War veterans cycle San Francisco Peninsula for peace of mind

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On a cloudy morning at the veterans hospital in Menlo Park, a cozy bedroom community of workaholic Silicon Valley, Raymond Ortiz wheels out a red racing machine. Wearing blue-and-white cycling tights, he parks the bicycle in the patio of the ward for vets suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and glances over at mine.

"That's a nice-looking old bike,'' the veteran of the first Persian Gulf War says politely.

To be exact, my outdated steel job is about 25 years older than his aluminum rocket, and I'm feeling an even greater age difference as the rest of his fit cycling team shows up. Over the years, about 170 veterans here have joined the hospital's cycling-therapy program. Almost all of them had suffered a combat injury, from loss of limbs to shell shock, and then found civilian life to be a living hell.

Gil Ramirez, a readjustment counselor, arrives with an ultralight, carbon-fiber racer. More than most endurance sports, he explains, cycling is a group activity, a sport that can pry emotionally and mentally wounded veterans out of their shells and bring them back to the peloton of friendship and life in general. There's nothing like a long, challenging ride through pretty country to burn off built-up anger and push those ugly memories of battle to where they belong.

"You can blow off a lot of steam, get past your physical pain,'' says Ortiz, who has a bad back and lingering numbness in his right foot.

Ortiz, Ramirez and four other members of the PTSD team bolt out of the hospital's spread-out campus and onto the commuter-jammed streets for a 15-mile spin.

To read the full article, please click the following link: http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_13748897

Written on Monday, 09 November 2009 22:50 by Rita Lewis

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