September 14-26th 2019

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Brookoloni Forti is a group of friends who have been cycling over the last decade or so. The team name was formalized in 2016 during our 4th annual trip to Tuscany to ride the vintage cycling event “L’Eroica”. After 4 trips to Italy and a trip to England to ride Eroica Brittania in June 2017, we decided to attempt a traverse of the Pyrénées.

Dr. Ross Kerr approached the Oral Cancer Foundation about partnering with the team to heighten awareness about oral cancer, and raise sponsorship $$$$. Ross is a dentist, oral medicine specialist, and clinical professor at New York University College of Dentistry. His more than two decade career at NYUCD has been focused on oral cancer and oral potentially malignant disorders and he has worked with the Oral Cancer Foundation for more than a decade, serving on the scientific advisory board, and mentoring his students who organized an annual walk for oral cancer from 2005-2015 (which raised >$250,000 for the OCF).

The rest of the group: Eric Baum (Brooklyn, NY), Johann Ehmann (Munich, Germany), Rob Herschenfeld (Brooklyn, NY), Jay Iversen (Montreal, Canada), Bruce Torrey (New York, NY & Montreal, Canada) are not in the dental/medical field but are a collection of dear friends who are fully supportive of Ross’s dedication to oral cancer awareness.

This ride will span almost 780 miles (1250km) with >100,000 feet of climb (>31,000m) over 13 days. None of the group have ever tackled a multi-day ride requiring this level of physical and mental endurance. While this lofty challenge could never eclipse the endurance of those who have been diagnosed with oral cancer, who have undergone cancer treatment, who have died or who continue to survive with long-term treatment complications, we hope that our experiences and struggles over the mountains will serve as a reminder of the suffering of patients, family members, and friends who have been touched by oral cancer.