Well, I finally sat down and typed up all the daily journals (about time!). The period after the Ride is an interesting one. On one hand I found myself very tired and little unable to focus, kind of like jet lag, but not. Due to the chest congestion I gained a really nasty cough. It took me a couple of weeks to really kick it and get my lungs cleared out.

The Monday after the ride Sal, Kevin and I went and picked up our bikes. The next weekend I spent a few hours cleaning it. The drivetrain was particularly nasty and covered in filth. It felt good to clean everything off. To take the chain and really make sure it was de-gunked. Cleaning the road grime from the frame and making sure everything a was in good working order again.

After feeling a little bit better I went out for a ride two weeks after the Ride. I felt like I rode stronger than before, but I still haven’t replaced my cyclometer so I really don’t know, but I felt better doing it.

In total I raised $5,307 for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. I’m really happy with that amount, it wasn’t as much as last year, but it was more than double the minimum amount.

In case you missed any of the daily entries you can find them here:

• Day 0 – Orientation
• Day 1 – San Francisco to Santa Cruz
  
• Day 2 – Santa Cruz to King City
  
• Day 3 – King City to Paso Robles
• Day 4 – Paso Robles to Santa Maria
  
• Day 5 – Santa Maria to Lompoc
• Day 6 – Lompoc to Ventura
  
• Day 7 – Ventura to Los Angeles

Finally, the day we’d been working to was here. The last day of riding with a “short” 60 miles ahead of us. We got up and left as a group. Like Day 5 we really wanted to stay together as much as possible.

We started riding and there’s not a lot of ways to get to LA from Ventura except being on the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH or CA-1). We rode past the waste treatment plant (peeew!), the military bases, the ocean and on and on.

We finally got to Malibu and the hills there. They’re not bad, there’s just a lot of them. Lunch was at the Malibu Lagoon State Beach. I met up with Tia, Thomas, Chris, Steve, May, Kathryn, and Arena there. We ate, Thomas violently opened a bag of chips and hit Tia right in the eye, we lounged a bit, and then we took off. We stayed together as we knew we were within 15 miles of the end and we wanted to ride across together.

The PCH is very scary with lots of cars both on the road and parked. Once you get into LA you move over to the beach path for a bit and then you have to cross under the highway via a pedestrian tunnel.

Getting back on your bike you go East a little bit and then turn right and hit the last major hill of the entire ride. It was great when there was a large group of people cheering at the top of the hill. You then have a nice bike laned road to go for a few more miles, negotiate some turns, and then you see it, a short uphill, a right turn and massive amounts of people! You’re done. Tia, Thomas, Steve, Chris, and I finished together. The emotion from having all those people cheer you on is staggering. I was so overcome that I almost missed Kevin and Sal who had finished well in front of us.

Another year done and I felt great at having ridden 550 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles. We all went out for Brazilian food after and then Kevin, Sal, Robert, and I caught a late flight with about 100 other riders back to Oakland. It was good to be back in my bed and sleeping soundly for the night.

I woke up this morning to a dead bike computer which means I get to ride “zen” and not know milage or time while pedaling away. It’s actually a much more fulfilling experience to ride that way since you just ride to ride, not for speed or time.

There is a climb of about 16 miles out of Lompoc. It’s not hard, just long. You ride and ride and get to the first rest stop near the top of the hill. From there you go up and over and down, down, down, to rest stop 2. The CHP is kind enough to close one lane of traffic on CA-1 right at rest stop 2. They do this because the lanes on a bridge are so narrow that there is no other way for us to get past and it’s not safe as there is no shoulder.

I rolled into lunch in Goleta and it seemed to me that I got there faster and much easier than last year. I ate quick and then headed out because the community run Paradise Pit was ahead in Santa Barbara. Yummy ice cream was had. I rode out of PP with Chris. At this point I had been coughing for a day or so. The combination of dry and hot days with exertional asthma and allergies led to some chest congestion. I felt fine, I was just coughing.

At rest stop 4, which is beautiful and along the water, I was really ready to get off the bike. I pushed on the last 11 miles or so, but I was just not happy, and that leads to not having fun on the bike.

It was a long day, 85.5 miles and Chris and I stuck together all the way to San Buenaventura State Beach, the best camping spot on the whole trip. That is partially due to the In-n-Out Burger across the street. Thomas topped his 6×6 from last year with a 7×7. Yumminess with a chocolate shake and fries was had.

