A couple of weeks ago, Paul Leakan wrote a profile of John Fee for the of The Burlington County Times. John Fee is the only member of the 2004 Tour of Hope National Team from New Jersey. He’s a former elite amateur cyclist who now works for Bristol-Myers Squibb Oncology Products Division in Princeton. His mother is a cancer survivor and his aunt and two grandparents died as a result of cancer.
According to the article, Fee’s goal for the Tour of Hope this year is, “… to take the education of cancer awareness and personal empowerment across the country to Americans and families that have been touched by cancer as mine has.” To prepare, he’s been following a personalized training regimen from Carmichael Training Systems that includes riding 12 to 16 hours a week during the peak training period.
For those of you who are not familiar with intense cycling training, the most I have ridden in a week this summer is 6 hours and 55 minutes during the week of August 9. I rode 99.9 miles on a mountain bike in that time. If he’s riding a road bike, I’d guess that John Fee could ride 250 to 300 miles in 12 hours on flat roads.
I’m trying to find a way to contact John Fee before he leaves to ride across the country. Hopefully, I’ll be able to speak with him and find out how much he was riding before he was chosen for the Tour of Hope National Team, how he likes the training program that Carmichael Training Systems has put him on, and where his favorite training routes are in New Jersey.