Aids Lifecycle 6

Hello all,
For the past 4 months I have been training for the Aids Life Cycle ride which occurred June 3-9, 2007. This ride was 545 miles long & went from San Francisco to Los Angeles. I have to tell you it was an amazing experience. I had such a great time on this event & felt so good about myself that I've already signed up for next year. All the donations, all the emails & all the messages of support were greatly appreciated. I just want to let everyone know who contributed how much I truly appreciate them. Without your donations I would not have been able to participate in such a worthy cause. If you would like more information about this ride, please click on the link on the right hand corner of this blog. You will be redirected to the Aids Life Cycle page & there is also a link to my rider page (#5958). I encourage anyone who has ever thought about doing something like this to participate in the future. You will be helping countless individuals & have a life changing experience. If you have any questions & would like to email me directly, you can at derekhinkle@earthlink.net . As always, Pedal Hard, Derek
Destination San Francisco. My training partner Michael & I were both psyched to get this adventure underway since we had been training for 4 months.
Fight on, fight on! Troy that is. Here is Michael in his USC sweatshirt once we arrived in San Francisco
Orientation Day. Woohoo!!!! It only took 3.5 hours. Nothing like standing in line when you are hung over. Thank goodness there was a hot dog stand to alleviate our hunger.
Send off dinner. So for my relatives who read this blog, you know how much my cousin Dana means to me. We were always together as kids. We were always too young to play with any of the other cousins, so she and I were always at each others side. We've grown older, but it is nice to know that the special bond that we've always had is still in tact. Jamie & Dana treated Michael and I to a great evening at a place called Farrillon in San Francisco. The food was superb & I just want you to know just how much we enjoyed ourselves. I can't wait to see you both in a few weeks in Florida. It should be a blast.
Hello Riders!!!!! Ready, set, GO!!!!!!!

Rest Stop #1. Arrr matee'. Here are some of the roadies which kept all of us in good shape on the ride. The ride was composed of 2,333 riders & over 450 roadies. Without them, none of this would've been possible. Notice the little short lady. You'll see her in a later pic.
I'll get you my pretty. We're off to see the Wizard, the wonderful wizard of OZ.
An amazing shot just outside of San Francisco. These majestic tree's were absolutely beautiful.
Lighthouse along the pacific coastline.
So day 2 I wore my Oscar the Grouch jersey since I was in a foul mood. Man, I can honestly say that camping is not for me. Little did I know that one of the pit stops that day would be Sesame Street. Here is one of the roadies dressed as you guessed it, Oscar.

The day that will go down in infamy. Michael gleefully refers to Day 2 as the day the Breakdown happened. He relished telling Bevan and Brian about this day. Day 2 was a century, meaning 105 miles. I went to the medical tent to get adjusted for my back & neck. Once I got in there they have to take your vitals. I found out that I was severely dehydrated since my blood pressure was all over the charts. This is Ginger in the picture trying to get another reading on me. Michael was laughing pretty hard & took this picture when I was telling her how mean he is. They made me drink a gallon of water before they would let me leave. Needless to say I was up all night using the bathroom. The good news is that everything turned out okay.
Day 3, Colorado Rocky Mountain High.
So Day 3 was a really good day. I cranked it out & did really well. Luckily that evening we were staying in Paso Robles & there was stuff to walk to. Michael, Jim & I ate at Big Bad Bubba's & it was so freaking good. We had been eating slop from the cafeteria & it was great having some real food. We indulged in a few alcoholic beverages as well. Nothing like a beer or margarita to take the edge off. Jim literally kept us laughing all week while on the ride. Thank goodness he was there to entertain us.
Halelujah!!!! Here I am at the half way point between San Francisco & Los Angeles. Can you believe that view????? Talk about picturesque. We had just finished climbing a huge hill & were rewarded by this scenery. Our next camp that evening would be in Santa Maria.
Here I am with my training partner Michael. 273 miles down & 273 to go. Woohooo!!!!!!
He's king of the mountain. Go Michael go! Good job Duffman. OH YEA!

Here is Miguel from Scotland. Nah, that's just Mikey.
Here we are with 2 really cool guys that we met from California. That is the best part of this whole experience is that you get to meet so many interesting people. Me, Michael, Eric & Brian
So day 4 started out with a bang & ended with a thud. Pictured are Cody, Michael, Nick & I. The reason we are leaning is that we had just ridden the past 30 to 40 miles in the worst wind EVER. It was absolutely ridiculous. You were literally riding at a 45 degree angle it was blowing so hard. We were about 4 miles outside of our next camp (Santa Maria) when something awful happened. Nick (in the red) wrecked due to a rider in front of him not getting out of the way. He slammed to the ground and unfortunately broke his collar bone. To make matters worse the wind was brutal. So here we are with him trying to keep him covered and out of the elements until the ambulance arrived. Luckily they got there pretty quick, but he was covered in dirt and sand. The good news is that it looks like everything is going to be alright with his shoulder. The sad part out of all of this is that Nick was one of the best riders on the ride. I have no doubt he would've finished at the top had he not been injured.
Here is a picture from that windy day. Beautiful picture!
So I had to put this in there because the boy is actually doing manual labor. Bless his heart, he was washing my arm & leg warmers too. He likes for everyone to think he's all tough and mean, but deep down he's got a heart of gold. Thanks doodle!!!
Hello Riders!!!!! Hello Roadies!!!! Here we are waiting on the evenings announcements. From left we have myself, Michael, Mike, Brian, Stacy & Jim.

