Today was day 5 of the AIDS Life Cycle ride. For ordinary people that may not mean much, but for the people of the ALC it means only one thing, RED DRESS DAY!!
Day 5 is the famous “Red Dress Day”. This started out as “Dress in Red Day” when someone put two and two together realizing that this many rides would form a long red ribbon if all wore the same color. Being the fabulous people that we as AIDS/LifeCycle riders are, red dresses quickly became the standard uniform for this very fun day. My partner and I almost decided not to bring a dress, but knew we would regret it in the end. We were so happy we did since it was a blast to do. I usually do not care for men in dresses, but the number of both men and women wearing them was truly a sight to see. 2,333 riders in red dresses will certainly help to fulfill the visibility part of the overall ALC mission. If someone on the street doesn’t notice that, something is wrong.
The most impressive costume I saw today was the craftiness of a man wearing red leather platform knee-high heels with cleats attached to the bottom so that he can clip into his bike. How is that for dedication and ingenuity?!?!? I still cannot believe he was able to make it through the day. We had a couple of tough hills to climb that we were unaware of and I can only imagine how hard they must have been to climb while wearing stilettos. Sure, there was Quadbuster and the Evil Twins, but what about the monsters on today’s route? Lucky for us, and for him, it was our shortest day of the week. The shorter route also allowed for us to sleep in an extra hour. 6 am is much more doable than 5 am.
Oh, I almost forgot our second pit stop in Casmalia. A town of maybe 100 people in the center of a small valley who throw a killer dance/BBQ party in front of the General Store. It was like an even gayer version of the Lionel Richey video “All Night Long” with all the dancers wearing red. How we found the energy for dancing no one knows. Perhaps when you are running on Gatorade and Cliff Bars the sound of music triggers that dancing gene in us all.
This was probably the slowest departure day we had. Miles of red dresses trying to get out of town, and boy was it slow. It was no wonder the rest stops was only 9 miles out. People were getting hot, and running out of water just trying to get through the first 9 miles. As for me, I didn’t have much red on. I was definitely a fashion faux pas. I won’t let that happen again. I’m already looking through Jenn’s closet to see what red clothes she has for my next ride. HAHA.
In case you’ve been wondering, we have been traveling up the coast line to reach LA so most of our rides take us through beach areas and dusty farmlands. This particular stop was dusty, pretty much like all the rest, couple that with the gale like winds that have greeted us and you have one dirty, dusty girl.
Day 5 was my biggest challenge on the bike. On day 4, I had suffered some serious front wheel wobble while descending a fairly steep, yet quick hill. A vicious cross wind had took control of my front tire. I was doing about 30mph down hill when my front tire felt like it was slipping on ice. Not a great feeling. All I could think of was that I would soon be crashing onto my right shoulder, and how to brace for it. At the same time I went against all my instincts and stopped braking for my brakes made matters worse. I managed to recover control, and come to a stop at the bottom of the hill, but the damage was already done. Mentally, I went from a confident 42mph down hiller, to a 20mph or less. All of a sudden, bicycling wasn’t fun for me anymore. At least not the descents.
Ed and I took off from the group this day. For me, I knew Ed would get me through the day fast. And I knew he would dust me on the descents. This was good, for as far as I was concerned, I didn’t want anyone waiting for me to catch up. More importantly, I didn’t want to endanger any of my buddies as they would have to pass me on fast descents. Today was the day I seriously felt like chucking my bike into the trees and giving up. But that’s not me. I thought of all the sacrifices my family made for me on this trip, and of all the support I received from friends and colleagues. Deep down, I also knew that I loved to ride. So I kept going, doing my best to get a grip of my fear and continue.
The great part of this day, was that once the majority of hills were done, there was this wonderful stretch of road for about 7 miles at least. It had a tail wind. I cruised solo at about 26mph…solo! I wizzed by bikesand heard riders comment “did you see that….wow…”. It was the best feeling in the world. Cycling was fun again.
At the end of the stretch was this major climb that came out of no where. (Today, as Lorri Jean, of the LA Gay and Lesbian Center, was making her nightly announcements she commented on this very hill and dubbed it “Oh My E’ffing God”).
The hill didn’t worry me, instead it was my chance to catch up to Ed. As I took the corner, I saw ed probably about 100 yards plus up the hill. He was doing great, so much so that he had a bunch of riders that were trailing him/using him up the hill..draining him for all he was worth. It took me at least 10 minutes to catch up to him. But when I did, I got him on my tail and pulled him up for the last section.
After hitting most of the hills, and hitting 26 mph on the flats, I was losing energy. This always seems to happen whenever Ed finds some rabbits to chase. He chased them, and I let him go. He then slowed down, told me to hitch on, and together we were hitting 30 + mph catching up the original rabbits. As we approached a downhill, I told him to go have fun. Anyways, during this little process we rode by Vandenburg Air force Base. Let’s just say the rider community took sweet joy at the irony of riding by their base.
Tonight was fun, for two reasons. It was our Team picture day with Schwab. We were all pretty silly and laughing. It’s amazing how a simple photo shoot could be so much fun.
Afterwards, I joined Ed, Gary, Mike, Melissa, and Jenna for dinner in town. Dos Pesos or something had us eating Mexican food, and after only a few glasses of strawberry margaritas, we were all crying at the site of Doc imitating mikey speaking Spanish. He sounded like a star wars character. Sort of a cross between a miwok and that little jedi night dude. “…ah ma…chi….na….” You had to be there to experience it..but trust me..we were in tears laughing. For the first time in my life, I finally understand why it’s so painful for Ed to hear broken Spanish spoken. For the way he hears it, it’s definitely painful!
Later that night, right before the CHP was about to lecture to us on the importance of safety, a rocket was launched. Maybe it was just me, but besides thinking how much my kids would have loved to see this…I noticed that the trail of smoke left behind formed little “red ribbons”. Sort of like a tribute from above.
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