Emergence of “The Ride”

A little backdrop on how the 550-mile bike ride fundraiser came to be. One of the items I’ve had on my bucket list since first playing Grand Turismo on the Sony PlayStation in 1997 was to see, in real life, the F1 cars speed through the streets of Monte Carlo and along the waters of Port Hercules. I was supposed to do this in 2020, but COVID had other plans.

As 2021 rolled to an end and the building blocks for Taskforce Uplift were beginning to fall into place, I knew we were going to need a meaningful event, a real attention grabber to kick things off. I remember being inspired by Milan Dinga’s, a West Point grad and US Army Operations Officer veteran, race that he ran from Key Largo to Key West to raise money for the Johnnie Mac Fund. It was a heck of a challenge, inspired many to follow along, donate, and show their support for his worthy cause. I thought to myself, Taskforce Uplift needs an inspiring, challenging, veteran led event to raise awareness and rally the military community around the mission.

I made a few calls to some long time Army buddies, pitched the idea to do a bike ride starting in Barcelona and finishing up in Monaco, and a couple of them were bold enough to accept the challenge. Mind you, I have never cycled in my life. I consider myself to be in pretty good shape, ran a few marathons, workout regularly but 550 miles on a bike, um, nope. How hard can riding a bike be right? 550 miles, over a 20-day period, seemed doable. As the planning started the 20 days were quickly condensed down to 10 due to scheduling constraints. Now, 50 miles a day for 10 days straight for a guy that never cycled before, that fit the bill of an attention getting challenge! It certainly grabbed mine! Truth be told, I really didn’t understand what I was getting myself into until I had to buy a bike, trainer, riding gear, and hop on the bike trainer combo for my first two-hour training ride. Naïve, yeah, just a tad. Relentless in the resolve to complete the mission? Absolutely.

In the end, we all accepted the challenge not because we wanted to see Europe, relive the glory days when we were young and bulletproof, or to see if the old bones still had it. We did so because we all believe in the Taskforce Uplift mission and the impact their services will have on our veteran youth. Programs that will help provide mentorship, new perspectives, technology, and training. Because empowering and providing access to these kids and their families inspires us to break the cycle of our day-to-day routines and demonstrate through our actions our commitment to give back to those in need and ultimately hold the future of America in their hands. Tomorrow is never guaranteed and a dream is unlikely to come true standing still. Have the courage to take a chance, be directionally correct, and the tenacity to overcome the obstacles that stand between you and making your dreams come true. The time, is now. If the Taskforce Uplift mission or the veteran bike ride for laptops fundraiser inspires you, please consider donating. Thanks for following along!

Steve