“Ride from the heart and anything is possible” rings the catch-cry of the Leave It On The Road team. They’re inspiring words, especially poignant for this group of cyclists whose lives have all been touched by the disease of cancer.

I’ll wager there are few readers whose lives haven’t been hurt by cancer in some way. The mission of the LIOTR team is to raise awareness of cancer and raise funds to fight the battle against it.

Michael Tabtabai established the Leave It On The Road program in 2013 after his father lost his ten year battle with cancer and, along with Andrew Hudon, whose mate Rick lost his own battle, have been organizing these rides since.

In 2013, they rode 3500 miles across the US in 24 days. In 2014, Michael rode 1400 miles and in 2015, Michael and six friends rode from Portland to San Fransisco in eight days and covered 1400 miles in 14 days after meeting up with the Fireflies West crew.

The rides continued in 2016 and in 2017, they set off again, two days ago, on a very special edition: Conor Brady’s father Bill lost his battle with pancreatic cancer in 2013 and in honor of his own favorite ride, set out on an epic tour of Ireland.

‘The Big Lap’ entails a loop of 1000 miles in 10 days around Ireland, just like Conor’s father Bill used to do every August upon his trusty Holdsworth. The LIOTR crew recreated the route from Bill’s old maps and Conor’s own memories of riding it with him.

As in previous years, Speedvagen donated these special machines for the team to ride, which will surely bring a ray of Portland gold, pink and white, to the green shores of Ireland. You can follow their journey on Instagram and make a donation on the website.

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