfect!

For most of us mere mortals, this will be an incredible feat. Outside of an almost ceremonial short team time trial on Stage 1, the next 4 Stages will cover 403 miles, with Stages 4 & 5 well into the mountains. That’s basically 4 consecutive century rides. Not something one does without extensive and serious training.

I will have our webmaster set up a contributions page whereby friends and family can sponsor riders for anything from 10 cents per mile, to 10 dollars per mile. Minimum funds to raise will be $1.00 per mile, and each person doing the ride must pay all their own expenses, estimated at about $1,500 to $2,000 (which includes airfare). This is not a vacation, or a simple bike tour – it is a CHALLENGE event. For me, it will be the hardest riding I’ve ever attempted, especially since having two hips replaced. Maybe Floyd Landis can give me some pointers – his artificial hip didn’t seem to slow him down very much at the TOC. We will not have any time to do anything before or afterwards – except rest, recuperate and get ready for the next ride. We will need to train hard and ride smart.

The real difficulty of doing this is principally in the timing. Having “day jobs”, we can not relocate to warmer climates for training. Here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania winter riding outside can be both dangerous and not very much fun. However, we have learned the power of indoor training, and as such have opened our own training center expressly for this purpose; Global Ride. We have had fantastic results in our first year, and as a result we are trying to form a new online community dedicated to improving indoor cycling for outdoor performance – we are calling it Cycling Fusion.

We believe that we can introduce more people to cycling, leading to more participants in Charity events of all types. Likewise, we can help existing cyclists get more out of the sport if they will support our efforts for transforming indoor cycling; which right now amounts mostly to educating the owners or managers of their respective clubs. The Giretto could well be the kickoff event to help raise awareness of our mission, and raise funds for the LIVESTRONG™ foundation. What do you think?