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Have you spotted Sheryl Yvette and her pink Hello Kitty cruiser during The TD Bank Five Boro Bike Tour? Here, she shares how the event changed her life:Most grown women probably don’t consider a 50-pound mass of metal and rubber their best friend. But I do.I received my bike as a gift in 2004, but was too out of shape to ride. It took three years and losing about 40 pounds to build up the courage I needed.

My first ride was an ambitious one: from my apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, over the Williamsburg Bridge to Manhattan.

With some self doubt, but even more determination, I rode to Williamsburg. I confronted that steep ramp—and just started pedaling. To my amazement I was strong enough to pedal a bike (with no gears!) up that bridge, all the way to Manhattan and then back to Brooklyn. I went home, wrote about the experience and cried, simultaneously amazed and proud of that accomplishment.

But it wasn’t until 2009 that I signed up for my first bike tour: the Five Boro. A friend of mine encouraged me to register. He believed in me, even when I did not.

My training was simple: Just ride a little more every weekend than the previous weekend. By that first Sunday in May, I was nervous, but pretty sure I was ready.

What I hadn’t anticipated was the worst weather in Five Boro’s history. It was cold and rained all day. I was not prepared—mentally or physically.

Despite the unfortunate weather conditions, I rode. I was freezing and drenched. But I told myself I wasn’t giving up; I would complete that bike tour, no matter what. Though it was the toughest thing I’d done in my life thus far, I did it! I arrived at the muddy party in Staten Island, taking the ferry back to Manhattan, and biked home to Brooklyn.

That experience, the Five Boro Bike Tour, changed me. That day I proved to myself I was capable of so much more than I ever realized, that I could set a goal and complete it, that I could overcome challenging conditions, and that I was more fit than ever.

It’s been two years and I’ve done many bike tours since, but the Five Boro will always be the most special. My life has changed for the better in so many ways because of that first bike tour.

Now my bike and I are world famous—thanks to my blog and the thousands of miles I’ve ridden around NYC. And that’s the same bike I ride in every bike tour: my best friend, a pink Hello Kitty cruiser with no gears. I wouldn’t consider riding anything else.

See you on May 1st!

Terry Jackson loves the TD Bank Five Boro Bike Tour because he’s a passionate cyclist. “I had to be maybe 2 years old when I first got on a bike, and I haven’t stopped since,” he says. May 1 will mark his third Tour, but this year’s ride will be even more special for the 48-year-old New Rochelle, NY resident. Jackson is recovering from cancer, and for him, the Tour will symbolize victory.“This ride will be major step in my recovery,” Jackson says. “[Completing the Tour ] will tell me that I’m doing fine.”

Jackson was diagnosed with colon cancer in October,2010, after going to the emergency room with a pain in his side. Within two months, he’d had two surgeries—including one to remove a portion of his liver after the cancer metastasized. Today, he is cancer-free and in the middle of a 24-week course of chemotherapy. He says his doctors expect a full recovery, and they’ve cleared him to train for and participate in the Five Boro.

“I see it as doing what I always do,” Jackson says of training for the Tour, adding that, before he became ill, he went on a long ride every Saturday.

Jackson has the same attitude when it comes to work. Throughout his illness, he has continued to hold down his job as an IT manager at Boar’s Head.

“It’s just how I am,” he says. “It’s my nature. When I go to work, all the guys say to me that they wouldn’t have my strength—that they would want to be like me. But what am I supposed to do? Stop living? I don’t know what else to do besides just keep being me.”

He adds that his coworkers at Boar’s Head have been a source of strength throughout the ordeal, and to honor that solidarity, a group of four will ride with Jackson in the Tour on May 1, decked out in Boar’s Head jerseys and flags.

“Before this, I always did the Tour on my own,” Jackson says, “but the amount of people just amazed me, and it made me feel a camaraderie that really inspired me.”

This year, Jackson will be the one to inspire. He says he’s also planning to use the opportunity to advocate for early colon cancer screening for African Americans.

Last year, Cole Tallerman, then 13, rose early on the morning of the TD Bank Five Boro Bike Tour, looked out his window, and saw rain. Lots of it. His mom came into his room, letting him know he didn’t have to ride if he didn’t want to.But Cole wanted to ride. After all, he’d been prepping for the Tour for months, and people were counting on him. As part of a community-service project leading up to his bar mitzvah–the Jewish rite of passage marking a child’s entry into adulthood–Cole had worked tirelessly to raise money for BronxWorks (formerly Citizens Advice Bureau), a Bronx-based social-service organization that is one of the Five Boro’s official charity partners.”I felt like the ride would be even cooler if I was doing something for it,” says Cole, now an eighth grader. “I wanted to ride for a cause.”

