12.13.2009 | 5:39 pm
It’s been a whirlwind of a weekend, and I am beat. But I want to put up a couple photos and give the bare-bones highlights.
First, I saw the Madone, signed by Team RadioShack. It’s a thing of beauty. Here are a couple photos:
Next, I got a big surprise — Trek and Johan decided that they wanted me to have a Madone as well. Not to borrow. To keep.
Yeah.
Check out my big goofy grin.
Prior to the ride, I gave giant checks to Lance — for the money we raised for LiveStrong — and to Johan — for the money we raised for World Bicycle Relief.
The ride was — intense. I had a ball riding with the pros, until they sent each other a mental signal to one another to drop me.
Check me out. Riding with Lance.
I’m pretty sure he’s checking out my quads.
And then, after the ride, Johan announced the big surprise he mentioned in his video to us.
That’s right, the big surprise wasn’t the Madone.
The big surprise is…they’re going to fly my family and me out to see a stage of the Tour of California, and I’m going to get to ride in the team car.
Here’s Johan and Lance telling me about this, shortly before my jaw hit the floor.
I have lots and lots of story to tell and even some video to show. I’m going to start working on that tonight.
Assuming I don’t sleep through the afternoon, night, and into tomorrow morning.
Cuz, as I believe I have mentioned, I am beat.
Comments (163)
12.8.2009 | 8:41 am
A Holy-Cow-Did-We-Really-Do-This-It-Seems-Unreal Note from Fatty: Around 8:10pm on Tuesday, we crossed the finish line: More than $50,000 donated to both the LiveStrong and World Bicycle Relief pages.
A HUGE “thank you” goes out to Johan for putting together an outrageous challenge. An even HUGER “thank you” goes out to Team Fatty — by which I mean anyone who donated — for proving, once again, how incredibly generous people can be.
Also, big thanks to Trek for providing the Madone, to Gary Fisher Bikes for providing the FattyFly, to Nick Howe for providing the cool bonus-prize jerseys, and to Trek Travel for providing the Tour de France trip.
This has been the nuttiest contest I’ve ever done, and all the more awesome because it totally fell from the sky.
And now I get to spend the weekend in Arizona, riding with Team RadioShack. And — even more exciting — I get to give away two incredible bikes and the trip of a lifetime.
Sometimes, it’s good to be Fatty.
A Frequently-Updating Note from Fatty: For those of you who like to check up on the running contest totals (or if you want to go donate), click here for the LiveStrong Page, and click here for the World Bicycle Relief page. And to make things easy for those of you interested but too lazy to do the math yourself, I’ll update the amount-raised totals here from time to time.
- Tuesday, 10:00 AM: $79,482
- Tuesday, 11:20 AM: $83,088
- Tuesday, 3:00 PM: $91,902
- Tuesday, 4:20 PM: $94,052
- Tuesday, 8:30 PM: $101,662
- Wednesday, 6:00 AM: $104,447
Our Story So Far
For those of you who haven’t been following — and for those of us with short attention spans –here’s what’s happened so far.
- Last Thursday I wrote a blog post in the form of a resume cover letter to Johan Bruyneel, Director of the newly-formed Team RadioShack.
- On Friday, Johan replied, saying I could be on the team for a day if we raised $20,000: $10K for LiveStrong, and $10K for the World Bicycle Relief Fund. If we raised $50K — $25K for each cause — he’d also give me a Trek Madone.
- I started scrambling, figuring out how I could possibly raise that much money in under a week.
- On Sunday, I posted my response: a contest where you can win the Madone, signed by Team RadioShack, by donating to the World Bicycle Relief Fund; or where you can win a custom-painted Fat Cyclist Gary Fisher Superfly by donating to LiveStrong.
- Yesterday — within 24 hours of when I posted my contest — we hit not only the $20K mark, but the $50K mark as well. In other words, in less than one day after the contest began, you hit the stretch goal Johan set for us for the week.
- Johan began scrambling, looking for a new stretch goal.
- Last night (Monday), Johan posted a new goal, with a new prize, on his blog.
