Date posted: April 12, 2010

March 28, 2010 at 7:00 am the Mountain Bicycle Riders started to show up for a 6 hour Mountain Bike Endurance Race to benefit Jack the Bike Man, Inc. This took place in Dyer Park of Palm Beach County.  This is on the site of our old land fill and has been converted into a great park for outdoor activity. The weather was as usual great, cool slight breeze and the sun was out in all of its glory.

Annual event to benefit Jack the Bike Man, Dyer Challenge III

Dyer Challenge III participant

Dyer Challenge III participant

The entrants were all signing in and stretching in preparation for the 6 hours of grueling fun and exercise.  Almost 20 people entered this year’s race.  There were 1 man teams, 2 man teams, three man teams and a 4 man team. The ages were from 11 years old up to 73 years old.  It started on time at 8:00 am. The winning team members in each category received a prize of $200.00.

Here are photographs of all of the entrants out for a great ride. This will let you see how beautiful the ride at the park is.  There is more that 500 feet of climbing in every lap.  The laps consist of 2.5 miles.  Please note that this park is the only mountain available in Palm Beach County and possibly all of South Florida for mountain bike riding.

Sam won the challenge last year with 21 laps and was hoping to make 22 this year.  He out did himself by completing 23 laps by 2 pm.  Our Championship 2 man team consisted of Pablo (15 years old) and Santos (11 years old) Lopez.  They got off to a rough slow start but actually completed 19 laps by the end of the race.

Everyone had a really great time.  There were some old timers who have been there for all 3 years in the past as well as a few newcomers.

After the race was finished we all went to a pavilion where we had a mountain of Pizza and refreshing things to drink.  There was a drawing for many prizes, all donated by our local bicycle shops. Then there was the final drawing for a Diamondback $1,499.00 mountain bicycle.  Everyone who entered the race received one ticket for paying the entrance fee.  Then for every $50.00 additional they received from people that sponsored them they were given another ticket.  This was a lot of fun.

This event has been presented by Tom at the BICYCLERY on Military Trail in West Palm Beach.  Force Mountain Bike Club has been maintaining the mountain bike trail for the county for several years now and has been great supporters of this event. Juan at Velo’s Bicycle Rider shop on Boynton Beach Boulevard donated the raffle bicycle. Stan at Wheels of Wellington on Forest Hills Boulevard along with Dave from all 3 locations of Bicycle World has always been big supporters of this event. Fat Cat Bicycles now called Relentless Bicycles on Lucerne Avenue in Lake Worth can always be here to help with our events.

Join us next year for Dyer Challenge IV.  Late March will be the time as usual.  We also are interested in corporate sponsorship in order to help this fun event grow and prosper.