TRAFFIC ALERT: SUNDAY, MAY 15, MANHATTAN BEACH

Probable congested area:  anywhere near the Manhattan Beach Pier

Times involved:  8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Sunday

Reason:  the 4th annual Tour de Pier, attracting 1,500 riders and 4,000 spectators

Purpose:  to raise money for  the Hirschberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, the Cancer Support Community, Redondo Beach and the Uncle Kory Foundation.  Goal is $1 million and as of this writing they are within $36,000 of reaching that goal

Amusing factor:  the contestants' 400 bikes are stationery bikes and no one is actually pedaling away to anywhere.   Each contestant has signed up for an hour's worth of exercise and (bicycle) seats are sold out. 

Event co-founder Lisa Manheim,  executive director of the Hirschberg Foundation, remarked, "It's not a rubber chicken black tie dinner, it's not an auction, it's so different to have 400 bikes parked facing the ocean ...there's so much energy around it matched with women riding who are without hair, men who are battling for the second or third time - it's that marriage of the good of everyone coming together."

Wish them all good luck and brunch at the Hermosa and Redondo Beach Piers.