Get ready: FCBA 2011 is almost upon us

With just a little over a month until the start of this year’s Bike Adventure trip from Seattle, Washington to Washington, D.C., we can almost feel that cool Pacific Northwest breeze whipping through our bike tires already – and it seems that the shorter our countdown gets, the more our excitement grows!

But we’re not jumping out of our desk chairs for nothing (and no, we don’t just want to escape the escalating heat of the unfolding Georgia summer). The blueprint for this year’s journey is truly promising to be the best yet in the four-year existence of the Fuller Center Bike Adventure.

Here’s why:

First, have you checked out our Meet the Riders page? We have 22 incredibly interesting, fun people signed up to ride the entire way, including Jonas Winn, who will ride on a tall bike, Krystal Goodwin and Michael Tiemeyer, a couple getting married in May who met on the 2009 trip and will participate in this year’s trip as unconventional honeymooners, and Tadeusz Dymowski, who hails all the way from Poland.

Aside from these cross-country adventurers, we’ll also have 34 riders who have signed up for one or more of our week-long segments. That brings our total number of participants to over 50!!!

Additionally, we have a couple of NFL players joining that rank, including Leonard Pope of the Kansas City Chiefs, who will serve as our honorary chair. Check out this video highlighting Leonard’s involvement here:

Former Washington Redskins player Brian Mitchell will also join our last day of building, and will assist us in promoting the ride in the D.C. area.

Speaking of builds, we have seven planned along the way that riders can look forward to. On these workdays, we’ll take advantage of the opportunity to give our time to a Fuller Center project … and give our legs a break by rolling up our sleeves and getting our hands dirty! We also will have some big events planned in Seattle, Kansas City and Washington, D.C. – our beginning, middle and end!
 
Overall, our logistics planning is going quite smoothly as well, thanks to our amazing support committee of past and current riders. We already have 35 churches and schools that have agreed to host us, and now only need fourteen more to do the same.

Also, the design for the 2011 jersey has recently been completed and is in the process of being printed! Check it out:
 

Lastly, we know that many of you may be thinking, “Wow, what a great event. It’s a shame I can’t get time off this summer to join all of those awesome cyclists.” Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about you. This year we’re introducing a new way to get involved called the Virtual Rider, which allows you to be a part of the excitement and help support The Fuller Center at the same time. Visit the Virtual Riders page to learn more: www.fullercenter.org/bikeadventure/virtualriders

And that, in a nutshell, is why we’re so excited and you should be, too!

Please help us keep the excitement going and spread the word – check out our blog for updates, “like” our new Facebook page (www.facebook.com/bikeadventure) and tell all your friends to do the same.

Thanks for your continued support and prayers!
 

– The FCBA team