Mike Thompson is training for America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride in Lake Tahoe, Calif., next month.
Team in Training members must meet a fundraising goal to participate in an event. For the Lake Tahoe, Calif. ride next month, the amount is $4,200. Besides training for bike rides, Team in Training members also prepare for triathlons, marathons and distance hikes. RECREATION Mike Thompson pedals down a two-lane country road, legs pumping hard as he keeps up with a pack of cyclists training for a 100-mile bike ride around Lake Tahoe. Thompson, 23, a fitness counselor at Gold’s Gym in Austin, has no fibula in his left leg. Doctors removed the calf bone nine years ago and used it to reconstruct his cancerous right jawbone. That hasn’t stopped him from riding with his 30 Team in Training teammates, who will culminate five months of training June 7 by doing America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride in Lake Tahoe, Calif.
“From that seed, the whole Team in Training program was born,” says Andrea Greif, director of public relations for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, based in Massachusetts.