Our 2025 PMC Ride: Sturbridge (for the last time) to Bourne to Provincetown
Preamble (or just plain rambling) PMC weekend is now in the bicycle mirror, and we are back with our loved ones. This year's ride lacked the drama, extreme weather, and viral load of last year, so it seems, at first write up, a less compelling narrative. Yet this is the Pan Mass Challenge after all, a 190 mile bike ride with 6000 riders, 3000 volunteers all working together to raise much needed funding for cancer research, where everyone has a deep connection to cancer and where we all wear our emotions on our sleeves/bicycle sleeves. This PMC feels very different however from the 44 PMC rides that have come before, as it takes place amidst the biggest retrenchment of funding in scientific research this country has ever seen. It's estimated that $2.8 billion dollars has been slashed for cancer research alone. My own federal research grant, focused on developing a novel immunotherapy for cancer has been shut down. The oft-used PMC slogan, "There's a Lot Riding on Us...