Mach-Duarte making her ‘comeback’ to honor friend Cunningham through Ronald McDonald House

Lisa Mach Duarte is getting back on the bike, what was a one-time love before, well, she decided to put it away.

Then some inspiration hit her and along with it some motivation. She’ll be back in El Tour in November riding in the memory of good friend Craig Cunningham, who passed away in the spring. She’ll be raising money through the Ronald McDonald House Charities, one of El Tour’s many non-profit partners.

“He used to ride for them,” she said. “He was pretty well known in the community for how much of an awesome human he was.”

She’s been injured a bit the last couple of years and now is on her “comeback” in hopes of “doing something bigger than me.”

For years, she’s donated and/or supported one of the charities in the event. The last one was with Cunningham, so his passing hit her hard.

She’s been preparing for El Tour, working out indoors on a stationary bike. But is ready to forge outdoors as the event inches closer. After all, it’s been nearly seven years since she last rode in El Tour, and back then she was loyal to the ride.

Instead, she started volunteering in the event and later supported her then boyfriend-turn-husband Lionel.

“That’s where my path was taking me, to see other riders succeed and not being out there doing it,” she said. “The more you’re out of it and then you return it’s (almost as if) you are brand new again.”

She’ll ride 32 miles, taking it a bit easier than in the past given she usually rode in the half century for a number of years. Lionel will ride with her, too, so there’s that motivation.

“It’ll be our first El Tour together,” she said.

It’s almost full circle. She ran a cycling team for nonprofit Twilight Wish last decade. On the day of El Tour few years back she walked to the front to look for a couple of her Twilight Wish riders. And there Lionel was. He had been a Facebook friend of hers but they had never met.

And that was where they met.

“I’m excited and nervous,” she said. “It’s been a lot of years (since she rode) since I’ve been in a big crowd like that. Covid changed things for me. It’s made me think about being in a big crowd. Not that I’m opposed to it but it makes me nervous. I’m not used to riding with people alongside of me. It’ll be like riding my first El Tour – again.”