Dieter’s “Amaaaaaazing” California Ride (June 2008)

By Dieter Klemke

The ride was amazing. Just got back this morning and I am still SSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOO happy. It is a hard ride but meeting so many nice people makes it great fun.

It started out on the difficult side, when the airline cancelled my flight on Thursday and I had to get up at 4:30 a.m. Friday for a 7 a.m. flight to San Francisco. Registration at the old convention center, the Cow Palace, once again was very exciting, with 3000 riders and crew milling all around the cavernous auditorium.

Sunday morning, June 1st, was another early day, as I had to get up at 4:30 again to ride out at 6.30 a.m. from the Cow Palace. But it’s an amazing feeling to bike with 2500 other riders past all the thousands of people who came to cheer for you. Just WOW.

Here we are, on AIDS Lifecycle 7. Seven days and 545 miles to go.

The first day is always one of the most difficult ones because you climb so many hills and they are so much more steep then the ones we have here in New York. After 95 miles of hills and beauty (both on and off the bicycles!) we finally arrive in the first camp, right outside of Santa Cruz, and it was just great. Pasta for dinner and to bed by 9 p.m.

So we could start on Tuesday morning at 4:30 a.m.! So much to fit in: breakfast, packing your tent and all your gear, getting back on the road for another hundred miles through California’s most beautiful areas, which of course are not flat. But every up has to go down, and a few miles downhill make the ride even more fun.†

Almost every day that week was the same. You get up at 4:30 because some alarm went off in the camp of 1800 tents or your neighbor with the deepest, loudest voice was on his cell phone to his wife about the kids. You get up, wash your face, have some scrambled eggs, some oatmeal and some very weak coffee, put on your cold spandex, pack your tent and go riding for the whole day.

When you arrive at camp for the night, after miles and miles of incredible natural beauty, you set up your tent, shower, have dinner, relax and make new friends. Then you have dinner all over again just in time to get to bed at 9 p.m.

But I have to say that the ride was an AMAAAAAAZING experience in every which way. Just camping, or having breakfast with soooooooo many other people, or the candlelight ceremony in Ventura, or my favorite, the red dress day, where the riders all wear red dresses! You feel like you’re part of something BIG and fantastic – and you are.

I always come back from this ride with a bigger smile on my face and so much energy to make this world a better and friendlier place. Sign up and let’s do it together next year!!!!