About Rick's Ride

Jesse Czelusta's goal is to ride the entire course of the 2008 Tour de France and to raise five dollars per kilometer for the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program and Kinetic Kids  in honor of Rick Shelton.  To date we've raised $6320 and Czelusta has completed the Tour de France!

The course this year was challenging, with most of the 21 stages over 200 kilometers in length. There were two individual time trials and three mountain stages, one of which finishes atop the legendary Alpe d'Huez. Czelusta started most stages at 5 o'clock in the morning (before the peloton) and hopes to finish each day in time to watch the peloton arrive.

Jesse cycled each and every complete leg of the race - just as if he were competing - mere hours in advance of the competitors.  Unlike the competitors, he has no support crew and is carrying everything he needs with him on the bike, making the ride that much more challenging.  He cycled or took a train between each phase (many of the segments are many miles apart).  For more on his training plan, check out this blog entry.

[more after the jump]

About his motivation for the tour, Jesse says:

"Rick would have enjoyed analyzing every piece of this year's race, predicting (usually correctly) impending doom or approaching victory for riders in the individual classification. By the end of July, his DVR would have been full of Phil Ligget and Bob Roll, and on July 26th, the day on which the Tour's outcome will be finally decided, he would have called  in great excitement to discuss the results. Then we would have gone for a bike ride. Rick, in the witty, impassioned, conversational way that only Rick could, would have embued his favorite local climb--Toutant Beauregard--with all the glory of Alpe d'Huez. For a moment, as we sweated our way to the summit, we would have relived the Tour together.

I will see much of the Tour first-hand this year, and will toil over the same roads as the peleton. This challenge will be more than athletic; it will be logistical, nutritional, mental, ultimately spiritual. It will also be fun. I expect to set a dual record--most baguettes eaten and most Bordeaux drunk while completing the course. I may even learn some French.

I hope that my ride--Rick's Ride--will inspire others to chase their own dreams and to give something back. I learned a great deal from Rick; and if he taught me anything, it was this: Live now, for yourself and for others."

Please honor Rick's memory by making a tax-deductible contribution. All donations go directly to the charity of your choice - the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program or Kinetic Kids - and will immediately make a difference in the life of a challenged athlete. Donate $50 or more and receive a free one-year subscription to Index Rx (a $199 value).

Merci beaucoup!