Day 32: A Bonus State - McCook, Nebraska to Wray, Colorado

Before we rolled out this morning the team started the day out with a dance party! Afterwards it looked as though it would rain during the first stretch, but it cleared up. This stretch of the ride has been tiring for the team as almost every day from the last rest day to the next one has been 85+ miles. It isn’t all so bad though as today we had tailwinds most of the day and gained an extra hour as we moved into mountain time. We did not see any mountains on the ride today in our new time zone though, so those must be coming a bit later into the summer.

Ride Overview

Mileage: 96.1 miles

Elevation: +1,578 ft. / -1,171 ft.

Points of Interest: Colorado welcome sign, Kansas welcome sign

Tales of the Trail

Most of the day was spent on the same highway that we have been on for the past few days. The first stretch was a little rough as our legs adjusted to the bike once again after a hard 100+ mile effort the day before. The day went by smoothly though as with tailwinds for the whole day the team was able to cruise at a good pace without exhausting ourselves. It also helped that we had a very wide shoulder for most of the day, so we were able to stay in a tight formation without much worry of cars passing close to us. The day really flew by with not much to note until the final rest stop. 

Some teams went slightly off route near the last rest stop. We biked an extra 1.5 miles total to go see Kansas! While the sights of a new state were basically the same, the team was fascinated by the tiny bit of scenery that we got to see of Kansas. After this we got to add another state to the ride: Colorado! Every group stopped and took the opportunity to take plenty of photos. Colorado is exciting for the team as it finally marks, in our minds, the transition from the flat midwest into the west. While maybe not so excited for the climbs upcoming, most of the team cannot wait for the views and adventures to come out west. 

Once we got to the stayover the team almost instantly all went to either the hot tub or the steam room. Some opting even to take an ice cold shower afterwards. Hot tubs and such are supposed to be good for recovery so we are hoping our legs feel nice and fresh tomorrow. Today we decided to mix up our usual dinner of pasta in lentils and instead made pasta and black beans. (Yes, there is not much difference, but to us who eat the same dinner most days it really is a nice change of pace) After dinner some people on the team were still a little hungry and wanted a salty or sweet treat. Thankfully there was a 7/11 about a mile away that we were able to bike to. It was quite comical as on the way back we replaced our water bottles in our bottle cages with ice cream, sushies, pringles, and many more. It was a fun little side quest. Thank you to the WRAC of Wray Colorado for hosting the team, and letting us do our laundry.

Cyclist’s Corner

Today’s rider: Sam Gerstein

How are you feeling today?  How was today’s ride?

Today's ride was good! It was definitely better than yesterday. I was thinking about this yesterday… I think that I'm kind of at a weird crossroads, you know? It's like, do you start out every day? Or do you take a break for a few days and miss out on riding and then come back full force? But then, also again, a week later, you're out. So that's like kind of the dilemma of having of like, okay, like, do I ride every day? Like, well, do I ride as much as I can? Like, part? Or do I like try and do a little every day? And to be honest, I don't really know the answer. I think that it definitely feels a little defeating because I know I can do it. My legs don't hurt. I definitely had muscular strength back when you last heard me. I think the issue was technique, which I think now it's gotten a lot better. I feel like at this stage of the ride, it's everything but the parts that matter but aren't directly involved in the cycling aspect are really difficult to try and cope with. So yeah, that's my take. 

I’ve seen you do some long full days and was like “Sam’s really going now.”

Yeah, you know, it sucks because I'm itching to  get back on that bike. I can feel endurance wise and physically in every other way, like in the ways that you think matter the most, I feel like I can operate back on the bike and be okay. It sucks when the limiting factor is not your physicality. 

Is there anything that you, personally, think, or hope, you will gain from the ride?

I think being able to be around people 24/7 is something that's been really challenging for me, at least initially. I think that the way that I tend to present myself… you put on a different face of yourself when you're interacting with people. That's just psychologically what people do, right? When you're with the same people 24/7, sleeping in the same room, waking up with them, going to bed with them, that's just not a sustainable personality to have. I want to make sure that I'm able to be someone that's sorted, someone that's easy to be around, having a sustainable output of energy that doesn’t mean I’m arguing with people every day. There needs to be a healthy balance. I mean, outside of I4K, my at home persona versus my with  friends persona? It's very different. It's vastly different, to an insane level. Like, I don't know, I'm kind of a weird person to live with. It's been weird trying to keep it all in to an extent of “okay, like, I need to be  normal.” Also, there are gonna be times where debates pop up and conflicts where I just need alone time.

How have you surprised yourself since New York City?

When I first was riding, I was terrible. If the roles were reversed and I was in a group with myself back then, I'd be like, “wait, this person should like not be on the trip.” I remember when we rolling into Milton, Pennsylvania, it was descents that were not that crazy. They must have been maybe 6% grades. And I would need to walk down the descent. I was scared out of my mind. I think now I'm doing a lot better. You know, I don't really have an issue with that anymore. I think my ability to be able to rough it up and not live the high means lifestyle that I did before I4K has been kind of surprising. This trip really does show you how little you need to live on and how little you need to function in your everyday life and almost in a weird way, kind of separate from material things too. When I walk outside, I'm just wearing a bib and a t-shirt and shorts every day. 

I definitely have really not been on my phone, really not been on social media. This has been kind of healing. I think it's really nice to  take a break from that. I think the one big thing that's been my main takeaway from this, which I don't know if I’ll necessarily say it was surprising, is that I feel like when you live in a society, when you come from an urban environment, that tends to be very upper-class, or at least middle-class, and they're kind of sheltered from what the rest of the country looks like, I think it was really surprising to me to see how similar people really are. I think that there's this common trope of people that are like not on the coast, like in the rural Midwest or the South, of being uneducated. And I think that that is, frankly, classist. I think that's a pretty uneducated take. I think that it's been cool to see how generic people have been throughout the trip. I wouldn't say that necessarily surprised me, but I think what surprised me was how much that really meant to me and how much that really warmed me up to these types of communities and potentially being a part of something like that.

Where is your hometown?  If there was food from there you could have with you at every town during the ride, what would it be?

I'm from Boca Raton, Florida which is in Palm Beach County. 

A little down south of Broward County, it’s a huge Hispanic-Latino population. They have these Cuban pastries. I forget what they're called. I think they're called pasteles, they're pastelitos. or something like that. They're like meat and filled pastries and there’s fruit versions. I think that would be really good.

How is the ride progressing for you?

It's going good. I think I'm still a little nervous about once we get into longer climbing days. I think that the endurance is there, at least. It's more about you really do need to build the mental acuity to go on a slow, steady climb for 12 miles, which I believe we will be going to Salt Lake City on that. I don't know, to me it sounds ridiculous. I think one thing that I'm really learning is kind of being blissfully ignorant about these things. I think that sometimes people get really wrapped up in the metrics of “it's like this percent grade,” or they're like, especially on the bike computer, you know, it tells you like when you have a climb coming up which is also not accurate in some ways. I think it can really mentally put you in a place that's just unhelpful to be honest. Sometimes, yeah, it's nice to know there's gonna be a day with a lot of climbing, but sometimes it's nice to be like, “I don't know and I don't care what I'm talking about.”

What do you think your role for the team has become (regardless of what it started as or what chore you do)?

As you watch me wash dishes? Yeah, I'm itching to say dinner chore. I feel like in the beginning, I was kind of the jester. I feel like now, I think I'm a good socializer with the gen pop, you know what I mean? Even though you wouldn't expect me to be, I think that you guys are properly not. Sorry. I don't know. I'm one of the people that makes an effort to talk to the stayover, get to know a little bit about them. I think that would be my role: socializer.

What has your favorite snack in the van been so far?

I mean there's definitely something sugary. Lately, I've been really liking the guava candy stuff that we have. No one eats it, but it's kind of fire. Those are great! I'm always pro gummy bear. I know those aren't really in the van right now, but I'm always pro gummy bear. Personally, when I find my own snacks, I kind of follow the Anthony diet with a ton of sugar. It kind of worked!

Day 31: The Second Century Collides with Rain - Kearney, Nebraska to McCook, Nebraska

Severe storm warnings?  Potential hail?  Flood watches?  Did we go and see if we could make it over 100 miles on our bikes today or shelter in the van and drive to the next location?  If you have learned anything about this team and the people that compose it through this first month of journal postings, you probably know what the answer to that question is.

Ride Overview

Mileage: 104.0 miles

Elevation: +1,650 ft. / -1,719 ft.

Points of Interest: The Final Casey’s

Tales of the Trail

In anticipation of the looming weather and the long mileage, we woke up very early today to evaluate how things looked outside and how the reports had changed overnight.  The morning was surprisingly clear, so at 6:00 am, just before the sun was rising, we started our ride.  Everyone was crossing their fingers that the rain, or at least the lightning which would prevent us from continuing until it passed, would hold off until at least the first rest stop.  Ren even had us singing “Rain Rain Go Away” in the morning circle to make sure we had tried our absolute best.  Sure enough, it did!  Barely.

We were all wearing rain jackets just in case the storms approached, but both teams on the road made it to the 18.5-mile mark without too many drops from the sky.  This would be the last of the dry for quite some time.  Anyone who was in the van went from being a bit disappointed for not being able to ride to actually somewhat relieved that they were not.  The rain came down strongly and being on the side of a busier road meant that cars were adding to the spray.  Being at the back of the group was far from favorable unless you had a strong aversion to drinking from your water bottle.  Then, you could have just as easily made up your water intake from the spray off of your teammate’s tire.  

For a while, the rain can be kind of fun.  It can cool you down while riding and it gives the tires a fun gliding sensation over the road.  Whether that second observation is placebo or not, we do not know.  Also, when the road is not filled with vehicles, you can hear the pitter patter of the rain drops on your jacket and the noise can be calming.  This lasts for somewhere between 30 minutes and 1 hour depending on how cold it is and how waterproof your jacket is.  After this threshold, everything becomes wet and you really start to feel soaked to the core.  These were the thoughts going through our heads as riders today.  

Ten miles into the second leg, both teams made a quick pit stop at a Casey’s (of course) and met a friendly truck driver who said that he had tried not to spray us when he passed.  That was so nice to hear!  We all saw Maaike flagging us down another short while up the road and it was time for a second rest stop, this one much more wet.  The roads of Nebraska are much more similar to what we though the experience was going to be across the entire Midwest: very minimal gradients and mostly flat with the occasional hill scattered in.  For a long day like this, that kind of terrain is perfect for knocking off the miles.

At mile 64, the third rest stop was upon us and both teams spent some time inside to shelter and just get out of the still continuing rain.  There was a charismatic worker at the attached chicken joint and despite standing near the doorway on the mats dripping wet, everyone was extremely nice and welcoming.  An older gentleman came by and asked where we were heading towards next.  We found out that the weather near McCook had been much better than what we had just ridden through and that gave us at least a sliver of confidence that we may not end the day in the rain.  

The last rest stop was also the last Casey’s we will ever have a rest stop at!  For the Midwest children among us, that was devastating news,  and even for those who did not grow up in Casey’s territory, it is sad to see such a reliable stop say goodbye.  The sun even came out for us!  The last 25 miles of the day were getting warmer and no rain jackets were necessary.  By the time we reached the stayover, we were nearly dry, bar maybe chamois padding and shoes; however, there was a layer of sediment that had been thrown upwards with the spray from the rain that was just clinging to us and our bikes.  It took a long time to clean and bring our clothes and road machines back to a rideable state for tomorrow.

The crew in the van was able to help find showers in McCook at the McCook Community College and we had a donation of Subway sandwiches for dinner supplemented by the usual pasta and lentils.  To ensure we had a high enough sugar intake on the day, many of the team members stopped by The Scoop to grab some ice cream before the day really came to a close.  We are facing another over 90-mile day tomorrow on this long day stretch before Boulder.

Cyclists’ Corner

Rider: Vedang Mahajan

How are you feeling today?  How was today’s ride?

My quads are sore, my knees are not doing the best, but I think it was pretty fun. The ride today we got poured on, and there were doubts. We almost completely expected to be shuttling most of the day, but I think we got lucky. Despite the severe weather, despite the rain, we kept biking, and of course it was all safe, and we made it. It was big! It was my second longest ride ever, only after the 132 or something miles we biked out of Columbus, Ohio. I would say it was a great day and we were moving really fast. We had great fun, but not too much to see. We were on the same road the whole day, but it is what it is. I just cannot wait to get to Colorado!

Is there anything that you, personally, think, or hope, you will gain from the ride?

I wanted to gain the experiences that come by traveling across the country. I also want to become more resilient and stronger at biking. Also, I hope to find something we talk about a lot… “why we do this.” So, for me, it's also being able to tell these amazing stories when I go back, to just have a life well lived, to have done something extremely out of this world that not many people dare to attempt. I wanted to take on a massive challenge and the feeling of knowing that you did something that's really difficult is something that I would love to have after I'm done with this.

How have you surprised yourself since New York City?

I fully expected to not get progressively stronger every day because I thought that the toll of biking almost every single day would add up and would sort of destroy my legs. On the contrary, I feel like I have progressively been getting strong on the bike and that has definitely surprised me. Also, the way I look at mileages has changed so much now. 70 miles looks like an easy day, whereas 100 is like, “okay, you know, we're actually working.”

Where is your hometown?  If there was food from there you could have with you at every town during the ride, what would it be?

