Everyone needs to know everything about this ride, ESPECIALLY the fun stuff.

It is so important to motivate and to cheer a crowd of bicyclists, some professional, other not so professionally prepared, to help them to overcome those hills... and in three days - believe me - you see many of those...

So, following the spirit of cheering, the second day is called "Red Dress Day", which has a charming purpose: Imagine to oversee from above, like you are flying, and see this task of bikers, all red, turning the road into a Red Ribbon, which notoriously is the symbol of the fight against AIDS.

You might ask "how can be the Red Day Dress can be cheering?" Can you imagine what a "red dress event" can spark in a crown of Gay Men and Women?? Let me explain: the first year, five years ago, for the red dress day I did wear just a red jersey, so basically a regular bike outfit... then I got to the hotel lobby to have breakfast, and THERE I have been enlightened.

A fashion show was going on, full throttle, and I realized right away I was totally out of theme in my shy red jersey... RED DRESS DAY it was indeed a red "DRESS" day, amazingly beautiful, and amazing outfits 

so, inspired by the previous red dress day fashion shows, two years ago I wore a red tutu, like a skirt, so more Giselle then The Swan, with a pair of real feather red wings, over my red jersey (and I got lost at some point in the middle of Connecticut in this outfit, but I will tell you another time about this funny - yet embarrassing - situation), a middle way between a red angel and a bumble bee, and last year I shocked everyone wearing a red fish net stocking with garter, with a red G-string... Someone put a dollar in it, which has been there for all the 100 and more miles, and which make me win the award "Tragic Dress Mess on the Road" at dinner the same night... so proud!!

Red Dress Day is something all the riders and crew looking forward every year, they start talking months before and everyone is always well prepared :)

This year outfit? Still TBD, but probably it will be another "Tragic Dress Mess"... I cannot wait!

Thank you for riding my posts!!!

This year will be my fifth, surely not the last... I am excited and proud to be making this ride again (and a little winded from training). What makes the difference is knowing what these funds do for those dealing with the medical, legal, social and financial challenges this condition imposes. I know the reality first hand. Few of my friends are HIV+, and some don't have the medical and financial resources or insurance to support them.