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Mike Miller and Jay Mitchell

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Local cyclists ride in 192-mile Challenge

By Wanda Combs
Editor

Two of the riders in last weekend’s Pan-Massachusetts Challenge were Hollingsworth & Vose employees Mike Miller and Jay Mitchell. Proceeds from the Challenge, that took cyclists in 46 towns across Massachusetts went to benefit cancer research and treatments at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Miller and Mitchell were two of 16 employees in the H&V company who participated in this year’s ride, and the company contributed a corporate match to donations the employees raised.
The 192-mile event, referred to as a bikers’ Boston Marathon, began in Sturbridge, MA and ended in Provincetown. Mitchell and Miller, who are process engineers in H&V’s Associate Development Program and who are currently working in Floyd’s H&V location, brought different skill levels into the ride. Mitchell, Miller and three others who started together in the Associate Development Program decided they would try the ride this year despite their lack of experience.
Miller had not biked at all until February. Mitchell rode a mountain bike “as a kid,” but had never ridden a road bike until three months ago. Training therefore was a priority before the ride. Since February the two have been riding their bikes at least two hours a day, including at least 20 miles a day during the week and 40 to 60 miles a day on the weekends.
Their training included some longer rides but not as long as what they had to face this weekend with a 110-mile stretch on day one and an 82-mile trip on day two. Miller pointed out that the Massachusetts’ terrain is “a lot flatter” than Virginia’s. “It’s not comparable at all….It’s a lot easier.”
Cyclists benefit from strong legs and lungs, Miller added. “But after a long ride, you feel it in the back, neck, everywhere,” Mitchell noted.
Fundraising for the event also offered its challenges. Every cyclist had to raise a minimum amount of money, depending upon the degree of participation, Miller said. Since the local cyclists wanted to go the 192 miles, their goal was $4,000 each, and they said they relied on family, friends, and co-workers, along with H&V, with headquarters in East Walpole, MA, to achieve their goals.
The average age of participants in the Pan-Mass Challenge was 43, Miller pointed out, adding that it is easier for someone of that age, rather than two 20-somethings (Miller is 23; Mitchell is 26) to raise money from their friends, some of which are still paying off college loans or just do not have a lot of money to spare.
Mitchell, a graduate of the University of Maine and a Maine native, worked in H&V’s Massachusetts and New York locations before coming to Floyd. After working here, he will be assigned next to England. Miller, originally from Vermont and a graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, has worked for H&V in Boston and Georgia before coming to Floyd. He will go next to Suzhou, China.