Tara's Road to Recovery Fund

Six days ago, Tara Llanes underwent a second surgery to her lower spine, injured in a crash at the Jeep King of the Mountain Bike Race series finale on September 1. On her MySpace page, www.myspace.com/mtbtara, reports posted say the latest surgery went well, although Tara still does not have feeling below her waist. On Sunday, September 9, she was moved to a new room at the Denver Health Medical Center, where she will be for at least another week. Current plans are to move Tara to the Craig facility in Denver for six to seven weeks of in-patient rehabilitation. After that, Tara will most likely return to southern California to continue her long recovery. A special website has been set up to help fund Tara’s recovery. If you’d like to make a contribution, please visit: www.tarallanesroadtorecovery.com Contributions can be mailed to: Tara Llanes Road to Recovery Fund 4068 Green Ave. Los Alamitos, CA 90720 And don’t hesitate to send your good thoughts and wishes Tara’s way. This is from a posting on her MySpace page on Saturday, September 8: “Tara is still feeling the effects from her surgery yesterday but continues to improve each day. You have no idea how much your messages, comments, emails, thoughts, etc. help and keep her motivated. Please keep them coming.” Finally, there is this message that Giant Bicycle Account Executive Mike Jackimczuk has sent to his retail partners today. Those of us here at Giant who have had the pleasure of meeting and riding with Tara will know exactly what Mike is saying: “There is absolutely nothing I could write about overcoming adversity that this woman isn’t already going through. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Tara at several of our Giant functions. One time that I will never forget was our last sales meeting this summer in California. The whole company was out riding and I was out with the group on the mountain bike trails. I was riding along trying to hang on when out of nowhere I hear a voice behind me yelling “Come on! Go faster! You can do it!” I turned around and all I remember seeing at that moment was a huge smile. At the next rest stop, I turned around to see that that smile belonged to Tara. I let her get in front of me because I told her I didn’t want to hold up a world champion. She assured me that I was doing a great job. She got in front of me anyways and I tried to see how long I could stay on her wheel. Let’s just say that that experiment didn’t last very long. I was amazed and left in the dust watching her just glide through the single track with the greatest of ease. If anyone can overcome this adversity that she is facing, it is Tara.” www.giant-bicycles.com