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Building Blocks: Patrick Dempsey
Building Blocks
Actor Patrick Dempsey wants to accomplish two things with his ride this fall: help families fighting cancer and get more people on bikes. By Loren Mooney Click here to find out more! Why a bike ride for your cancer center? Well, it's full circle for me. My mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and has had five bouts with cancer. I grew up in Lewiston, Maine, so I asked my sister, who works at the Central Maine Medical Center: What do families need for this incredibly difficult journey, and how can we provide that? Then we established the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope and Healing. The cycling happened because I was involved with the Breakaway from Cancer initiative at the Tour of California a few years ago, and I started riding again after years away from it. I wanted a fun and healthy way to raise money for the Center and help build the cycling community as well. What is it about cycling that works so well for this sort of thing? There's a lot of time to think on a bike. You experience a lot of emotions, feeling euphoric and happy, or sad, angry, frustrated. Cycling can be therapeutic. The benefits are physical, mental and emotional. You can draw a parallel between biking and fighting cancer. There are good days, bad days, days you're winning and days you're losing. Cycling is a great metaphor for whatever challenge you're facing. Your event is called the Dempsey Challenge—what's the challenge? I want to get people active. We organized it so everyone can take part. My mom doesn't cycle; she walks, so we have a walk. You can ride 10, 25, 50 or all 100 miles. People who may not consider themselves cyclists can contribute and see what the sport is about, and the hard- core cyclists still get the event they want and deserve. We have Medalist Sports managing the event and taking care of the cyclists on the road, so you know they'll be safe. And Specialized will offer prizes for top fund-raisers—all kinds of gear, including a Roubaix Pro and maybe some other surprises. With the Center, we want to provide a sanctuary for people going through cancer. And we hope the ride provides that same sense of community. Both communities are important. Right. I've also reached out to a lot of the cycling clubs in Maine, who have been incredibly supportive, to give them a platform. I remember my first exposure to cycling. I watched Breaking Away as a kid, and it got me to go out and buy a bike, a Schwinn Le Tour with the shifters on the handlebar. But there were very few clubs to go to then. It was almost a stereotype—the loner kid who took up cycling. Was that you? Yeah, because cycling was great dry-land training for ski racing, which I was doing then. I met this crazy old cyclist, and he became kind of a mentor. Every now and again I would beat him up the hills, and the next day he would just thrash me. That was the only guy I knew who cycled hardcore— he was this grandfather character. When People magazine picks up on this, they'll ask: Did you shave your legs? Ha! I didn't have any hair on my legs to begin with. This was, like, junior high school. Should we expect any star sightings at the Dempsey Challenge? Oh sure. George Hincapie was the first to say, "I'll be there." Tom Boonen is coming. David Zabriskie, who I kept running into in California when he was training last winter—on one ride he found me on my route and snuck up from behind to scare me to death—I'd love for him to come. And it'd be great to have Lance. We'll see how everybody is doing at the end of the season. Have any Hollywood types signed up? No, I've reached out more to the cyclists. But I'm open to entertainment people too. A lot of guys from the [Grey's Anatomy] crew are coming—they're big cycling fans. We're hoping it becomes an annual event. We'll certainly raise a lot of money, but next year we'd love to have a race too, to help develop young racers in New England. So you're planting a cycling flag there. That's the vision. You know, if you're in my position where you have a certain visibility, there's an obligation to give back, now more than ever. DEMPSEY CHALLENGE October 4, 2009; Lewiston, Maine Options: Four rides between 10 and 100 miles Cost: $75 registration fee; no fund-raising minimum Info: dempseychallenge.org Raise $10,000 and join a private group ride with Dempsey, plus George Hincapie and other pros. Raise $500 to receive a Hincapie jersey, and $1,000 earns you a personalized autographed photo of Dempsey. http://www.bicycling.com/article/0,6...9198-1,00.html |
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