Diabetes Grand Tour 2014 Sponsoship

Last year I took part in the mHealth Grand Tour, for my part riding 500km into Barcelona - day 11, day 12 day 13.  This had been my biggest cycling challenge to date.  Not only was I able to ride it with my brother, Andy - also a type 1 diabetic since the age of 13, but also many other people with diabetes.  We learned so much from each other and it was great to have the support of a ride organised for our benefit, catering to our every need, from food and energy supplies to CGM sensors.  Not only was I lucky enough to have a place on the tour, and be physically able to take part but my family and friends sponsored my ride to the tune of around 2500 pounds.  That was a big donation towards TeamBG, and has helped the team with events this year.

This years tour will run from Barcelona to Vienna starting on the 30th of August, and I am doing the whole thing.  Having asked family and friends last year to sponsor me I did not want to pressure people once again for money, even though this year I am taking on a bigger challenge.  So I went a different route.  I asked for company sponsorship in exchange for having logos printed on a custom shirt.  As a result I have had all my costs taken care of through the sponsorship of some great companies.  It has helped me pay for the tour, travel, the cost of training (energy gels and bike parts) and printing some custom kit.  As I have had my costs taken care of it has meant that I have been able to make a large personal donation to TeamBG.

It is with great appreciation that I would like to thank all the people that have pushed at the relevant companies for me to get sponsorship.  It means a lot to me that they regard me and our relationship so highly that you would do this for me.  So a big thank you to Shira, Brenda, Keren and Amir for helping me out.  You have made this very special for me and it will not be forgotten.

Of course here I will introduce the sponsors whose contributions who I am eternally thankful for:

Wix - Wix.com is my employer.  They have given me time off work to do the whole ride and made a substantial donation.  They are a great company to work for and though I have only been there a short time I feel like an established member of the team.  Wix is an online platform for building websites.  You can use it to build a website with zero programming ability.  There are many features and add-ons available to enable the users to create professional looking sites. With 50 million users it is the biggest platform of its kind.

Dario - Dario makes an app and a device that plugs into a smartphone audio port.  They have just released the device in the UK and from September the strips will be available on the NHS prescription.  The app itself does not just allow you to track blood sugars but also food intake, insulin dosages and exercise.

Kitchenbug - The best way to describe this is Pintrest for recipes.  If that means nothing to you, then its a web app that allows you to collect recipes found on the web into different collections.  You can share the recipes and collect other peoples recipes, but the best part is that when a recipe is collected the information is read from the website or blog and converted into a formatted recipe. The recipe has the ingredients and directions along with the nutritional information.  This is especially useful for people with diabetes who are trying to manage their carbohydrate intake.

As a diabetic I need to make sure I have plenty of energy products when I am out training

Trek - One of the biggest names in cycling, their local franchise gave me a huge discount on essentials, some new kit and full service.  They sponsor my team here in Israel and have carried that over to sponsor me on the tour.  They give me great service every time I go in there, whether its to buy a couple of inner tubes or to fix a wheel.  I ride with many of the guys that work there regularly, they a great group of guys and fun to ride with.

Supplies from Trek - New front wheel, new tyres and spare tyres, inner tubes, gas, gloves, shoes, socks, dregreaser and oil

Funkier - Producers of both my team and my tour kit.  I gave my new shorts a test ride today and they are the most comfortable shorts I have worn.  They were extremely patient with me getting the design exactly right before printing up some long and short sleeve shirts with the above sponsors names on.  They look great and allow me to show off everyone that has helped me get to the tour.

Custom kit from Funkier, short and long sleeve shirts, bib shorts, gloves, socks and sleeves

Taking the sponsors out for a spin

If you would still like to make a donation to TeamBG then please feel free to do so.  Click near the top right of the page (the donate button) and when you have the option to give a reference just say its in my name.  The more money we raise the more events we will be able to put on next year, the more we can continue to help the wider diabetic community.

Thanks to all my sponsors and supporters I couldn't do it with out you.

Keep up to date with my progress by following my blog, and twitter.

You can also follow my rides on Strava.