This has to be a huge disappointment for 1,500 cyclists who raised money to ride the final leg of Lance Armstrong's cross-country Tour of Hope.
Heavy rains in Washington DC forced cancellation of the grand finale activities at the Ellipse, where the grounds were flooded. Dave Aeillo, the blogger at Operation Gadget, took this picture from the starting line at Howard County Community College. It's obviously very wet.
The grande finale 50 miles away from the ride start in Howard County was to mark the culmination of a 3,300-mile one-week ride by 24 cyclists whose lives have been touched by cancer. Huge crowds met the team in cities across the southern states; Armstrong appeared at some of the rallies, and picked up the tour in South Carolina with Discovery Channel teammate George Hincapie.
On Saturday, some 1,500 cyclists who raised funds for cancer research were to ride 50 miles through Maryland to the White House Ellipse where they'd meet Armstrong and the Tour of Hope team. Live music. Cycling booths. A video portrait of the Tour.
But this simple message was posted on the Tour of Hope website Saturday morning:
“Due to flooded and unsafe ground conditions on the White House Ellipse, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope Grand Finale activities scheduled for Saturday, October 8 have been cancelled.”
The Tour of Hope teams had run into Tropical Storm Tammy as they pedaled up the Eastern seaboard states the past couple of days. It looks like Tammy and the Tour hit Washington DC about the same time.
The blogger at Operation Gadget, himself a two-time finale participant, has had excellent “wall to wall” coverage of the Tour of Hope all week. I'm sure he'll update as soon as he dries off and gets back to a keyboard.
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