Information on MS charity rides and other

In 2003, as part of my heart attack anniversary rites (my heart attack and bypass surgery happened in 1999), I decided to put my riding skills and training to a new purpose, which is raising money for Multiple Sclerosis. Most of the details can be found in the fundraising letters below.

Thank you all for your contributions for the 2004 Waves to Wine ride. The ride took place on September 18, and over $13,660 was donated.

For any donations, if you do this online and work for Adobe, I'd like to be more explcit about matching funds procedures. Simply stated (both contradicting the MS web site and being easier for you), all that you have to do is to email me your employee number. I will handle the paperwork (doing one large matching funds request for all Adobe contributors). If you have met your matching funds quota, or do not wish to have this contribution count against your quota, please let me know this by email also.

I am also doing the MS ride (100 miles in one day) around New York City on October 17, but I'm not doing the same level of fundraising that I did for Waves to Wine. Contributions are accepted through December 1.

2004 Waves to Wine information

• The fundraising letter (pdf)
• The Adobe Fundraising letter (pdf) (revised to clarify matching funds)
• For those of you who contributed to this event, my thank you letter and summary is available. Also, a visual summary of the ride is here.
• Home page for the event, the event details, and an elevation profile for the ride.

2004 New York Bike Tour:

• You can contribute to this on the NY MS web page.
• Details on the ride are available here and a map of the ride (pdf).
• I also have a personal description of the ride and a photo gallery.

2003 Waves to Wine information:

• The fundraising letter (pdf)
• The thank you letter sent after the ride (pdf) (contains a number of pictures)
• MS Society summary of last year
• Adam Pauls summary for 2003 (see his main page below for other ride reviews)

California and area Bike Ride Resources:

• Western States Bicycle Ride Calendar - This is my primary resource for rides
• BikeCal.com - California Bicycle Guide
• The Bay Area Velo Girls Cycling Club -- San Francisco, CA -- Organized Rides - has honest reviews of most of the bay area rides
• Adam Paul's Ride Reports - this is a great resource that has long narratives and many photos of bay area and California rides
• Western Wheelers Links- Rides, Tours, and Centuries - The local bike club (Palo Alto) links to local rides
• Almaden Cycle Touring Club - if anything would count as my local bike ride, this is it. Tierra Bella was my first organized event when I began this
• BikeTheWest.com - Nevada's Best Bike Rides - I did OATBRAN across Nevada and it was a great, well supported ride.
• Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC)
• Mountain Biking in the San Francisco Bay Area