Day 5: A Rush Of Red

It wasn’t easy to slip on a red dress this cold morning. I woke up in the truck (perk: Gear and Tent roadies get the option of sleeping in the truck), and I felt the cool air seeping down into my bones. Brrrrr, and now just let me shimmy into that little summer dress for Red Dress Day. I’m not a big theme person, but I thought today would be the day that I’d really make an effort.

But after all that work of painting my fingernails, putting on bright red lipstick and decorating our truck (Special K) with red roses, streamers and balloons, who gets all the attention? The boys.

Everyone loves a guy in a dress; girls don’t get no love. I’m just bitter cuz I picked up the same $13 Wal-Mart dress as three other guys on my roadie team, and how can I compare with Jesus, or Gay-sus – as he likes to be called – who went all out in full drag. He pulls off a more attractive woman than I could ever be with a team of professionals.

The camp site at Santa Maria was dotted with red, with cyclists dressed up in red tutus, cowboy outfits or Minnie Mouse numbers – the point being that they ride to Lompoc like a red ribbon. Even roadies showed off their red spirit, showing a little skin and some even strutting around in some intimidating knee-high, high-heeled boots. Again, these guys take feminine to a whole new level, and they make actual females, like myself, look pretty shabby in comparison.

The Gear and Tent team loaded all the gear in the morning and headed over to Lompoc, and after we were done unloading on the dusty road, I laid on the grass face-first and napped in my dress – like any first-rate diva would, riiight?

By this point, a lot of the roadies seem like they’ve hit their stride. I talked to Collin, who is a second-year roadie for the Pack Up team, which is responsible for folding up chairs and tables and the really, really fun task of picking up all the garbage so the park is left in better condition than when we arrived.

“It’s physical, but it’s fun,” he said.

Collin praised how the ride runs like clockwork.

“It’s unique to see such a well-organized event that is so big. I’ve never seen anything on this scale,” he said.

I caught Scott and his father, Wayne, on the Service and Gear Team, known as the Sag Team, just as they finished up for the day. They pick up all the bikes from the riders who can’t quite make it to the day’s destination point by 7 p.m. While the riders who can’t make the cut take a Greyhound bus to get to the camp site, the Sag Team picks up all of their bikes.

They said Day 4, a 95-mile ride, was their longest day because they had to pick up about 350 bikes. But today, a 70-mile ride, they only had to pick up 135 bikes.

Scott said he got involved because he has a number of friends who are roadies.

“It has been really amazing to see my friends, who are all deputies, captains and roadies who have done this event for years. To actually see them in action – they’re the backbone of the event,” Scott said.

Wayne said the logistics of the ride and the community in camp is awe-inspiring by how smooth it all runs.

“We are setting up this city seven times. The government doesn’t work this well,” Wayne said.

I saw Barry near the bike racks, and he is a first-year roadie on the Bike Parking team. They set up and take apart the bike racks, and keep track of bikers that still haven’t arrived to camp for the day.

His wife, Coral, decided to ride the event this year, and Barry wanted to do a job where he’d see her off in the morning and welcome her back in the evening.

He said he was so proud of his wife for finishing the 95-mile ride yesterday.

“I was so proud of her. I was choked up that she did it. We had more than 100 people cheering riders into Santa Maria. It was the highlight of the week to see her coming through the finish line,” Barry said.