RACE ACROSS AMERICA

Kevin Bespolka,  together with Stuart Baldwin, Marc Christensen, Mark Colman, Andy Cooper, Chris Peters, Fred Horwood and Nicky Szápáry have entered the RACE ACROSS AMERICA 2017 (raceacrossamerica.org) to CYCLE FOR CAMERON.

The Team Jersey

This cycle race is amongst the toughest in the world because of the 3,070 mile length (longer than the Tour de France), the non-stop 24/7 racing format, the mountain climbs totalling 176,000 vertical feet and the extreme weather conditions.  The desert sun heats temperatures to well in excess of 100 degrees (+40C), while the passes in the Rocky Mountains can bringing freezing temperatures.  The elevation low point is 187 feet below sea level and the highest is 10,856 feet. Team Cycling for Cameron will cross 12 States, three mountain ranges and four time zones, supported by an enthusiastic crew of 13 volunteers helping with directions, food, logistics, support vehicles and much more.  The logistical challenge is not to be underestimated.  Moving, feeding and housing a convoy of over 20 people in perpetual motion across the USA over the course of a week requires meticulous preparation.  The difficulty is compounded by the fact that much of the race goes through parts of the US that are sparsely populated with few services, have extreme weather and difficult terrain.  RAAM will be a very intense challenge for both racers and crew, with sleep being a particular challenge.   

The 36th edition of the race starts on 17th June, 2017 in Oceanside, California and the team plans to finish 7 days later in Annapolis, Maryland. We will be updating our blog on a regular basis as we approach the start so please follow us by signing up to receive our blog via email or by following us on Facebook.  We will also be streaming live footage of the racers during the race so please check back to watch our progress and for information on how to access the stream.   Cycling aficionados can find more information on the race at www.raceacrossamerica.org.  

We are all honored and excited to be doing this in Cameron’s memory and to raise awareness and support for the Cameron Bespolka Trust.  This has special meaning to all of us, in many different ways.  We are very pleased that so many people have come together to make this happen, putting in countless hours of training and preparation.  Please visit the other areas of the website for more information about what the Trust has accomplished and future plans. 

Please support us in any way you can. Any amount is so much appreciated and will make a huge difference to our work. All the costs of the ride are being met by the riders and Cameron’s family so all support, from both donors and sponsors, goes 100% to supporting the Trust’s work. We are so very grateful for all the support we have received so far. A huge thank you for all the donations and encouragement, with a very special thank you to our sponsors. We look forward to sharing our journey with you. Don't forget to sign up on our blog to get the latest news and some live action!

Sponsors

Thank you so much to all our sponsors for their very generous and kind support.

We are so proud and honoured that you will be part of our journey to CYCLE FOR CAMERON

EAGLE GOLD LEVEL

 


OSPREY SILVER LEVEL


KINGFISHER BRONZE LEVEL


ROADRUNNER

There is still time to sponsor six other racers. Please email us if you are interested:

thecameronbespolkatrust@gmail.com




We have 3 Locations for Donating:
1. UK & Europe and Rest of the World
2. USA
3. Canada

 

1. Donations UK & Europe and Rest of the World

Click button below to make your donation:

OTHER WAYS TO DONATE:

DONATING BY BANK TRANSFER

Our bank details are:

The Cameron Bespolka Trust
CAF Bank
Sort Code   40-52-40
Account number: 00024811
IBAN: GB51CAFB40524000024811

DONATING BY CHEQUE?

By sending a cheque, payable to the Cameron Bespolka Trust, to:

The Cameron Bespolka Trust
St Giles House
St Giles Hill
Winchester SO23 0HH
England

If you are supporting us by transfer or cheque, can you please send us a Gift Aid form so that we can claim Gift Aid from HMRC.

You can either mail it to us at the above address or by email to thecameronbespolkatrust@gmail.com.

2. Donations USA


Please donate to a Fund we have set up with CAF America.  This Fund will receive money on behalf of the Cameron Bespolka Trust (this is a service they provide for quite a few UK charities) and they will forward the money direct to us.

