Mike Creed (Optum) following stage one of the Merco Cycling Classic. (Image credit: Wil Matthews)
The fires that swept through Colorado Springs in June destroyed over 300 homes, leaving at least one person dead, but the heavily populated cycling city has bonded together to raise funds for those effected.
It started when Optum Pro Cycling's Michael Creed, a resident of Colorado, attempted to pitch in with the efforts of the Red Cross. However, with no training or expertise, Creed said he felt helpless to aid his community.
"I've just tried to raise as much cash as possible," he told Cyclingnews. "That's become the goal. It would be great to give back to the city in some way."
Creed opened his address book and began contacting riders from the peloton.
"The first guy I contacted was Lance Armstrong. He's donated a Tour de France race manual from one of his wins. It's signed and it has his race number on it. He responded really quickly. There are other guys too: [Levi] Leipheimer, [Chris] Horner, Taylor Phinney, [Danny] Pate, [cycling companies] Time and Orbea, Ben King. We've got a lot of cool stuff. Trek sent in [George] Hincapie's old time trial bike and Pate has an old Cervelo. Then, guys from the Tour, [Tejay] van Garderen and [Peter] Sagan donated signed white and green jerseys from the Tour.
"Another cool thing is that so many other people are helping out. People just donated things like sunglasses and sent them in."
Creed has enlisted the help of the Pro's Closet and all of the donated items will appear on their eBay page for auction between August 8-15 (none of the items are yet listed on the current page): http://stores.ebay.com/The-Pros-Closet/_i.html
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Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
