Day Six (Recap): Marina Del Rey to Newport Beach (53 miles)

Today marks our shortest day… finally… only 53 miles to go to Newport Beach. The route was also very familiar since we rode the same route for our back to back centuries.

We left around 930am, which was nice since we were in no rush and it was a short day today. I headed out with Webby and some other folks. It was fun riding with Webby. We started singing some theme songs from video games and also admired the views of the beaches. We were mainly on the bike path going through MDR and the beach cities. Our group of about 8 people were cruising along and having a really good time… we even missed the first SAG. Oh well, it’s only 50 miles.

We hit Palos Verdes and then were rolling through Long Beach. A large group of the G1 riders came through at this point. With them was Floyd Landis and Mari. I jumped in with that group since Brian, Chris, and others were also riding with the group. Alex came by and told me he got a great picture of me riding Floyd’s wheel. I asked him, “Who’s Floyd?”. He said, “Floyd Landis”. I said “Where??” He said, “You’re on his wheel right now”. Oops!! Floyd Landis is a champion cyclist and I didn’t even realize I was on his wheel.

After a quick stop at West Coast Customs, we flew through Long Beach to get out of the ghettoes as fast as we could. We hit the coast line and a great thing happened.

Floyd, with Mari’s cute little doggy in his backpack, jumped a red light. And soon enough, we hear sirens and Floyd was being pulled over. But not by a police car, but an undercover officer driving around in a brown minivan. The cop got out of the car and gave Floyd a piece of his mind. It was hilarious!! It would have been a great chance for Floyd to say, “Do you know who I am?!”. Eventually Floyd got away without a ticket, but the sight of a professional cyclist (Tour de France winner) with a little doggy in his backpack getting yelled at by an off-duty, minivan driving cop. Priceless!

We kept on cruising after we stopped laughing, and we got to our lunch spot of Schooner or Later. Steve Bryant was kind enough to host lunch for all the riders at one of his favorite places, which was extremely generous. I had a great lunch and even better time eating with Cody from CAF. He is a double-leg amputee who swims, bikes, and runs. He was showing me some fun magic tricks with his $5 dollar bills and we also played some rock, paper, scissors (I lost). But in the end, it never crossed my mind that he was a double leg amputee. It never crossed my mind that he couldn’t do anything that we could do. I thought of Cody as a great kid who was a joy to have lunch with… not a challenged individual.

After lunch, Brian, Adam, Mark VD and I booked it to Newport Beach. Unfortunately, Mark VD had a mechanical issue with his bike. His rear derailleur got caught in the spoke of his rear wheel and flipped 180 degrees. Only a picture could really show how messed up his bike was. But the OnSupport people were nearby, and they tried to fix Mark’s bike, but couldn’t, so they just loaned him a new Trek bike to finish the last 9 miles.

We arrived at the Newport Hyatt in no time and then the hilarity ensued. I dropped off my stuff to the wonderful luggage angels, got a massage, showered, and then some of us hung out with Floyd. We were talking about his incident with the cop, and then we went onto a whole diatribe of Eddie Izzard’s “Do you know who I am?” sketch. Check it our here.

Floyd decided we should play some shuffleboard too, and so we did. We started playing but needed to decide who should go first. I suggested the standard, “Rock, Paper, Scissors”, but Floyd didn’t know how to play it. I was in shock. Complete shock. I taught him how to play RPS. Unfortunately, he also beat me in RPS. So we started our shuffle board game, and boy oh boy… did I kick his butt. Throw after throw after throw, I kept racking up the points and knocking Floyd’s discs off the board. Floyd, you can bike!! But I will dominate you in shuffleboard!!!

Dinner was great, and Aniketa, Matt, Priya, and Maulik came to visit which was a lot of fun. During dinner, some of the challenged athletes spoke, and awards were given to various folks. It was a great way to wrap up the week… a very memorable week.  A little bit sad too because it also noted the end of our journey and having to say bye to all these great people.

On a final note, to the left is a picture of Anthony Smith Sr., a challenged athlete. Anthony's story is one of many incredible stories, but I thought I would share it. In Iraq, Anthony was hit by a rocket and surely felt the impact of the blast. When the medics arrived, he was practically dead and flatlined. He was placed into a body bag and zipped up. But miraculously, a doctor heard him breathing (after he had flatlined) and opened up the body bag to see that Anthony was still alive. The doctor revived Anthony, but he did lose an arm and leg. Anthony's sheer determination and courage is a reminder to me at least to never give up and keep pushing!