BikinginLA

Ten laps of ten miles each on 10/10. Or put another way, 10/10 on 10/10.

That’s what a group of bike riders will be doing Saturday morning, riding up and down Mandeville Canyon to raise funds for the Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, which runs the suicide prevention hotline here in Southern California.

This is the seventh consecutive year the 10/10 Mandeville Challenge has been held, now sponsored by the Domestique Cycling Club. The first time it was just a single man riding up and down the iconic cycling climb; last year 91 bicyclists raised over $13,000 for mental health and suicide prevention.

This year they’re already over $22,000.

There’s still time to sign up ride or make a donation, so I’m including the full press release for the event below. And even if you’re saving your legs for Sunday’s CicLAvia, you can still show up and cheer the riders on.

LA Cyclists Will Climb Mandeville Canyon Up To Ten Times On World Mental Health Day To Fund The 988 Crisis Line

The 10/10 Mandeville Challenge returns Saturday, October 10, raising money for Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, home to the nation’s first suicide prevention center

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 7, 2026. On Saturday, October 10, World Mental Health Day, cyclists from across Los Angeles will gather before dawn at the base of Mandeville Canyon for the 10/10 Mandeville Challenge, a community ride benefiting Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, home to the nation’s first and most comprehensive Suicide Prevention Center and the organization that answers 988 calls, chats and texts for Southern California.

Each lap is a full climb of Mandeville Canyon, 1,000 feet over 10 miles round trip. Ten laps is 100 miles and 10,000 feet. Cyclists choose their own lap goal, supporters pledge per lap or donate outright, and all donations and pledges go to Didi Hirsch. Last year 91 cyclists completed 391 laps and raised more than $13,000. This year flat donations have already passed $22,000 before a single lap has been ridden, with per-lap pledges still to come.

The challenge was founded in 2020 by Dr. Trevor Schraufnagel, who saw the isolation of that fall deepen depression and suicide risk, and who rode Mandeville alone on October 10 that year. The name carries the meaning: a 10 out of 10 is the hardest effort a cyclist can give, and the challenge asks everyone on the mountain to find theirs at least once, whether that takes one lap or ten.

“In the fall of 2020 I watched isolation deepen depression and suicide risk for a lot of people, and the hardest part of my job was the number of them who believed help wouldn’t help. It will. That’s what this ride is for,” said Schraufnagel, licensed clinical psychologist and founder of Balance CBT, Associate Director of the UCLA Anxiety Disorders Clinic, and founder of the 10/10 Mandeville Challenge. “Somewhere on that climb every cyclist hits a 10 out of 10, and that effort is relative only to you. We ride on World Mental Health Day because that’s the point.”

“We are so grateful to Dr. Trevor Schraufnagel, event organizers, and everyone taking part in the 10/10 Mandeville Challenge for turning a personal challenge into a powerful act of community support,” said Lyn Morris, LMFT, Chief Executive Officer of Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services. “Suicide prevention is something we all have a role in, and every conversation, every act of connection, and every dollar raised can help make sure someone in crisis knows they are not alone and that help is available. On World Mental Health Day, this ride is a meaningful reminder of the difference we can all make and the power of community.”

The 10/10 Mandeville Challenge is presented by Domestique Cycling Club, with support from Specialized Santa Monica, Goodboybob Coffee, Maurten, SVRY, Tirata and Athletic Brewing. Cyclists can register and supporters can pledge at go.rallyup.com/1010mandeville.

Event details

What: 10/10 Mandeville Challenge 2026, a community cycling climb benefiting Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services

When: Saturday, October 10, 2026, 6:30am to 7pm

Where: Mandeville Canyon Road, Brentwood. Participants gather at the Event Base Station at Paul Revere Charter Middle School, 1450 Allenford Avenue, Los Angeles.

Who: Open to all cyclists. Supporters can pledge per lap or donate at go.rallyup.com/1010mandeville

As for today’s illustration, I’m too tired tonight to try to figure out any other way to illustrate mental health, so a happy smiling sun it is. 

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It’s not the cars, it’s the bike lanes that are the problem.

Even when someone on a bicycle gets killed in the shadow of In-N-Out in Venice Blvd, in what passes for a protected bike lane in Los Angeles, and right under a Karen Bass campaign poster.

If that doesn’t sum up the state of the city these days, I don’t know what does.

At least now we know when and where Oscar Lazaro was killed, reportedly in a dooring.

I’ll write something up later to remember him.

Thanks to Angelo for the heads up.

………

Local 

Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1740, creating a statewide fast track for bike, pedestrian and transit projects that improve access to the coast.

 

State

Not a bad idea. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a regional Ebike Injury Warning System to identify where ebike injuries happen, who is being hurt, and what types of devices are involved. Which should help them figure out that legal ped-assist ebikes ain’t the problem.

 

National

A Bend, Oregon columnist writes that he finally got an ebike after 21 years of bike commuting, and wondered why he waited so long. Although I’m more impressed that he still rides a skateboard at skate parks in his 50s.

A Utah couple in their 60s rode their bikes 3,634 miles across the Northern US.

Hundreds of people decorated their bicycles to take part in an unofficial bike ride marking the start of a Cincinnati art festival.

The parents of a fallen teenage bike rider filed suit against the 80-year old driver who killed her as she rode her ebike in a crosswalk with warning lights flashing; the noted local folk artist is already facing a misdemeanor charge of negligent operation of a motor vehicle resulting in the death. Which will likely be pled down to a traffic ticket before they’re done, and he should be back to driving in no time. 

A Boston writer considers what the city could learn from Danish cyclists, and concludes it’s a matter of obeying the law and being more courteous. I would have said it’s fighting for safer streets to stop drivers from killing kids — aka stop de kindermoord — but he’s entitled to my opinion. 

Crashes — and deaths — are piling up in New York’s Central Park, despite a lack of motor vehicles and the people in them on the park’s carfree loop, which looks as busy as a typical CicLAvia in the photo accompanying the story.

This is the cost of traffic violence. Nearly ten months to the day after a 78-year old New York philanthropist was killed riding his bicycle, police arrested the driver — but only charged them with failure to yield.

 

International

Cyclist says “by women, for women” bikewear brands have multiplied in the last decade, resulting from “frustration with the lack of well-designed, thoroughly tested women’s cycling clothing and a desire to build products around women’s own ideas of what cycling kit could and should be.”

An Ontario, Canada letter writer says adults on bicycles need to set a better example for kids by riding safely and following the law. She’s got a point. I stopped blowing through stop signs when a little kid pointed at as I went through one, and told his dad he wanted to be just like me when he grew up. 

New traffic regulations go into effect in Nova Scotia later this month, including regulations designed to prevent doorings and right hook collisions, as well as cracking down on ebikes.

 

Competitive Cycling

An angry Tom Pidcock says he wanted to stop racing after a cop traveling the wrong way on a police motorbike hit two of his teammates during an Italian race, injuring one rider and fucking up the other’s bike.

Good news from Philadelphia, where 20-year old American cyclist Ezra Caudell was released from the hospital, 31 days after he was critically injured when he lost his balance and hit a lamppost during Philadelphia Cycling Classic

 

Finally…

Your next ebike could carry six additional people, or every dog in the neighborhood. Why settle for off-the-shelf titanium or carbon fiber, when you can build your own wooden bike, right down to the wooden chain.

And that feeling when ChatGPT can’t conceive of tradespeople transporting their gear by bicycle any more than real people can.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.