The Final 545 AIDS LifeCycle Ride
San Francisco to Los Angeles June 1-7, 2025

For my uncle Scott who died from AIDS in 1994. 

The AIDS/LifeCycle Ride also started in 1994. I was a senior in high school and Scott lived with us for the last year of his life. It was a heart-breaking experience to watch him suffer from a disease that also brought so much stigma with it. 

Scott was my dad’s youngest brother, but in many ways he was also my older brother. He would babysit me when I was young, and give me art supplies to encourage my creativity. At the time, I couldn’t have known we were going to have so many similarities in our lives. 

In the 80s and 90s, he had been living the good gay life in San Francisco, working as an accountant to support his art practice of painting. His partner practiced Zen buddhism. I moved to the Bay Area in 2006, and after 25 years working as a designer, I switched my focus to photography to pursue my art practice. I began meditating as a practicing buddhist in 2011, which was also the same year that I had Scott's name engraved in the AIDS Memorial Grove Circle of Friends in Golden Gate Park. I think of him often, and have wanted to participate in this ride for a long time.  I'm so glad that things aligned this year so I have the time to train and ride, but also because this is the last year of the ride! 

I’m riding in honor of my uncle Scott to support the end of HIV and AIDS as life-threatening diseases, and to provide supportive health services for those who are living with HIV and AIDS. 

Ride Report!

I carried your support with me for the entire 568 miles and would love to share some moments of the LOVE BUBBLE with you.

Everyday brought new landscapes and themed rest stops to keep us charged up for the long miles we were pushing each day. 

Riding 568 miles (not 545!) is a much more digestible task when you think of riding in 20-mile increments with Gatorade, pretzels, oranges, porta potties and chamois butter in between the saddle time. And I have so much gratitude to my friend John Martin who made sure I knew about all of the unofficial rest stops, had someone to ride with me for the first few days, and just generally made my ride an unforgettable and loving experience. Our 1000+ miles of training rides prepared us well!

Day 0 Registration
Practice Patience Waiting in Line

Even though we rode out from SF on Sunday, the ride events started on the Friday afternoon beforehand. Team ALCaholics met up for team jerseys and a pep rally on Friday afternoon. Saturday was rider registration where the patience training for waiting in lines was really put to the test! Good opportunity to socialize!

Day 1 San Francisco to Santa Cruz 82 miles
Ride Safe! Be Safe!

After a moving ceremony of acknowledging those we have lost and why we ride, 2500 riders streamed out of the Cow Palace on a typical June gloom foggy morning. People came out from their houses to cheer us on at 6am on a Sunday morning. Smiles for miles!

Rest Stop 1 was chilly so I got in and out as fast as possible, which is not really a speedy drive-thru because there is a lengthy line for everything. So really, in-n-out in 30-45 minutes. Getting used to the pace for riding but also for standing in lines. 

I may have discovered a new hybrid lupine plant along Hwy 1 and I almost caused a trainwreck bike crash when I stopped to photograph the plant.

There were 4 rest stops for each day and the rest stop crews were themed daily to lift our spirits with costumes, puns and super campy innuendos.

Rolling into camp the first night, next to the Costco, was interesting. Welcome to Tent City! And more lines for food, showers, and porta-potties. My speedy younger tent mate made it to camp hours before me, so the tent was up and waiting for me when I got there. Thanks Bradley!

I raised $6748 through the generosity of friends, family, and colleagues. The ride raised $17.2 million dollars total!

Day 2 Santa Cruz to King City 108 miles
ORANGE SAFETY DAY!

Organized chaos is a good way to explain morning roll out. Capitola neighbors gave us coffee at a quick stop for a surf check. And then while climbing a short steep hill, I got passed by a dude riding on a fixed gear single speed! Gotta love the youth and their monster legs. Go Team Cretins!

Cookie Lady and lunch didn’t prepare me for the 40+ miles on the crappiest roads I've ever ridden on without suspension. John kept up my spirits and got me to the unofficial Otterpop stop with iceypops. These bears helped get me through the final 20 miles.

The sunset and lovely campsite helped the recovery from the awful roads. Getting used to tent life.

Day 3 King City to Paso Robles 66 miles
Quadbuster and the $100 Burger

Everyday starts at 4:30am with some version of getting dressed, breaking down the tent, eating breakfast, going to the bathroom, dropping off your bag, and getting your bike in the exit line before 6am.

We had to ride back out on the same bumpy trail we rode into camp, which was like bridge metering on crack.

Quadbuster is the big hill of the ride that is more myth than monster, but again, the dudes on the fixies passed me going up hill. The descent and following 30 miles were some of the most beautiful scenery and roads including a rest stop at a little roadside church. Welcome to Oak Country!

The unofficial lunch is hosted by the tiny town of Bradley as a fundraiser for their school programs. They make burgers and the students serve them to the riders. Each burger meal is $100 and funds their extracurricular programs for the entire school.

After sitting at a table in the air conditioning for an hour, we rode the hottest section of the ride into Paso Robles. John popped his tire as we rode out of rest stop 4 so we found some shade and he flexed his bike repair muscles. And I learned some bike mechanic skills for bikes with electronic shifters and disc brakes — totally different beasts. We rode through Hunter-Liggett Military Base and I had my photo taken with the Widowmaker, which was how I was feeling about riding in the heat at that time.