Day 5, Casmalia, CA. This was a really cool day. This is a tiny town in California & these people love it every year when the ride comes through. Here we have all of the elementary students who came out to greet us. This was really sweet because they had all of these hand written letters for us telling us what a great job we are doing. Notice the little boy on the right with his walker. He was so happy to be out there and handing out his letters. If only we could all see the world through a child's eye.
Red Dress Day or Dress in Red Day. What's with that hat? :) Here Michael and I are in Casmalia. Today's ride was a short one of only about 45 miles, but we had a lot of hills.
Shake your groove thing, shake your groove thing, yea yea!!!! Show'em how to do it now. Awesome day in Casmalia. The General Store in this small town had huge speakers in the street. It started a block party & everyone was having a great time.
Next stop Santa Barbara, then Ventura & on to Los Angeles!!! Woohooo!!! Only 122 miles to go. I'm doing my best Price is Right interpretation. Ooooh, ahhhhh!!!!!
In-n-Out Burger. I'd like to place an order for 4 double doubles, 3 orders of fries & 2 large fountain cokes. Dayum this was good & was only for Michael & I. We pigged out big time when we made it to our last camp of Ventura. Nothing like a burger, fries & coke to put a smile on your face.
Here we have one of the roadies from an earlier picture I mentioned. Jim referred to her as the pygmy lady. She was absolutely adorable and probably no more than 4 feet tall. She looked just like Rachel Dratch off SNL. This girl was no Debbie Downer though. Such a sweet heart.

Here is a better picture of Nick on our last night in camp. We were in Ventura this night. It is his left shoulder that got injured.
This was a pretty emotional thing for me to see. The last night in camp we are beside the beach & have a candle light vigil to honor all of those who have lost their battle with this terrible disease. It is pretty amazing to see over 2000 candles lit on the beach. I thought about my cousin Jay and wished he had been there to share this moment. He lost his battle 10 years ago due to Aids. We had over 2,333 riders & 450 roadies on this trip. Between all of us we raised over 11 million dollars which was a new record for Aids Lifecycle. Way to go people.

Here we have the palace. Good grief, the worst part of this trip is sleeping in a tent. The other is having to pack your bag every morning and put a sleeping bag & air mattress in it. Most mornings we'd wake up and it would be really cold & dew would be all over the tent. Give me the Ritz or Westin any day.
Will & Grace anyone? Here Michael & I are on our last night in camp. Thank goodness I took my Ipod. We would fall asleep every night watching Will & Grace. He was usually out after 1.5 episodes. I'd have to take the ear piece out of his ear since he'd already be SNORING & fast asleep. In the tent village you could here everyone around you. People snoring like crazy & talking late at night. So here the 2 of us are being quiet and then busting out laughing as we are watching the show. Good times for sure. Everyone next to us was wondering what the heck was going on. By the way, "I know you stole my poncho you skank". Inside joke! He was a great roommate and made the trip a lot of fun. I especially loved his morning rituals. That's some crazy shit!

FINISH LINE!!!! GOAL ACCOMPLISHED!!!! 545 miles in 7 days people. Can I get a War Eagle & Fight on Fight on???? So we finished in style with our collegiate jerseys. Michael graduated from Southern California & I graduated from Auburn University. A few people in the crowd gave me a few War Eagles as I came in that day. Such a great feeling to know that all of our hard work and training paid off.
Closing ceremonies



Awesome video of the Aids Lifecycle ride. If you want to get a feel for what this ride is like watch this video. It rocks!!!!!!!!! Way to riders.


Here is Lorrie Jean from the LA Gay & Lesbian center. She would crack us up with her signature Hello Riders, Hello Roadies at each evenings announcements.

Celebration dinner !!!!!!! Yea, the boys are all back together. Man was it ever great to see Bevan after 8 days. I had missed him so. Here we have myself, Bevan & Michael in the front row. In the back from the left we have Brian & Paul. Paul is a good friend of Michael's that went to school with him at USC.
So this is the day we finished & celebrated . I ended up taking 2 showers that day. Talk about a great feeling. No more "port a pottys". I was never so happy to see a real bed & bathroom in my life. I'm thinking I wouldn't have done well before electricity was invented.
What a good looking group of guys aye? me, Brian, Paul, Michael & Bevan

Here we have Michael's step mom Alice & his dad Doug. Alice was hysterical and a kindred spirit. This girl is from Tuscaloosa, AL. Bevan told me that when they were at the finish line that day that Alice was screaming for everyone like they were her own kids. She was screaming "way to go ya'll". Talk about a sweet heart. The sad part is that she went to Alabama. Curses!!!! At dinner that night she wore especially for Bevan and I her Roll Tide earrings. Too damn funny. As you can see from the picture, they were both having a lot of fun. Good times!!!
Way to go team MD as Brian called us. Bevan, Brian and Joanne (Michael's sister) met us at the airport to welcome us back home. Michael & I had spent an extra day in LA while the boys flew home a day earlier. Brian & Joanne made us this cute little sign. Pretty cool huh? My buddy Brian even made me my favorite oatmeal & raisin cookies. Yummy!!!!
Here is the proud sister & partner with Michael. Good job!!!! OH YEA!!!!!!