My hometown is Bangalore, India. If I could have any one food from Bangalore, it would probably be dosa. I last had it in New York City before leaving. I wouldn't want to eat dosa every day because it isn't exactly the best fuel for a bike ride, but I would love to eat that every maybe four days or something like that. That’s what would be nice.

How is the ride progressing for you?

I'm getting to know my teammates a lot better now that we're done with almost half the ride. Also, I feel like I've already seen so many things and have so many stories to tell from a few days that are extremely memorable. The one day where we agreed to sidequest at least twice per team. That's the day where we went five miles off route and saw an emu and other really interesting creatures on one of the farms on the side of the road. Those days like that are very memorable to me. Yes, in general, the ride is progressing very well!

What do you think your role for the team has become (regardless of what it started as or what chore you do)?

I think that when I'm on the bike, I would say that I'm a very versatile rider. I know how to ride with all kinds of people. Some who are trying to go super fast on like a shorter day, or where they were trying to take it easy on steep climbs. I'm not really sure that I have a role as such, but I just help out everywhere I can.

What has your favorite snack in the van been so far?

Oh! The waffles. The Honey Stinger waffles. Yes, those have been my favorite.

Day 30: The Same Road - York, Nebraska to Kearney, Nebraska

Ride Overview

After a very appreciative change in pace of tailwinds yesterday we were very glad to wake up to similar weather today. Today officially marks the first day of, while very gradual, our climb upwards in elevation gain towards the Rockies! Once again on the same highway as yesterday for the whole route we were definitely getting deja vu.

Ride Overview

Mileage: 84.1 miles

Elevation: 1,111 feet

Tales of the Trail

The team rolled out this morning to a crisp 59 degrees and sunny. Once we got on the road we realized once again that we were in for a treat as all 80 miles of our route today would be on the same highway we were on yesterday. Although there were a few complaints from the team all was well especially since we had plenty of room on the shoulder to bike on. When we looked at the route ahead of time it said that we gained elevation today, however while actually biking on the road it felt completely flat. If only all hills could be that way. 

With our team following relatively the same route for the midwest at least of the 2025 team, that means that we get the privilege of not having to scout out as many rest stops. For example, today the team was very excited for one of our rest stops being a coffee shop the 2025 team went to last year. Surprisingly our team is very different from what I've heard about past Illini4000 teams in that our team only has really 1 active coffee drinker; she even brought her own instant coffee on the ride to be extra prepared! Although it is very hard to pass up a coffee shop. Some non-coffee drinkers did not miss out though and got bagel sandwiches and other fun drinks. It is always nice to have a rest stop that isn’t just the side of the road or a gas station. (although don’t get me wrong, our team has been enjoying all the Casey’s we have been stopping at)

With today’s route having favorable winds and being flat our groups today were setting a respectable pace. This is until my group got hit with a “catastrophe”. Now of course this is a complete exaggeration, but at the moment it just seemed very comical and unfortunate. I, Parker, had the inevitable happen: a flat tire. In fact we were only 1 mile away from the second rest stop. A flat tire by itself is just a minor inconvenience that happens to even the best cyclists in the sport. However after doing the whole routine of taking the tire off, taking the old tube out, putting a new one in, and putting the tire back on I started to pump it up. I got the tire all the way up to 45 psi and everything seemed fine once it was on my bike. As I turned my back for one second to put my helmet on to get ready to roll. As I turned around not even 30 seconds later and my tire was completely flat again. And then in an insane turn of events this whole sequence happened again. I had to call the van while my team biked the 1 mile to the rest stop. While there I finally was able to get a new tube, that worked correctly, on my bike after an hour and a half of fixing a flat. Which so far is probably the longest it has taken anyone to fix a flat on the ride so far. 

As you can probably tell by the fact that I talked about a singular flat tire for a whole paragraph, today was pretty uneventful. After that whole debacle the rest of the day went rather smoothly. Even with that setback the final group was able to make it to the stayover before 5 which we were very happy with for an 80+ mile day. We were soaring on the (basically) flat roads which gave us plenty of time to relax, do laundry, and call our friends and family. For dinner we had sandwiches donated by the First Lutheran Church ELCA. After dinner it was nice to have some time to relax and not have to rush around for any deadlines. We had a lot of great conversations in this time reflecting on the parts of the ride that has happened so far and what is to come. This did not last forever though. With thunderstorms on the forecast for tomorrow the team had our earliest bedtime yet of 8:45. It was quite a weird feeling trying to go to sleep before the sun had quite fully set. We all went to bed not knowing what the next day would have in store for us, but just trying to get as much sleep as we could to prepare ourselves. 

Cyclists’ Corner

Rider: Maaike Niekerk

How are you feeling today?  How was today’s ride?

I'm feeling great today. I feel like today's ride might be the smoothest, easiest 83 miles I've ever done in my life. Good tail winds the whole time. The weather was pretty nice and we were just cruising; straight line the whole way. I had a very good day! We went to a fun little coffee shop and a Casey's. Any day with Casey's is a great day! Highway 30 was a little intense. Anytime we have heavy traffic, for sure, is a little bit of stress, but it was smooth sailing.

Is there anything that you, personally, think, or hope, you will gain from the ride?

I think more mental confidence in myself or more confidence in my mental health and knowing that I can do hard things like this will be awesome. Then, there'll also definitely be some physical confidence to gain once we get going on those mountains that are coming up soon. I think getting over those will be a huge confidence boost. Also, I'm just really excited to gain appreciation for more of the country. I feel like the U.S. was in a very weird space when I did the last ride [2024], because we were going into a presidential election. Even though that's not the case this time around, I still think we're in a kind of weird space as a country; a lot of disagreement, and conflict, and controversy. So, I think this ride will help restore some faith in the goodness of the U.S.A.

How have you surprised yourself since New York City?

That's a really good question, Jonathan! I think in a lot of ways, I think this ride has been mentally tougher than last time. I don't know if that's because of the leadership position or just because of where I'm at in life. I think I've surprised myself with my mental toughness and also my physical toughness too. It definitely physically feels easier than two years ago, and I think that's kind of cool. I think I've surprised myself with that and also just being a team player. I guess that wasn't a huge surprise, but I'm just happy that the team is gelling really well and I feel like we're all very focused on teamwork and team centered. So, I think that's cool.

Where is your hometown?  If there was food from there you could have with you at every town during the ride, what would it be?

My hometown is Champaign, Illinois. 

Lots of outstanding cuisine in Champaign. (sarcastically) I think if there's one thing I could have, my mom makes a really good apple pie, and I feel like we don't get a ton of pie along the way. We had one that was a little suspicious. We don't know where it came from or how old it was. So, that's been our one pie experience on the trip, and I think that a really good pie is awesome, and can heal anything. My mom makes the best apple pie in the whole wide world, so I think if I could have that across the country, it'd be awesome! That's what I've been missing.

How is the ride progressing for you?

I think it's progressing really well. I'll talk about myself, but I think it's progressing really well with the team. I think it's been really cool as the ride leader to just watch the team get stronger and also get closer in all sorts of different ways. I'm really proud of everybody. And I'm proud of myself too. I think the ride is going really well. I haven't had any really off days or hard days or anything like that yet, which I'm really privileged to be able to say. I feel very lucky and happy about that. I think it's a testament to how awesome this team is, and I feel like everybody's doing really well, so I’m happy.

What do you think your role for the team has become (regardless of what it started as or what chore you do)?

Well, I guess, I don't know if you need to know this, but my chore, quote unquote for the audio… (I'm doing air quotes) My chore is like being the ride leader. Some people ask me what that is. It means I charge the Zoleo devices, I write thank you notes to our stayovers, who are really awesome, I help clean a lot of things, and I kind of just keep all of our ducks in a row and do a lot of coordinating and making game time decisions, as this team would call it. They really like the term “game time decisions” and that's kind of what I do. What I didn't expect and what the role has also become is kind of a motivator. I'm trying to be kind of a cheerleader while also drawing a line somewhere of “here's things we need to lock in on,” but also, “everybody's doing great.” This is definitely something to balance, but I think it's definitely a mental task to be motivating the people around me while I also need to motivate myself to get on the bike every day. I think I've been really trying to kind of mediate and really encouraging people to get on the bike, get out there, have fun, and have new adventures. I think everybody's capable of a lot more than they may think they are. I'm trying to provide that confidence boost as much as I can.

What has your favorite snack in the van been so far?

This is hard.. Mmm... Actually, maybe it's not. Well, two. The yoggies. Everyone was big on the yoggies. They're these little strawberry fruits covered in yogurt, like little fruit cubes covered in yogurt. Those have been phenomenal! They were gone very quickly. I miss them. They were very good. So I love those. Let it be known, I have loved yoggies since like 6 months ago. I think my mom might have been the one who put them in the van, but I don't know if it was her. Maybe somebody else put them in there. Those were great! I've been eating them for months and I had them in my apartment and I love them! They were great on I4K. The other answer I have… I have no clue where these came from, but from Hy Vee, somebody donated or gave us these: peanut butter rice crispy bars with a layer of chocolate on the top. They're so good! We finished them today and now I'm sad about it. They were hidden somewhere in the van, so only Lauren and I really knew they were there. Those were very good also. I'm a big peanut butter chocolate fan, so those are my top two. I couldn't pick between the two.

Day 29: Tailwinds Exist? - Lincoln, Nebraska to York, Nebraska

After a fantastic rest day in Lincoln, the rain paused its falling just as we were about to begin our ride on the first day of Summer.  Today was a short ride relative to our usual mileage and we had all the conditions working together to make this one of the more enjoyable rides in some time.  The weather was cool and overcast, the wind was at our back, we were all rested, and our bikes were cleaned.

Ride Overview

Mileage: 54.8 miles

Elevation: +1,059 ft. / -866 ft.

Points of Interest: Historic Haymarket, Pinnacle Bank Arena, Highway 34, Parade of Flags, Seward (not in Alaska), Runza

Tales of the Trail

Some of the bagels were left over from yesterday morning and supplemented by yogurt, kalachis, some of our usual oatmeal, and orange juice to cap off a complete meal for breakfast.  No one exited Saint Paul Church with an empty stomach and we can be sure that is exactly how they intended it to be after thinking back to our dinner with them just a couple days ago.  At the morning circle before our ride, we talked about the accomplishment of making it through the last 8-day stretch of riding which will be our longest continuous set of riding days throughout the entire Summer.  We talked about the upcoming mission which will include its own fair share of long and flat days moving towards Boulder where our next rest day will be.  Soon enough, it was time to roll out and on our way take in our last sights of Lincoln.

The route out of town included rolling through the Historic Haymarket district where some of us had gone to walk around and get food on our night of arrival and for the I4K Valentine’s dates yesterday.  We then passed the modern looking Pinnacle Bank Arena where the Cornhuskers play their basketball games.  After this, the day was not less enjoyable, but certainly had less active scenery.

From mile 5 to mile 50, we all rode along Highway 34 and had plenty of time to talk with each other before Tada (driving) and the van appeared in the distance.  Before the first rest stop, there was a scary looking bump in the road that everyone remembered because it ended up being more like a jump.  Some of us even thought about going back to go off it again now knowing the reality. Vedang and Nishk said they had a chance to look each other in the eyes midair.  At a barn on the side of the road, each team recounted their encounter with the bump turned jump.

The next span of road was about as you might imagine for a Midwest state: wide, flat roads, corn on either side, a train in the distance, and small towns scattered between.  One of those small towns, Seward, was home to the Parade of Flags memorial which was a neat place to get a picture and sign our team into the visitor log.  They also had a fun sign that told how far it was to Seward, Alaska, 3,446 miles if you’re wondering!  Since we had tailwinds pushing us faster than usual, we were soon enough at a gas station eating peanut butter sandwiches again.  We had some combined peanut butter and honey that was meant for the morning bagels but never used and that made for a fantastic lunchtime treat.

The three teams on the road had different vibes for the last stretch.  There were Aadit, Vedang, Nishk, and Parker putting the pedal to the metal and flying through the last 15 miles, Cole, Max, Ehsan, and Anthony enjoying time talking with each other and without a worry in their minds, and Ren, Maaike, Sam, and Lauren listening to music and absolutely all smiles.  We decided to meet at restaurants upon arriving in York.  Half went to the Nebraska fast food chain Runza which we rated as “quite good” and loved the $1 ice cream cones.  The other half went to a Mexican restaurant to fill up on what is possibly the favorite cuisine for refueling after a ride.

Eventually, we rolled over to Emmanuel Lutheran Church where we would be spending the night and set up camp.  Mind you, this was at 1 or 2 pm and so we had some time to explore.  Many went to the community center to swim and enjoy some resting hours and then it was time to head back for dinner which was so graciously offered by the church.  Tomorrow marks the first in a set of 5 days where none of the rides are under 80 miles and where 3 are over 90.  We are going to bring back the mentality we had before the 134-mile day and work as a team!

Cyclists’ Corner

Rider: Lauren Faber

How are you feeling today?  How was today’s ride?

I'm actually feeling really good today! It was a nice and flat day, and a shorter day, and those always feel good. When you get to the stayover, you still have so much of the day left to do whatever you want. I just got my new pedals and I would clip into them, so riding has been very enjoyable today. We also got music privileges and that's been very enjoyable! 

Note from Cole: Lauren’s bike got a lot of care in Lincoln and now it’s in pretty stellar condition which is making life on the road much nicer.

Is there anything that you, personally, think, or hope, you will gain from the ride?