Cole rallied his friends and family, who generously donated on a website set up for the effort. Within a month or so, he had raised about $1,350, far exceeding his initial goal of $500. Then, at his bar mitzvah reception, Cole spoke about his experiences in front of a poster-size photo of him in his riding gear.

“I told them about the rain, and how I could have turned around early if I wanted to, but I kept going because I had raised so much money and wanted to finish. A lot of people thought it was really impressive,” he says.

Impressed friends aside, the true takeaway of the experience was Cole’s interaction with the homeless children living in the BronxWorks shelter, with whom he visited after the Tour.

“I went in, did some art activities with them, and told them about the bike ride,” recalls Cole, who will be riding again this year alongside his parents and his younger brother, Jesse, 11. “It was important to me to see firsthand who I was riding for.”

Spoken like a true adult.

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A Family Affair

Back when she was just a toddler, Erika Mayo‘s father would snap her into a bike seat and cycle from their Brooklyn home to her East Village school every morning. She loved feeling the wind in her face and watching her father’s strong pedal strokes as he navigated the city streets. This shared love of biking has carried them through several TD Bank Five Boro Bike Tours.

Their first, in 1990, was a family affair: 8-year-old Erika rode alongside her father and her 10-year-old brother. Her dad’s bike had a basket crammed with a jug of water, a pack filled with snacks, and a heavy radio whose music allowed the young children to easily locate their father amid the dense crowd.

“My-eight-year old legs burned, and my dad still tells me he has never seen my face as red as it was on the climb up the 59th Street Bridge that day,” recalls Erika. “But we stuck together for the Tour, and it was unforgettable.”

In 2009, Erika’s father suffered a knee injury and could not ride. Erika cruised the five boroughs solo. “Between the rain and the solitude, it was more meditative than in years prior. I made a few friends along the way. The harder the ride, the more people seem to come together.”

These days, Erika is prepping for her next Tour by “riding everywhere,” including daily spins from Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, to her Midtown office. And just like her dad did years ago, she’s attached a basket to her three-speed city bike. In it? Some water, some snacks–and tunes, thanks to an iHome boombox. Some things never change.

“It’s really not hard; you’ll enjoy it.”Those were the words Janis Gibson‘s friend used to convince her to register for the 2009 TD Bank Five Boro Bike Tour.”To me, the idea was laughable, as I had been pretty sedentary for the prior ten years,” says Janis, a 58-year-old from Danbury, Connecticut. “Yet, when I was a kid, I was on my bike constantly, so I knew it was something I once enjoyed.”

Janis registered, dusted off the Cannondale that had been sitting in her garage for a decade, and rode through all five boroughs with her friends.

The experience sparked a transformation. “I found real pleasure in the mechanics of riding a bike. Once I start riding, I want to keep going. I love it when you get the cadence going and it’s almost like being on autopilot.”

Janis continued to ride, soon participating in the Bloomin’ Metric ride closer to home. There she won a drawing for a six-day bike tour that covered more than 150 miles through Italy’s famed Tuscan countryside. As a copy editor for two local papers, the trip was a splurge she could not have afforded on her own–just one of many wonders she credits to her bicycle.

In keeping with her philosophy of doing good while having fun, Janis is fundraising for City Harvest during this year’s ride. We wish her good luck on all fronts.

Brad Klein only knew Richard Kannady for a short period of time, but Richard’s impact is lasting far longer.Brad and Richard met in 1999 while working for Best Buy in Athens, Georgia, and as bouncers at area bars. When Brad relocated to New Jersey to open up new stores, they lost contact until social media reconnected these two friends for what would be the remainder of Richard’s life. Richard lost his battle with non-Hodgkin lymphoma last SeptemberAn avid cyclist, Brad, 36, bikes frequently at Cheesequake State Park and the Delaware and Raritan Canal parks near his home in Old Bridge, New Jersey. On Sunday, May 2, Brad will be riding as a member of Team LRF for Lymphoma Research Foundation. “When I discovered I could combine my passion for bike riding and raise funds to find a cure for lymphoma at the same time, it was a no-brainer,” commented Brad.

Originally setting his fundraising goal at the required $1,000, Brad and his friends have raised over $2,100 in Richard’s memory with the help of Facebook.

Brad’s hope is that his ride will let more people know why it’s so important to find a cure for lymphoma—the most common form of blood cancer and the third most common childhood cancer. “I actually had surgery on my hand in December and find that riding is a challenge due to some carpal tunnel going on but, it’s not nearly the challenge that people living with Lymphoma go through. So if they can continue to live and love then I should do what I can to support them.”