Please join hands. A bicycle is now being led down the center path.

It is the 28th bicycle to open an AIDSRide.

It is led by several members of Positive Pedalers.

HIV positive riders.

It represents spirit.

The bicycle is empty.

No rider.

No breathing.

No smiling face inside the helmet that rests at its side.

It represents the spirit of all the fallen.

The millions around the world who we have lost to AIDS.

Our friends. Our loved ones.

Their promise. Their futures.

Their conversations. Their laughter.

This is a time for us to remember them.

With our thoughts.

With our tears.

The AIDSRide is a place where you can let your tears fall.

Into the love that is all around you.

And the Positive Pedalers

They represent spirit too.

The spirit of survival.

The strength that it takes to live.

In days and nights full of medications and side effects.

Days full of the memories of their lost friends.

Days caught between cautious hope and fearful uncertainty.

The spirit it takes to ride in the face of it all.

Today we remember spirit.

Within us and around us.

We connect with the sweet spirits of the departed.

We honor the unstoppable spirit of the survivors.

And we ride for both.

Today we represent life gone by with life still miraculously here.

Today we create a living breathing human monumen

More beautiful than any cast in bronze or carved of granite.

And our monument shouts to all who will hear.

And even to those who won't:

We will never give up.

As long as we live, we will never give up.