ZOLL Provides AEDS for Ride the Rockies Bike Tour for Fourth Year Running

Ride the Rockies Bicycle Tour August 5, 2014- For the fourth year running, ZOLL has provided AED Plus^® automated external defibrillators to emergency personnel at the Ride the Rockies Colorado Bicycle Tour. This year’s Ride the Rockies tour began in Boulder on June 8 and ended six days later in Golden, Colorado, covering 471 miles and some significant elevation changes along the way.

Although Ride the Rockies began in 1986, ZOLL loaned AED units to the event for the first time in 2011. The AEDs are carried, along with other emergency equipment, in vehicles traveling along the route. In that first year, an AED Plus was used to save the life of a 57-year-old man biking tandem with his 13-year-old daughter when he suffered a SCA while cycling through Cottonwood Pass.

Greg Griffin, a blogger for the Denver Post and Ride the Rockies veteran, commented that he thought this year's route had taken the difficulty level a bit too far. With a blizzard striking along the route on Day 1 and more than 180 miles covered in the first two days alone, the tour was a challenge even for experienced bicyclists.

Grand County EMTs treated minor injuries and some hypothermia-like symptoms among cyclists due to the weather, but luckily, no cardiac arrests were reported.