Tour de Cure - 2014 Long Beach edition: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
 

Today I rode on my 5th Tour de Cure. Here is a brief recap:

The GOOD: Riding with over 1500 other riders for a cause that is near and dear to my heart. Four years ago my Mom died from complication resulting from diabetes and I am a Type 2 diabetic.

The BAD: Not riding with my ride buddies: TrojanHorse, BeachGrad and PhotoJoe. I really missed you guys during the climbs and during the portions of the ride through the seedier portions of San Pedro and Long Beach. It was REALLY nice riding with you last year and I REALLY missed you all this year.

The UGLY: Portions of Long Beach and San Pedro. The last 15 miles of the 62 miles ride goes through some of the ugliest and seedier portions of Long Beach. The roads are broken up and there are way too many RR crossings making the ride jarring and a tad dangerous.

This year's ride was slightly changed over last year's ride. Instead of riding past the beautiful, and posh, Palos Verdes Golf Club, the ride heads into Lomita and Torrance. The rider is slightly flatter through these neighborhoods, but the many stops and traffic lights take some of the fun out of the flats. There are still the Palos Verdes "switchbacks" so overall there is about 3,500 feet of climbing.

Overall, this was a good day for riding. The weather was gorgeous, albeit very windy.

I had fun and the team that I ride for, Lilly's Monrovia Riders Against Diabetes raised over $34,000.00 in fund, making us the #1 team. Go Team! :thumb:

My biggest dream and hope is that one day, soon, we will discover a cure for this terrible, terrible disease. In the meantime, however, I will keep riding the Tour de Cure. :D

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I thought you were gonna say "the ugly" was you riding the dang thing nekkid.

Too bad they changed the route - the first 50 miles last year were fantastic!

Congrats! Our Chattanooga's Tour de Cure is May 17th. My mother also died from complications due to diabetes. I hoped to ride in the 10 mi. Just got my bike so I don't know. If I'm ready then GREAT...if NOT there will be other rides.

Remember that you will be riding not just for yourself but for those who can no longer ride. That should be inspiration enough. We are all behind you. :thumb:

I really missed you guys. I was going to ride sans kit, but Julian Dillon stopped me. :innocent:

The change flattened out the ride a bit, but the views weren't as outstanding. :(

The peacocks were nowhere to be seen today.

Plenty of oranges...no grapefruit and the course was better marked than last year. :thumb:

The wind was killer today.