This year’s One Love was once again a resounding success. Our previous attendance, anticipated growth, and the pandemic caused us to cap the event at 1200 this year. We are a small club and our first concern is to keep One Love at the highest quality and best experience for our guests. We hate that we don’t have room for everyone but we encourage folks to register early next year.
Now for the highlights. We had 32 states represented. We had almost every Major Taylor club in the country represented. We had Superstar of cycling Rashaan Bahati riding and hanging out accessible to everyone for 4 days! We had our first beer named after the ride “One Love Hoppy Wheat”. We had multiple Platinum and Gold level sponsors: Microsoft, Wahoo, SRAM, Conte’s Bike Shop, and Grady/Velocity Atlanta.
Our One Love volunteers are the backbone of the event. Every compliment we get is about how great our volunteers are. I want to call out a few of our lead volunteers. Glenn and Charlean volunteer coordinators keep over 100 volunteers organized. Russell and Iilonga on sag and critical corners are the key support roles on the ride. Special shout to Eddie Dodard who would not leave his post no matter what! Lance Willis parked 100’s of cars each day with his team. Dave Sutherland getting us our own beer on the Thursday night ride. The fish fry sponsored by SRAM and run by the team of Mr. Frisky, Johnny Train, Blackville Steve, The LifeSaver, Ft L Tan, and of course MACC Diva serving fish of biblical proportions. There are so many other volunteers that play key roles it would take pages to give credit to everyone but I will spotlight one more.
This is the person who took on the responsibility of making the One Love look so professionally done. The huge arch, start/finish sponsor banner, and the flags along main start finish road that made riders feel like they are on the Champs-Elysees! The Covid-19 plan, signage and setup. The setup of the grounds that create the party atmosphere that One Love is known for. The web-site content and setup with all the information you need laid out perfectly so you can find it. These are just a few of the things our own “Diamond” Darcina Garrett does to make One Love the premier event in cycling.
Lastly, we have to thank the man in charge, Dennis Francis! From the beginning his calm demeanor, sense of humor, attention to detail set the tone for everyone. Dennis is the One Love Century event coordinator but does not stop there. He handles sponsorship which hit an all-time high this year. When we had a potential emergency arise Dennis and Eufemia handled it and saved the day. His leadership and vision made us successful during this pandemic year and I’m looking forward to being part of his team in years to come.
Thanks again to all our guests, sponsors, volunteers and everyone associated with our event. OK y’all on three: one….two…….three ONE LOVE!
