Tour de Marco Rides Again

A perfect Marco Island winter day welcomed 277 cyclists to the 13th annual Tour de Marco, Sunday, February 26, at the Greater Marco Family YMCA. The popular bicycle tour benefits the YMCA. The sky was blue, the winds were light, and temperatures ran from 66 degrees at the start to 79 degrees at the finish.

“Today was fantastic,” said Rachel McHugh, who organized this year’s event. "I really feel the community rallied and was amped up for the bike ride. People found the new route safer and very pleasing.”

Organizers basically flip-flopped the route, putting the hills in Caxambas and Key Marco earlier in the ride.

“We’re hearing back that having the hills earlier in the ride gave the riders more energy at the end,” McHugh said.

McHugh said reversing the route also eliminated a lot of left turns. 

"Everybody felt safe,” McHugh said. “And we only had one flat tire that I know of. So that’s a win-win in my book. And we raised some money for the YMCA."

Money raised from the 2023 Tour de Marco goes to the annual campaign, with an emphasis on early learning and youth development. 

YMCA CEO Cindy Love-Abounader was thrilled with the way everything unfolded. She was also happy to see members of Chuck Thomas’s family in attendance. Last year the Tour de Marco became the Chuck Thomas Memorial Ride.

"We had a fantastic day with the weather and all that,” Cindy Love said. "It’s a memorial for Chuck Thomas. He was a board member who did a lot of fantastic things for the community. Raised a lot of money and gave to a lot to our children’s activities. His family flies in to ride in the Tour de Marco. They make a big event out of it.”

Love said a lot of visitors to the island discovered the Tour de Marco this year.

"It really is an opportunity for us to showcase the island,” Love said. "I can’t tell you how many people I talked to who are visitors here - maybe staying for a month. This was fantastic. That’s exactly what we want to do. Showcase the island. Every year we’re trying to tweak it a little bit for safety. I think people really, really enjoyed it."