Winter Cycling At Fenway Park To Cure Cancer

Our team at Breakaway is a proud sponsor of The Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC) and led the reinvention of the PMC's indoor spin event held this past weekend at Boston’s Fenway Park. Team Breakaway rode and dedicated a riderless tribute bike to those we have lost to cancer, patients and survivors from our own families, partners and friends. 

Every year, the Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC) brings together thousands of cyclists, volunteers, donors and corporate sponsors with a goal of giving the doctors and researchers of Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute the necessary resources to discover cures for all cancers. The PMC has become the world’s largest athletic fundraising event - PMC riders raised a record total of $51m in 2017 and $600m since 1980 – and every single dollar raised by the PMC goes directly to Dana-Farber. 

In other words, the PMC is delivering the cure to cancer by bicycle. 

Breakaway became a PMC partner and sponsor in 2017, and Team Breakaway went all in with our commitment. We raised over $100,000 in 2017 through our PMC rides, and started to help the PMC reach another level by helping to get more people to become part of the PMC movement. 

Despite adding more routes and options to PMC Weekend in August, only so many bikes can fit on the road. As a result, the PMC is challenged with capacity, making it increasingly difficult to raise more money and continue to grow without creating new events. 

In 2016, the PMC launched an annual indoor spin cycling event to offset some of the capacity challenges and seasonality of the event - The Resolution by PMC – held in January to kick off the PMC year. The launch was successful but the PMC team felt it had much greater potential. Breakaway spearheaded the reinvention of The Resolution to become the PMC Winter Cycle, held this past weekend in Boston. We rethought the entire event from the ground up, moving it to an iconic location - Boston’s Fenway Park – and attracted significantly more riders, more donations, and a younger, millennial rider in its first year as the PMC Winter Cycle. 

We are proud to be part of the PMC movement, knowing that our work is directly bringing a cure to cancer. I'm going to ride with Team Breakaway again in this August’s PMC, and invite you to join us on the ride – whether on a bike, as a volunteer, or as a donor. 

And thanks to all of you who have continued to donate! You'll be hearing from me shortly again...

(Thanks to Bryan Hinckley / Gratitude Sound for the music!)