The Mettle for Pedal

Team 4 HIV Hope races from California to Maryland

What exactly motivates four men from different parts of the world to ride together in a bike race across the U.S.? Is it a shared love for cycling? A desire to accomplish the near-impossible? Perhaps it is the idea of proving to oneself and to others that it can be done. For Steven Berveling, Jim Williams, Don Smith and Francisco Liuzzi, it is all of these things.

Berveling—who resides in Sydney, Australia—is teaming up with Williams and Liuzzi of New York City and Don Smith of Vancouver, British Columbia, for June’s annual Race Across America, a 3,000 mile journey that is considered one of the toughest bicycle races in the world. The four-man team will race other teams from Oceanside, Calif. to Annapolis Md., beginning on June 18. They will ride under the moniker “Team 4 HIV Hope.”

This year is not just the 30th anniversary of the race, it is also the 30th anniversary of the AIDS pandemic. Berveling has been wanting for years to be able to participate in RAAM, so it is perhaps fitting that this anniversary run would be his first opportunity. (In 2010 the U.S. government relaxed its visa requirements for people living with HIV, making it possible for him to travel into the country.)

Berveling, Williams and Smith all are living with HIV; Liuzzi—the lone HIV-negative rider—is participating in support. “Whilst not infected,” he says, “we are all affected by HIV and AIDS.”

RAAM is not a stage race such as the Tour de France. In RAAM, there is only one stage: start to finish. It is essentially a time trial, but a very long one! Challenges include heat, deserts, violent winds, thunderstorms, riding at night, sleep deprivation, muscle injuries and mental acuity. There is about 110,000 feet of climbing involved.

And for the HIV-positive riders, there are more health challenges. A nurse trained to work with HIV patients will be part of their crew. The decision to enter this race was not taken lightly by the four members of Team 4 HIV Hope. They have consulted with their physicians and are rigorously training with their blessings. They are taking this race very seriously, because they know they are representing the hopes, and fears, of the millions of people around the world living with HIV.

Team4HIVHope are (l-r): Steve Berveling, Jim Williams, Francisco Liuzzi, and Don Smith


It was Berveling who initially had an idea to form a team entirely of HIV-positive riders, but finding such qualified and willing athletes was not as easy as it sounds. He looked in his home country, then broadened his search to New Zealand, South Africa, Europe, then finally North America. His criteria was strict: they had to be experienced riders, physically capable of performing in this race, HIV+ and open about their status. He even took a thousand pamphlets with him to last summer’s Gay Games in Cologne (where he won three gold medals) hoping to find team members. He finally found Williams through New York City’s Positive Pedalers organization and Smith through Ironman triathlon competitions. Liuzzi, a cycling team member of Williams, was the last to join the team.

While having to compromise on his objective of having four HIV-positive team members, Berveling says the ultimate goal has not changed. Crossing the finish line of the event will be the culmination of decades of cycling training, and proof that—even at 53—he can stand as an example of a healthy, physically active person living with HIV.
“We’re trying to be role models for 35,000,000 people,” he said. “We can’t fail.”

In addition to being role models, Berveling reminds us that this is still a race. He says he is aiming for a finish in the top five—something he admits his American teammates consider aiming too low.
“We’re in this to win,” said Williams. “If you’re not in this to win, you’ve lost already.” To make sure they win, the cyclists have been training in nearly all their free time in recent months. Williams has abandoned his four-hour Sunday rides in favor of eight-hour rides. He estimates that he rides between 800 and 1,000 miles per month—and that’s in addition to his regular daily gym sessions.
“But the miles isn’t everything,” he adds. “You also have to have intensity.”
As far as the team is concerned, Williams believes they all must focus on “trying not to over-train and staying injury-free.”

Over-training is likely not a problem for Berveling, who has been riding seriously and competitively since 18, and who has already completed a five-day, 800km ride. Still, he knows that he will never truly understand the challenges of RAAM until he experiences the race for himself. After a major race in Australia, he spoke with someone who had completed RAAM, and the man told him: “It’s going to be the hardest thing you’ve ever done.”
“I want to prove to myself that I can do it,” said Beverling, confident that he is ready for whatever the course throws at him.

One concern the riders have is how the elements—heat and/or humidity, for one—will affect their racing. Most people with compromised immune systems wouldn’t dare ride long distances in the middle of the day through the heat of California and Arizona, or the humidity of Missouri and Illinois. But it’s those elements, along with the endurance factor of RAAM, that will make this feat so incredible.

It will represent a long journey for Williams, who admits to being “scared to death” when the results of his positive HIV test came back five years ago. He had just signed up to ride in California’s AIDS/LifeCycle, so the looming event immediately took on added significance. Since then he has continued to ride and stay physically fit—more fit than your average LifeCycle rider, in fact, as many of them would not be up to the challenge of RAAM.

“I don’t let (my HIV status) limit me,” says Williams, a horseback rider prior to taking up cycling. “I definitely like to say that I’m not defined by those three little letters, but at the same time I recognize that it’s part of my life.”

How will the experience of RAAM compare to the AIDS/LifeCycle? Williams says he has no way of knowing until it is over. “For one week you’re with this group of people, you just forget about all your troubles in the world,” he says of ALC. “By the end of the week you’re a family.”

He wonders about RAAM: “Is there going to be some sort of epiphany? Am I going to come out a different person? …I have no idea what to expect.”

“Ultimately we want to eliminate the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS,” said Beverling, who was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1996. “It’s a statement of enormous warmth and glow inside to say we’ve done this.
I keep on wanting to ensure that I don’t burst into tears.”

Team4HIVHope is part of UTACVelo, the cycling team of the organization Until There's A Cure®, a national organization dedicated to eradicating HIV/AIDS by raising awareness and funds to combat this pandemic. For more information on the team visit www.team4hivhope.com