Day 1: A Great Start

What an amazing day!!. This is my first year on the AIDS LifeCycle (ALC), and the shock of this amazing event is still sinking in.

We arrived at the cow palace between 5 and 5:30 am, heard some funny, insightful and inspirational words and were cheered on as we left the parking lot.

Jan & David, concentrating on starting the ride any minute,
for the crowded exit from the Cow Palace gates

The morning was cold, foggy (at some points you could barely see 20 feet in front of you) and windy, but we pushed on. We were well nuriahed by the roadies at all the rest stops and especially the lunch crew (who we are camping with).

The sun did come out a few times and shone brightly on the beautiful California coastline. The rest stop roadies also shone brightly in their costumes, such as Elvis, roller derby, October fest (minus the beer) and World Cup.

David, having done the ride before, knew some good photo spots

Then we were treated to some delicious food at dinner, some funy stories from the first day of the ride, and now we are trying to catch up on sleep, so we can be prepared for the long (108 mile) day tomorrow.

Thanks again to everyone who supported the PG&E Power Pedalers ad helped us raise over $53K!!! The ALC overall raised jut over $15M, which is a record amount and will truly help provide essential services and research to help end HIV/AIDS.

Have a great night!!!

Day Zero

Back row:  Tim, Rick, Glen, Erica, Harley, Owen, Mark
Front row: Larry, Jan, David

Photo of our team in street clothes.
Day zero we watch a safety video & complete our registration.  It is filled with lines and more lines, to get us ready for the week of lines.  On the ride we have lines for food, showers, toilets (guess I should say port-a-potties).  The love bubble has begun; 2300 cyclists and more than 600 volunteers, all taking care of each other, encouraging each other, in our effort to end HIV/AIDS.  We will meet Sunday at 5:30 am & ride out about 6:30, on our first leg to Santa Cruz.

East Bay riders take last training ride of the season, tapering off, only 50 miles

Harley, Owen, Jan, Larry and David, debut our new Power of Blue, PG&E jerseys.  We took our last training ride of the season, through San Ramon, Dublin, Pleasanton, Livermore and Danville.  Mostly flat, but hot and windy.

 We are ready to go 545 miles from SF to LA, starting June 1st!  Follow us on this blog.

Training ride, May 10, 2014

Owen & Jan before the decent down Calaveras Rd.

Owen & Jan at the top of Calaveres Road, just a bit past the reservoir, 1/2 way through a training ride, with 55 miles to go.  Two firsts for Owen.  His 1st Century & his 1st time to the top of Calaveres Rd.  This is just one of many training rides the team members do, to prepare for the week long 545 mile ride, that will start June 1, from SF to LA.  We were part of a group of 65 riders, all supported by volunteers.  The training rides start out at 30 miles long in January, gradually increasing to 100 milers, 3 weeks before the ride.

Training rides are under way

Training Ride Leader with David, Jan & Owen

Today we did an 85 mile training ride that took us over part of what we will ride on Day 1, June 1st.    We were in the saddle over 6 hours and counting breaks we were out training over 8 hours.  This is a typical day of training leading up the the week long June ride.  We have to get our muscles, endurance and bottom sides prepared on the weekends, since we all work during the week.  There isn't any other way to train for a 7 day ride.  We stopped at San Gregorio State beach for our lunch break.  One of the volunteer TRL's had our lunches in his car.  This is the same lunch spot we'll be at on day one, June 1st.

2014 bake sales

Thank you to All our generous supporters who donated so much at our 2 initial 2014 bake sales, one in SF at General Office, and one at the PG&E Bishop Ranch office. You helped our January fund raising a great deal. We look forward to our next sales Valentines week.

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Location:San Fran and San Ramon

We have finished the 2013 ALC 12 ride!

Our official PG&E team photo for ALC 12

Blog by Jan.

Here is our official team photo of the 2013 ride. Bright & early, a 6am meet up and, notice, we are all pretty much wide awake.

This year's ride raised a record 14.2 MILLION dollars to provide services for the SF AIDS Foundation & LA Gay & Lesbian Center.  Thank you to all our wonderful supporters, donors and followers.  Many of us have already signed up to ride again next year.

Larry, Jan & David, 1 mile from the finish in LA, burger time

Some of the team stopped for burgers at Barneys in L.A.  The rest of the team met up at Starbucks, a few blocks away and road in to the finish line together.  The finish is an amazing, uplifting, and spirited, thank you by thousands of spectators, lining the road.  I have to admit, by the end of 545 miles, although exhilarated, we were mostly tired, and don't have many photos.

At closing ceremonies, the different sponsors thank us & there was a performance by the So You Think You Can Dance, Allstars, pictured below.

We all love to talk about our experience & encourage others to ride or volunteer with us, so feel free to engage us.

Our only team Roadie (volunteer extraordinaire), Emilia, with the dancers from "So You Think You Can Dance"

  A special thank you to Southwest Airlines, who gave all the returning ALC folks complimentary cocktails & early boarding, just because they could.