Brian Rides Bikes

10-23-09 – QMDC Day Seven – Newport Beach to La Jolla

Great Friends!

Well, the last day has come and the Qualcomm riders are exhausted from our long journey down the coast starting in San Francisco over 6 days ago.  The time has come to bring this ride to a close and cross the finish line where our friends and family are eagerly awaiting our return from this weeklong trip of a lifetime!

All of the riders had a great time on the last night in Newport Beach, with the excellent festivities that we enjoyed at the last presentation, from the excellent food, presentations, slideshow and awards ceremony.  Before the ride even started, we all had a great task before us — how to pack in all of the stuff that was given to us along this entire trip.  From books, plaques, extra clothes and things we’ve all picked up along the way, we all had to stuff everything in our luggage as best as we can!

After a delicious breakfast filled with danishes, oatmeal, waffles and fresh fruit, I joined Adam Beck and Alex Hamlow on the last ride to finish up the QMDC.  We left a little later than the rest of the riders, but we were told that we needed to meet up at La Jolla before 1:00 p.m. so that all of the riders and regroup to ride into La Jolla Shores together.  Adam and Alex had a chance to get in some last photos and autographs from Christian Vandevelde.  Adam had me take a picture of him and Christian while he was signing Adam’s helmet for “proof of authenticity.”  Christian, jokingly asked Adam, “hey man, what’s the picture for, you gonna put your helmet up on Ebay?”

So we got in our saddles and I immediately felt all of the muscle pain rushing back full swing in my quads, hams, lower back and especially my butt!  Of course, as is usually the theme for every ride, the last ride began with a pretty hefty climb, which we flew up as fast as we could, only to leave us gasping for air at the top saying “why are you all racing!”  Just when I thought we were going to keep a slower pace, we got to take the lead of Alex the clydesdale who pulled at an insane pace from Newport all the way to San Onofre!

Right as we were pulling up to the end of the San Onofre campgrounds and were getting ready for the challenge of riding on the Interstate 5 due to the shutdown of Camp Pendleton, we pulled up alongside Scott Kaplan who just arrived via car after finishing up the Scott & BR Show.  Scott asked if he could join us on the ride down the coast, but with a caveat, mentioned that he wasn’t warmed up as he just arrived.  We decided to take it slow to keep Scott with us, but Alex’s legs just wouldn’t stop spinning as we took it up to 24 mph down the I-5!  Way to warm Scott up!

Just as we were making our way down familiar territory from Oceanside down the coast, we found ourselves swallowed into the peleton of the Garmin-Chipotle team, Mari Holden and Floyd Landis who were racing down the coast!  Just then, Joe Weickgenant grabbed my lower back, yanked me into the pack and yelled “DO YOU SEE VANDEVELDE’S WHEEL IN FRONT OF YOU?  HANG ON TO HIS WHEEL AND DON’T LET GO!”

“Holy crap”, I thought to myself, how the heck am I going to do this!

But while the pace was fast, I held on for dear life and rode down the rest of the coast with the group!  They were all cool people, laughing and having a great time.  Then, one of the coolest things happened.  Maybe it was Don Parker’s Sheriff connections, but just as we started stopping at stoplights, we suddenly had a police escort blocking all of the stoplights all the way down the coast letting us fly by at full speed!

We arrived at the corner of Scripps Beach (which was coincidentally the beach that I proposed to my wife at over three years ago), and cheered in our fellow riders as they were pulling in!  Everyone was all smiles as they pulled into Scripps knowing that this marks the end of a journey as we were officially in La Jolla!  All around us you could see hugs and smiles and high fives and many of the riders screaming “WE MADE IT!” into their cell phones letting their loved ones and friends know that they made it in safely to our final destination.  The grassy park was emphatic, with cheers and smiles of exhaustion all around as we all gathered for one last group picture!

After our picture, we all listened to Scott Rhodes giving us last minute congratulations to all of the riders and instructions of how we’re going to proceed into the finish line!  As we pulled into the finish line, the Qualcomm riders went through the CAF archway first and lined up followed by me and the XX 1090 TOP SEVEN and Scott Kaplan, followed by the Challenged Athletes and then Dean Roeper and Scott Rhodes.  Then, we got to see something completely amazing that brought many of us to tears, seeing Luvo Fanqwela walk with his brand new legs through the archway for the first time.

This was an amazing experience, having an opportunity to ride with 99 of my friends and teammates all the way from San Francisco on October 17th, heading to Santa Cruz, to Big Sur, through Pismo Beach, Santa Barbara, Marina Del Rey, Newport Beach and all the way to La Jolla on October 23rd.

It was an opportunity of a lifetime, making lasting friendships and being able to witness the most wonderful sights all the way down the coast as well as support the challenged athletes who did an amazing job riding along with us throughout this great experience.

Thanks to Scott & BR, XX 1090, the Challenged Athletes Foundation, my teammates (Alex, Adam, Joe, Joy, Rob M. Mark, Pat, Rob L., Efrain, Ofelia, Ron Pilon and Chris Glossner) all of my friends, family, co-workers and my loving wife for the wonderful support throughout this entire experience that started in June and ended on this beautiful day on October 23rd.

Without you all, I would’ve never had an opportunity to take on this journey.  Thank you all very, very much.

-BB