That new goal is to double the original stretch goal: raise $100,000 for these two causes by this Friday at noon.
And if we do? In addition to the prizes that will already be given away — the signed Trek Madone and the personalized, custom-painted Superfly — Trek Travel will donate one 2010 Paris Finishing Package (along with airfare) to witness the finale of the Tour de France.
Let me reiterate that point, using bold, italics, and underline for emphasis: If we can raise $100,000, someone’s going to win a trip to the Tour de France.
That is not a trivial prize. Nosirree. This is what you might call a grand prize.
And the thing is, at the time I’m writing this — 7:00 AM on Tuesday morning — we’re already 2/3 of the way there. So I believe we can do this.
So How Do You Enter?
The contest remains the same, basically (yesterday’s post has the details).
And regardless of which you donate to, you are also entered in the contest for the Tour de France trip. So when you donate at either page, you qualify for a chance the bike you selected AND the trip.
Of course, that trip is only awarded if we get to $50K for each of the causes by Friday at noon, MST.
What Are We Doing Here?
I know I’m asking for a lot of money here. Which makes this a good time for me to remind you — and me — that the reason Johan’s doing this, the reason these companies are donating their products, and the reason I’m writing this is simple and singular: to fight cancer and help kids have a better life. The prizes are cool, yes, but they’re gravy.
In short, by donating you’re doing a good thing, in a fun way. So thanks for joining me in this ridiculously awesome contest.
Oh, and also this is a good chance to make those end-of-year charitable contributions for tax purposes. Or so I’m told. Frankly, I don’t even know what that means.
Now Let’s See that FattyFly
Yesterday, I promised that as soon as Jesse Lalonde sent me mockups for the personalized and Fatty-Edition-Customized Gary Fisher Superfly — The FattyFly, as it’s now officially known — I’d post pictures.
What I didn’t count on was that Jesse would do two versions of the customization: one with orange accents (click the image to see it larger)…
…and one with pink (click image to see larger version):
Myself, I really would love to have the orange one. The winner is the one who gets to choose, though. What an awesome decision to have to make.
The Clydesdale icon is on the headtube and seatube. The cursive FatCyclist.com” appears on the underside of the downtube by the bottom bracket. “FattyFly” is a detail on the inside of the seatstay. “201” and “WIN” are on the insides of the chainstays. And as promised, the winner’s name goes on the toptube.
Here’s what the production art looks like, for those of you (like me) who love to obsess over these things (again, click the image for a larger version):
How do you get this one-of-a-kind FattyFly? There’s only one possible way: by donating to this LiveStrong page before Friday at noon.
Final Word
I’m obsessively checking our fundraising status, in part because I’m amazed at how generous FatCyclist readers are, and in part because I really, really, really want to see someone win that trip to the Tour de France, in addition to the other incredible prizes loaded up in this contest.
I wonder what Johan will propose next, when we hit $100K sometime today or tomorrow.
Comments (219)
12.6.2009 | 11:47 am
[UPDATE: This contest now includes a Trip to see the Tour de France. Click here for info.]
A Note from Fatty: If you already know the score and just came here to get to the links to donate, here’s what you need:
And now, on with the story.
First, a little background. Last Thursday, I wrote and posted a letter to Johan Bruyneel, the gag behind the letter being that I was applying for a job as a professional cyclist in the exact same way I’d apply for a job in the business world — by listing my business experience, talking about my ability to use PowerPoint, and so forth.
I did not expect Johan Bruyneel — the head honcho of Team RadioShack (the team Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner, and Andreas Kloden are all on for 2010) to reply in his own blog the following day.
You should read his post for yourself, but basically, he said that he’d be happy to have me be a pro cyclist — for a day, at the team training camp in Tucson, Arizona this Sunday. But first I’d have to prove myself, by doing the following:
Wow. That’s a lot of money, in a short period of time. But then Johan (yeah, I’m referring to him by first name) takes it a step further. If I raise $25,000 for each of these causes by Friday, they’d give me a Trek Madone 6 Series bike powered by SRAM Red.
[Update: we have passed the first milestone: we've raised more than $10,000 for each of these causes. We're now focused on the big stretch goal: $25,000 for each!]
