Day Five
Day Five was noted for the funniest part of all of Lifecycle: our fastest rider hit a cow. Yes, a cow. He was off-route (bad rider! bad rider!) somewhere near Vandenburg, cycling along at his customary 35 mph, when he ran into a cow on the road. He zigged left, the cow zigged left, he zigged right, the cow zigged right, and bam! over the handlebars he went. I must hand it to him for having the most innovative bike accident I’ve ever heard of.
I developed some knee problems on Day 5 (the result of a missing cleat screw in my left shoe), so wound up missing the most memorable part of Day 5: riding 6-7 miles up a hill just to do a little U-turn and come back down again. The ALC organizers swear it’s for safety reasons–crossing Highway 1 at the most logical place would be just too dangerous–but I have my dark suspicions, which mostly involve a night of drunken debauchery on the part of the route organizer.
Day 5 is also “Dress in Red” day (the idea being to create a giant red AIDS ribbon with the riders), which some riders changed to “Red Dress Day”.
Day 6
Day 6 was relatively easy, although somewhat long…I think it was something like 91 miles, but can’t quite remember.
Day 6 was “Naughty in Pink” day…I wore a go-go-girl bikini top I’d gotten in Bangkok, covered in pink sequins and with a dangly fringe. Plus a pink tutu, fluorescent pink fishnets, and an 8′ bullwhip with pink roses on the handle…it was quite the outfit.
I broke down by the side of the road on Day 6 (blew out a back tire somewhere in suburban Santa Barbara), and since all the drivers were stopping to look at the fenderbender anyway, I pulled out the whip and started doing a little go-go-cyclist show by the side of the road. Heaven only knows what the local folk thought of it…fortunately, a sweep vehicle showed up almost immediately to take me to Bike Tech, which ended the show.
