for a good cause

It's no secret that I don't enjoy riding the trainer indoors, but every once in a while something comes along that is for a good cause, worth dropping my cynical ways and giving a shout out for. This good thing is the fundraiser for Livestrong that Cycling Fusion has put together at www.cyclingfusion.com. They're taking everyday cyclists to the Giro to ride the first 5 stages a few hours ahead of the pros, and they're being sponsored mile for mile by people. All the money is going to Livestrong.

In an effort to raise as much as possible, Global Ride is doing two things:
1. They are offering their entire boxed set of Hawaii virtual cycling DVDs, an $80.00 consumer value, for free to anyone who donates $100 or more to the fundraiser via rider sponsorship. Riders are sponsored by everyday folks wishing to support the event and give money to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, from pennies to several dollars per mile.

Second, Global Ride is donating 50% of the revenue from all their everyday DVD sales to the Giretto between now and May 14th, 2009. This includes all sales from their own website, www.globalride.net, and any other third party sites where their products are listed, such as www.cyclingdvds.com.

Both of these things are running through May 14th, the day they finish up their event at the Giro.

You can get the full press release text/details here:
http://www.globalride.net/pr-global-ride-donates-heavily-to-livestrong.htm
and fundraiser info at www.cyclingfusion.com

But how are the videos you say? I'm still working on getting through them and plan to post a full review of them later, but so far they are nice. Views of Hawaii while riding are definitely a change from watching rider's asses or seeing people sitting on the trainer in a workout room with occasional shots of the chainring on the rear hub. Any indoor training video gets old to me, some faster than others, but these are a nice change to the usual suspects and done very professionally.