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Like a good pair of jeans, indoor cycling can be paired with just about anything -- movie watching, horoscope reading, even dissimilar workouts like yoga and Pilates. While all of those have been done, something recently popped into our e-mail inbox that looked new and different: indoor cycling combined with a graphic art installation.

Ride! is an all-day indoor cycling marathon at the Avalon in Hollywood Nov. 8 that includes original animated graphics projected on screens in front of about 100 bikes. For $30 riders can choose in which one-hour session they wish to cycle, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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They can also choose from an array of well-known instructors from studios around Southern California: Cindy Bell from Pedal Spin Studio in Montrose, Brandon Hament from The Cycle Annex in South Pasadena, Alan Harvey of Bike 2 the Beat in Newport Beach, Skip Jennings, a Schwinn master instructor, and Debbie Rocker of The Ride in Sherman Oaks.

The event is the brainchild of local computer graphic designer Anaitte Vaccaro, who combines her profession with a yearslong devotion to indoor cycling -- she even used to teach it. She describes the motion graphics, which she was working on when we spoke to her, as ‘animations of different worlds, and you’re going into them. Each instructor will give me their playlist, and I’ll edit my images to those.’ The idea for the event came from wanting to immerse cyclists in a fantasy world. ‘It’s just like I do when I take an indoor cycling class,’ Vaccaro says. ‘My mind just wanders off.’

Some of the proceeds from the event will benefit Olive Crest, which serves abused, neglected, and at-risk children.

-Jeannine Stein

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