A $4500 shirt

Eon D'Ornelles lost his mind last Saturday at Camp Fortune near Ottawa. He spent $4,500.00 on a shirt. OK, it was a yellow jersey from the Tour de France and it was signed by Floyd Landis. D'Ornelles won the jersey in a auction and the proceeds do go to support young rider development...

The whole thing took place at the retirement dinner for cycling legend Gord Fraser. Of course D'Ornelles is a bit of a legend himself. John Large organized the event to inspire the Ottawa cycling community to celebrate one of their own, and get motivated to develop the next Gord Fraser. The evening was a true success.

Here is the video of the final moments of the auction. Watch for Mike Sayers in the background amping up the crowd.



In attendance were a lot of Gord's old team mates and National team riders from that era. It was great that so many guys made it out --especially Mike Sayers who came all the way from Sacremento with only days remaining prior to the birth of his wife's first child. Sayer's also has the distinction of being Fraser's longest running team mate as the two have ridden together every season since Fraser's return to north american racing in 1998.

Floyd Landis was Gord's team mate when he was a young pro on the Mercury cycling team. When David Cathcart told Landis about the Fraser 'do', he was happy to donate a jersey to support the cause and celebrate his friend and former team mates retirement. Cathcart, also from Ottawa, has know Fraser since he was 16 and helped with a local team Fraser rode with in his final months as an amateur in 1994. Dave C. is currently Director of Marketing for the Saris Cycling Group-- a major personal sponsor of Landis--he's also been a big help to Cyclepromo and previous incarnations of the Jet Fuel cycling team.

TAKE NOTE

The video above was taken by Nadia Marshy, John Large's wife. The auction proceeds will be used to support John's Echelon Project - a program to inspire young kids in the Capital area to ride there bikes. Hopefully the program will uncover the next Gord Fraser.