Fort Lewis College Cycling’s Fall Blaze Bicycle Tour launches with a “Salute to Tom Danielson”

Posted on Sep 1, 2011

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Fort Lewis College Cycling’s Fall Blaze Bicycle Tour launches with a “Salute to Tom Danielson”

 

Top American from the Tour de France holds Q&A session in Durango


Meet and celebrate Tour de France top-ten finisher Tom Danielson at “Salute to Tom Danielson,” a free question-and-answer event at the Fort Lewis College Concert Hall on Friday, September 30, at 6:30 p.m. The intimate event will be hosted by Race Across the Sky and famed cycling announcer Dave Towle.

 
The evening is sponsored by Trails 2000, the Community Concert Hall and the Fort Lewis College Cycling Team in conjunction with the Fall Blaze Bicycle Tour. The bicycle tour is the sole fundraiser for the Tom Danielson Scholarship Fund at Fort Lewis College, supporting cyclists on the Fort Lewis College Cycling Team.
 
“The best decision I ever made in my entire life for my cycling career was going to college there at Fort Lewis,” Danielson recently told The Denver Post after making Tour de France history by finishing as the fastest American in the 2011 race.
 
The event is free, but requires tickets. The free tickets will be available the night of the event on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 5 p.m. on September 30 at the Community Concert Hall Box Office at Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive, Durango, www.durangoconcerts.com
 
Danielson, racing for Boulder-based team Garmin-Cervelo, finished 9th overall in the 2011 Tour de France. While a Marketing and Psychology dual-major at Fort Lewis College from 1997 – 2002, Tom raced for the college cycling team and in 2002 won an individual national championship in mountain biking while leading the team to a national title. In 2003, Danielson returned to his alma mater to hand over a check for $7,000 to the Fort Lewis College Foundation to create the Tom Danielson Cycling Scholarship.
 
Danielson created the scholarship with his prize money from his victory in the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic in 2003. He embellished the fund by winning a challenge from several local business owners, who said that if Danielson broke the long-standing record for the race from Durango to Silverton, they would each match his prize money and donate it to the scholarship.
 
Danielson has had a successful bicycling career and Fort Lewis College cyclists have been the real winners. To date the Tom Danielson Cycling Scholarship has raised and awarded over $200,000 and benefitted over 35 student athletes. The Fort Lewis College Cycling Team today owns 17 national championship titles and for the past two years has been ranked the #1 Division I collegiate cycling program in the country by USA Cycling.
 
Join Tom Danielson in Durango when he rides the Fall Blaze Bicycle Tour on Saturday, October 1, 2011. Preregistration is required at www.durangofallblaze.com. The tour offers three different tour options of 37 miles, 60 miles, and 100 miles, each beginning and ending at the Dale Rea Clock Tower in the center of the Fort Lewis College campus. Learn more and register at www.durangofallblaze.com.
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