I think we actually spoke about this one, maybe the 130-day or so. One of the things I remember saying was, I hope to feel like I've made a significant impact on the world and on the cause. When we’re riding you kind of just get in the zone. We're just biking, but by the end I hope I feel a stronger connection to the cause and how what I'm doing is very important for people.

How have you surprised yourself since New York City?

I don't know if this is necessarily a surprise, but I'm pretty proud of the fact that I've been able to get along well with people who have such different backgrounds and such different ways of life. We were all kind of strangers in the beginning, and we're all more like a family now. 

I also definitely think being able to ride full days [is a good surprise]. I could never imagine riding this many days back to back. I've definitely gotten stronger and that's been pretty  fun to see.

Where is your hometown?  If there was food from there you could have with you at every town during the ride, what would it be?

Well, this is an easy question… Hawthorne Woods, Illinois. 

Hawthorne doesn't really have anything, but if you travel a little bit farther, 15 minutes or something to Libertyville, Sushi Thai. It's a family favorite. They have the best crab rangoons I've ever had in my life! I've tried looking at so many different restaurants and ordering crab rangoons at every single one, giving them a chance, but they have never been as good as the Sushi Thai crab rangoons. I wish they were at every stayover.

How is the ride progressing for you?

It's definitely been getting better. I think having that difficult start and route at the beginning was weighing on my mental, but it's been getting flatter and I've been getting better. I think the terrain changing has definitely helped. I think it has gotten easier, so I feel better. I've been having fun! I think I've been getting a better mentality recently. I think I was very stressed and overwhelmed at the beginning with the weather, and the hills, and new places, and new people, but I've been getting the hang of things.

What do you think your role for the team has become (regardless of what it started as or what chore you do)?

The only thing I can think of is I can bring some comedic relief to the team and I think I'm kind of fun. I feel like I enjoy looking for things to do when we get to the stayovers even when most of the time it doesn't actually follow through. I like suggesting places to go and trying to make a plan to explore the city that we're in. 

What has your favorite snack in the van been so far?

Well, I was a fan of Cheddar Jack Chees-Itz. And... Costco little chocolate chip cookies that are chewy. I can just eat those like chips, so those are the best!

Day 28: Will You Be My Valentine? - Rest Day in Lincoln, Nebraska

With a morning full of silence and sleeping in, the team slowly awoke and got ready for the day. On our usual rest days everyone is free to go wherever they want without a schedule for the day. Unlike the usual rest day, today was a day full of bonding and having fun with our teammates. After everyone got breakfast, a smorgasbord of leftover breakfast from the day prior, we all began to get our stuff ready for the adventures that awaited us on this very special rest day. 

What is special about today is that we all will go out to explore Lincoln with our “dates.” Today is our very own I4k valentines day. Although we aren’t celebrating on February 14th, everyone on the team got randomly paired up with a partner they had to go on a “date” with. These partners were chosen randomly and gave everyone a chance to get to know each other better and converse 1 on 1 with someone they might not always get the chance to. We knew who our partners were a couple days in advance, so everyone had looked ahead to make plans for what to do in Lincoln. Some of these plans were foiled due to inclement weather and had to be changed on the fly. The team all loaded into the van to get dropped off to different places around the city. Here is what our “dates” were doing today: Parker and Ren went to lunch at Runza and then to the Museum of American Speed, Cole and Ved went to a fancy italian restaurant for lunch, and then also went to the Museum of American Speed, Anthony, Max, and Ehsan also went to the Museum of American Speed, Aadit and Maaike went to play dinosaur themed indoor mini-golf, Sam and Nishk went to an indoor gun range, and Lauren and Tada went on a cave tour and the botanical gardens. As you can probably tell most of our groups ended up at the Museum of American Speed. This was completely unplanned, but a funny coincidence as we all saw each other there. Some of the groups had planned to go kayaking or other activities, but decided to go to the museum instead because of the rain. 

After all of our dates, all the groups who went to the Museum of American Speed, and the group from the indoor gun range decided to walk over to a nearby bowling alley. After looking at the prices of bowling and also seeing that the bowling alley had laser tag, we decided to go a different route. We decided to play 2 rounds of laser tag, the first being free-for-all and the second being teams. This ended up being one of the highlights of the day as the team took this game of laser tag very competitively. In round one Anthony took a dominating victory by a wide margin. In round 2 we decided to do teams, but we had a few other random people joining us. We decided to split the groups into: a team of 4 of us, a team of 5 of us, and the family of 6 who decided to play laser tag with us. This second round somehow was even more tense than the first. After everyone had realized how seriously we were taking the game, it was as if the teams turned into navy seals. The teams moved as a group and came up with elaborate strategies of how to win. When the lights turned off and our laser guns stopped shooting we knew it would be a close race for first. The scores were released and the group of Max, Anthony, Nishk, and Ved had won with only a margin of 1,000 points over our second I4k team. Funnily enough, both I4k teams had gotten over 10k points more than the family of 6 and everyone had an amazing time. 

After this the team was a little worn out from the headed laser tag games, so we all went back to the stayover to relax for a while. Before this however, we made a detour for a quick stop at a Trek store in Lincoln. This is where we had our best bike shop encounter yet. The mechanic there recognized our group from last year and was very excited to work on our bikes totally for free! He was even able to give one of our riders new pedals. He was amazing, and we left the bike shop wishing that he could come along on our journey as our mechanic. (Sorry to the two team mechanics, but this guy was amazing) When we got back to the stayover, everyone had miscellaneous things to do, some cleaning their bike, getting dinner, and messing around having fun in the gym. While we don’t have room to pack a whole lot of “for fun” items in our bag, a couple of us had packed tennis balls. In the evening a few of us had decided to make up our own games that only needed a tennis ball, a basketball hoop, and a wall. What we spent most of our time doing was trying to throw a tennis ball in the basketball hoop from full-court. On I4k we have learned more how to entertain ourselves and have fun without phones or other distractions. It feels like being a kid again, as we could be entertained for hours with as little as a tennis ball. As the team began winding down in preparation for the days of biking ahead a few of us made a late-night dominoes run before bed. As it turns out pizza is actually quite decent fuel for the night before a long bike ride. 

Day 27: The Largest Candy Store in Nebraska - Omaha, Nebraska to Lincoln, Nebraska

Although we know that it won’t last forever, today was a good addition to the lower mileage routes through the Midwest.  Right before a rest day, this was definitely appreciated for both our minds and bodies.  Despite tackling some roads with higher traffic since the Omaha to Lincoln connection is well traveled, we were also able to mix in some bike trails near each of the cities and the day turned out to be quite a good one.  Look forward to reading about our rest stops and the amazing stayover that we arrived at on the other end!

Ride Overview

Mileage: 58.1 miles

Elevation: +1,479 ft. / -1,515 ft.

Points of Interest: Baker’s Candies, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, St. Paul United Methodist Church

Tales of the Trail

The roads and paths out of Omaha were enjoyable for the way in which we felt like we immersed ourselves in some of the neighborhoods of the city.  This was similar to when we were leaving Iowa City and were able to see a bunch of different neighborhoods as we exited.  On the bike trails here, we were able to see how the houses changed styles and sizes the further we traveled from the heart of the city.  We passed friendly cyclists and runners out for their morning workouts or strolls and were able to hit a few parks along the way.  Green space right next to a bike path as opposed to just being adjacent to a highway is certainly a much nicer feeling.  The group of Anthony, Ehsan, Max, and Cole even took a detour at Ehsan’s request to travel some of their miles around a lake. 

 By the time we were getting back on the actual roads, we were awake enough to notice that the naming conventions out here have become much less creative than in the East.  Instead of Maple Street or Melrose Avenue, the names have now been 526th Street or Y Avenue.  It does make navigating quite simple from a bike because you know exactly which direction you are heading and how far, but for the spirit of naming enjoyment, we feel there needs to be a spark of change.  Anyways, enough about this point.

Up next and just off of another bike trail was our first rest stop: a diner!  We met a local cyclist who encouraged us before heading off with a friend of his own and then we were ready to eat as many calories as our bodies could fit.  Breakfast, sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches, it was all being ordered and all so tasty after just about 20 miles of riding.  The teams sat and ate their feasts and were feeling very good about the day ahead.  Back in the outside world, the weather was changing, but we’ll spoil it now that the rain, or more aptly, shower, did not last long. 

What is that just around the corner?  Route 6, of course!  Despite the bustling highway the team was, as always, grateful for a wide shoulder. This next stretch of the route the team was very excited for as we had heard our second rest stop of the day would be Baker’s Candies. It is a 6,000 square feet store filled with as much candy or soda any human could ever want. With over 1,000 different types of candies and over 200 different bottled sodas the team definitely had some tough decisions on what to buy. Either way a candy store was the perfect rest stop for us as the sugar gave us the boost we needed to finish the day. 

Whenever we got to the stayover the day was just beginning. After we arrived at the stayover we were provided a wonderful chili dinner by the people of St Paul Methodist Church. Today was full of surprises but the best one is yet to come. After dinner one of the church members took us upstairs to the top of the church which had a very beautiful dome on top with bells inside! We were already amazed by the beautiful sight, but it got even better. The guy from the church pulled out sheet music that he wrote himself and started playing Oskie-Wow-Wow (a fight song from the University of Illinois) for the whole town to hear! For the last surprise he let our whole team try and play the bells ourselves. Maaike even got to play her very own rendition of Oskie-Wow-Wow on the church bells. A lot of us less musically gifted were also able to play a scale and some slightly less technical songs. Overall this was an amazing experience that we were not expecting at all. This is the beauty of participating in Illini 4000. Every day is an adventure and you never know what surprises are in store for you. As the team goes to sleep tonight I am sure we will all be thinking about what adventures tomorrow holds.

Day 26: A New State for Everyone: Nebraska! - Atlantic, Iowa to Omaha, Nebraska

Today, we continued following Route 6 towards Omaha and Iowa gave us a fitting send off for what was a very enjoyable state for a lot of the riders.  We challenged roads of various terrain, tackled some more rolling hills, crossed the Missouri River, and made it to a state that not one of the riders on the team had ever been to before.  Particularly, compared with yesterday, this was a day to remind us that the time on the road can still be fun and enjoyable.  

Ride Overview

Mileage: 66.8 miles

Elevation: +3,868 ft. / -3,940 ft.

Points of Interest: Iowa/Nebraska Border, Looking Up Sculpture, Omaha, Discovery Playground, Old Market

Tales of the Trail

Immediately coming out of Atlantic, the team hit a gravel road that had some climbs and descents that got a little spicy.  We thought we were in for a rough day if this was just the prologue for the rest of the route.  Luckily, everyone made it through the more challenging terrain without an issue (not to say there weren’t issues later, but here we were good).  Actually, this is where we had some of the best and most expansive views throughout the whole ride.  Cutting across this way to the highway we eventually got on was worthwhile not only for the view, but also for the lack of other vehicles.  We encountered many more of those today.

Back on Route 6, we settled into formation in the shoulder and got ready to hold that for the next 60 miles until we reached Omaha.  Riding this way is definitely not a favorite because of the quicker traffic and having to stay in a sometimes bumpy or debris filled shoulder, but it does beat taking gravel or dirt roads all day and detouring to add many more miles to our already long routes over the Summer.  Route 6 is not a bad place to watch the miles tick by either.  It is a historic road after all!  (The white paint on the telephone poles made this road somewhat different and special compared with any other highway.)

Throughout the day we took a total of just two rest stops which kept things moving along quickly.  In between them, the group with Parker, Anthony, Tada, and Max had some incidents with Parker doing a backwards summersault (totally okay now though) and Anthony falling while attempting a 1-footed track stand.  For the remaining riders on the road, it was business as usual.  The landscape was staying mostly the same as it had been the last couple of days and the winds were nothing brutal, so that made the ride feel pretty routine.

The real stories today come once everyone made it near, or close to Omaha.  The team with Aadit, Nishk, Ehsan, Ren, and Cole did a ton of side questing on their way to the stayover!  First up was a stop at a running track next to the bike trail where a race between Nishk, Aadit, and Cole went down.  The one lap was close, but Ren saw Cole cross the line first.  Somewhere, video footage exists as evidence, but we won’t show that here.  Then, it was off to the edge of Council Bluffs where at the Tom Hanafan River’s Edge Park, this team and the others (who were ahead) took a stop to look at the Omaha skyline and the Looking Up Sculpture by Tom Friedman.  We had to take in our last views of Iowa before crossing the Missouri River into Nebraska.  On the bridge, everyone stopped to commemorate the moment.

Once they were in Nebraska, that adventuring team got right back into it.  They stopped at a water feature to cool off and have some fun.  While they got totally soaked, the water did help wash some of the grime from the wet roads of the day before from their frames.  Then, there was a park adjacent to a science center called the Luminarium with some amazing, winding metal slides at the top of a jungle gym that they had to try.  A few odd looks from some of the kids, but smiles and words of encouragement from the parents meant the task was doable and it was worth it.  Those slides were awesome!  To make this time wasting all worth it outside of the fun, they made a final stop at a bike shop to pick up some parts that will be needed further along in our Summer journey.

After dinner at the stayover, most of the team decided to make a trip into Old Market, Omaha since the evening was still young.  We found vintage stores, candy shops, ice cream, arcade machines, and enjoyed having some time to explore the city.  (Omaha was another place that ended up being larger and more lively than we could have imagined.)  Since there was a Cheesecake Factory just a mile from the stayover, Maaike and Aadit made this a mandatory stop on the return trip.  Shortly after that, it was time for rest and getting ready for the last ride before our upcoming rest day in Lincoln.