Every year on the AIDS/LifeCycle they have one day that is significantly shorter in duration than the others. That is Day 5. It is 43 miles and the tradition is to dress in red (or, wear a red dress depending on whom you talk to). Day 5 is also a very hilly day and the collective effect of a couple of thousand cyclists dressed in red is like a red ribbon flowing down the road.

Today my ankle was in a lot more pain than it’s ever been in before. There was one point in Vandenburg Air Force Base that I wanted to get off the bike and throw it off the hill and call it quits. I didn’t, I knew I couldn’t because that’s not why I was there. Thousands of people living with HIV and AIDS don’t give up and neither can I.

Our entire group stayed together for most of the day. I was the slowest one so I caught up with the folks at the lunch stop, where we didn’t eat lunch. From there we all rode together to Lompoc and into town to eat at the Budget Dinner. We had a great assortment of burgers and pancakes and like last year it was a great time.

After lunch Sal, Kevin, and I rode further into town to find the Walgreen’s to pick up some needed supplies for the group. Getting back to camp so early, even with the detour into town, is always a great time.

At dinner we got to witness a rocket launch from Vandenburg. We saw it before we heard it. It was nice to be able to witness something like that.

Today started with my ankle in a good bit of pain. I was tempted to hop on the sag bus (I don’t know what ’sag’ stands for, I just know it’s the term used when you’re shuttled from point to point in a vehicle), but I didn’t train to ride a bus, I trained to ride a bike. I made a deal with myself, I wanted to ride to at least mile 66 in Pismo Beach.

We rode more or less together up to rest stop 1 and then up and over the Evil Twins to the half-way point. My ankle was really hurting at points, but I knew I could push on and I met up with Tia, Chris and Heidi at the half-way point. Funny enough the Evil Twins didn’t seem as hard as last year. Chris and I helped Heidi get her heavy steel bike up so she could hold it up as is customary.

I was really looking forward to the next part, about 10 miles of downhill riding. I didn’t get going as fast as last year because we were faced with a headwind on the way down, but it was still a blast to not have to pedal at all and to be flying down the road. Chris decided to wait up for Thomas and Steve at the half-way point, but I knew he’d be able to catch up to me later.

We rode on through Morrow Bay and San Louis Obispo and to lunch. I waited there for Chris and we took off for Pismo Beach. The reason I wanted to make it to Pismo before stopping? Old West Cinnamon Rolls. They make a truly perfect cinnamon roll, top it with cream cheese icing and one is in a state of nirvana.

After Pismo Beach is a bit of riding along the sea shore and you get to see these great big sand dunes. Of course that brings us to mile 75 and a hill that is difficult at the easiest. It’s narrow and steep and scary, but nothing a person that has trained for the ride can’t handle. This year we had cross winds on the way to rest stop 4 and they were realy strong. I kept getting blown out into the road, it was very scary at points.

I finally met the boys at the rest stop and we all took off for Santa Maria. There was a good tail wind for a bit and we cruised. I made it the whole day and after that 95 mile ride I knew I’d be able to finish the ride without any problems. At camp we saw Athena, she drove down to meet up with us a few times and today was the first day.

We started out this morning a bit earlier than yesterday and that was good. I had been riding more aggressively on Day 2 than I should have and for that I now had a sore Achilles tendon. It hurt a bit, but nothing I couldn’t handle for now. This morning was a bit warmer so I was able to only have my arm warmers on as we rolled out to Quadbuster.

Of course, when I got to my bike I had a written warning for “failure to stop at a stop sign” that didn’t happen. The safety vehicle could not have seen if I stopped or not because of a hedge row. I was pretty upset about it for the day but then I realized they hit over 700 people with warnings that night. The ride has a very hard job in keeping safety a priority so that we can continue to ride through these communities. With that large of a number of people running that stop sign, and I know people behind me did, I can understand my number getting taken down mistakenly.

Once again this year they make us ride an out of the way route to get to the first rest stop at the bottom of Quadbuster. It really wouldn’t be so bad except that there was once again a headwind that was gnarly to say the least. At rest stop 1 my ankle was really sore so I got the medical staff to put some Bengay on it. That didn’t really help, and I never thought it would since it’s was a tendon injury, so I made sure to take more ibuprofen to kill any swelling I might have.

