Oh, the weather outside is ...

... a cyclist's nightmare. As the riders and crew meeting began tonight, this is what was happening outside. Fingers crossed for a dry day tomorrow!

It wasn't much drier inside. Riders are now covered in names of the people for whom they're riding, both in memoriam and in recognition of their strength in fighting cancer and surviving it.

Everyone gathered in one big room, and shared their stories of why they're here doing this ride, either as riders or as crew.

One of Tony's sister's closest friends has breast cancer. She has two young children, the same age as our kids. I can't even type that without tearing up.

The young man standing in the centre of the photo, said, "I'm volunteering because I lost my mom when I was 7." There wasn't a dry eye in the room.

There were other quotes:

• "I'm here because cancer research saved my son's life."
• "I would have died if I'd had cancer 10 years earlier."
• "My neighbour, she's dying, and she's got two little kids. Cancer research kept her alive for Mother's Day."
• "My mom was given 4 weeks. We lost her when I was flying the woman I would marry to meet her for the first time."
• "My stepkids lost their mom when they were 13, 14 and 16. She was 39."
  

And one rider read out a letter from Lance Armstrong to the group. (Click to make it bigger.)


I'll leave you with a shot of Tony's legs, with many of your loved ones' names on it. There will be more photos in a blog post that he'll be writing.