It's officially known as the Ninth Annual Subaru 24-Hour Champion Challenge mountain bike race at Seven Springs, but veteran bicyclist Joe Ruggery calls it "24 hours for Tom." Ruggery, 37, of Greensburg, a state police corporal who will be promoted to sergeant next week, competed in the race last year. He was one of six members of the Speedgoat Bicycles and Freddie Fu Cycling Team that won the corporate division. From noon Aug. 30 to noon Aug. 31, he'll ride the 12-mile course solo to raise money for state police Sgt. Tom O'Connor, a close friend and co-worker who has chondrosarcoma, an aggressive form of bone cancer.

O'Connor, 41, of Monroeville, has been a state trooper since November 1991. He was diagnosed with cancer in early 2007 and underwent extensive surgery to remove a tumor from his tailbone. A complication from the surgery left him blind.

Last month, doctors told him the cancer had returned and spread throughout his body. He asked to be enrolled in a clinical trial where he would receive an experimental cancer treatment drug not yet approved by the Federal Drug Administration.

O'Connor is on leave without pay. Although he has medical benefits, he exhausted all of his paid sick leave and that of troopers who donated their sick leave to him.

His wife, Jennifer Lynn, a registered nurse, is unable to work because she is taking care of him and their two children -- Ryan, 7, and Delaney, 5. O'Connor is considering a disability retirement, "but there are a lot of hoops to jump through because I don't have a work-related disability."

Ruggery said troopers from all over the state, "including cancer survivors and others who don't know Tom, have been so supportive. The department is like a family. What I'm doing is small compared to what others have done." Cranking a bicycle up steep climbs and making treacherous descents over rocky terrain for 24 hours might be small to Ruggery, who was ranked the No. 1 masters (age 30 and over) road racer in the country in 2006, but not to most. And certainly not to O'Connor.

"We were taken aback, flabbergasted, by what he's going to be doing for me and my family," O'Connor said. "To have the endurance to accomplish such a feat is tremendous."

The race begins with a LeMans-style start. Riders park their bikes above the Lake Tahoe Lodge, run a lap around the 150-million gallon man-made lake, get on their bikes and go.

Ruggery said the course has "a good mix of a tight, twisty single-track through the woods, some faster double-track trails, some wide-open dirt roads and a number of extremely technical 'rock garden' sections that are difficult to walk, let alone ride a mountain bike through."

He said the course runs down the mountain, goes through the woods and then climbs up the North Face ski/snowboard slope toward the lodge. It then drops back into the woods before circling the lake and returning to the starting point.

Ruggery said it takes him about 75 minutes to complete the 12-mile course when it's dry and another 10 minutes or so when it's muddy.

The goal of the race is to complete as many laps as possible in 24 hours.

Ruggery said all the money he raises will go to O'Connor and his family.

"I've had a very rewarding career," O'Connor said. "I have a lot of challenges, but I'm living life to its fullest and creating memories for my children."

For more information on O'Connor, and to make a donation, go to 24fortom.blogspot.com/.

And for more information on the race and/or to register, go to www.7springs.com or call 1-800-452-2223, Ext. 7757.