Huntington Beach : 50-Pound Cookie Riding on 3,120-Mile Bike Race
A 50-pound chocolate chip cookie will be the wager as 40 competitors pedal off the Huntington Beach Pier Sunday and head for Atlantic City, N.J., in the Race Across America.
The 3,120-mile bicycle race will begin at 9 a.m. Competitors will race north on Main Street, turn right on Garfield Avenue to Ward Street, eventually reaching the Santa Ana River bike trail at Talbert Avenue that will take them out of the county. Racers will ride a grueling 300 miles a day, sleeping only from 90 minutes to three hours each 24-hour period.
Huntington Beach Mayor Ruth Bailey has placed a wager on bicyclist Michael Shermer to win, while Atlantic City Mayor James Usry is betting on Lon Haldeman.
If either of those two bicyclists are the first to cross the finish line, the corresponding mayor will win a 50-pound cookie. Usry has already indicated that he would turn his prize over to a New Jersey youth group.
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