Team California riders will join bicyclists from 40 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, Great Britain and Venezuela, on the six-week American Lung Association Big Ride Across America, sponsored in part by RadioShack.
Lung disease is one of the nation's fastest growing health problems.
At 79, Phil Dettmer of Palo Alto, California, is the oldest participant in the 2000 Big Ride and has some very personal reasons for riding. At the age of 19, Dettmer spent eight months in a tuberculosis center for treatment with little hope for survival. After watching other patients around him die from severe lung complications, he managed to recover. He also suffers from severe asthma and watched his mother die slowly and painfully due to smoking. I just have to keep going.