ROLF PRIMA ATHLETE BIOGRAPHY: Patricia McNeal

Patricia McNeal is a 51 year-old wife and grandmother who recently rode the 2,200 mile journey from Panama City, Florida, to Los Angeles, California. Her main tips? Eat a lot of pancakes and shift gears when you hit the mountains. 

Patricia is not a life-long enthusiast and only started after years of tender pressure from her husband, who is a longtime cyclist. “I was most discouraged when old man on Rollerblades passed me by while I was pedaling,” McNeal says. “That’s how slow I was in the beginning.” This didn't stop her from riding with her husband on the weekends and even sneaking in extra training sessions during the week.

However it wasn't until Patricia suffered from a stroke in 2013 that she became inspired her to make ride cross-country. Upon returning from a weekend ride from Tampa to St. Petersburg and back she began to feel ill and went to bed early. "At 4:17 am I woke up and could not speak, or move. At that time I realized I was having a stroke and I didn’t take having a stroke lying down." 

Only one week after suffering from her stroke Patricia left the hospital and rode her bicycle 35 miles. It was as if a light bulb went off in her head that cycling is not just a sport for the small-framed, white guy being followed by a pace car through some European mountain range. 

She took on a vegan diet, made her health her main priority, and trained hard. "I rode my first 100 miles and I was so elated about it. I realized that if I can ride 100 miles then I can ride my bike 100 miles a day cross-country."

In September 2018 Patrice began her 45 day ride where she averaged 135 miles each day. Upon the completion of her ride, Patrice founded Heels On Wheelz, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to show people with disabilities that just because you have a disability doesn’t mean you don’t have the ability to do what seems impossible.

Patrice McNeal prefaces who she is with wife and grandmother, but to us she is a pioneer. Her message to spread hope and encourage more women and girl’s to ride, and be a trailblazers is one reaction to a stroke we have never seen before.

If the phrase "can't stop won't stop" doesn't come to mind when you think of Patrice then perhaps it will after she completes her upcoming ride from Maine to Key West, Florida in order to raise Stroke Awareness and to promote physical fitness. 

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