I took off for Quadbuster with Tia and Chris. As would become evident throughout the rest of the ride they took off when the hill really started because I was slowed down by my ankle. I made it to the top of Quadbuster in my granny gear, once again without stopping. I may not be a fast hill climber, but I’ll get there. We stopped and took a few pictures and then cheered on other riders making their way up the hill.

After Quadbuster is a nice downhill that carries you through some easy flats to rest stop 2. This year it was still cloudy when we reached rs 2 so it was a bit more enjoyable. There isn’t much at that rest stop so we got on the road pretty quickly. At this point my ankle was feeling better so I was able to press on with Tia, Chris, Thomas, and Steve. We got about 2/3 of the way to the lunch stop and hit a headwind that made me slow way down.

The lunch stop on Day 3 is a small town called Bradley. They have a grill running and cook hamburgers and hot dogs for sale to the riders. The money they raise goes to fund their schools so I certainly don’t mind buying one and dropping the change in a donation jar. It was a fantastic double cheeseburger that helped lead to a great post-lunch nap in the shade. That 10 minutes of shut-eye was one of the best experiences of the whole ride.

After a nap and then getting more water Thomas, Chris, Steve and I headed out of Bradley. Last year it was so hot I didn’t think I was going to make it out of that stretch of road. This year was much cooler and I we had no problem cruising on the road and getting to the rest stop at the mission.

Chris and Thomas wanted coffee so we went back down the road and let them get some evil bean juice. While we were waiting it was great to just stand there and enjoy the wind and clear sky of the afternoon. Taking off the boys dropped me again (yes, ankle) so I just rode on through some of the prettiest country side on the whole ride. It was nice to ride alone for a bit and just think about what a great time I was having.

I arrived at camp shortly after the guys and we all went and showered and then skipped the chow hall, we went across the street to have BBQ ribs. There were great onion rings, ribs, and baked potatoes and then a really good sleep.

Day 2 is the longest day on the ride at 105 miles and it just seemed like we couldn’t get out quickly. We got up pretty early and there was already a long line for the port-a-potties. Breakfast was quick and then we changed into riding clothes and packed up. At bike parking there was some sort of a bottleneck that I couldn’t figure out and we were just waiting in line to get out. Lame.

Once we were on the road we were moving along okay and we got to the artichoke stand. Fried artichokes are fantastic when you’re riding. As we were there we knew we had plenty of time on the route but an ALC route staffer was telling us that we were behind and would get swept soon. We still got artichokes and made it to the next rest stop with 45 minutes to spare before the stop closed. Steve and Tom stopped because Steve’s knee was bothering him. Chris and I pedaled on and got to lunch pretty quickly where Steve and Thomas caught up to us.

After lunch we knew we had a long way to go so we got going again. Shortly after lunch the safety van was parked and monitoring a stop sign. I had stopped and the safety van was well down the road, but we’ll get to that tomorrow.

This day is one of the hardest on the ride. It’s long, it can get hot, and it takes a while. We rode and kept hitting rest stops with a little time before they were due to close. I don’t know if it was just me, but it seemed like they were closing earlier than the year previous. Possibly it was that it took us so long to get out of Santa Cruz that made the day seem compressed.

When we got into King City we were welcomed with a bit of confusion in the bike check in.  I understand that they want to know where every bike is and that all riders are in, but having to wait in line for about 45 minutes didn’t do anything to help sore muscles that needed to be stretched out.  Oh well, shower, food, and then right to sleep.

After a short evening of partying at the Ratatouille wrap party I went back to the hotel on Saturday night to try and catch a few hours of sleep. The revelers coming back at 02.30 woke me up, but that was a small price to pay for not having to trek back to the East Bay overnight.

At 04.00 I woke up and got dressed to meet Chris at his hotel at about 04.30. I went next door where the after party was still going on and said my fairwell to the people still in suits and quite wasted from the party and after-party. It was a little surreal seeing all the people partying and a little saddening knowing I gave that up on purpose, but it’s for a better cause.

I walked across the street and waited on Chris to come down to the lobby where we then got a cab over to the Cow Palace. We arrived amongst the throngs of people and took our bags over to gear truck I. After that we went into the building and got some breakfast. It was small and I wasn’t too hungry at the time, but I knew I’d need some fuel in me to get through the day. We then met up with Sal and Kevin in the hallway.

After waiting around for the opening ceremonies to end we were allowed into our bikes and then we got to wait around for a little longer before we could queue up and walk around the building. As we were rolling out we saw Colin and Andrew in their suits cheering us on. It was awesome that they came out to see us off after being up all night to party.

