Released: November 15, 2012

This year?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s MS Bike Tour event which took place October 6/7 from Hammond to McComb and back was a great success for team Dan-Gulf.
 
We had the oldest riders, the prettiest girls, the guys with the best looking legs, the fastest riders and we collected a total of about 60K, and got both the first prize for individual fundraising as well as the team having raised the most money. This was all possible due to our team efforts, collecting money from you, our generous sponsors, and to whom we are very thankful.
 
This year a total of about 1200 people had signed up for the tour out of which 30 riders joined the Dan-Gulf team.  This was our biggest group ever and we looked cool in our new uniforms.  We had riders come in from Calgary, the honorable Mr. Jan Beringer from Rohde + Liesenfeld who collected 15K hitting up all his rich friends, and we also had guys in from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston including our dear port captain Josh Jordan who had no time to train as we keep him busy loading/unloading ships, but he did it, and we will ask him to do it again next year just in case he is in doubt.
 
As our team had collected the most money, we got a privileged start from Hammond where all the Dan-Gulf riders got to start up front behind the BP and top 100 riders (individuals who collected the most money year 2011), whom we smoked as soon as we got the green light, and we were off to McComb, full speed ahead.
 
As usual the route going up had rolling hills, and we had a head wind most of the way.  We lost a couple of water bottles which were quickly recovered, and I encountered a flat tire, hitting an obstacle or perhaps too much weight on the bike.  At any rate Courtney and Heather took off, with no consideration for their dear team captain along with Johnny and Asger and that was the last we saw of the girls until we reached the finish line.  For the records our ?¢‚Ǩ?ìA?¢‚Ǩ¬ù group caught Asger and Johnny, who both looked like they needed a stretcher after having been worked over by the girls for 50 miles or so, before the sisters decided to drop them, so we decided to drop them as well.
 
As usual Courtney was the first girl over the line, and most of our ?¢‚Ǩ?ìA?¢‚Ǩ¬ù riders finished in top 20 that day.   I had a taxi ride the first day with James dragging me over the hills, and he refused to leave me, so I had to hang on for my dear life and his wheel, but I made it.
 
We had a couple of rookie riders on our team who never had ridden 75 miles in one day before.  One of them being Michael Rasmussen from Rock It Cargo, but he made it in fine style.  Later he told me that whenever he was about to give up, and it started to be a little painful on the hills out there, he thought of people having MS living with this disease daily, and that made him think ?¢‚Ǩ?ìIf they can live with this, then I can do this ride?¢‚Ǩ¬ù and on he went.  Michael also collected over 8K for cause, so good going.
 
Other than that all our riders did well, no casualties, and all riders finished within a respectable time frame, including Jorgen Jorgensen.
 
Although I was not the first over the finish line, I was number one in the massage room, where about 15 girls and boys were ready to beat us up one final time for the day.  After they cracked every bone in my body,  we all met over at Chris Cappo?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s family RV, where we had steaks, chicken, potato salad etc prepared respectively by my his father and my mother in law.
 
After our BBQ we attended the award presentation where we proudly received our fund raising awards for this good cause.
 
Following that we had a couple of cigars, and Asger had his usual 20-25 draft beers in the same beer mug he brings every year.  The beer intake along with the dark road back to our cabins resulted in Asger taking a well-deserved crash, but the bike was okay.
 
I believe most of us slept well that night (despite I had to share a bed with Robert, as my wife Mersedeh opted to sleep with my famous mother in law, Queen Mary,  rather than me), and after a good night?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s rest, we woke up to a nice cool morning, so we got to use our arm warmers which came in handy for the second day?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s event.
 
The Second day?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s route was the same as going up, except we had more downhill, so that suited most of us well.   From the start we got a group of about 10 Dan-Gulf riders together, until James Stevenson got bored and just took off.   For a quick moment we all evaluated whether we should  try and keep up with James risking a heart attack or just finish behind him, so in a split second decision we decided to make James look good, and he crossed the finish line in Hammond the second day as the number 1 rider, and we had a total of 10 Dan-Gulf riders finish in top 15.
 
Only big screw up on the second day I am aware of, was when Mister Jan Beringer of Calgary forgot to install his battery back on the bike for his electronic gear shifting system, as he had taken it out to charge overnight, although it?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s usually good for 1500 miles or so, and he only had a couple of hundred miles on the bike.  Result not having a battery in, is that you cannot shift gear, and you are stuck in one gear!!  So he had to make a stop and reinstall the battery, to enable him to use all 20 gears, and that was all we saw of Jan that day until he crossed the finish line later.  Much later!!
 
All in all a very nice tour for our team.  We had a lot of fun, and we are all very thankful for the donations received and appreciate your support of team Dan-Gulf, and also a big thanks to all the riders on our team who made us look good, especially Shane with his yellow stockings, sexy!
 
Also special thanks to Liz and Pam from our office, who transported our gear back and forth, babysat for riders?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ left over kids, assisted our young riders from the office with mental support explaining to them it?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s okay to cross the finish line hours after someone who is 25 years older than them, but again Josh and John did okay.  They will toughen up as they get older, hopefully!
 
Last but not least, thank you to Martin for getting out there early, and serve as our private photographer as well as Anastasia driving the car for Martin.
 
See you next year.
 
P.s. This was the 7th year Lowell did not participate .
 

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