World Master Mountain Bike Championship 2006: Inspiration!

Started out slow, entered the woods 10-12th, as I followed a group of riders up the last climb on the second lap and rode next to Gunnar Shogren. I was not feeling too hot at this moment and told him so, he then pointed out to me that silver/bronze were directly in front of us, worry about how I felt later.

That was all I needed to hear, I attacked and moved into bronze position two thirds of the way through that climb, I sat behind silver on the rest of it, then attacked again. Once in silver position I just went as hard as possible in my weaker spots, in doing so, I made up 2:30 on gold in the third lap and actually watched him climb in front of me up the hill. Attacked again as hard as possible on the last lap while Jean-Paul was doing the same, it was incredible seeing him look back to make sure he had won as he crossed the line. I was close enough to watch his finish and came in eighteen seconds later. All this was done while on treatment for a recurrence and abnormal re-growth of my brain tumor in the left frontal lobe area.

Two years ago, Sloan offered to put me into a test group for a possible answer to my tumor's growth. A part of me knew if that was the road to be taken, the trip would end sooner than expected. I refused that offer, and asked what other solution might be available. That was the first time I had ever heard about Temodar, we discussed the facts, it worked well on many victims of brain cancer along with minimum side effects, I may be able to still do what I love while on treatment, race bikes. It was more or less specified for brain cancer, but had shown to work in many tumor cases as well.

My pet scan had turned up negative on the cancer testing, however the new form of growth made Sloan's doctors very nervous. I took the train back to CT that evening intent on doing a bit of research on this product. A week after learning quite a bit, I opted to give Temodar a try. I earned a silver medal at UCI Masters World Mountain Bike Championships on my 16th round of Temodar, it made the re-growth dissapear completely, saved my life and allowed me silver at worlds.

Truth is, my brain tumor in some ways is the best thing that ever happened to me. Showing others that never giving up is an important aspect along with working towards your goals. I would like to thank my sponsors Gary Fisher Subaru, GU, Kenda, Lake shoes and SRAM.

Michael Patrick