Hundreds of stationary bikes once again lined The Strand in Manhattan Beach on Sunday, Sept. 12, as fitness instructors and celebrity guests shouted encouragement to riders who enjoyed a blue ocean view.
Some of the riders were cancer survivors. Some lost loved ones to the disease. All of them pushed the pedals to exercise some control over a condition that had sapped their strength, both physically and mentally.
The ninth annual Tour de Pier, a favorite South Bay fundraiser for cancer causes, was back in-person.
The event hit its peak in 2019, hosting nearly 2,500 bike riders. This year, less than half that number participated — about 1,100 — riding 240 bikes across five sessions throughout the day.
Still, after more than a year of dealing with a pandemic, the riders were glad to once again pedal the stationary bikes while overlooking the ocean on what co-founder and cycling enthusiast Heath Gregory calls “the best day on the calendar.”
Gregory, John Hirshberg and Lisa Manheim started the Tour de Pier in 2013. That first year, Gregory said, the fundraiser drew 800 riders and made $340,000. To date, the eight years of riding has garnered $8.7 million, divvied among The Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, The Uncle Kory Foundation and Cancer Support Community.
And the return to the beach this September was especially poignant, Gregory said.
The event, which usually occurs in May each year, was cancelled in 2020 because of the pandemic and postponed again in May.
“It’s an opportunity for our community to share their silent battles,” said Gregory, who had three family members die from cancer in less than two years, “and really open up about a challenge in their life that is not easy to talk about with other people.”
It’s that camaraderie that’s gotten Jennifer Valladares through the most challenging thing she’s ever faced — an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Valladares, an avid spin cycler, had ridden in Tour de Pier for an aunt and a grandmother who died from cancer.
“Before (my diagnosis), it was different riding for my aunt and for my grandma,” Valladares said in an interview before Sunday’s event.
But after her December 2018 diagnosis, the Lomita resident said, the pedaling became personal.
“It’s like you pedal away your tension and the anger you have over the cancer,” Valladares said.
The single mom of two underwent intense chemotherapy, five days a week, every three weeks for six months. She’s now cancer free. Doctors told her the reason she survived the cancer treatment was because she was in great shape.
“The energy there is just amazing,” Valladares said of previous Tour de Pier events. “Even before I was diagnosed, I just felt everyone there is affected by cancer in some way and is riding together. I felt so happy. Whatever stress I had in my life just went away.”
Valladares on Sunday was up on stage helping her longtime spin coach, Philip Kessel, better known as PK, motivate the crowd. Her 17-year-old son, Sam, took a turn riding.
But now, Valladares said, she understands the pedaling on a deeper level.
“I’m spinning for myself, for my survivorship,” she said, “and that the treatment worked.”
Gregory, for his part, said the pandemic has been especially hard for cancer patients, survivors and their loved ones. COVID-19, after all, is acutely dangerous for those with pre-existing conditions.
This year’s Tour de Pier has come with a lot of emotion and inspiration, he said, as people begin to reset priorities and learn to be more positive.
“It’s a celebration of all that we’ve been working for over the last couple of years,” Gregory said. “It gives us a lot of hope about what we’ll be able to do in the years to come and that we’re getting back to normal.”