Day 25: Headwind Monster - Des Moines, Iowa to Atlantic, Iowa

Precarious morning weather conditions put us in a position of questioning whether we would make it to our stayover in time today. We did. Battling through the strongest headwinds of our whole trip the team powered through when times were tough. This is saying a lot since yesterday we had the shorter ride into Des Moines and our bodies were feeling the most rested they had been since Chicago. 

Ride Overview

Mileage: 86.6 miles

Elevation: +3,205 ft. / -3,093 ft.

Points of Interest: Rolling Hills of Iowa, Bike Path out of Des Moines, Casey, Casey’s, Adair Water Tower

Tales of the Trail

As you heard from the introduction, today started off with some decision making. Last night, we had been watching the weather and trying to determine what the morning would have in store. Thunderstorms was the answer. Luckily, our ever brilliant ride leader Maaike had the foresight to push the alarms back (all the way to 7:45!!) and gave us plenty of time to sleep. 

It was quite jarring to not start our day of biking until 9 in the morning instead of the usual 7. Although definitely necessary as we were able to let the thunderstorms pass before we headed off on the bikes. With mostly everyone donning rain jackets it looked as if rain was on the forecast, however we stayed dry! With a late start to the day and headwinds throughout, we knew that it would become a long day of biking. Throughout the whole day though the whole team’s spirits were still high as we kept trucking along. We had a few hiccups throughout the earlier parts of the ride. Some of the bike trails we were on had been closed, and a few others were very muddy. This became a slight problem for some of our riders who have rim brakes as the mud gunked up their brakes, which took a little bit of time to clean off. Some of the riders enjoyed biking through the mud as we do not get to off-road very often. One of our riders did take a tiny fall in the mud, but everyone was okay. 

After this the team got to the first Casey’s rest stop of the day. Which by now has become kind of a staple rest stop for us as they are all over the midwest. At this Casey’s we met two very interesting people: a librarian who got to do a portrait with half the team and was able to tell us all about the kids in her life who have been affected by cancer, and a father and son from Norway who are biking, on a motorcycle, from Boulder, Colorado (which we will be arriving to soon!) to the east coast. The team split in two with about half deciding to go talk to the librarian for a portrait and the other half deciding to stay at the gas station to get food, rest, and converse with these bikers. I was part of the group who stayed and talked to the bikers so I am unfortunately unable to regale the portrait, but I am sure that it will be uploaded to the website to be able to be viewed later. The two bikers were awesome though and even let me sit and take a picture on their bikes! It was so awesome to talk to the dad who was telling me all about the ironmans he has done in the past. (triathlon consisting of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run) This is very convenient as I, Parker, have always said I would love to do an ironman at least once in my life. By now we are very prepared for the biking portion, and a few of my teammates and I always joke about doing an ironman together next year. We will just have to see where life takes us. While not a crazy long triathlon, our ride today being an 85 mile long day in headwinds definitely wore out the team. 

 The rest of the day was full of headwinds, a few gravel roads, many cows on the side of the road, and an undefeatable human spirit. No matter what the day was looking like or whatever happened our groups were determined to stay in the moment and just focus on what they could control. As it got closer and closer to sunset our groups were still racing against time, and the wind. Eventually one of the groups made it to the stayover at a YMCA. The other group however did not make it in time before it started to get dark, so they had to shuttle. While a little disappointed with not being able to finish the ride, everyone was very proud of the effort they put in and what everyone was able to accomplish today. We definitely went to bed with a sense of camaraderie knowing that we all were able to push ourselves today. Now we will just have to wait and see what tomorrow has in store for us. 

Cyclists Corner

Rider: Aadit Kolar

How are you feeling today?

Yeah, I mean, not the best, you know. We weren't able to finish the ride today because we had a lot of mechanicals along the way. That's always unfortunate, and the headwinds were killer today. But you know, we're on this ride to collect portraits for the Portraits Project, and I was super glad to play a part in getting the team or giving the team the opportunity to hear from a wonderful librarian today, who told us about three people she had taken care of that had passed away from cancer, and it was, it was really beautiful hearing from her, and I'm really glad that we got to do that, was definitely the highlight of today

Is there anything that you personally think or like hope that you'll gain from the ride?

From the ride, I was hoping to get better at working with people and being close with, you know, 12 other people in a tight knit group, that we're like working hard every day, or biking hard every day, but also having a lot of fun. It's definitely kind of a trial by fire, because you know, interpersonal issues get magnified when people are tired, but I think it's been great so far. Teammates and I have got along really well, and I'm super glad for that. We've been really bonding well, so that's something that I was hoping to gain out of the ride, is a sense of the ability to form community with people that are very different for me, and I've so far have been doing that.

How have you surprised yourself since New York City?

Kind of in the same vein, honestly, I was scared going in that we would be at each other's throats by now, but people have been great at communicating, myself hopefully included, and I think we've let our differences make us stronger instead of letting them divide us, and I'm glad for that.

Where is your hometown, and then if there was food from there that you could have with you in every town during the ride, what would it be?

Yeah, I grew up in Bangalore, India, the state of Karnataka. It's the fourth biggest city, I believe, in India. Beautiful place, and if there's something, some food I could have from there would definitely be masala dosa, is what we call it there. It's kind of a crepe, I guess you could call it like a savory crepe with potato filling. We actually had the opportunity to try it in New York, some of us, I think Lauren did, so that was really special to be able to share that with people.

How is the ride progressing for you?

Pretty solid. We're on day 25 today, I believe, of 77 so we're a third of the way through the ride. Yeah, pretty much exactly. It's been really good so far. I'm really glad I got a bike fit, really glad I got a bike fit. I was really worried going in that I would get injured, because I have a tendency to get injured pretty easily, but luckily my body's been holding up. I've been feeling pretty good every day, and I've been very grateful that you know I've been able to ride almost every day in good physical condition. So yeah, it's been going good.

What do you think your role for the team has become, regardless of what chore you do?

That's a good question. I like to think I help support the team. I know I'm not always the best team player, but I try to try to lift people up when they're feeling down.  I hope I've been able to do that so far, and I like to do that in the future as well.

What has been your favorite snack in the van so far?

That's a good question. It has to be the baked goods that the churches and the beautiful communities have been able to donate to us along our way. It's not just the snacks themselves, but the care that they're made with, and the generosity that people have shown us, that has definitely made them special to me.

Day 24: A Really Short One (Almost a Rest Day) - Newton, Iowa to Des Moines, Iowa

Des Moines is a big city!  I’m not sure we all quite realized that until we saw the skyline and the stadiums as we rolled over the hill into town.  We didn’t go through the middle at any point, but the area we were in had traffic and much to do and see on its own.  Sometimes, we feel like our stayovers and the surrounding neighborhoods are a kind of miniature world that exists only with us and everything else continues around as if we weren’t there.  Today kind of felt like that.

Ride Overview

Mileage: 39.5 miles

Elevation: +1,853 ft. / -1,827 ft.

Tales of the Trail

We had a little different routine to our morning today because of how we were having breakfast.  Just as last night we had dinner at the church and then biked just under a mile over to the YMCA to shower and sleep, we did the opposite after waking up.  Everyone made it out of the YMCA dressed and ready for the day, but we had our first “rest stop” just eight tenths of a mile into the ride.  Once again, we had some good food: biscuits and gravy.  There was a little concern it would put us asleep on our bikes as we rolled out, but we figured that for such a short day relative to our usual rides we could power through.

With only one rest stop en route to the stayover, everyone was anticipating a pretty easy stroll through the miles on our agenda.  In the end, the day was easy, but the miles were not.  The winds were quite strong and right at our face for a start.  Then, about half of our miles to that first rest stop at a Casey’s were on a road that was under construction and had just had its surface grinded.  We had headwinds and constant bone shaking vibrations going through our bicycle frames.  By the time those first 19 miles were up, we already felt like we had ridden 40, or maybe even 60.  The one saving grace was that the views were quite nice over the rolling cornfields.  

At the rest stop, we had a great combination of a Casey’s and a Dollar General right next door to each other to give everyone their choice for where to buy snacks and take a trip to the bathroom.  We gathered around the van before rolling off again to take a picture with our dedication to Lauri.  On the second half of the ride, we seemed to get to Des Moines pretty quickly now that one of our foes from the first half (the bumpy road) was gone.  The city, as we rode in, was looking really neat and we were excited to have some time to actually spend here.  We also celebrated about a mile before our stayover because there was a laundromat which meant the extra time in the afternoon could also be used to get all of our clothes clean.

Upon arrival, some of us went to a bike shop to figure out mechanical problems and get parts while others took advantage of the close laundromat or time to sleep.  A local gym (Anytime Fitness) allowed us to use their showers and most of the team enjoyed some pho for lunch.  Then, the reality set in that we were all tired again and we went to do some separate activities or go to sleep before dinner.

Speaking of dinner, last night in Newton, we had some pulled pork and cheesy potatoes. Well, today the meal was pulled pork and mac and cheese for dinner.  The Grace United Methodist Church where we were staying had a community dinner and we were allowed to join!  The food was great and definitely filled our stomachs.  

As the night arrived and the looming weather for tomorrow rolled in, the team spent time together inside before going to bed not quite knowing what the forecast would mean for tomorrow’s ride.

Day 23: Racing Through Iowa - Iowa City, Iowa to Newton, Iowa

Although the title of this post claims that we are “racing through Iowa” that is really more of a nod to the miles we are covering and not necessarily the speed or ease at which they are being covered.  We are realizing that the hills, folds, ripples, or whatever you would like to call the shapes of the land here are never ending.  This makes the riding more interesting and the state very pretty, but it does mean much more effort and a lot more gear shifting.  Today, we left our home at another university to get very near to Des Moines (coming tomorrow), but in a town that we are loving the hospitality in and, speaking of racing, which is right next to the Iowa Speedway.

Ride Overview

Mileage: 91.4 miles

Elevation: +3,543 ft. / -3,333 ft.

Ride Dedication: Poppy - A friend of Ren’s from Chicago who had osteosarcoma affecting her femur near her knee. She was an inspirational person to meet and hear a story from. We connected with her because she is in a very similar stage of life to us as a team.

Points of Interest: Iowa Speedway, Deep Rock Ice Cream (not open, but cool facade), rolling hills

Tales of the Trails

Today the team decided to try something new for our morning routine. The past few days we have had a little extra time getting ready everyday, so today the whole team decided to cut down our time to get ready by 15 minutes "unofficially." With everyone racing around to pack their bags, make and eat breakfast, and do many other miscellaneous things in only 1 hour the team managed to only be 5 minutes late to our morning circle. Which honestly is pretty good for our first attempt, so we will see if this continues in the future or if we will go back to our previous routine. 

Now finally getting into the ride, the team was sad to leave the university’s campus especially as we had gotten many ILL chants yesterday. The people so far, besides a couple angry drivers we soon forgot after they passed, have been quite hospitable and wonderful to talk to. As we rolled out today we almost instantly got onto a state highway. The team will definitely be getting used to state highways as these will be the roads we are on for at least the majority of Iowa and Nebraska, if not more states in the future as well. Despite it being the same road throughout the day it was far from straight and flat. Depending who on the team you ask, the rolling hills were either a very appreciated change of pace from the flat roads of Illinois or very annoying with not much in between. Our first two rest stops were on the side of the road and not very notable as we were just chugging along. 

I, Parker, was on a team going by the name of “Chain gang” today. It was quite aptly named as between the 4 of us in our group our chains either made noise, had trouble shifting, or dropped. After the first two rest stops the day they finally began to get interesting. The team is beginning to appreciate all the Casey’s gas stations in the midwest. I can’t really explain the feeling of seeing the van parked at Casey's in any other way than seeing the statue of liberty. No matter how bad we are feeling every time we see the gas station we know that it will be a good rest stop. What do we get there you might ask?  So far the slushies have by far been one of the teams go-to “snacks.” They are even free on Fridays! 

Honestly there is not a lot to say about the route today other than the beautiful landscape that was in our view for the entirety of the 90 miles. Despite being on one road getting a little boring we always love seeing all the cows and many other animals in the fields. The team was quite tired after a long day. We got to dinner a little later than we expected and arrived at 7. Luckily as we rolled into Our Savior Lutheran Church, they had already had dinner prepared and ready. We ate a wonderful meal of pulled pork, green beans, and cheesy potatoes. After dinner it was a little hectic as  the place the team was actually sleeping was a local YMCA. The group got on their bikes and made their way to the stayover. It was quite comical as since it was only a mile away most of the team decided to try and sprint after our support van to draft off of it. The team was able to all get showers and do laundry at the YMCA which we were all very appreciative of. We all went to bed looking forward to tomorrow as it is a much shorter day into Des Moines. 

Cyclists’ Corner

Rider: Ren Goodfriend

Interview Recorded on June 17th (Day 25)

Hi! The fans.

How are you feeling today?  How was today’s ride?

Today's ride was crazy. 
Feeling good. When I started, I felt when I was on the bike, I was just like “This is miserable. This is terrible. When can I get off?” Now it's less like that, and it's more just, I feel like I've accepted I'm gonna be here forever. 
I'm on a bike and it's like whatever. It's happening. It feels the same as just standing up. 
That's what I was telling my team today. It takes the same amount of effort to me now, which is nice. 

