6th Edition of the ABC Rides Spring 2008 (Click for full pictures)

Spring Tour de Trash rides are back with several flavors of various rides that allows for different types of community service. Some of the rides will allow for cyclists of all capabilities to join us and actually pick up strewn litter from the roadside and report the trash sites into the county public works. Other rides will involve more skilled riders to comb wider areas of the county and simply report waypoints of large road wayside dumping.

The Tour de Trash is also getting great support from various other organizations with similar interests in helping clean up the community's roads. We are working with Sonoma County's grant program, "Keep Sonoma Clean", to leverage some help from their exposure to the litter cause. Additionally, 53x11 Coffee has also tracked us down and is interested in helping expose the ABC Rides. Marin county continues to support the same format as last Fall's ride in helping them identify illegal dumping.

A-Ride (Petaluma)-June 1 RESCHEDULED!!!

The A-Ride continues to take on the notoriously littered I-Street where the presence of trash never disappoints. Meet us at Helen Putnam Plaza in downtown Petaluma for a 10:00AM start time on June 1, 2008.

The A-Ride continues with the same format, in which all cyclists participate in actual litter pickup along the roadside, and bag the trash for the county's public works to pick up at a later time.

Post Ride Comments

Do you remember the episode from "American Chopper" when the Paulie Sr. builds a chopper to ride in the Xmas parade and makes the bike resemble Santa's sleigh? Well, during the typical times of duress throughout the build, he always used to keep saying, "Come on guys, it's for the kids" to encourage the team to finish the project.

Well, the A-Ride was all about kids this spring. It was an unbelievable turnout on another beautiful Sonoma county day that included families with plenty of little hands to help clean up the notorious I-street out of Petaluma. The ride was made even more successful with the support from avid aluminum can and glass collectors that joined our ride equipped with numerous trailers and bike racks to help not only clean up but recycle the litter we found. Now that's green, Baby! Even the Grand Pubbha brought his Bob trailer to supply the garbage bags and rubber gloves to all the cyclists.

We also finally had the chance to distribute the swag that the good folks from 53x11 coffee graciously donated to the ABC Rides. Here's to you, Evan!




On we went into the county backroads with spirits high as the kids' energy to immediately start collecting litter into trash bags sparked the boys inside the men and the girls inside the women to do the same. Shielded by Rox's blinking Toyota, we still had to deal with the usual road rage as some"cagers" pouted about losing precious seconds in their gaz guzzlers while our presence on two wheels hopefully reminded them about the price of gas. Settling down in to the more quiet roads we definitely had the numbers as cyclists swarmed all over the roadside collecting litter that had countless stories to tell. The classic one being the stash of clothes that could only have been worn by a particular "type" of lady as Vanessa demonstrates. Cinderella, Cinderella...



As we continued to gather litter and neatly place the garbage bags for the county public works to pick up, we did hear several words of encouragement from locals about helping keep their roads clean. Maybe they will look at all cyclists in a different light now. If so, mission accomplished by Ghost Rider, Redneck and all the riders' support we continue to get.
The conclusion to the A-ride took us to the familar end of I-street and San Antonio for the traditional photo finish as we were all entertained by the tunes jamming out of the Ghost Rider's amplified backpack.



As Ghost Rider and Vanessa and I thought about how successful the ride was this spring, I thought, "Could it have been all the planning, the organization, the timing?" No. This year it was all about the kids. They made the difference.

B-Ride (Santa Rosa)-May 4

Claire House from Norcal Velo Women's Team continues to lead the B-Ride on the same route as last Spring. This ride will depart from the Norcal Bike Sport in Santa Rosa at 10:00AM on May 4, 2008. Inspired to do more, Claire will be changing the format of the B-Ride to follow the same "hands-on" approach as the A-Ride in Petaluma. This new format should also allow for more varied cyclists to join the B-Ride.

