On Thursday, September 11, 91 bicyclists and approximately 110 crew members set out from the Lesbian and Gay Center in San Diego for the first ever Challenge Ride, a joint fundraiser for the San Diego and Long Beach Lesbian and Gay Centers. Each rider raised between $1100 and $1500 in pledges for the San Diego and Long Beach Centers.
The 280-mile, 3-1/2 day ride took the riders and crew to California State University at Dominguez Hills, just northwest of Long Beach, and then back to the Del Mar Fairgrounds for the closing ceremonies on Sunday, September 14. Eight members of Rainbow Cyclists were among the riders, and four were among the crew. (One other member was registered for the ride but could not participate because of injuries received during a training ride.) Here is one member's account.
I signed up for the food service crew at the last minute, so I met my crew leader and got my marching orders the night before the ride. I was told to report for duty at the Center at 5:00 AM the morning of the ride, which I did manage to do. Then I waited for the rest of the crew to arrive.
From there on, there was a lot more hurry-up-and-wait. I had expected that, so I took along some reading material. That helped, although conditions were often less than ideal for reading.
Our job was to support the sag stops and serve meals at the campgrounds. The hardest part was moving all those cases of bottled water. Getting up early every morning was the second-hardest part.
The riders got a late start on Thursday, but we got a later start, and quite a few riders reached the first sag stop before we did.
We did get the other stops set up in time. In fact, we waited more than an hour for the first rider to arrive at the Escondido stop.
That first day's ride was described by some of the riders as "day one from hell". It certainly was, but I'll let one of our riders give you the details.
The campground where we stayed that night (and also on Saturday night) is better than the campground at San Onofre State Beach. It's part of Camp Pendleton, and it is not usually open to civilians. Staying there was one of the benefits of the Challenge Ride that I hadn't expected.
On Friday I accompanied another crew member when we picked up the sack lunches at the caterer's store in Oceanside. Then we made a mad dash up to Long Beach (partly along the brand-new toll road) to set up the lunch stop in El Dorado Regional Park.
Finding the lunch stop was a problem, because the park is quite large. It turned out that our instructions were wrong. We finally found the right location only by following the chalked arrows on the ride route, which ran right next to a park access road at the point nearest the lunch stop.
At least two riders didn't find the lunch stop. Dan Buker got there before we did, found nothing, and kept going. Another rider told me later that he missed the chalked arrows. However, both of them got lunch at the next sag stop at Whittier Narrows.
Friday night we got another unexpected treat. We camped in a soccer field at California State University, Dominguez Hills, near the Olympic-size bicycle velodrome. There were several bike races that night, and all Challenge Ride riders and crew members were admitted free.
The velodrome looks like the one at Morley Field in Balboa Park here in San Diego, but it's much larger. That night it was decorated in honor of the Challenge Ride. The place was festooned with rainbow flags. Affixed to posts in the center of the velodrome were bicycles painted the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.
On Saturday and Sunday, things started to come together. We had the first sag stop on Saturday set up in Belmont Shore before the first riders arrived. Lunch at Victor Victorias in Laguna Beach went just fine, because the restaurant didn't have to be set up. It was already there, and it was very easy to find!
Finally, hurricane Linda stayed far enough away so we had good weather for the Sunday ride and closing ceremonies at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
Those rainbow-colored bicycles showed up again at the closing ceremonies.
Will we do it again? I think most of us will. Next year's ride will undoubtedly be bigger, but it will be supported better because we will have learned from this year's efforts.