This year's LifeCycle promises to be biggest ever, as about 2,500 cyclists left the San Francisco Bay area Sunday heading for Los Angeles. Their 545 miles long trip will last about seven days. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center raised around $12 million in donations.

This year's average money raised by a cyclist was around $4000, significantly more than the minimum $2500 allowed. San Francisco, considered by some the gay capital of the world, is also the AIDS capital of the area, as 73 percent of California's AIDS infections occur in gays. Also, while black men are just 7 percent of California's general population, they account for 19 percent of AIDS cases.

In April, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to expand a popular program aimed at fighting against HIV and AIDS, worldwide, renewing the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief by authorizing $50 billion - $20 billion more than the White House requested.

The bill, passed by a vote of 308 to 116, will fund PEPFAR program by providing money to treat people infected with HIV and by helping support their families, as well as for a long list of activities aimed at preventing infection.