“It’s really a cult of angels.”

That’s how Middleboro Plumbing Inspector and Lakeville resident Jay Catalano describes the cyclists he rides with during the Pan-Mass Challenge.

Catalano and his doctor, Bob Friedman of Lakeville, ride their bicycles from Sturbridge to Provincetown on the first weekend of August every year. It’s a 187-mile trip that takes up most of the weekend, and it’s something Catalano, Friedman, and the rest of the participants look forward to year-round.

“Only 363 days until we do this again,” Catalano remembered Friedman saying right after the Challenge.

The Pan-Mass Challenge is a series of bike rides that raises money for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a Boston-based cancer research and treatment institution. In 2022, the challenge raised $69 million to treat cancer.

Combined, Friedman and Catalano raised $50,000 for August’s Pan-Mass Challenge. That brings their all-time combined total to $707,000.

The two write handwritten letters to solicit donations. While it is time-consuming, they find the personal touch makes a difference to their donors.

Friedman, who is president of the Lakeville Cycling Club, describes the bike ride as “a moving city” with its 6,800 cyclists and thousands more volunteers running rest stops, delivering water, and providing medical attention.

The endeavor is a mental struggle as much as it is a physical one. The ride takes place every year on the first weekend of August, and there are no rain—or heat—dates. 

From intense heat to driving rain in unseasonably cold temperatures, Friedman and Catalano have biked through it all to raise money for cancer research.

“This year, I almost died,” Friedman said with a laugh.

Cranking his pedals in 100-degree weather on the first day of this year’s ride, Friedman got a flat tire midway through the 110-mile trip from Sturbridge to Bourne. He rode about 20 miles on the flat tire before he got to a rest stop in Wareham and laid down.

“The next thing I know, someone is standing over me asking, ‘are you okay?’” Friedman said.

“‘I don’t know,’” Friedman replied to the volunteer. “I couldn’t get up. I asked the guy, ‘can you help me?’”

Friedman drank 80 ounces of Gatorade to put himself back in a condition to complete the last leg of the trip.

Catalano added that typically, the 76-year-old Friedman does not need so much aid to finish the route. Friedman was one of 74 cyclists over 70 to ride in the Pan-Mass Challenge in 2022.

Friedman started riding in the Pan-Mass Challenge in 2000, and Catalano joined him after Friedman recommended he lose weight during a doctor’s appointment.

Catalano joked that he added 20 pounds since then, but, in fairness, he is now able to bike 180 miles over two days.

The passion of the participants, volunteers, and spectators makes the event unique, according to Catalano.

Before dawn in Sturbridge, Friedman and Catalano have seen hordes of supporters cheering and holding signs to motivate the cyclists. A cyclist who happens to be a trained opera singer belts out the national anthem, and the cyclists start their trek as the sun rises.

“There were hundreds of people in Sturbridge cheering for us,” Catalano said. “That’s on day one when we start. On day two, we leave Massachusetts Maritime Academy and go over the Bourne Bridge at dawn, and there are people lined up on the bridge!”

Money raised for Dana-Farber through the Pan-Mass Challenge helps fund clinical trials. Catalano said he met someone who rode in the Challenge while undergoing a Dana-Farber trial to treat cancer.

“It’s very emotional,” Friedman said. “Since we’re older, I find that a lot of older people will look right at us and say thank you.”

Catalano once saw a sign saying “I’m alive because of you.”