CAF is registered with the IRS and they will send you the usual 501c letter used as proof for tax deductible donations. Please follow this link to our fund page:

MAKE A DONATION

To make a donation by Wire Transfer:

Either WIRE TRANSFER
Charities Aid Foundation America (CAF America)
Account #001923459009
ABA Routing #026009593
SWIFT: BOFAUS3N
Bank of America
730 15th Street NW 1st Floor
DC1-70-01-08
Washington, D.C. 20005 USA

Or ACH TRANSFER
Charities Aid Foundation America (CAF America)
Account #001923459009
ACH Routing #054001204
Bank of America
730 15th Street NW 1st Floor
DC1-70-01-08
Washington, D.C. 20005 USA

CHECKS
For checks, please make them payable to: CAF AMERICA and send to:

Kelsey McCarthy
CAF America
225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 375
Alexandria, VA 22314 USA

Please fill out a Gift Form if you are making a wire transfer or check donation. This Gift Form is requested by the Tax Authorities.

Gift Form

The form can be emailed directly to Kelsey@cafamerica.org or it can be mailed with the check. 

Thank you very much for your support.

3. Donations Canada


Please donate to a Fund we have set up with CAF Canada.  This Fund will receive money on behalf of the Cameron Bespolka Trust (this is a service they provide for quite a few non-Canadian charities) and they will forward the money direct to us.

CAF Canada fully complies with Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) regulations, permitting them to provide Canadian donors with a charitable tax receipt.

To donate online please follow the following steps:

  1. Go to https://www.canadahelps.org/dn/20291
  2. Select Cameron Bespolka Trust Fund Canada from the first dropdown box.
  3. Make your donation.

 

CHEQUES
To donate by cheque, please make cheques payable to: CAF Canada and send together with this form to:

Howard English,
CAF Canada,
100 King Street West,
Suite 5600,
Toronto,
ON M5X 1C9

This form is requested by the Canadian Tax Authorities.

WIRE TRANSFER
To make a donation by wire transfer:

WIRE TRANSFER INFORMATON

Charities Aid Foundation Canada
100 King Street West
Suite 5600
Toronto, ON, Canada, M5X 1C9
Transit: 00002
Account: 1320993
Royal Bank of Canada
Main Br - Toronto
200 Bay St. - Main floor
Toronto, ON
M5J 2J5
Swift: ROYCCAT2
Sort Code: //CC000300002

Thank you very much for your support.

The Cameron Bespolka Trust is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. Registered Charity Number 1156567.

Racers



Stuart Baldwin
Yattendon, England

Stuart heads a global team that focuses on private infrastructure investment for GIC, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund. Stuart looks at a wide range of different infrastructure investments from airports to utilities, and is excited by the thought of doing a detailed study of 3,089 miles of smooth American roads as he and the Cycling For Cameron team race across America.

Stuart lives in Berkshire, UK, where the roads are definitely not smooth. Stuart discovered cycling 5 years ago after many years of running badly and related minor injuries. Starting from indoor spinning classes, Stuart has now discovered a passion for carbon, lycra and power meters. His biggest cycling challenge to date has been the 21,000m of vertical climbing in last year's week long Haute Route Alps race from Nice to Geneva over many of the Tour de France classic climbs.



Kevin Bespolka
Winchester, England

Kevin has spent the last 30 years working in the financial markets of New York, Tokyo and London for investment banks and Hedge Funds, active in capital markets and investing.  He is currently employed in the UK as an asset manager.  Kevin is lucky enough to be married to Corinne and have experienced raising Cameron, Megan, Nicholas and Sienna.

Kevin has been cycling since his teenage years, enjoying long rides with friends in the Japanese, English and French country sides.  Cycling highlights include a Paris-London one-day race and cycling up Mt Fuji. He had to miss out on a planned cross USA cycle ride 30 years ago but has finally getting to a chance to go cross country and couldn’t be more excited.


Generously sponsored by



sponsor



Marc Christensen
Landrum, South Carolina

Marc is the Founder Chairman of the Board of OTW Safety, a company started in 1989 to provide plastic revenue generating special events barricades for the America’s Opening World Cup Ski Race in Park City, UT. Today, Marc is the CEO of Dented Brick Distillery, a pretty big jump from barricades, but having a dented cranium, seems to work. Marc lives in Landrum,SC with his amazing and athletic wife Amy, raising goats, chickens, horses, dogs, cats, and any other strays that stop by the farm.