Today's ride, well, we started late because there was a thunderstorm in Des Moines that went until about 9 am. Then we left Des Moines and my team just ran into infinite issues along the way. First there was the mud because the trails were completely clogged with mud and my bike did not like that. 
I spent a long time getting dirt out of my bike. Then after that, after the rest stop, Anthony's bike fell or something, so his derailer hanger was messed up and he kept DIY bending it on the road. And then Sam got a flat tire. 
Sam's chain kept falling off and we had to stop every once in a while. 
We were like, “is there something wrong with your shifting?” We think it was just kind of bad luck because the limit screws were perfect. 
Eventually what happened is we got to the 3rd rest stop, and as we got to the 3rd rest stop, the 1st team had arrived at the stayover. We were like, “uh-oh.” It was 7:30 pm and Maaike said at 8: 30 pm, stop riding. 
We just made the decision to drive the last 20 miles, and it sucks. Honestly, I think we were in a bad mood about it, but I think the ride ended up being really fun. We played music very loudly [in the van], and now we're here and the stayover's quite nice. We've got showers we weren't expecting, so I'll take it. 
I think it seems really good.

Is there anything that you, personally, think, or hope, you will gain from the ride?

I mean, to be honest, as I go through the first few weeks, I was like, “I gotta get out of here. This is not working.” 
The fact that I've even just been able to go from not riding most of the time to being able to ride has been really nice. I haven't really had to sag at all since Champaign except for when I got super sick. Other than that, no mechanical issues or anything, which has been super great. Part of it is just that I want to see the percentage of days I ride go up linearly. 

I saw my aunt yesterday and it kind of reminded me that I should try to connect with my family if I can, wherever they are. I've got some in Japan, some here in the U.S. For the U.S., they're very far. There's one in Seattle and one in Florida, so literally the opposite corners of the country. I'm thinking I'll try to connect with them more and talk to my little sibling. Honestly, I know that a lot of people have a goal of something they want, but I prefer to just kind of see what happens and then be happy about it later because if I set a goal and I don't get it, I'll be upset. I would rather not say any goals and be like, “wow, I did so many great things,” you know?

How have you surprised yourself since New York City?

I think I've surprised myself physically for sure; especially with the asthma that I did not know I had until I signed up for the ride. When I went to my physical, they were like, “you have asthma.” After that, I was worried that most of the time I would just be sitting around. I feel like my asthma is more manageable on rest days now. I feel like a more normal person because I've been exercising my cardiovascular health so much. So that surprised me a lot. 

My hill climbing skills… very surprising to me. 
Even though I take them all really slow,  I get up all the hills now and I don't feel pain. It's just a thing that's harder, but it doesn't hurt. That's really cool to me! 


Also, I think socially and mentally… Going into the ride, I was like, “Uh-oh. Only 3 girls… A lot of these people have not been friends with many women in their lives. A lot of these people have very different backgrounds from me. 
What if I hate everyone?” Definitely earlier in the semester, I was like, “what if I really hate all these people?” I remember I was talking to Lauren the other day. 
It was in New York when we were hanging out and I was really scared that I wasn't gonna like her. I don't know, if I don't like any of these people, it's gonna be rough. 
I've surprised myself with my ability to adapt socially and talk to different people about different things and share experiences with people who I would have never thought to talk to otherwise. My friend group is pretty similar to me in a lot of ways, and this group of people, not very similar to me in a lot of ways. 
That is something that I hope to carry with me. Also, when I go back to university, because we have so much diversity on our campus. I would love to talk to some more people. 
That includes from different places and different age ranges. Ehsan is 30 and we're like besties and that's crazy to me! Then also, different backgrounds.

Where is your hometown?  If there was food from there you could have with you at every town during the ride, what would it be?

I'll just say the Chicago area. I was born in Chicago. We lived in Berwyn for a bit, which is just outside of Chicago. 
My mom lives in Oak Park now and my dad lives in the city. Pretty much I'm from Chicago. 

If I had to say the food that I wish I could eat every day, it was what I requested when I first got home. For context to the fans listening, the stayover in Chicago was my mom's house, which is in Oak Park. What I requested when I first got there was this pork soup. 
She calls it pork soup, but she makes it with chicken for me. We've just always called it pork soup, but it's like my favorite thing in the world. 
All the vegetables are soft and it's got protein, but it's also got potatoes, and it goes really easy in my stomach. If I could just eat that every single day instead of the pasta, that would be awesome! So it's my mom's food. 

How is the ride progressing for you?

Everything's getting easier every day. Everything's getting more fun! 
Also, the cause is really important and every day I realize that more and more our portrait today was really cool. She was so cool. I really liked the way that she told her story about all these different roles she's had with cancer. 
I think that was such a cool story because I feel like it showed us aspects of cancer we haven't seen. Most of the people we've talked to are survivors so far and it was really interesting to hear from someone who was like “I had to just watch my family wither away over and over.” 
That's something that's important to me. So I think more and more, the more portraits we do, the more I connect with them. I remember Tada's mom was a big one for me. 
Afterwards, I didn't know what to do. She really changed my perspective on everything and because of her, I think the ride has actually become a lot easier for me. Even just thinking, “I get to do this.” 
And even though it hurts sometimes, I get to experience this pain and I get to eat whatever I want, and I get to, you know, see all these things, I get to hurt in ways that she doesn't. You know what I mean? 
That really changed my perspective on things. 

What do you think your role for the team has become (regardless of what it started as or what chore you do)?

I've heard from a lot of people that I have a lot of energy and I'm very uplifting even when things get really rough. I'm always here to have fun, and I think that sometimes the fun rubs off on other people. 
So I think that's kind of my role. I play Ultimate Frisbee and on the team I’m known as the most fun teammate to have around. I'll always be there to be like, “You got this! Come on! We got this! You can do it! 
Don’t worry about it!”  I know Lauren has told me that that's really helped her. I know I've helped Aadit with that too. 
So just being able to, like, hype people up.

What has your favorite snack in the van been so far?

I really like those Ritz Bits. Like the little ones that Randy gave us. They're like little crackers with the cheese in the middle. And the Yoggies are fine. 
They weren't as good as the Ritz Bits, though. I think I ate the last ones today, and I always just pack them in my bag. 
They're also really easy because they're not like chips which if you put them in your jersey will just fall apart, but they taste like chips. They're small and you can just eat them. 
Those have been my favorite things. Even though they have cheese and I'm lactose intolerant and I probably shouldn't be eating them. They're my favorite van snack.

Day 22: Into the Folds of Iowa - Davenport, Iowa to Iowa City, Iowa

Some of our lovely temperatures from early on the ride on the East Coast returned and we had a day with a high temperature of 70°F in Iowa.  We continued to ride almost directly West and at the end of the day made a visit to our friends (or foes depending on the most recent sports game) at the University of Iowa.  As you will see, the shorter mileage made for a good afternoon to explore a bit of the campus town and have a bit of recovery after 97 miles yesterday and another 80 or so tomorrow.

Ride Overview

Mileage: 61.5 miles

Elevation: 1,867 ft.

Points of Interest: University of Iowa, Quad Cities, Cornfields, Jeff’s Market x2

Tales of the Trail

A Sunday on the road and leaving from a church meant we had some onlookers while we were getting ready in the parking lot with curiosity and smiles once they figured out why we were there.  Davenport was a bigger town than I had originally thought, and so it took us a few miles to really make it out to the road we spent most of our time on today.  There was a road closure just before and we thought it may be another day defecting from the route, but instead we just made a right and left instead of staying straight and connected right to where we were supposed to be.  At least, most of us did.  The conversation of the day was centered around one of the ride groups who took two rights and went the wrong way for a few miles.  I’ll spare them the embarrassment of sharing the names here, but they know who they are.  This left the two forward teams on the road anywhere between 30 minutes and 90 minutes ahead at any given point throughout the day, a nightmare for coordinating forward progress.  When all was said and done, the teams took their own breaks to allow for more time, but it was hilarious to look back and see one team at the last rest stop when the next two were at the next one.

Although Cole had good intentions while writing this to not ‘out’ the culprits of the accidental detour, I am volunteering myself, (Parker), as one of the culprits. While I can attest that at any given moment we were at least an hour behind the other teams, our group did not let our mishap of the first part of the route keep us from having the most amazing day of biking. Our team name today was team vibes, and I would say that is pretty evident in the day that we had. I would just like to tell a “short” tale of our side of the story for the day, although I will let Cole fill you in on the two other groups. After gaining about 5 extra miles we finally got back on the route. With these extra time gained from our wrong turns, by the time we hit the first rest stop our group was starving. In a short-lived attempt to try and catch back up to the other teams we tried to keep the first rest stop relatively quick. Our efforts to catch the other teams were long forgotten however as 6 miles down the road we saw a diner and decided to stop for lunch. As you can imagine it is quite a sight for four college aged kids in biking jerseys and bibs to waltz into a diner in a small town of maybe 1000 with their bike helmets still on. As the restaurant was full, but relatively smaller this led to us having a conversation with the whole restaurant! We kept getting questions from different tables all over the room and it was wonderful to share our story. We even got a few in person donations! When we finished eating we called the van to see how far behind we were and as it turned out both of the other teams were waiting at the second rest stop and we were 15 miles behind. The rest of the day we tried our best to be efficient on the bike so as not to get further from the other groups, but this again did not last long. Our last shenanigan of today was stopping on the side of the road when we saw two cows, an emu, and miniature goats. The two lessons I learned from all this are: enjoying the ride is sometimes more important than just “getting it over with”, and sometimes it's better to pull off and double check the route. If I could go back in time and do it again I would still choose to be on team vibes, even if we were not always on the right path. 

Our first rest stop was in the town of Durant, Iowa at the sight of the first Jeff’s Market on the road.  We found out there was a second when looking at the location of the last team and figuring out where they were.  Seeing Jeff's made it feel like they were back where we had left them, but instead it was one town over in Wilton, Iowa where another Jeff’s existed.  Who knew Jeff had two stores?  More snacks had been donated from the community in Davenport and at this point it feels like we are trying to eat our way through the drawer and boxes in the van packed with snacks.  This is a good problem to have!  

In case they weren’t mentioned already, the winds through the Midwest are going to be a big part of the conversation each day.  A headwind or crosswind can make the miles on the road a real struggle and no wind or a tailwind can make for an awesome day that feels like we are flying.  Today was one of the former: a crosswind.  The crosswind today was particularly tough because of how strong it was.  Drafting only really worked when right beside the rider in front and any time we fell into a straight line, those not at the front were reminded just how hard the leader was working to pull the rest of the group through the wind.  The only way to be saved is to find some trees or occasionally a hill that blocks the wind just right.  Everyone was thankful for those who sacrificed their legs to get us through.

A quick and relatively unremarkable second rest stop by the side of the road propelled us from mile 40 to Iowa City at mile 60.  While waiting for the last team and to pull up to the stayover together, two teams decided to go for lunch.  Cole and Nishk went to get shawarma, Anthony and Aadit got some ramen, and Maaike, Lauren, and Sam stopped to get some classic American food.  The first 4 went to eat outside the Old Capitol and then made the mistake of going to the stayover from a year ago.  Not before getting a picture! When the last team finally rolled in they decided to go to Pop’s BBQ for dinner.

After the relatively shorter 61.5-mile day, we arrived and moved into the stayover in Iowa City around 3:30 pm and then took some showers and went out to explore.  We got more food, shopped, drank bubble tea, and worked on anything we needed some additional hours to catch up on (the journals for Parker and I!)  We had known about our host from stories of the night before with Oliver, a child who unfortunately passed within the last year whose mother we had a conversation with the night before.  The Father had been helpful in providing support through that family’s journey and now is helping us just the same. 

Tomorrow will be another longer day, but if we make it through, we have our eyes set on a sub-40-mile ride into Des Moines just the day following.

Cyclists Corner

Rider: Anthony Salemi

How are you feeling today? 

I'm okay. I'm hungry and I feel like today everyone was a little bit on everyone's nerves. 
That's okay, and I think we got over it. 

And how was today's ride? 


I thought it was fine. There were headwinds. 
I will state that for the record. It was pretty windy, but if you're in the draft, it's pretty fine. So, taking turns pulling was... good. 


Is there anything that you personally think or hope you will gain for yourself from the ride? 


I have a few: for one, massive quads. Okay, okay. Not really. 
I don't think my legs will get much bigger from where they are now because it's a marathon, not a sprint. But really, I think it's a big mental challenge, and I think some things will just be easier after the ride having done something where you just bike all day staring at nothing for 77 days.  You know, your mind will get stronger. 
So I think that'll happen. Also, I think, similar is the Portraits Project. I think hearing all these different voices and seeing all these different people and hearing their stories I think will also be very mind strengthening to me and give me kind of a different perspective on the world and be able to carry myself a little bit better. 
Especially as we get out West. This is the farthest West I've ever been, other than Houston, but that's not really West. And right now, we're in Iowa. 
Getting further West and hearing from those different people as opposed to people on the East Coast or the Midwest that I've had more experience with in my life. 

How have you surprised yourself since New York City? 


I feel like things have kind of gone as I expected for myself personally. 
I think what's surprised me the most is the people on the team.


Where is your hometown? If there was any food from your hometown that you could have with you at every stop along the ride, what would it be? 