Wow. That’s a serious challenge.
And I am more than happy to accept. And with your help I think I can knock this challenge out of the park. Cuz if you help, you might win some prizes that are going to make your head spin.
Let’s talk about those prizes now.
What You Can Win
I really, really, really want to go to Tucson and ride with Team RadioShack. Really really.
But a business week is not a lot of time to raise $20,000. And it’s definitely not a lot of time to raise $50,000. So I pulled out all the stops, and am giving away two bikes as part of this fundraising contest.
First, I’m giving away a 2010 Gary Fisher Superfly — geared, hardtail version:
This bike retails for $4200, and is my absolute bike of choice when I’m riding with gears (Yes, I own the 2009 version of this bike, purchased retail at my LBS with my own money, so I’m not just saying this because I’m friendly with the Gary Fisher folks).
These bikes are hard to come by, so on its own merits this is an incredible prize. But here’s the thing that has had me walking around in a daze since Travis Ott — Brand Manager Extraordinaire — told me:
This bike will be custom painted with the Fat Cyclist colors and logo, as well as the winner’s name.
Jesse Lalonde is doing the custom paint design, and I love his work. As soon as he has a mockup of the design, I’ll post it here.
So, to recap: the first bike you could win is a personalized, one-of-a-kind Fat Cyclist edition of the Gary Fisher Superfly, an ultra-high-end carbon 29″ high-end mountain bike, worth $4,200.
That does not suck at all, and ordinarily would be plenty of prize for a fundraiser. But like I said, I’m on a tight schedule here, so I’m going to ramp things up a bit.
Win a Madone 6-Series Road Bike, Signed By Team RadioShack
To tell the truth, I felt a little bit funny about me getting a bike when I’m asking you to donate money (don’t worry, I’m donating too).
So I asked Johan’s rep if — assuming we hit that $50,000 mark — I could offer the Madone as a prize to someone who donates.
He loved that idea, and took it one step further: “If you give the bike to a donor, I’ll get the team to sign that bike.
So yes, you can win a bike like this — but with different colors, SRAM Red components, and signatures by Lance, Levi, Andreas, Chris and others on it:
That, my friends, is a collector’s item and an extraordinary prize on its own merits. And it is not easy for me to give away. But — provided we raise $25,000 for LiveStrong and another $25,000 for World Bicycle Relief — one (very very) lucky donor will get this $6.6K+ collector’s item.
One big challenge, two great causes, two incredible bikes.
How to Enter
Entering this contest is easy. And here are the rules.
- The contest began last Friday (December 4) and goes through Friday, December 11, 12:00 noon, Mountain Standard Time. That’s less than a week, so don’t wait.
- To win the Madone: For every $5.00 you donate at this World Bicycle Relief Page, you get a chance at winning the Team RadioShack-signed Madone 6-series bike. Just click here to donate, make your donation in multiples of $5.00, and you’re automatically entered.
- To win the Superfly: For every $5.00 you donate at this LiveStrong Page, you get a chance at winning the Fat Cyclist Edition Gary Fisher Superfly. Just click here to donate, make your donation in multiples of $5.00, and you’re automatically entered.
- If you donated at either of these pages before I announced these prizes, then yes, you are still entered to win these prizes.
- If you win the Superfly, you’ll get it in February or March, 2010.
- If you win the Madone, you’ll get it as soon as the team can sign it, and you’ll need to understand that their schedules can be busy. In other words, you’ll get it in a reasonable period of time, but you’ll need to be patient.
- Customs and taxes for the bike are your own problem.
- Winners will be contacted by email and phone.
Note that the Madone will only be given away as a prize IF a minimum of $25,000 is raised on both the LiveStrong and World Bicycle Relief pages. If this does not occur, then donations for the Madone contest will be entered into the Superfly contest. So you can enter the Madone contest without worrying that you may not have any chance at all of winning anything.
Win-Win-Win-Win
I want to take a moment and give a shout-out to Johan Bruyneel for his awesomeness. He took a jokey post I wrote and replied with humor and the chance to do something really amazing. Consider the effects of his reply to my post:
- I’m going to have a chance to ride with the pros, which will be completely insane, because I am a babbling fool when I am around famous people.
