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Words by Jasmine Tandon, Pedal The Pacific
This summer, I biked 1,700 miles down the Pacific Coast with eight other women as part of the 2025 Pedal The Pacific team. Pedal The Pacific is a nonprofit and leadership development program that empowers young women to discover their inner strength and create change for vulnerable populations. We focus on advocacy and fundraising in the fight against domestic sex trafficking. Throughout the spring semester and summer, my teammates and I listened to survivor experiences, raised funds for our beneficiaries, and shared what we were learning with our communities. Over the course of fifty days on the road, we became more than just teammates, we became each other’s safety net, comic relief, and second family.
We learned about each other in ways you only can when you spend 24/7 together. We knew who always went for oatmeal at breakfast and who opted for a bowl of “slop” instead (a term that we lovingly used to refer to an odd combination of yogurt and granola), who needed a pep talk before big climbs, and who could turn a bad day around with a joke. We listened, we paid attention, and we held space for each other in all the ways that mattered and more.
Some memories will stay with me forever: the day we crossed into California wearing $1 party hats and running across the border hand-in-hand, the night before San Francisco when there was no shower and we laughed our way through hosing each other down with a spigot, or the many evenings squeezed into one shared tent at no-service campsites. In moments like those, we weren’t just keeping each other laughing. We were literally pushing each other along the coast and keeping each other safe.
And that, to me, is the heart of both cycling AND advocacy: women showing up for women. On this ride, we created a kind of “ecosystem of care,” where everyone knew what made the others tick and how to comfort them when the weight of the days pressed down on us. That solidarity carried us just as much as our bikes did.
It also changed the way I think about trafficking and survival. Before Pedal the Pacific, I hadn’t fully grasped how society tends to expect a “perfect survivor”: someone who fits a narrow and specific story, someone easy to believe. But real life doesn’t work like that. Survivors, like my teammates, each have their own quirks, strengths, and ways of carrying their stories. There is no single mold for who deserves to be heard, believed, or protected.
I joined this ride knowing I wanted to become a lawyer, but I finished it with a deeper understanding of advocacy: that it starts with paying attention, with noticing the details, with creating safety where the world too often turns its back on those that need care the most.
When I look back, what I’ll remember most isn’t the finish line, but the way nine women carried one another mile after mile, proving that women’s empowerment isn’t just an abstract, far-fetched idea, it’s a lived practice. On the road, in advocacy, and in life, we are truly stronger together.
After 1,700 miles, I can confirm that my SHREDLY Biker Cham Midnight were the true MVPs of the trip. From hill climbs to SAG stop dance battles, they survived every stretch, snack break, and sunscreen smear right along with me. If they can handle fifty days of coastal winds, Nutella tortillas, and tent life, they can handle anything. Huge thanks to SHREDLY for keeping me and my teammates pedaling in comfort and style while we made our way down the pacific coast!
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