Finger Lakes Tour de Cure will return to Webster on June 10

19 Apr

The 2023 Tour de Cure: Finger Lakes, the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) premier cycling event, is returning to Webster on June 10.

This huge event draws cyclists from all over the area, riding courses ranging from 12 to 100 miles, which begin and end at one of the Xerox parking lots off of Chiyoda Drive (across from the Rec Center). It’s the ADA’s largest fundraising event of the year,

And you want to talk about a party atmosphere? The day of the ride, that lot is filled with tents and music and fire trucks and food trucks, thousands of bikes and people. Webster can be very proud to be hosting this, one of the biggest Tours in the whole country. And it’s extremely well organized.

Thanks in large part to the event’s signature sponsor, West Herr, Tour Day will feature two live bands, food trucks and a kids’ zone. So basically this is a fantastic event for the whole family.

The COVID pandemic punched a big hole in participation, but Rochester riders are coming back in force. Last year 800 adults and children participated, raising more than $600,000 to help end diabetes. Organizers are expecting about the same in 2023, welcoming riders from Syracuse and Buffalo as well as Rochester.

But they need our help. Organizers are looking for cyclists to participate. Routes are available for all ages and abilities. You can find out more and sign up here. Many volunteers are also needed to help the event run smoothly. Click here for more information about that.

For at least a couple of years, Rochester’s Tour de Cure was the biggest Tour in the country. Unfortunately, that distinction was recently taken from us by Napa Valley, but if we all pull together this year, we’ll get to #1 again.

Here’s a little more information about the diabetes epidemic:

More than 37 million Americans have diagnosed diabetes, including more than 1.7 million in NYS alone. An additional 456,000 people in New York have diabetes but don’t know it. More than 5 million people in New York who have prediabetes, with blood glucose levels higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.

People with diabetes have medical expenses approximately 2.3 times higher than those who do not have diabetes. Total direct medical expenses for diagnosed diabetes in New York were estimated at $15.1 billion in 2017, with an additional $6.1 billion spent on indirect costs from lost productivity due to diabetes.

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(posted 4/19/2023)

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