our sponsors

Andoil, a frequent and generous supporter, owns and operates service stations and car washes, including in Walnut Creek. 

Clif Bar & Company (www.clifbar.com). Among other nutritious products, Clif of course makes the iconic Clif Bar, a must have for numerous athletes. Clif strives to create a healthy and sustainable food system. Ensuring its brands and business are healthy so that it can do more good. And caring about the people, places and communities it touches. 

Drs. Feigenbaum & Kemeny. Paul and Judy are part of our “Noodle Group,” three couples who get together every couple of months to explore different restaurants in the Bay Area, an adventure that started with noodle meals. Both are now retired physicians from Kaiser Permanente. 

The 4Waals consist of David and Laura Waal and their adult children, Katie and Ryan. David is an entrepreneur whose successful enterprises have included home renovations and sales and equipment that increases parking structures’ capacity. Laura is an extremely successful representative of the Neptune Society. They are good friends who formed part of our Pandemic “pod.” David is an avid snow skier who is also a much stronger bike rider than I am.

Formigli (www.formigli.com). Renzo Formigli is a custom Italian bicycle frame builder based in Florence, Italy. While his bikes include steel and aluminum frames, and include mountain, cross and gravel, I own two Formigli carbon road bikes. The first was a Genesi and the bike I rode on my four previous Laura’s Rides was a custom made Formigli One. I still love the One and have moved to the Parle Z-Zero for three reasons: to accommodate slightly wider tires for more comfort and control when, heaven forbid, I am routed to a gravel road; because I wanted the newest version of Shimano’s DuraAce Di2 groupset;  and because Formigli has yet to release its newest model that I have been told will handle wider tires. I doubt I would have even looked into another brand if that bike was available.

 Peter M. Heckler, DDS is a state of the art cosmetic, implant, and family dentist in Orinda, California. The office serves patients throughout the Contra Costa County/San Francisco Metro Area including cities such as; Moraga, Lafayette, Berkeley, Walnut Creek, and Danville.

Hunter & Company, Certified Public Accountants (www.gphunter.com). Founded by Greg Hunter, one of our riding group, Hunter & Company offers a wide range of services to its individual and business clients. Because the firm is relatively small, its clients benefit by getting personalized, quality service that is beyond comparison. Those services include Tax Planning & Preparation, Estate & Trust Tax Preparation, Accounting Services, Consulting Services, Business Entity Selection, Financial Planning, Mergers & Acquisitions, Disclosure and other services.

Lazarex Cancer Foundation (www.lazarex.org).  Lazarex strives to improve breast cancer health outcomes, FDA cancer clinical trial diversity and enrollment, patient access to care by providing assistance with clinical trial navigation, reimbursing trial related travel costs, and partnering with at-risk communities to mobilize resources. Because its generous founders, David and Dana Dornsife pay most of the overhead costs, 90% of all donations go to help victims of cancer. 

Liquid Blue (www.liquidblueevents.com). My nephews Jess and Neil Horning founded Liquid Blue more than a decade ago. Having been joined by their Katie, Liquid Blue produces, markets and manages major events that now draw more than 150,000 people and 150+ paid sponsors. Its more than 20 major events in 2023 include the Reno River Festival, Night in the Country Music Festivals, the Lake Tahoe Concours d’Elegance, Fantasies in Chocolate, the Rocky Mountain Oyster Fry, the International Camel and Ostrich Races, the World Championship Outhouse Races, Chili on the Comstock, Reno Chalk Art & Music Festival, PumpkinPalooza, the 48-Hour Coors Light Boneyard Blast, Dublin Dirty, Tri-County Fairgrounds events, and the Virginia City Saloon Crawl Series.

Parlee (www.parleecycles.com). Founded in 2000, Parlee is an American manufacturer of handmade carbon gravel and road bicycle frames. My choice for this ride is Parlee’s Z-Zero disc bike that was custom built and painted to my specific measurements and taste. For me, its advantage over my beloved Formigli One that I used for the first 4 Laura’s Rides is that it accommodates somewhat wider tires - I am now using 30 mm tires instead of the 25 mm that was the largest the Formigli would handle - and that makes for a somewhat more comfortable ride and is at least a bit more manageable on the gravel roads that I have encountered on my cross-country rides.  

Panoramic (www.panoramicrv.com). This year’s Support and Gear vehicle (our SAG) will be our recently purchased Panoramic RV. Although it took more than a year for our order to be filled, the wait was worth it. We even flew to Plattsburg, New York to take delivery (it is built in Canada but the paperwork was less cumbersome if we got it in the US). Now Sandi and Sky, our American Bulldog, will accompany me on the ride. Panoramic, whose CEO is the incredibly helpful and personable Philippe Marcotte, is a relatively new and small company but the quality of its product is going to change that. It is in the process of opening a facility in Simi Valley, California, as a result of the sales that have already been made in the Western USA. 

Perez & Miller, A Professional Corporation (www.perezmiller.com).  Perez & Miller is a law firm with substantial experience and success in handling various business, commercial and real estate disputes, from negotiations, through trials and to appeals. More importantly, Perez & Miller is providing both the rider and the behind-the-scenes administrator of Laura’s Ride 5, Maria Bishop. In fact, Maria is responsible for this website and she is collecting the donations and making sure that they go to the Lazarex Cancer Foundation.