Post Ride Comments

Claire reports that litter on the B-Ride was down! Good news for our cherished backroads. Not to worry about the longevity of the ABC Rides, however, as Claire and her posse were busy picking up trash found roadside along her B-Ride out of Santa Rosa.

Who needs to be in a Gatorade commercial when there's nothing like the "Tour de Trash" to get a perfect photo op for the Team!

C-Ride (Santa Rosa)

The Red Peloton cyclists will also ride out of Norcal Bike Sport in late April or early May to cover more ground and identify the larger dumping sites.

Post Ride Comments

Jonathan Lee solo'ed his C-Ride on April 23rd as a true show of support to help keep Sonoma clean and returned from the C-Ride with 4 waypoints identified in the northen part of the county. Sonoma County Public Works already responded to his "sightings" with their continued generous support to our cause.

D-Ride (Petaluma)-May 18

The Soulcraft Team will head out to Marin County given the continued support we have with Marin County Public Works. We will head out or P-town via Spring Hill Road and enter Marin county from Chileno Valley Road following the county line onto Wilson Hill. The D-Ride will then head out towards the coast and climb up onto Marshal Wall and return to Petaluma on D-Street Point Reyes Road.

Post Ride Comments

Well, it wasn't easy but we managed to convince ourselves that the D-Ride was on for the same date albeit with a 10:00AM late start. The late night Cage Fighting up in Santa Rosa on the eve before the D-Ride was not enough to deter Redneck from still finding motivation to get on his Soulcraft for a long spin through Marin county. I was sure that the Lake Sonoma Grasshopper final race was surely going to put him out as with the 50 other brave MTB'ers that suffered through more than 100 degrees of heat and brutal climbing only to say that they survived the Series.

Me, well I did not ride like the Redneck on Saturday but I managed to burn my back weeding! Embarassing and nowhere near as impressive as saying that I raced for 3.5 hours in 100 degree heat but the common denominator was that motivation was not where it should have been.

Our 3rd-string punter, Jason the "Diesel" managed to put his back out after crashing on the Tour of the Unkown Coast and failed to complete a short circuit from his home on Saturday that again did not help our motivation factor seeing that it was obvious that he could not ride.

Somehow, somewhere in the Spring time, Redneck and I found ourselves in his garage and ready to ride out on that fine Sunday morning. We rolled out and it was apparent that Redneck gave it his all at the Grasshopper and may have accidentally left some body mass back at the lake seeing that turning the pedals on mild climbs was killing him. Not to worry, this was the Tour de Trash and time only matters to punch in waypoints and not racepoints. Climbing up Red Hill revealed pathetic litter sites once you looked beyond the turnouts by the hillside. This was Marin county and we knew that county lines meant nothing to the pundits that litter our backroads. At the crest of the hill, while Redneck swallowed some energy bites, we came across a site that only locals could appreciate. This is the kind of humor that road warriors can relate to.

Grinning on the way down, we continued to find the assorted litter by the roadside. Scenes we were getting too accustomed to, transmissions, couches, mattresses, etc...

We finally made it to the Marshall Wall and climbed out to the coast where low fog was welcoming us with cooler weather. On the way up, Redneck passes a local cyclist who is organizing the Fairfax Fat Tire Festival and invites him to race the Friends of Tamarancho Invitational Mountain Bike Race. Cool. Stopping to reload on energy nibblets for the consumed Redneck, our local promoter rides down by us and yells that Marin County has no trash!

I would have paid money to see his face 100 feet down from where he yelled at us and surely saw the same.

Onwards from the coast and back into P-town after a well deserved chow at the Tomales Bakery where Redneck cleaned out the Saturday leftovers, we stumbled on an ironic litter site. Here are a pair of cyclists that are trying to make a difference for other cyclists and we find that bicycles are also part of the laundry list of trash items...the horror, the horror...

At least this one looked like Yuri's pink 29'er. Hmmmm, where was Yuri on the 18th afterall?

Full Detailed Pictures