Day 1

We left Anaheim with a great send off, including TV coverage and lots of photographers. All 6 riders rode out together and covered the first 8 miles before settling into our biking plan of 2 person teams for 6 hour shifts.

Carl and I started our shift at midnight in Victorville, Ca. I rode the first set and enjoyed my first real night ride. I was very glad I did my research and purchased a good lighting set. It provided me plenty of light and allowed me to cruise over 20 miles/hour. Our plan was to switch riders every hour to cover our 6 hour shift. We made our first change over without incident but that ended abruptly about 10 minutes later when Carl hit a pothole and locked up both of his wheels rendering his bike useless. I jumped back on my bike while Carl waited for the RV to come and rescue him. I rode all the way to Barstow (about 40 miles) where Carl was able to rejoin me with his bike back in operation.

Carl then rode for about an hour before his light fell off his bike and crashed to the pavement and again became left him destined to ride in the car as I took over again and rode another hour. With about 2 hours to go on our shift, I mounted my bike light on Carl's bike and he rode the last 2 hours. All and all it was a very successful shift as we covered about 125 miles during our shift, even with the mishaps. There is nothing like a great tailwind!!

We ended our ride as dawn broke over the horizon and we jumped back into the RV. It was a great end to an evening that treated us to a cresent moon and morning star.