Ride Guide- April 2024

Roots & Routes of New England

Ride Guide: April 2024

This monthly newsletter will contain information and tidbits to help you prepare for the 2024 Tour des Trees. For more information, visit www.treefund.org.

Greetings everyone!

We are excited to be heading back to New England for this year's Tour des Trees. What makes this year's Tour even more special is our opening evening kick-off at the Bartlett Arboretum and Gardens, birthplace of ISA, to help celebrate ISA's 100 years!

We have a lovely route planned, visiting some popular sites of southern New England, with five days of riding and over 425 miles from Stamford, CT, east to Martha's Vineyard, and finishing up in Providence, RI.

We already have 45 riders signed up for this year and our goal is to hit 100! Thank you to everyone that has signed up so far for your support of TREE Fund. Here are a few quick reminders as we get ready for this year.

Important dates:

Registration: Now until July 30

Jersey Order Deadline: August 5

Event Dates: September 22 to 28

Pre-ride Fundraising Deadline: September 22

Rider Fundraising Deadline: October 1

Campaign Ends: October 2

Jersey and Gear Orders:

Shortly after you registered for this year's ride, you should have received an email from Voler with instructions on how to order your official jersey and other gear. If you have not yet done so, you must complete your order by August 5 on our Voler site. See link below. If you need your email instructions resent, please email Jonathan and he'll get you your info.

https://www.voler.com/custom/ordering/li/48101

Stay Engaged:

We want you to connect with our other riders! Get motivated and stay in-the-know. Be sure to add your name to our Strava group and like our TdT Facebook page.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/clubs/507320

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tourdestrees

Resources and Planning:

Our Participant Resources page on the TREE Fund website will have all the latest info on the route, travel details, and other rider info. It is constantly updated, so be sure to check in for all the current information.

https://treefund.org/tourdestrees/participant-resources

Welcome New Riders!

We love to see new riders join our awesome group! Here are the four new riders that have signed up so far! Please join us in welcoming:

Jeff Calvert- Bernardsville, NJ

William Fuchs- Newfane, VT

Simon Normile- Morgantown, IN

Logan Johnson- Loveland, CO

New Website Tips

We are glad to have a brand-new fundraising site this year which should help our riders communicate with and draw in their supporters throughout the campaign. Since it has some features that we didn't have on our old website, we wanted to pass along some tips on how to use and take advantage of all the features.

Profile: You profile is the thing your donors will get excited about when you ask for donations. We have some default information on there, but the more information you provide about why you are riding, the more excited your donors will be to support you.

To update your profile, log into the fundraising page at www.tourdestrees.org and go to your Participant Center at the top right. From there, you can add your photo, your own personal story and reason for riding, a fundraising goal, and add a distance tracker to your profile. To add a distance tracker, go to the Good Move App section, download the app, and fill out the details. Once you have that done, your miles will display on your page.

Thank you sponsors!

As we prepare for this year's Tour des Trees, we wanted to give a shoutout and thank you to all the companies and organizations that have sponsored the ride and our riders so far. We could not put on this event without the generous support of these organizations that have recently signed on to sponsor this year's ride.

Bartlett Tree Experts- Opening Night Dinner

Stanley Tree- Tuesday Dinner

Hamilton Tree and Landscape- Wednesday Lunch

SavATree- Thursday Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Ferry Crossing

New England ISA- Friday Dinner and Closing Celebration

Notch Giveaway!

We want to help our Tour des Trees riders hit their fundraising goals so we are having a giveaway! Spread the word to your donors and let them know if they make a donation by May 12, they will be entered for a chance to win some gear from Notch.

Anyone that makes a donation of $20 or more to a rider, team, or general donation at www.tourdestrees.org between April 24 and May 12 will be entered into a raffle to win one of three prize packs from Notch! Prize packs includes carabiner, safety glasses, Rook pulley, and Throwline Pop Box.

Safety First!

Once again, RoadID has provided our group with a nice discount on their products to help keep our riders safe during their training and during our ride. Use the link below to get a 20% discount on RoadID identification tags and accessories. It will ask for your email and name and direct you to a code to use when you order.

https://roadid.com/?rfsn=6533527.e07ed7&of=6X8Y4

Virtual Tour des Trees at home

Can't make it to New England this September but want to support TREE Fund? Participate in our updated Virtual Tour des Trees at home!

Participation in the Virtual Tour des Trees at home is simple and ready to fit your goals. Once registered, all you have to do bike, walk, run, or swim 425 miles by August 30 and fundraise. There is a tiered fundraising goal level this year, with levels at $425 and $1,000 raised.

Participants who hit their mileage goal and fundraise at least $425 will earn a credit for an official VTdTah Endurance Shirt from Voler. Participants who hit their mileage goal and fundraise at least $1,000 will earn a credit for an official VTdTah XC Jersey or Endurance Air Hoodie from Voler.

For more information, visit the Virtual Tour des Trees at home page.

Thank you to everyone that has signed up for the virtual event so far: Kodi, Cheryl, Chris, Nick, Anna, Jonathan, Kevin, Megan, Lyle, Sean, Priscila, Mandi, Lori, Pete, and Jessica!

A Note From Our Tour Director, Paul Wood:

Greetings Fellow Riders,

I recently had the pleasure of taking my first look at this year’s Tour route and I feel confident that you will enjoy the challenge and beauty it presents. The 2024 Tour des Trees route begins in Stamford, CT and concludes in Providence, RI. It covers just over 425 miles in five days and while it won’t match the challenge faced last year, it is still quite “lumpy”, especially the first couple of days through the backroads of CT.

We will kick off the Tour with an opening dinner at the Bartlett Arboretum and Gardens. Once we roll out on Monday, September 23, we'll have two days of cycling through the countryside of CT before arriving in Smithfield, RI on Tuesday the 24th. From there, the Tour will take on a completely different theme as we make our way around the suburbs of Providence on our way to Cape Cod. Along the way, the shift will be evident as we transition from the backroads of CT and northern suburbs of Providence into the quiet roads of MA before entering the Maritime environment of Buzzard Bay on our way to Cape Cod. Once on the Cape, we will have the rare pleasure of staying for two nights in lovely Falmouth, MA. Day 4 will be one the most memorable days in Tour des Trees history, as we ferry across Vineyard Sound to Martha's Vineyard, where we will circumnavigate the island. Martha’s Vineyard is an idyllic place to ride a bike with wooded, windy, and rolling roads that open to incredible views of the Atlantic, as well as Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds. Our final day has us backtracking our way across the bays and sounds of coastal MA en route to Providence.

Along our route from Stamford, CT to Middletown, CT to Smithfield, RI to Falmouth, MA and back to Providence, RI, we will be engaging the local communities and planting trees as we spread the word on the importance that TREE Fund grants provide in the research of tree health and the value of our urban trees.

These last three days, we will be riding some of the most popular routes used by local cycling communities and our friends Clem Desjardins, Paul Sellers, and Jeff Hamilton. Each of these gentlemen have contributed immensely to the design of this year's route and all took the time to participate in my reconnaissance last week.

I published the recommended travel plans for the 2024 Tour des Trees a couple of weeks ago and it can be found this link: https://treefund.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024-Travel-Logistics.pdf

Thanks for reading and please feel free to reach out with any questions you have about the cycling or Tour experience.

Ride On!

Paul Wood

Tour Director

Black Bear Adventures Bicycle Tours

pwoodbba@gmail.com