Day Five, Santa Maria to Lompoc

Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Short and Sweet

Today is the shortest day on the ride, for a couple of reasons. First, it's very nice to wake up and know you're riding 43 miles. Also, we have some significant climbing today. There is an extended hill that has a switchback in the middle. At some point, someone realized that if everyone wore red, it would look like a red ribbon streaming up the hill. It wasn't too long before "dress in red day" became "red dress day".

So hitting the road today were 1,800 riders and 380 roadies, the majority clad in red, and the majority of those in all manner of dresses, skirts, negligees, all kinds of clothing you can't imagine a person pedaling 43 miles in.

The best-dressed prize definitely went to the gentleman who had City Cycles affix SPD clips to his spiked red platform pumps- so he could clip into his pedals and ride in heels today. I have pictures (forthcoming). Apparently he even had a bike fit, so he would know how to adjust his bike just today to accommodate the extra shoe height. At lunch, he received an ovation and was swarmed by people taking pictures.

Our group rides out of Santa Maria every year on this day in red dresses, and I wonder if the locals realize this is not how we spend the entire week. I worry that this cements the idea in their minds that AIDS = gay = trannie = "deviant", when all we're doing is having fun. And you can't argue with $8 million raised this year.

There is a rest stop in Casmalia, a small town whose main street has about four buildings. One of them is a school where we have our rest stop. Another one is a General Store, where last year for the first time they put out PA speakers and played disco music, prompting an impromptu midday dance party, just what every red-dress clad, 43-mile day deserves. Fortunately they were back with music this year, and we got some good dance-time in.

The worst hill came after the dance party. I had remembered it as being particularly long and cruel. This was probably due in part to the fact that I wasn't expecting it- we have other climbs with intimidating names like Quadbuster and Evil Twins but this one had no name. (I've since learned that this is now called Red Ribbon Hill.) This time, I was psyched and ready. At the base of the hill, I ended up helping a woman change a flat. She didn't know how to change it and was having particularly bad luck- 5 flats this week.

Anyway, I helped her while her friend flirted with this surfer guy who had stopped. Those two chatted about raw food restaurants in L.A. while she and I crouched down (in our red dresses) and changed the flat.

Anyway, after finishing with the flat, I caught up with Charlie and Julie, and we smoked that hill. I guess that break really helped- I was psyched and ready, and we just motored over it.

We didn't leave camp this morning until after 8, we sat around at the rest stops and lunch, and we were still in camp in Lompoc by 2:30. Awesome. This is why day 5 rocks so much. Tomorrow is 80-ish miles, taking us to Ventura. I just had a massage, and then it's off to dinner and a nap. Sweet!