As we rode out we were once again in a big mass of riders taking up the entire side of the street we were on. It’s the only time that we purposefully break the single file rule so that we can all get on the road in a timely manner. I skipped the first rest stop as it was pretty close to the start (7 miles or so) and it looked like a mad house. The distances seemed a little shorter this year so far and I quickly found myself at the water stop next to the reservoir. I rode out from there with Tia and we just did a steady pace up CA-35 towards Half Moon Bay. At the top we saw Ken and Kako drumming the taiko drums just like last year. There were some awesome strawberries and this peaunut butter and fudge brownie like thing that was to die for.

Different this year was that at the top of the hill we didn’t get to continue down and into Half Moon Bay because of construction. We instead turned right and began a long climb up to around 2000′ of elevation, the new highest point on the ride. The climb reminded me of Mt. Diablo a bit, not too steep, just long. Eventually we got to Rest Stop 2 and it was jammed with riders. We only stayed long enough to tank up on food and water and hit the latrine before we were off again, climbing a bit until we got to the excellent downhill that took us to lunch.

At lunch those of us that were around (Steve, Thomas, Chris, Tia, and I) got interviewed for a new recruiting video. It will be interesting to see if we get used in that, I’ll request one when they become available. Afterwards we all took off and stayed together. We had stayed a little longer than we wanted to at lunch so we kicked it into high gear and did the 20 miles to Rest Stop 3 in just at an hour. We only had a quick stop there and I realized I didn’t look at the cue sheet earlier, but the route was 10 miles longer than last year.

After that we rode on and at some point I got tired enough to fall a little behind of the group. We rolled into Santa Cruz and I once again saw the woman holding the sign with her son on it and the words “Thank You”. I pulled over and gave her a hug and thanked her for coming out all day to show our support. I rode on through Santa Cruz and got to bike parking only a couple of minutes after the group. I thought I had seen them ahead of me but I had no idea I almost caught them.

I got my gear and with Chris ate dinner then showered. I was worn out as this first day was much harder than last years. We both crashed pretty early, looking forward to our next day, the century ride (100+ miles).

Day 0, registration and orientation. After last year’s day 0 I suggested that the group get to the Cow Palace early to be done with the event that is registration. Apparently everyone else had the same idea as lines were much longer than last year.

I picked up Chris and we met Sal, Kevin, and Robert at Pixar to carpool over to San Francisco. When we arrived the parking was already very full and the line to wait for bike parking was wrapped around the corner of the building. We eventually got to park our bikes and then got in line for registration. We had missed the first safety video so we were going to have to wait at least an hour for the next screening.

After getting through registration we were only a few minutes shy of seeing the 10:30 safety video screening, so we set in for the hour wait. This year safety was a much more emphasized for two reasons, there are more riders and the ride needs to make sure it’s doing all it can so that it won’t lose the permission of different municipalities to have the ride pass through.

Once we finished with the safety video we had all we needed (both wristbands) to get our tent assignments. Thanks to the hard work of James Dashe we had a reserved block of tents so that we could all be together. After that we put our numbers on our bikes and said farewell to our mounts for the night.

The registration process took longer than I think it should have. Maybe more staggered screenings of the safety video would have helped. Had a lot of us not needed to get things done for the Ratatouille wrap party that night we could have gone later and had a much more relaxed time of it all.

Overall I was now starting to get really excited for the ride again. I kind of missed that build up from last year when the whole thing was totally unknown to me. I saw a few first time riders from training rides and I swear I could see the same wonder and question on their faces I had last year. “Will I be able to do this?” “What have I gotten myself into?” Questions like that.

Well, it’s Friday evening and I’m preparing the last few things for AIDS/LifeCycle 6. I’ve got all the clothes and all the gear ready to go. Donations are in and I got almost to $5k, which is cool enough for me (albeit sans a jersey). I’ve been resting this week and I’m itching to get back on the bike.

Overall the week has been really hard. Polly got sick and is still needing to be fed with a tube. I’m very tempted to not go on the ride as I feel like I’m abandoning her, but she is getting better and she’ll be in the best possible care with Keith and Cortney helping out.

For those that want to you can follow along on the web with the official AIDS/LifeCycle Experience. You can also send messages of support (I’m rider #4142) and I’m going to try and keep an updated voice journal via the gabcast service, which you can find a player linked on my ALC homepage.