- We’re going to raise money to fight cancer.
- We’re going raise money to help secondary-aged students in Zambia who face extraordinarily long commutes to and from school (typically 8-12km per way) that often restricts their ability to complete basic education.
- We’re going to give away some prizes that are just unimaginably cool.
That, folks, is class.
Now go donate (here for the LiveStrong / Superfly contest, or here for the World Bicycle Relief / Madone contest)!
PS: Bonus Prizes of Awesomeness
Nick Howe, Road and Triathlon Brand Manager at Trek, read my letter and Johan’s reply and has jumped into the fray with an some career guidance for me. And as part of his post, he has offered up some very cool bonus prizes I can give away to people who donate.
First, a jersey, signed by Lance:
And second, a never-for-sale long-sleeved edition of the Astana jersey from the team most of the RadioShack guys were on last year.
I’ll give both of these away to random donors.
PPS: As of Monday, 6:45 AM (MST), we’ve raised $30,462!
As of Monday 8:50 AM (MST), we’ve raised $45,371. Holy smokes. You people are a whole new kind of generous. Thank you.
As of Monday 1:27 PM (MST), we’ve raised $55,753!
Comments (230)
11.4.2009 | 8:04 am
I have never grown a moustache (or, as we will call it from here on out, a “mo.”). This is not because I am unable to grow a mo. I expect I am quite capable of such an act, for my facial hair –unlike the hair on the top of my head–has not receded in the slightest.
And it hasn’t gone gray, either. OK, maybe I’m starting to get the odd gray stubble on my chin, but my mo-growing zone remains luxuriously thick and dark.
Here, for example, is what I would have looked like with a mo when being photographed at the Austin LiveStrong Challenge with Lori — one of the people I met at the event:
Pretty dashing, I say. And I’m not the only one who would look great with a mo. Consider Kenny, whose mo would go just swimmingly with the flavasava he’s got going on below his lower lip:
It makes him look dangerous, no? Yes!
And I understand even a certain Lance is growing a mo this month.
Holy crap. I look exactly like Geraldo Rivera. When he’s not wearing his toupee, I mean.
I think the evidence is quite clear. It’s time to grow a mo. And for the month of Movember, I am going to. I will photograph myself and post my progress frequently, so you can see how it’s going.
And — if you’re a guy — I’d like you to join me and do the same. (And if you’re not a guy, or you’re a guy without the necessary facial capability, I’d like you to convince some other guy to grow a mo on your behalf.)
What Is Movember?
(For Movember.com’s own description of themselves, click here.) Movember is the month formerly known as November. During this month, men — manly men — grow mos as a way to call attention to themselves (hey, I’m just being honest here).
Then, when people ask you “Why are you growing a moustache?” — and they will ask you this question — you tell them about the cancers affecting men, and ask them to donate to your Mo donation page (the money will be channeled to the Prostate Cancer Foundation and to LiveStrong).
So really, a mo is kinda like wearing a pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness. But a lot more personal. And harder to remove. And it’s displayed a lot higher.
What Mo Will I Grow?
The great thing about growing a mo is that for the first week or more, you have time to ponder the question: “What shape will my mo take?”
And in fact I spent considerable time considering that exact question.
Until I saw Zombieland last weekend. And now I cannot personally imagine growing any other mo than the one Tallahassee had.
First photos coming next week. I am going to look so macho.
Join Up and Maybe Win a Mo T-Shirt or Necklace
So now, I’d like to ask you to join Team Fatty and grow a mo. It doesn’t cost anything to register, and you do not have to be a guy. Anyone can join the Movember movement.
I will ask you, as a member of Team Fatty’s Mo Brigade, to send me occasional photographs of your (or your surrogate’s) Mo-In-Progress. And I will post ones I like on the Blog.
At the end of the month, I will award Movember T-Shirts to the ten most awesome (as determined either by popular vote or by me — haven’t decided which yet) Mos in Team Fatty. They look like this:
Or, if you’re a woman who got someone else to grow an awesome mo, I’ve got ten of these to award, too:
Really, I simply cannot think of more incentivizing incentives. Go sign up now, and start growing your mo.
