Popular cycling blogger Elden Nelson, aka The Fat Cyclist, has managed to book himself a ticket to the Team RadioShack training camp in Arizona.
Elden managed it after posting a tongue-in-cheek open letter to RadioShack team manager Johan Bruyneel on his website last Thursday. In it, he argued the team should hire him as a rider on the basis that he had the necessary skills: team player, willing to travel, older than the rest of the team, good speller and enjoyed riding his bike, among other things.
To his surprise, Bruyneel took him up on the offer, saying if he raised $10,000 for LiveStrong, and $10,000 for the World Bicycle Relief Fund, he could go to the camp. And if he raised $50,000, he'd get a Trek Madone.
Fatty leapt into action over the weekend. He turned it into a contest among his readers to raise money and send him to camp. To entice them, he offered the Trek Madone (signed by Team RadioShack) as a prize, a Gary Fisher Superfly custom painted in Fat Cyclist colours, and subsequently a Trek Travel trip to the Tour de France.
The readers responded, raising an amazing $100,000 for LiveStrong and the World Bicycle Relief Fund in just three days. Thus, Fatty gets to go to camp this weekend, cancer is fought and kids in Zambia will get bikes to ride to school.
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