Marc has a passion for cycling, and is redeveloping a passion for road biking in the western Carolina foothills after spending the last 10 years as a recreational and downhill mountain biker. No stranger to road racing, Marc has competed in many Salt Lake City based criteriums and road races as a Category 4 rider, (30 years ago) and is reminiscing these painful moments as he trains for RAAM. Cycling career highlights include following the Tour de France with Marty Jemison Cycling Tours, climbing Alpe d'Huez, riding in the Pyrenees covering the French Spanish border in the basque country, and riding the mad max downhills of Whistler-Blackcomb with Kevin Tisue



Mark Colman
New York, New York

Mark lives in NYC with his indulgent wife Bridget (another Torontonian) and their two teenage daughters. They will be celebrating their 25th Anniversary in an RV somewhere during RAAM. He enjoys/suffers through various endurance sports and has completed the London and New York Marathons, the Etape du Tour twice (including Alpe du Huez) and countless Century bike rides. Most of these efforts have been for charity and other good causes, but none as important as this one.


Generously sponsored by



sponsor



Andy Cooper
Larchmont, New York

Andy is the co-founder and co-CEO of Unison Energy, a company that engineers, installs, owns and operates highly efficient onsite electricity co-generation facilities for hospitals, hotels, grocery stores, and other large facilities. He has more than 30 years of experience in venture capital management and investing, and has founded and run five companies and served on the boards of many other public and private companies. He lives in Larchmont, NY with his wife and two teenage daughters.

Andy has been riding since he got his first 10-speed, a Gitane, when he was 10 years old, living in Guadeloupe, and his sports idols were Eddy Merckx and the local riders. He loves endurance adventures, starting first when he was thirteen and walked the Appalachian Trail for two summers with a high school buddy. He’s skied the Haute Route from Switzerland to Italy with Kevin Bespolka and friends. Andy is thrilled to be riding the RAAM in memory of Cameron Bespolka and with this passionate group of riders and crew on the Cycling for Cameron Team.  Onward and upward for Cameron!



Fred Horwood
New York, New York

Fred is an Assistant General Counsel at Time Warner Inc. responsible for all real estate and related matters including major real estate development projects in New York and London such as the Hudson Yards project on the West Side of Manhattan. He has worked at the company since 2002. He lives in Scarsdale, New York with his wife and two daughters.

Fred raced road bikes from 1994-2003 when he started to focus on long distance triathlons, competing in 10 Ironman triathlon races, including the World Championship race in Hawaii. He has also competed in 24-hour mountain bike races, the Leadville 100 mountain bike race and ultra trail runs from rim-rim-rim of the Grand Canyon to a Northface 50K trail race. RAAM has been of interest for Fred since some of his friends competed in the race in the early 1990’s. He has been a cycling fan ever since he saw Greg Lemond in the 1978 Junior World Championship race in Washington, D.C. Being able to participate on a RAAM team will bring years of interest and training to the test and will be satisfying especially because it will be for such a good cause.



Chris Peters
Salt Lake City, Utah

Chris is the owner of Endurance Cycle Service, a bike repair shop located in Park City, Utah.  After working in the bike industry for many years he decided to start a shop focused on service and repair with a friendly environment for all customers!  In the winter Chris guides ski tours which offer a unique experience of skiing up to 6 ski areas in one day.  He lives with his girlfriend Morgan and their fur child Sam, a Minpin/Jack Russel mix.  Sam is his #1 training partner on the mountain bike.

Chris has been using the bike as an excuse to travel different parts of the world for the past 20 years.  Cycling has taken him to New Zealand, Guam, Costa Rica, all over Europe and beyond!  Mountain biking is his first passion but after having spent 2 summers riding road bikes in Europe it is now a toss up.  A few highlights have been watching and riding routes of the Tour de France in the French Pyrenees as well as racing 4 days across Costa Rica on a mountain bike!



Nicky Szápáry
Dobersberg, Austria

For the last 23 years Nicky (and his wife Stephanie) have been living 2/3 of the year in Austria and Jan-May in Florida. He teaches shotgun sports to beginners through Olympic level on both continents. His wife Stephanie and 3 grown sons seem to understand his mid-life crisis. Nicky has kept reasonably fit over the decades ... he was very fit as a teenager/young man while competing in Skeet-shooting on the international circuit for 11 years on the Austrian team. When in his twenties Nicky owned a race bike and rode it for a couple of years as recreational sport on and off. This is the first real long distance/continuous/multi day bike riding for him.


Generously sponsored by



sponsor


Race Crew



Megan Bespolka
Crew Member

Megan is currently studying at Rollins College in Orlando, Florida. She is taking a liberal arts degree, with a possibility of majoring in Studio Art. She also plays on the Lacrosse Team for Rollins.

She enjoys drawing and working out. She is looking forward to Running for Cameron next November as part of the Marathon team that are running in Cameron’s memory to raise funds for the Cameron Bespolka Trust.