My hometown; I grew up in Tacoma Park, Maryland, which is a suburb just North of D.C. It's in Maryland, but the D.C. border is like it's right along the DC border. Something I always cook is a smoothie. That's what I would want to have every day. In normal life, I have a smoothie almost every single day that I put yogurt and frozen fruit in, then blend it. 
I wish I had that every day at a stayover. So you can see me sometimes buy smoothies at rest stops from a grocery store. That's what I'm trying to emulate. 



What do you think that your role for the team has become (regardless of what it started as or what chore you do)? 

I became the route master for the team. I think people ask me about the route, and I think if there are changes on the fly that need to be made, even though I don't feel prepared to do that as the route master, I think that's something that, when we had to reroute I figured it out because I'm the route master.  People ask me questions all the time about the route, which I don't always love answering, but they do ask me. So, yeah, and outside of the prescribed role, I think that from being one of the people who biked a lot before this, I think some people ask me questions about stuff, and how to do things during when we're riding together because of that. 
I think that's kind of a role I have as well. 

What has your favorite snack in the van been so far? 


I like the Twizzlers. They're just, like, pure sugar. We got some on sale. I did the calculations. It was 200 grams of carbs per dollar. Which is, um, I think that's good. 
It was better than gummy bears, and gummy worms, and several other candies at the Walmart at the time. So, yeah, the carbs to price ratio, that was just very good. I like being able to grab, like, five at once, and just taking a chunk. 
I like the Twizzlers. I miss the Twizzlers. I like to eat pure sugar while I'm biking and I don't want anything else. 
I just want pure sugar.

Day 21: Crossing the Mississippi - Rochelle, Illinois to Davenport, Iowa

Today was our longest since that amazing, but fatiguing, day out of Columbus.  97 miles!  We were somewhat considering riding an extra 3 just to make it a full century, but after climbing (once again!) to the top of a town for the stayover, everyone thought that saving their legs for the still long journey ahead would be the best decision.  We still have 6 days straight of riding before our next rest day, so conserving wherever possible will be critical.  The day had a classic array of rest stops and fun along the road, although not as much side questing as yesterday, and we got to see what must be the world’s largest penny farthing.

Ride Overview

Mileage: 97.1 miles

Elevation: 1,919 ft.

Points of Interest: Nachusa Grasslands, Cherry Flamingo Ice Cream, Penny Farthing Statue, Mississippi River, Festival with Music in Davenport

Tales of the Trail

We have been having some beautiful mornings to start riding in and today was no exception.  Beautiful bluebird skies and temperatures suited for riding were upon us.  That made for a good time packing the van and getting onto the road in the morning.  Aadit was driving today and he made the first interesting stop along the way with Sam.  Those two found a train car and with Aadit being the resident enthusiast of trains, the urge to stop with time in hand must have been too much.  Look at him though!

The first rest stop was at a nature preserve called the Nachusa Grasslands where we were able to take some pretty impressive photos, ride a little down the grassy trails, and fill up our water jugs for the day.The last of those was fun because we had a proper well to pump.  Vedang was getting in his upper body workout for the day and helping the rest of us quench our thirst.

We continued riding through the Northwest of Illinois and finding small towns that would pop up out of nowhere along with the never ending fields to stare across.  There were bridges, and farmers, and flats, not too much of a headwind, but just enough to keep us awake and pushing those pedals, and pretty long stretches of road to talk and play games.

Later in the day, the crosswinds picked up and any sight of a road that had tree-lined lengths was welcome.  A slog through 19 miles of these conditions made way for a happy entrance into the third rest stop.  We finally turned off of the main road we had been on for miles and towards a more winding road with a couple of houses… and trees!  The crosswinds subsided a bit and we pulled out the PB&Js for lunch.  The mood was also improved knowing that our next stop was going to be an ice cream shop.

That last point was all we could focus on the rest of our time on the road.  When would we get ice cream?  The when was all dependent on our riding, but the where was right next to the Mississippi River, on the Illinois side, at a place called Cherry Flamingo.  We needed the calories and the sugar and this was the perfect way to start winding down the ride for the day.  The owner also showed us over to amassive penny farthing rider statue near the bike path and took a picture for us.

Soon enough, we were crossing the Mississippi into Iowa and getting very close to Davenport.  We found a festival to stop at for a couple of live song performances before climbing to the top of the town, as always towards our stay at Sacred Heart Cathedral.  Tonight, we had tortilla chips and taco fixings for dinner prepared by the church and before bed had the chance to hear a very special story.

Oliver, a young boy no longer with us, had a spinal cord cancer that spread and was impossible to cure.  He passed away just last November and we heard his story and the story of his family from his mother.  We were amazed at the response by loved ones, medical professionals, and community members that were involved in Oliver’s treatment.  The strength of those fighting through cancer and those aiding them is immeasurable.  Tomorrow, we will ride for Oliver.

Cyclists Corner

Rider: Ehsan Homaee

What was your favorite part of today's ride?

So the last stretch was beside the river, and it was great, very scenic.  We had forests on your right side and rivers on your left side. It was very scenic, and I really enjoyed that stretch. 

What motivated you to join Illini 4000?

Multiple reasons. First, I like biking, and I like to challenge myself both mentally and physically. Man, this is like a great way to challenge myself, I and also the cancer side was also very important for me. I lost my grandparents, my cousins, my close friend because of cancer, and I wanted to do something in memory of them. The portraits project is also another thing that kind of resonates with me during the trip. Whenever I'm listening to other people's stories about like how they deal with the cancer themselves or in their family it's interesting to listen to other people's history,

Before Illini 4000 how much bike training did you have, or did you have any other athletic background that helped for the ride?

I used to go mountaineering, hiking, and camping stuff a lot Biking, I was not a professional cyclist. I just used my bike for commuting between my hometown, my work, and sometimes just for fun. Maybe 20 miles or 30 miles, so yeah, not a big cyclist like some other people in the group.

What is your bike's name and the model of the bike?

Okay, so my bike model is a trek domane, and its name is Sarv. It means Cypress. Sarv is the first name, and Cypress is like its translation in English. I chose this name because it's green and it's very tall compared to other bikes. I spend most of my time these days with my bike.

What are you most nervous and excited about for the trip?

I'm excited for the west part of the country, especially Colorado, Oregon, and California. I’m also waiting for the feeling of when I'm passing the Golden Gate Bridge. I think it would be a great achievement and feeling inside myself. I am nervous about how hard it is to keep up with everything. Starting from the morning that you need to pack everything in 15 minutes to the late night that you have to do everything before lights out. Yeah still I'm kind of having troubles to meet all of those like deadlines or not deadlines and expectations 

Anything else you would like to talk about?

Illini 4000 is like a great way to challenge yourself mentally and physically. Yeah, it is maybe the best way to spend your summer, so I hope this organization will last forever in the university. Hopefully every year students come and join this and enjoy a wonderful summer, which is a life changing experience.

Do you prefer creamy or crunchy peanut butter?

So, if you asked this question two weeks ago, I would say crunchy, but right now I probably prefer creamy. I think, yeah, everything is like a lot of things are changing in my life and in my mind right now, and this is one of the things that changed so yeah right now I prefer creamy. Maybe like in next two weeks again my opinion will change.

Day 20: Sidequesting! (verb: a break a long bike ride into shorter and fun bursts) - Oak Park, Illinois to Rochelle, Illinois

After the crazy storms last night, the team was slightly fearful of what the weather might have in store for us, but we awoke to the sun shining as bright as usual. We have been very lucky with some amazing weather so far (I just knocked on wood as I wrote this), besides some headwinds here and there. Before getting into all the escapades and adventures of the day, which, believe me there definitely was a lot, we would just like to thank our teammate Ren and her family for hosting us these past few days. All this fun we are having would not have been possible without them. 

Ride Overview

Mileage: 82.8 miles

Elevation: 1,663 ft.

Tales of the Trail

During our morning preparations today, someone proposed a challenge of everyone doing two sidequests during the bike ride today. (photo evidence required) The ride today started with a short 1-mile bike ride to the park, where we planned to meet the alumni for the first stretch of the ride. However, as we went to roll out, one of the bikes got two flat tires that had to be fixed before we could head out. Today, we added two (temporary) honorary Illini4000 members to our squad: Ren’s dad and Sam Michalak. (a 2023 alum!) With our new additions to the team, the first 20 miles flew by as we were mainly on bike paths.  

After 20 miles, we said goodbye to Sam M., and Ren's dad stayed with us all the way until mile 20! Honestly, outside of regaling the tales of our first 20 days to the alumni and family, the first 40 miles were quite uneventful. Even though after our second rest stop, we were already halfway through the biking of the day, this is where the day honestly really started. By this time, all the teams on the road realized that if they were going to get their two side quests in, it would have to be soon. This was quite a coincidence, though because around this time is when my team rolled past our first side quest, which honestly was 3 wrapped into 1. First, we rode our bikes in a skate park, which was a ton of fun. The very steep curves and ramps were slightly scary, but we all made it out unscathed. Then we climbed up a thing that cannot be described as anything but a “climbing pyramid.” Anthony even took his bike all the way to the 20-foot peak! Keeping Cole and my tradition from earlier in the ride, our group then went to take a picture with a Caboose. Another team went to a gift shop and a cool soda store. It was the perfect stop to get in our necessary two side quests of the day.

Just as we thought the day couldn’t get any better, we got a surprise mandatory side quest from none other than Cole (driving the van today.) As we were about 2 miles out from our planned rest stop, a random walgreens, we saw him waving us down on the side of the road. At first we were surprised our rest stop came so quickly, but then we looked to our right and realized our day would now consist of a lot more fun. While van driving, Cole found an amazing substitute for our rest stop at a driving range. The owner was even nice enough to donate two buckets of balls for our team to use for free! Our sidequest was not so simple as just hitting balls at the driving range however. Cole proposed a challenge for us: a two-hit competition, one being who could hit the ball the furthest, while the other being whoever could get the ball closest to a specific flag. (about 25 yds out) This was a very fun way to break up our day and to take our minds off the biking. It was evident from some of our golf swings that a few of us had definitely played golf before, had never touched a club, or had played another sport. It was fun to see those who had played cricket in the past and tried to swing it like a cricket bat, others who tried to swing with enough power to hit it to the moon, and even created new never-before-seen golf swings. 

After we rolled out from the last rest stop we had planned on keeping a nice comfortable pace for the last 20 miles. Since we just had a rest day our plan originally was to try and preserve our fresh legs as long as possible. This plan soon went out the window. About 5 miles into the last stretch my group was in the “lead”, but got overtaken by group number 2 at a blazing pace. Now if you know anything about Illini 4000 then you know that racing, going fast, or getting anywhere first is never our goal. However one thing that is true about all of us riders is that we never back down from a challenge. Without even talking about it the front two teams mutually agreed on racing to the finish. Was this the best idea for our fresh legs? No. But, was it some of the most fun we’ve had on the ride so far? A resounding yes. So with about 12 miles to go my team fell into a line and took turns pulling into a tough headwind. After slowly inching up on the team that had passed us earlier we did end up passing them about 4 miles later. This was about the time the other group realized the race was on. We began flying down the road as fast as we could, and no matter what the other team was still within eyesight every time we looked back. It was a tight race until the end and we ended up finishing within minutes of each other. I am 100% that this will be a legendary story that will be told for years to come. (Probably exaggerating our speed a little more every time, although while biking it did feel as if we were in the Tour de France) Although I suppose it is more like the Tour de Illinois.

Today was overall a very fun day full of random adventures you couldn’t find anywhere else besides biking across the country. After hearing plenty of fun stories from alumni that we’ve met, our team was slightly worried about doing enough side quests or fun things off the bike. I think after today, however, we have plenty of stories of our own to share and are very eager to experience more of what the ride has to offer.

Cyclists Corner

Rider: Tada Wagner

How are you feeling today?

I was really tired, and I'm still pretty tired right now, but I feel pretty good overall. Yeah, I'm very happy.

What was your favorite part of today's ride?

Honestly, the race was really fun. The end part where we were the first and they caught up to us and passed us, and then we passed them again, so that was really fun. Everyone had very high competitive spirits, so that was very entertaining and fun. That was definitely the highlight of the day for me.

What motivated you to join Illini 4000? 

The reason I joined Illini 4000 I mean, I obviously love cycling. Cycling is a big part of my life, but obviously the cancer aspect and the portraits project was a really big draw to me, obviously, since my mom has cancer. I joined so I was kind of more able to talk about it, like cancer as a whole, and I never really talked about it with my family or my mom. So being part of this organization has definitely helped me kind of open up and be a little bit more vulnerable around this topic, because, you know, it's, you know, it's a hard thing to go through, and a lot of people kind of just tend to push it away and try to deal with it later. That's not good, because you know that compounds, and yeah, so that was one reason. Another reason I joined was I wanted something that would give me structure and routine, and Illini 4000 does that, like we wake up at the same time, go to sleep at the same time, we eat the same thing, so that was also a draw to me. 

Before joining Illini 4000 how much bike biking have you done, or did you have any other athletic background that you thought helped for the ride? 

I used to do cross country and track, so that definitely helps, and I've been riding with Illini cycling for the last year. That is about the extent of my athletic experience before Illini 4000 so I think that definitely prepared me pretty well for the trip. 

What is your bike's name and the model of your bike?

