Mary Dewane, Age: 65
1Founder and General Manager, Benovia Winery
When a recreational cycling trip brought Dewane, a former healthcare CEO, and her husband, Joe Anderson, to Sonoma County in Northern California for the first time, they fell in love with the area—and the sport. The couple bought a vineyard in the Russian River Valley in 2002; three years later they purchased a winemaking facility and founded Benovia Winery. And cycling went from a hobby to a passion. Dewane had been a runner, but it became “too hard on my body,” she says. At 47, she and a colleague signed up for AIDS/LifeCycle, a seven-day, 550-mile ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and since then she has biked through Sardinia, Sicily and southern Portugal with friends. In June she is participating in America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride, an annual cycling event that circumnavigates Lake Tahoe. Biking helps Dewane stay in shape—and focused. “It’s good for my body and my brain,” she says, “especially if I’ve been working a lot.”
GETTING IN THE GAME: Cycling gear can get complicated fast—there are endless varieties of pedals, cadence and speed sensors, and the like. So rent a bike first and participate in cycle club–sponsored rides to get familiar with the equipment, suggests Dewane, who rides a custom-built carbon-fiber Madone 6.5 Project One bike. She uses Speedplay pedals because she says “they provide more movement while pedaling and are easier on my knees.”