PS: I am all kinds of swamped at work and life right now, and I’m trying to get ready for a 3-day MTB weekend with the core team. Also, this whole week is supposed to have perfect “shorts and short sleeves” riding weather, and I’d be a fool to not take advantage of it.
So I’ll be back Tuesday. Unless the weather holds.
Comments (61)
10.21.2009 | 7:25 am
I just sent an email to the winner in the “Win An Ibis, Take It Anywhere You Want, and Ride it With Andy Hampsten, Chuck Ibis and Fatty” contest, and have heard back from the winner: Kyle, of Evergreen, CO. Here’s what he had to say:
I just got into to work through the muck and snow, opened up your blog and read your description of the winner and my heart started pounding.
Wow! I’ve never won anything. Thank You! I was sitting at dinner last night and telling my wife that I felt really confident. I said it was for a good cause and winning wasn’t important so that’s usually when good things happen.
I’m 39 years old and live in Evergreen CO, in the foothills west of Denver. I’m an operations manager for a small steel company in Wheat Ridge in the suburbs of Denver. I’m married and have a 6 year old girl and a new born baby girl (5 weeks tomorrow). My wife and I were born and raised in Pittsburgh and that’s where I started mountain biking in 1993. I bought a Paramount hardtail with my first real paycheck when I got my first real job out of college. So I’m a mountain biker through and through so it will definetly be one of the mountain bikes. (I’m scared of cars so I don’t ride on the road much.)
I’m thinking California for the trip since I’ve never really ridden there ( I rode the Kamakazi trail at Mammoth and then the Flume trail in Tahoe, but that was 15 years ago) and Colorado and Utah are so close that I can ride them anytime. Maybe we can hash out between your guys expertise the benefits of both So Cal and No Cal.
Anyway, I am stoked! I’m looking forward to meeting you.Thanks for letting us all be a part of your journey as it’s affected the way I approach my own life.
Kyle seems like a great guy; I’m excited to meet and ride with him.
So What Have We Accomplished?
With the final LiveStrong Challenge of the year happening this weekend and the last big Team Fatty fundraiser push behind us, now seems like a good moment to consider a few facts about what we’ve accomplished:
- There are nearly 600 of us. 596 people have joined up to be a part of Team Fat Cyclist: Fighting Like Susan. No LiveStrong Challenge Team has ever had that many team members.
- We have raised more than 3/4 million dollars. As of the check I just did — which does not count membership fees — we have raised $761,968. No LiveStrong Challenge Team has ever raised that much money. And when you consider the economy we did this in, I think this achievement is doubly huge.
- We have gotten thousands of people to donate to the fight against cancer. Just looking at the number of people — who aren’t even signed up as part of Team Fatty — who have donated to my LiveStrong Challenge pages is hard to comprehend. Close to 7,000, I believe (which may or may not be a new record; I don’t know). And while I have definitely dangled a lot of carrots as incentives, I don’t believe anyone was making the donation simply because they thought they were going to win something.
And as far as this weekend goes, we’ve done pretty well, award-wise:
- Austin LiveStrong Challenge Team Messenger Award
- Austin LiveStrong Challenge Individual Messenger Award
- Ride for the Roses Team Messenger Award
- Ride for the Roses Individual Messenger Award
- Ride for the Roses Team Champion Award
So, um, wow.
Apart from these numbers and awards, though, there’s something Team Fatty has done for me: It’s allowed me to convert something random and evil into something meaningful and good.
So, to everyone at the LAF, to everyone in Team Fatty, and to everyone who ever donated as part of my contests: Thank you.
Seriously, Thanks
I have asked, so many times this year, for people to donate money. And now it’s time, I believe for me to give something away without asking for anything. As a “Thanks for sticking with me through one helluva year” kind of thing.
I don’t know exactly what this is going to take the form of, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be giving away a bike.
And if you’re local (or willing to make the trip), I daresay bratwurst will be involved.
Comments (55)
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