Riders raised $119k for the Bradley school, which was a record-setting send off for them. They will miss the generosity of the ride, but it’s a relationship that helped many kids over the years.

One of the roadside cheerleaders is the chicken lady. She brings her chickens and eggs to hatch more love along the ride with humor and an amazing collection of sunglasses.

Every night at dinner we had a recap hosted by the illustrious Sister Roma which included a personalized weather report from one of the nerdiest and loveliest riders who managed our expectations for head winds.

We camped at the Paso Robles Fair Grounds which was surreal, and they had a root beer float waiting for me to scarf down upon arrival. It seems like most people stayed in hotels aka “princessed” this night because there were less than 50% of the tents set up compared to previous nights — tent suburbs. The temps were cool and I slept like a princess with just a few peas under my mattress.

Day 4 Paso Robles to Santa Maria 89 miles
HALF WAY TO LA!

This was the most beautiful part of the ride. I would ride this section over and over again.

The half way to LA location was engulfed in fog when I got there, but the other side of the road was clear and sunny as I started on the descent to the coast. This was the first day I actually got to ride with some of my team, and we managed to meet up for a group photo at the half way point, but then quickly dispersed along the route as our speeds varied greatly. We stopped in Cayucos for lunch and fueled up on waffles, skipping the wraps offered at the ride lunch, which looked less and less appetizing as the days rolled on.

The penske gear trucks rolled like a convoy past us on the road with signs of encouragement. Between the gear trucks, sweep vehicles, SAG vehicles and other safety/photo vehicles, there was always a vehicle nearby supporting the ride. The moto team would flag us at turns and intersections and it was always a pleasure to yell out FUCK YEAH MOTO! as we rolled by.

Day 5 Santa Maria to Lompoc (Lawm-poke) 44 miles
RED DRESS DAY!

Red Dress Day is the fun (rest) day on the ride. It’s the day where the riders paint a ribbon of red along the roads in remembrance of those who have suffered and died from HIV/AIDS. It is a day of joyful grief. Most teams dress in themed costumes. Team ALCaholics had originally agreed on dressing up like bingo ladies. In the true spirit of a wildly dysfunctional team, the ALCaholics dressed up in whatever costumes we wanted, but we all mostly agreed to play bingo. We were the “bingo balls” and we gave out “bingo card” stickers to the rest of the riders who wanted to play. It was a great way to pass the time as we were held up at rest stops, and it gave us a chance to connect with people we didn’t otherwise know on the ride. Bingo might be one of the great social connectors that we need right now. The range of diversity and creativity of the costumes was amazing. And yes, we all rode 44 miles in these costumes, and there were definitely some costume malfunctions along the way! Red dress day is the full expression of the love bubble riding along the road.

Day 6 Lompoc to Ventura 91 miles
Palm Trees Forever!

The descent out to the coast was full of chills and thrills, but it was sunny days ahead by the time we rolled into Santa Barbara for ice cream sundays. We had a moving candlelight vigil on the beach that night. My friend Nicole came for the vigil which made it even more special to share the love with a friend I hadn’t seen in years. I also won the final safety raffle for helping some folks with bike repairs along the road, so I walked away with some great gift certificates for coffee and gear! Ride Safe! Be Safe!

Day 7 Ventura to Santa Monica via Los Angeles 86 miles
This way to LA!

We woke up extra early on the last day because the route was a new, longer route than previous years. The Palisades fire impacts did not allow us to ride through Malibu along the coast, so we rode an inland route with some more hills and about 20 extra miles. This was the only day my tentmate and I got up and ate breakfast together, and somehow I made it to the finish line before him! There were long holds at lunch that I managed to avoid, and in doing so I climbed Sepulveda Pass by myself, which was a lovely way to work through my exhaustion on the last hill climb. Yes, that means I cried most of the climb, but my tears dried instantly as I passed through the tunnel and saw the cell phone palm tree! I knew it was all downhill from that point.

In our sunshine love team kits, the ALCaholics assembled in Santa Monica and rode through the finish line together. We hugged and hi-fived, gave our bikes to the shipping company, and went our separate ways. I found John and we made our way back into the realities of Los Angeles, where the national guard had assembled downtown to control the supposed rioting against the ICE raids. This was a harsh reality to bump up against the love bubble. I like to think that the bubble burst helped disperse the love into a bigger area because we need a whole lotta love these days.

Day 8 Los Angeles 0 miles
Celebrate and Recover!

I woke up Sunday morning extremely puffy. My body had maxed out and was showing me some serious signs of exhaustion. So I ate a variety of veggie burgers and some of John’s birthday cake, and we celebrated pride and completing the ride.

Let’s keep the LOVE BUBBLE going!

It’s taken some time to process my thoughts about the ride. It was an amazing experience to push myself physically and feel so supported along the way. I often felt grief and joy simultaneously. While moving your body, you can process grief and often end up with gratitude, joy, and exhaustion. Now that I’ve recovered from the ride, I’m left with the gratitude and joy. Thank you for your support on this ride! Let’s find ways to continue to love and support each other. Let’s keep the love bubble going!