My bike's name is Kelsey, and it's named after my girlfriend, and the model of my bike is a Lightspeed Ultimate. The old one is Klein Quantum, also named Kelsey, after my girlfriend. (Extra input from the journalists: Tada’s old bike was awesome, but as it is a vintage bike it did not quite happen to have the gearing necessary for the hills we will be climbing out west, so he got a new bike. Although I am sure his old Klein will see many more miles once we get back to the flat roads of Illinois in the fall.)

What are you most nervous and or excited about for the trip?

What am I the most nervous about? I mean, going in definitely was like just living with 13 of the same people for the entire summer.  I'm not a very overly social person. I tend to stay by myself a lot, so being with the same people all the time and having to socialize with different people all the time was definitely a very hard thing at first, and something I had to get used to. Definitely something I was nervous about. It was  definitely good, because I got, you know, out of my comfort zone. But something I'm really excited for about this ride is I think every day I'm excited just like meeting new people and seeing new things. I mean, I know Illinois and Iowa are probably not gonna be very interesting, and Nebraska isn't either. I think just seeing new faces and people I've never met, and hearing so many different perspectives of different people that I would have never had the opportunity to talk to or see.  I think that's like the main thing that has really brought me a lot of joy about, like, through this trip.

And then any words of wisdom to the world? Anything you want to talk about?

I guess just kind of like, you know, if you feel like you want to do something, just do it. When I had heard about Illini 4000, I definitely was drawn toward the organization, but then I was like, "Oh, this is a three-month commitment. I don't know if I'm actually really going to do that, and I don't know if I really want to. I'm the type of person who really is ambitious, but tends not to follow through in a lot of things, because I get really nervous. I like to stay in my comfort zone. So, break out of your comfort zone, do what makes you happy. You know, you got to just, you know, you just got to do things. You have to experience life, can’t hold yourself back.

Day 18: Ride to Ren’s (not Randy’s this time) and Day 19: Rest Day in Chicago - Kankakee, Illinois to Chicago, Illinois

Alumni reunion on Day 19! Certainly a highlight of our time in Chicago.

Day 18

Riding to a familiar place is always fun because you get to slowly figure out where you are until it is all pieced together and everything looks familiar.  With Ren and Tada today, that was certainly the case!  Once we were within 10 miles of our finish line, those two were sprinting down the roads and riding like they knew the place… because they did!  Just like yesterday, the winds were at our back as if the world was telling us to keep going North.  We had fun along the way, learned of new trails, and tried to stay cool where we could from the almost 90°F heat.

Ride Overview

Mileage: 74.8 miles

Elevation: 735 ft.

Points of Interest: Manhattan Water Tower, Chicago Canal, Dunkin’ Donuts, Oak Park, Ren’s Home, Massive Thunderstorm (not a point of interest, but definitely an interesting sight!)

Tales of the Trail

Bagels, egg casseroles, and fruit were all on the table as we woke up from our slumber at the Adventure Church in Kankakee.  They were making this such a tough place to leave because we had so much fun and incredibly welcoming hosts.  As we started the day before though, there was still a mission: get to Chicago.  Albeit begrudgingly, the team packed up their things into the van once more and talked over the ride for the day.  After the games played their role yesterday in making the miles move by faster than they otherwise would, Kev suggested in the morning that we take each leg of the ride today to discuss with another rider their life story and ask any questions we wish (answers optional, of course).  As we rolled out, spirits were lifted by the thoughts of another rest day approaching so soon.

The road was flat, as is most of Illinois, and we were able to avoid a lot of traffic through the first 20 miles, but there was about a 1-mile stretch right before the rest stop that was a little scary.  A heavier trafficked thru-road makes for a good test for communication amongst us as riders.  No one is ever alone and we are conquering any obstacles together, as a team.  Everyone talked with each other before turning onto the road and made sure that callouts for cars back and changes in the road were heard loud and clear.  We all made it through happy and well, but not wanting to go on more roads like this unless we have to.  At the first rest stop, we continued eating snacks from Randy and enjoyed some time taking micro-naps and laying down in a nice patch of grass near a church.  Today, there was also a sort of rest stop 1.1 when two of the teams independently decided to stop at a gas station up the road and found each other when they pulled into the lot.  

After cooling down, the teams that stopped rolled back onto the flat roads and started seeing signs that we were approaching Chicago: more suburban neighborhoods and houses, the last few stops on the Metra, and a few more cars with the White Sox or Cubs logos on them.  By the second rest stop, we were really getting close.  At that point, we were in Joliet and some of the roads to the locals were becoming familiar.  So much for adventuring, we were now arriving back to home territory.  Parker joined back in on the ride on Nishk’s bike during the day after waiting on his to be serviced back in Champaign.

The other evident sign of a larger metropolis is bike path infrastructure.  Not too long after Joliet, we switched from country roads to paths and were moving along a canal towards Chicago.  We found locks, shade, and some massive construction projects along the trails and wondered if we would ever see the city skyline.  The temperature on the day also kept increasing and water was running short in our bottles.  Luckily, thoughts of rest stop number three on the day were at the front of our heads because we knew there would be food, both in the van and the Dunkin’ Donuts attached to the gas station.  

That ended up being the perfect combination.  The gas station had super cold air conditioning, plenty of sugar to satisfy our bodies’ needs for quick energy, and enough interesting items to take a look at to distract our brains from the fact that we still had 17 or 18 miles to go in the day.  Only 15 of those really felt like they mattered.  They were tough, but the last 3 were well within the realm of knowledge for the Chicago kids and Ren led the way back to her house, even detouring where she knew a more pleasant route.  Arriving in Oak Park, we were greeted by Ren’s sibling and mother who had already been so kind as to offer a place for us to stay and were still being more helpful in finding spots for our bikes and belongings.  At this point, the rest day kind of began because different team members headed off to their own respective stays whether that was with family, friends, or each other.  Tada and Aadit were brave to try to bike where they were going but encountered the wild thunderstorm hitting the area on the way.  Tada dove into a car dealership for some shelter and Aadit, thinking he was safe on the Green Line, ended up having to get off and bike some more in the rain when that train shut down because of the weather.  Tough luck!  We are hoping the rest day tomorrow brings what is in the name “rest” and looking forward to the alumni reunion in the evening.

Day 19

The morning of our day of rest, we woke up across the city.  Those in Ren’s house had a new friend making them get up… a cat!  Elsewhere, friends and family woke up together with some being the first time seeing each other in a while.  As was the case in Champaign, a lot of activities were much more individual, but a couple of groups did get out and about.  Cole, Nishk, and Vedang woke up late and went to a bike shop for some parts.  They followed this with some tacos and another bike shop.  Parker, Ren, and Sam went to get lunch together and stopped at a gift shop where Sam got a neon train for Aadit (train enthusiast) and Parker got a hackeysack.  Max spent some of the day with friends at the beach.  Soon enough, it was time for full group activities once more.

Pushing a little earlier due to impending weather, the annual alumni reunion was hosted at Taylor Park and the current team was able to meet with past teams and riders and even some of the members that were with them training through the year, notably Andres for the latter.  Additionally, many family members joined to say hello and were so gracious as to bring food with them to continue to fill our stomachs and increase the stockpile of snacks in the van.  Previous members included riders from teams across the spectrum of the 19 years that Illini 4000 has existed and done a cross-country bike ride.  John Schlesinger, co-founder of Illini 4000, was there to show us where we can make it in life and bestow some wisdom that only an original rider would have.  Food and stories were shared as the late afternoon turned into the evening.  Some of the team went off to speak with a local about her cancer journey and when the rain was imminent, the party wound to a close.  Although the guests left mostly dry, the same could not be said for the team.  We ran with food from the reunion back to the van amidst pouring rain and a tornado siren starting.  

Everyone traveled back to Ren’s house where we were also able to invite Tada’s mother and speak about her ongoing cancer journey.  This was particularly emotional because she has one of the closest affiliations to the team as anyone we have spoken with.  Also, Tada’s mother had a way with words and spoke so fondly of her children that many of us were shedding tears or a bit lost for words.  Soon enough, it was again time to sleep and dream of the days we have ahead.

Day 16: Rest Day and Day 17: Leaving One Home and Racing Towards Another - Champaign, Illinois to Kankakee, Illinois

Day 16

The rest day in Champaign was truly a day filled with relaxation and writing a separate journal for what happened would have given you only just a few words.  Instead, we decided to combine this Champaign day with our rolling out of town too.  

After a night of spending time and socializing with the team and friends of the team, riders went various directions for where they would spend the night, whether that be at Maaike’s house, at their own apartments, or with family and friends nearby.  This split many of us into our own groups for the rest day and many of the stories to share would be as simple as sleeping, packing, moving out, or talking with friends we haven’t seen in some time.  There was one set of us who did get up to some fun together: Parker, Nishk, and Vedang.  These three went bowling, had lunch, and would later meet up with Max to do some bike bathing as you can see in the pictures below.

This type of day almost completely away from the mission at hand is necessary once in a while and you will see from what transpired during the ride that it was indeed a tremendous help.

Day 17

We are not sore! At least mostly not sore and that makes a huge difference. The team biked and walked back onto campus to arrive for the roll out at Allen Hall (our traditional spot for training ride starts). Being well fed and rested was a huge victory because I certainly felt that the 134-mile day was still taking a toll on my body even three days later. There had been no time for recovery and now we had it, in Champaign no less! Being back at the place where this all began and that means so much to all of us was special and a welcome sight when we rolled in two days ago. 

Ride Overview

Mileage: 83.4 miles

Elevation: 864 ft.

Tales of the Trail

Rolling out of Champaign this morning was a special experience because it marked, once again on this trip, leaving school for the Summer and adventuring into unfamiliar territory.  We waved goodbye to campus and the buildings we have become so accustomed to seeing in our views everyday and ventured out into the unknown… actually, just cornfields.

We added Kev Murphy, 2024 rider and Illini 4000 co-president, to our group this morning. Maaike was so excited to have Kev in her group because the two of them rode together in 2024. Kev even added our first rest stop of the day. Moving North into Rantoul, we stopped at Ott’s diner for a bite to eat.  This was one of those places where sometimes we may have said, “let’s just grab something quick and leave,” but instead look at the menu and decide with our stomachs it will be a longer pause in the ride.  Some of the streets on the way were closing for a vintage car show coming to town. Although it was a little early to see much, we spotted an El Camino, F-100, Malibu, and Camaro among others. It’s always nice to see something to take your eyes away from staring at the tire in front of you or the monotonous road out in the distance.  

In between the bookend first and third rest stops, the ride was almost entirely on Route 45 through Illinois and with a strong tailwind.  We were being blown closer and closer to Chicago as if the world wanted us to get there!  When the novelty of averaging somewhere around 17 mph wore off, teams on the road resorted to games to play in order to keep their minds off of the repetitive road and landscape for miles upon miles.  Whether it was a quiz, or a guessing game, or a tale of life stories, our teammates knew how to keep us occupied and that was totally worth it.  If a typical distance between rest stops is 20 miles, playing something and talking along the way makes it feel like that next stop just moved 15 miles closer.  The sun was out, the day was lovely, and spirits were all pretty high.

At our last rest stop of the day, we had plenty of ways to cool down from the heat.  For one, the gas station we had pulled off at had some incredible air conditioning.  Also, the clouds decided to drop some rain right on our heads.  It didn’t last long which meant that nothing got really soaked through, but it was enough to get us damp and felt amazing once we were rolling and the wind was evaporating the water off of our clothes.  That has to be one of the best feelings on a bike because even running doesn’t quite give the same feeling as gliding and being cooled by your movement.  The small reprieve is what really powered us through mentally until we made it to our final destination in Kankakee.

Speaking of that final destination, have you ever heard of an Adventure Church?  Well Kankakee has one and this is where we had been able to find a place to spend the night.  With all kinds of sports courts, a mini-golf course, and a great room for us to set up sleeping bags, this was another welcoming and very fun stayover we have had.  Before bedtime and writing this journal, the team played basketball, football, soccer, and 9-holes of mini-golf.  The scores for the mini-golf were announced at dinner and Parker, with a remarkable 2-under par, took home the victory!  Our legs may have taken on more fatigue from all of our playing here than they did during the ride today with such favorable winds.  I guess we will find out over the next couple of days.

Day 15: Enter Champaign - Home Sweet Home - Rockville, Indiana to Champaign, Illinois

It is very exciting and refreshing to be back! The team has been looking forward to coming back to Champaign for a few days now. Looking back on the place where we had all of our meetings and training rides it feels quite surreal to be biking back to our campus. 

Ride Overview

Mileage: 76.7 miles

Elevation: 1,324 ft.

Tales of the Trail

Ride Dedication: Holly Bledsoe

Parker and his mother Holly who we all ride for at center surrounded by the team. (Photo: Fred Zwicky)

After our stay at Randy’s we started off the morning with a giant wonderful breakfast provided by Randy and his family/friends. After filling ourselves with a nourishing feast for breakfast we (sadly) had to say goodbye to Randy and make sure to get a picture with him and the full team before we rolled out. Considering the tough headwinds of previous days, we were glad to have relatively favorable conditions. 

The ride went by quite quickly as it was so incredibly flat and the team was just looking forward to getting to Champaign. Even so much so that we had to take longer rest stops in order to not make it to Meadowbrook Park too early. In this time though the team definitely made the most of their time. Whether taking a nap on the ground, recording tiktoks, or chatting we definitely made the most of our rest stops today. With probably less than 1,000 feet of elevation and without the headwinds of the previous days the team felt like we were flying. 