She is very excited to support her father and the whole RAAM team and be part of this very exciting cycle race.



Nick Bespolka
Crew Member

Nicholas is just finishing his first year at St. Andrew’s University in Scotland where is studying geography, Management and Economics.

A keen golfer with no cycling experience.  He is very much looking forward to supporting his father and the rest of the RAAM team Cycle for Cameron.



Maureen Cahill
Crew Member

Started my athletic career as an Irish step dancer, retired at 18 and started competing in Triathlons & various running races. Competed throughout the 80's with overall wins in Lake Placid, Liberty to Liberty & Thundergust triathlons. Also competed in the 1988 Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii. Once again retired & got married and have the privilege of raising 5 children with my husband Dan. When not chasing kids around I enjoy gardening, traveling and live in Montauk N.Y & Vero Beach Fla. So look forward to being part of an amazing RAAM team!!



Sharon Dean-Andres
Crew Chief

Sharon lives in Oakville, Ontario with her 2 children. This will be Sharon’s second year crewing RAAM - first time as Crew Chief. She is thrilled and honoured to support the entire Cycling for Cameron Team.



Stephen Jones
Crew Member

Stephen lives in Markham with two dogs and his incredibly supportive wife. Stephen has a background in long-distance rides through randonneuring as well as cycle touring. He loves RAAM because the RAAM riders makes randonneurs look sane. This his is first time crewing for RAAM and he's really looking forward to it.



Roger Meadows
Crew Member

I live in Brighton & Birmingham UK with my partner and our amazing, inexhaustible Jack Russell Terrier, Patch. I'm really looking forward to crewing on RAAM 2017 and hopefully it will be a little less tiring than my last charitable activity, The Great North Run, but I suspect not!.....



Bonnie Peake
Crew Member

Bonnie lives in Whitby, Ontario with her husband of 26 years Randy. Together they have 2 adult children and a 4 year old granddaughter. She has worked in healthcare for her entire career, first as a Respiratory Therapist at Markham Stouffville Hospital and a paramedic with Toronto EMS. She is looking forward to being part of the crew with RAAM and working with the team; Cycle for Cameron.



Adil Qureshi
Crew Member

Adil lives in Scarborough with his 2 sons and wife, loves cycling, food and beer. He officiated for UMCA x-ontario world record ride 2009 and enjoys riding long distances.



John Rennison
Crew Member

John has been a photographer at the Hamilton Spectator for 30 years. He has completed several endurance running races including Badwater 135 and eight 100-mile races. Beth and he have been married for 32 years and live in Hamilton, Ont. with two dogs and a cat.



Phil Schnyder
Crew Member

Phil lives in Northport, NY with his wife Emma, and their two college age children (Reba and Rory). He works for a French Technology company and spends much of his time wandering through the streets of Paris. This will be his first experience crewing for the RAAM, and he is looking forward to the challenge.



Monica Scholz
Crew Member

First time at RAAM, though I was scheduled to ride on a 2 person mixed team in 2005. I've done the non-stop Furnace Creek 508 miler twice (plus once as crew) but otherwise most of my experience is crewing and running ultramarathons. One husband, no kids, two adult step-daughters, two dogs and two cats. Looking forward to helping this awesome team ride across America!!!!



Will Solorzano
Crew Member

I'm a 30 years old international medical graduate from Ecuador, looking for an opportunity to work and gain international experience to apply for my medical residency!

Very happy to be part of such an amazing team!!! Thanks for having me here!



Alessandra Suozzi
Crew Member

Alessandra Suozzi graduated with honours from Colegio Universitario de Rehabilitacion "May Hamilton", Venezuela in 2008 with an Associate degree in physiotherapy, and completed her Bachelor's degree with honours in Columbus University of Panama in 2011. Since 2008 she has practiced in the area of neurological rehabilitation in Venezuela.  

Alessandra has completed post graduate courses in myofascial release techniques, soft osteopathy and as a certified K- Taping therapist.



Jim Zavorski
Crew Member

Jim Zavorski is a 55-year-old owner of a small business owner that maintains and repairs boat docks. Previously, he was in international telecommunication sales, from which he retired after 32 years. Jim is married to Jennie, and has three daughters: Becca 26, Sara 29, and Rachel 31. He is a grandfather to 8-month-old Charlotte. Jim enjoys boating, travel, and trying new things. He is looking forward to RAAM.