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09-26-05, 08:36 AM
http://www.projo.com/blackstone/content/projo_20050924_bvbike.227d2e6d.html
Colombia-bound riders aim to break cycle of violence
01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, September 24, 2005
BY TATIANA PINA
Journal Staff Writer
CENTRAL FALLS -- The truck is filled with water, sports drinks, trail mix, bicycle equipment and a first-aid kit.
The riders are ready for their long journey to spread peace.
Three men -- Bladimir Rodriguez of Rhode Island, Chip Kent of Massachusetts and Carlos Giraldo of New York -- will leave from Central Falls City Hall today at 10 a.m. to embark on a 5,000-mile trek to Medellin, Colombia. They will be accompanied by the commissioner from the International Union of Cyclists of Colombia, Dario Meneses, and Central Falls resident Reynaldo Perez, who will drive the support truck filled with supplies.
The cyclists are riding to spread the message of the need for peace in civil-war-torn Colombia and to draw attention to domestic violence. The men will be riding 100 miles a day and will rest every seventh day.
For Rodriguez, a member of the Narragansett Bay Wheelmen, today could not come soon enough. He has waited for 10 years to embark on this dream. He is married to a Colombian woman, but has been afraid to let his children visit the country, he said.
"I feel great. I'm anxious. I want to get going. We have been waiting for this moment a long time," said Rodriquez, the owner of Intercontinental Travel, on Broad Street in Providence. He has been preparing for the trip by biking 50 miles almost every day of the week.
The group raised $9,000 with activities such as a Colombian music recital at the Visitors Center, in Pawtucket. The amount is not enough for the trip, and each man will end up paying about $5,000 out of pocket for hotels and food, Rodriguez said.
For Carlos Giraldo, a cycling champion in his native Colombia, the trip's mission was something he couldn't pass up. "I liked the mission, the hope that each day there will be less violence in our countries."
Giraldo has bike shops in Queens and Washington Heights, in New York.
The Tour de Paz, or Peace Tour, will take the cyclists through Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and, finally, Colombia, where word of the trip is out. They expect to arrive Nov. 24.
Colombia-bound riders aim to break cycle of violence
01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, September 24, 2005
BY TATIANA PINA
Journal Staff Writer
CENTRAL FALLS -- The truck is filled with water, sports drinks, trail mix, bicycle equipment and a first-aid kit.
The riders are ready for their long journey to spread peace.
Three men -- Bladimir Rodriguez of Rhode Island, Chip Kent of Massachusetts and Carlos Giraldo of New York -- will leave from Central Falls City Hall today at 10 a.m. to embark on a 5,000-mile trek to Medellin, Colombia. They will be accompanied by the commissioner from the International Union of Cyclists of Colombia, Dario Meneses, and Central Falls resident Reynaldo Perez, who will drive the support truck filled with supplies.
The cyclists are riding to spread the message of the need for peace in civil-war-torn Colombia and to draw attention to domestic violence. The men will be riding 100 miles a day and will rest every seventh day.
For Rodriguez, a member of the Narragansett Bay Wheelmen, today could not come soon enough. He has waited for 10 years to embark on this dream. He is married to a Colombian woman, but has been afraid to let his children visit the country, he said.
"I feel great. I'm anxious. I want to get going. We have been waiting for this moment a long time," said Rodriquez, the owner of Intercontinental Travel, on Broad Street in Providence. He has been preparing for the trip by biking 50 miles almost every day of the week.
The group raised $9,000 with activities such as a Colombian music recital at the Visitors Center, in Pawtucket. The amount is not enough for the trip, and each man will end up paying about $5,000 out of pocket for hotels and food, Rodriguez said.
For Carlos Giraldo, a cycling champion in his native Colombia, the trip's mission was something he couldn't pass up. "I liked the mission, the hope that each day there will be less violence in our countries."
Giraldo has bike shops in Queens and Washington Heights, in New York.
The Tour de Paz, or Peace Tour, will take the cyclists through Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and, finally, Colombia, where word of the trip is out. They expect to arrive Nov. 24.