Mark Power of Power On Cycling will be helping us showcase Tampa, Florida's Greenway excitement (see link below) with our ride next summer. His sponsorship makes the southeast an official player in next summer's 3rd Annual National Mayors' Ride. And as he does so, he joins Angle Lake Cyclery in Seattle, actress/cyclist Libby Aubrey's School of Champions in the Los Angeles area and Reynolds Weld Lab in the Boston area to round out all four corners of the US on our ride to Chicago next summer.
So we now need a rider or riders to crank the 936 mile distance from the June 1 Tampa reception to July 2 Washington, DC where, after the Western Pennsylvania Field Institute (WPFI) people soon start cranking their publicity motors, the whole eastern seaboard is going to know we are coming. And as George Reynolds starts his ride on June 21 from Boston to New York and as the Nation's Capital soon starts to come alive with well known two wheel advocate Larry Black's (owner of College Park Bikes) connections, such as possible mind blowing performances by Janet Bressler, etc, the East may be as noisy as the West where singer/songwriter Claire Machado and her band C.A.M. Engine will be on tour with relay riders going from LA to Chicago!! And once our ride does leave the east coast for Pittsburgh, WPFI and Ro Fischer and the rest of Mayor Tom Murphy's office will receive them with a mini parade, police escort and speakers like they did in 2002 as per the link noted at the end (storms last year fully scuttled an ever bigger 2003 program).
There is so much excitement going on on both coasts, it is truly hard to keep it all straight. Wee Whooooo!!!!
If you want to know more about Mark's Power On Cycling, here is what I wrote Jan 22, 2003:
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After successfully filling the gap for hard to find recumbent parts left vacant by first Cyclopedia and then HPV Supply, Mark Power wasted no time taking his mail order business to a whole new level as soon as he retired from the Air Force (he was there 25 years!!) this last summer. In the Tampa FL area, he opened up a shop for Power On Cycling http://www.PowerOnCycling.com where he is now also an official dealer for Rans, HP Veloteknik, Challenge, M-5 and Easy Racer. In addition, he recently purchased the rights to the Swanson hard shell seat pictured at http://www.PowerOnCycling.com/RECUMBENT%20SEATS.htm. The homebuilder's dream, these seats are available in fiberglass and carbon fiber.
Having watched the traffic to his site grow and grow, I know his outstanding success has been all about service. And it is toward that end, that we made recumbents that much more 'power'fully visible for everyone!!
Yahooo!!!!!!
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Mark is truly a sweetheart of a guy worthy of our support!!
Links for above:
2004 National Mayors' Ride
Tampa Greenways
Libby Aubrey's School of Champions
Angle Lake Cyclery
Reynolds Weld Lab
Western Pennsylvania Field Institute
College Park Bikes
Janet Bressler
Claire Machado and her band C.A.M. Engine
Pittsburgh 2002