The first few two rest stops were on the side of the road and not super memorable. We definitely didn’t need any food from gas stations as we had plenty of food from our goodie bags from Randy yesterday!

As the team rolled into Homer lake the memories came flooding back: our numerous training rides and paddling with the Prairie Dragon Paddlers. At Homer Lake we met up with a photographer from the University of Illinois, the great Fred Zwicky, that would get some very official and professional photos of us. Also at Homer Lake we were met by Tada, a rider who had left briefly to get a new bike, but is now back and better than ever. 

As the team rolled out from Homer Lake on our way to campus you could feel the excitement mounting. Everyone was looking forward to meeting their friends, family, and others on campus. When we rolled into Meadowbrook Park we were met by numerous friends, family, fresh popsicles (shoutout to popcycle), and even Illini 4000 alumni who were there to welcome us home and bike with us to the quad to finish off our day of biking. With many hugs shared, popsicles eaten, and pictures taken, the team (and friends) rolled out towards the quad. With bikes ranging from road bikes to mountain bikes, (having a kickstand on a bike is now quite a foreign concept for us) we started our 3-mile bike to finish off the day. As we all biked into the quad and got greeted by our family we had only one thing left to do, a victory lap! Everyone on the team did an easy fun lap around the quad in celebration of making it back to campus. After this lap a little chaos broke out as the team decided to do a 2nd lap and have a sprint race around the quad. With a few close calls around very tight corners we finally finished up our fun and got back to our family and friends. 

This is a very special day to the team as we biked into champaign, but especially for me. (Parker) This past December my mom got diagnosed with Stage III Breast Cancer and started doing chemo at the same time that I started fundraising and training for Illini 4000. This made the cause all that more special for me and I am riding in honor of her this year. Today, the whole team and I got to meet her as we rolled into the quad. Today we dedicated the ride for her, so it was overall a very special day for me. 

Although the team was very eager to go their separate ways, we had to get a few team pictures first then the team mostly dispersed on their own. Most of the team, after getting a much needed shower, met back up and got dinner at Maaike’s house as her parents graciously made the whole team a wonderful dinner. With all of our legs being very tired from the previous days of biking we decided to end the night with a more intellectual challenge: Murphy’s trivia. Even though we could only make teams of 6 we had enough alumni and friends show up that we were able to make three teams. Although I knew the answers to almost none of the questions it was awesome to just be able to celebrate and hangout with everyone. You will be proud though as both of your journalists, Parker and Cole, were on the team who won the entirety of Murphy’s trivia tonight. (Mostly thanks to Cole, Maaike, and our other teammates), but either way it was an amazing night.

(Photo: Fred Zwicky)

(Photo: Fred Zwicky)

(Photo: Fred Zwicky)

Day 14: Ride to Randy’s! - Indianapolis, Indiana to Rockville, Indiana

Today was a very exciting day as the whole team was looking forward to meeting one of Illini 4000’s biggest supporters: Randy! This marks the 18th year that he has hosted the team in Rockville, Indiana. We were ready for a shorter biking day of 63 miles, which ended up being slightly more difficult than we first thought. 

Ride Overview

Mileage: 63.5 miles

Elevation: 2,194 ft.

Tales of the Trail

The team was full of energy in the morning as it was a shorter day and we would get to meet Randy in the evening. We have heard many stories from alumni that Rockville is one of the best stayovers on the whole trip. (spoiler alert, it did not disappoint) 

Our first rest stop was on the side of the road and went by pretty quick. Our team has somewhat come to a consensus that we prefer to have a few quick rest stops in the morning and then try and have a longer “lunch” rest stop every day. With the continued trend of bike paths we powered through the first 40 miles with little to no issue, just tired legs from the long mileage of past days compounding. The second rest stop was really a “make your own rest stop.” The official rest stop was slightly further up the road but the two teams decided to stop a little early to get lunch. One of the teams stopped at Burger King, while the other went to a gas station. I was a part of the group that went to Burger King, and honestly a warm meal + soda during a bike ride was just what I needed. 

After a warm meal we quickly went by the second rest stop to refill water, put on sunscreen, and go on our way. The last 22-mile stretch is where the ride began to test our mental fortitude. The temperature was in the 80s, quite humid, and the country roads don’t really provide too much shade. Towards the end of the ride we began almost running out of water and slightly overheating. There were also quite a few “gravel” roads that seemed to be more like rocks to me that were slightly painful to ride through. However, all of these temporary struggles fell away as we saw those big red doors of Rockville’s First United Methodist Church. We were greeted by Randy and his friends/family. (We could tell by their awesome matching tie dye shirts). Randy shuttled us all to a local fairground for some much needed showers. We had some free time before dinner so the team made the most of it and swam at a local neighbor of the church’s pool (Ed and Rita Roach), who even provided drinks for us! After getting all of our energy out and cooling off the team made our way back to the church for dinner. 

The dinner consisted of pulled pork, mac n cheese, fresh watermelon, potatoes, tasty desserts, and many more. During dinner we even got to hear a bell choir as a little bit of entertainment while we ate! It was a fun activity for the team to try and guess what songs they were playing. (we were not correct very often, but they did an amazing job) After dinner the team was able to fill up their “Love Bags” from Randy, which are a gallon ziploc bag full of as many snacks that will fit. Randy refers to all of us as his kids and we definitely feel the love every year that we go to Rockville and are super appreciative for all the support. We as a team are definitely beginning to feel more and more like a family.

After dinner my group went to one of the church members' houses to go to sleep for the night. However, when we got there Bill told us all about his life story and how he opened his own Ace Hardware. He then showed us in the backyard he has a whole room full of workout equipment, a ping pong table, and a foosball table. Even in his late 80s he was still able to school us in ping pong. Although all these fun and games made us stay up longer than we maybe should have, it was a wonderful experience that my teammates and I are sure to never forget.

Day 13: We Always Get Back Up - Richmond, Indiana to Indianapolis, Indiana

Today was a very tough day for the whole group. With the excitement and adrenaline of doing our longest ride in known recent I4k history being gone, today cannot be explained as anything other than a grind. This was a day full of headwinds, which we are used to, however we are not accustomed to tackling a 90-mile day right after biking 130 miles the day before. It was not all bad though as the team had an amazing stayover to look forward to at the end of the ride where a few alumni hosted us at their house! Since we are all so tired and wanted to enjoy our stayover interacting with the alumni as much as we can, this will probably be a shorter journal post. We do want to try and keep mostly on track with daily uploading as much as we can though.

Ride Overview

Mileage: 93.7 miles

Elevation: 2,268’

Tales of the Trail

The team awoke, legs still heavy as we all got ready for the day. We all ate Jimmy John's sandwiches and oatmeal for breakfast that the church had provided. The weather was amazing as we rolled out. As the first stretch of the ride was only 17 miles until the rest stop, most of the team was feeling good, albeit pretty sore. Our first rest stop was a very small grocery store/gas station, so a lot of the team purchased a wide variety of snacks, most notably candy. We had to restock as yesterday we went through 4 lbs of Twizzlers as a team! (probably half of which was eaten by the man, the myth, the legend, Anthony Salemi himself)

It was during the second stretch that we realized we were going to be in for another long day. After rolling out from the first rest stop, we almost instantly hit a 15-mile long stretch on one road. It was completely flat but with 15 mph headwinds the whole way and no tree coverage. This middle part was very grueling and definitely one of the most mentally and physically tough. A quite comical moment that really summed up how we all felt happened during the rest stop. While making a PB&J, Cole dropped a slice of bread covered in peanut butter straight onto his nice white bike shoes. While most of the ride was really tough, our one saving grace was the third rest stop being an ice cream shop. We all got a much needed pick-me-up of sugary goodness.

The rest of the day was really just the team grinding to get to the end. After a 130-mile day previous, we could really feel the miles compounding. Each mile felt like another challenge, but eventually after definitely one of the hardest days yet we rolled into the stayover and were greeted by two alumni: Logan and Rebecca Orr. They are a couple who did the ride together in 2017 (and are now married with two children!) who graciously decided to host us. Although being tired, seeing food laid out right as we rolled in, the team did not hesitate to start digging into some shrimp, bean, chicken, and beef tacos. Along with banana pudding, chips, and salsa. (We were (and are) definitely very spoiled!) Afterwards we all went outside to either throw a ball around or hear all of their stories around a campfire. We spent hours comparing routes, reminiscing, and overall just having a great time hearing about what we have to look forward to. We also heard from them about what we can do to make the ride more enjoyable and memorable. The team even got to see their signed jerseys from the 2017 ride! They said they had 27 people on their team, which is crazy to think about since that is more than double the size of our team this year. I feel like a smaller team comes with both positives and negatives. It has been an amazing summer of bonding so far, as we are so small I feel like we are becoming a very tight knit group.

This was also an eventful day from other tough perspectives: mechanical problems and falls along the way.  The first incident of the day was Anthony catching a broken cable in his shifting mechanisms.  This relegated him to the van until a bike shop could be found between the rest stops during the day.  Frustrating, but at least no injury occurred.  Then, it was Cole’s turn to enter the string of unfortunate news on the message channels.  He had a fall about halfway between the second and third rest stops and scraped up his hip and shoulder.  Although the bib shorts did not survive unscathed, he and his bike were good to go.  The rest of the ride was completed in some pain, but it was done.  Next, we got a call at the van from Anthony during our fourth rest stop that Sam had broken a wheel spoke.  Then, another one broke!  Again, Sam was fine, but it knocked him out for the rest of the day with an unrideable bike.  Finally, Ren had a fall while coming onto some busier and much bumpier roads in Indianapolis.  She too is alright, but like Cole, a bit scraped up.  Whew!  Finished.

Cyclists’ Corner

Rider: Cole Pawlak

How are you feeling today?

Ha ha… That is a tough question after today because I think this is the most tired and exhausted I have been the whole Summer.  I thought I was catching up after the rest day in Columbus, but the 133-mile ride to Richmond yesterday really took it out of me.  My legs feel tired, my body feels tired, my mind feels tired.  Yeah.  I am having a lot of fun and really enjoying seeing the country!  This is just a tough time for me though.

What was your favorite part of today's ride? 

My favorite part of today’s ride was right after we left the stayover.  The sun was rising, it was relatively cool, and the wind was still light as compared to the end of the ride.  Some rolling hills and a good group with Parker and Maaike made for a very nice way to start the day.  I went on to have a bit of a crash later, I’m all okay, but that put another damper on the good vibes that this group and ride exude to me.

And what motivated you to join Illini 4000?

Well, I first saw an advertisement for Illini 4000 on Instagram back in 2023 during my first year as a graduate student at the University of Illinois and thought it sounded like a super neat program.  I ended up missing the application deadline that year and it ended up being good because I had other opportunities to cash in on.  This year though, it was time to try.  I really love cycling and I wanted to see if I could have some kind of positive influence on the world, so the combination of the two was perfect.  I also have some family who have been afflicted by cancer and it has felt special to honor them too.  The adventure called me and I responded!

Before joining Illini 4000 how much bike training had you done? What other athletic background did you have that you feel would help for the ride?

In high school I bought my first road bike because I was really interested in riding further and faster than what was possible on my mountain bike.  I wanted to be able to make it from my house to my grandpa’s house which was a little over 30 miles away and that was going to make it possible.  I eventually did that ride, almost passed out during it, but I loved the feeling of being able to explore on two wheels and my own power.  In college, I joined some rides with the Penn State Cycling Club and during 2020 I built the bike that I ride today.  At the University of Illinois, I joined Illini Cycling and that was the most fun I have ever had riding with others.  This is what really got me out on the bike more often and in the best riding shape of my life.  Cycling is also a primarily leg muscle sport so it lends itself to what I am good at as a soccer player and skier through my childhood.

And then what is your bike's model, and does it have a name?

I have a 2017 Specialized S-Works Roubaix frame with a collection of components that I purchased, found, or had gifted to me when I was in the build process.  It does not have a name.  I tend not to assign names to inanimate objects.  That’s just me.

And then what are you most excited about and nervous about? 

I am now most nervous about the rides through the Midwest.  I usually do quite well on climbs, so the mountains excite me more than scare me; however, it is the long hours in the saddle for the next couple of weeks that make me nervous about how my body will hold up.  The last couple of days where we are riding for 8-10 hours a day I am not sure are sustainable forever for me.  We will find out though.

I am most excited to see the Tetons in Wyoming.  As a skier, going to Jackson will be an awesome moment for me because they are some of the mountains that I dream about when I sleep.  I have seen videos and pictures but never been in person and I think it will be a life changing memory.
Creamy or Crunchy Peanut Butter?
I am a creamy peanut butter guy myself.  Crunchy is doable, but creamy is definitely the preference.

Day 12: The Longest Ride - Columbus, Ohio to Richmond, Indiana

Today was quite possibly one of the longest legs in the Illini 4000 history: 133.7 miles.  This was a massive accomplishment from the whole team on a day when everyone who was with us spent some time on the road.  Despite being a long day, this journal may be short because we are going to sleep and waking up to tackle another ~90 mile ride tomorrow!

Ride Overview

Mileage: 133.7 miles

Elevation: 1,703 ft.

Points of Interest: Ohio Stadium, Olentangy Trail, London, Dayton, friendly and scary geese, mile 100, kabooses, Ohio/Indiana border

Tales of the Trail

We received a message from Anthony last night detailing the route for today and how many miles it was actually going to be.  Everything before then was just speculation.  When over 130 miles was scheduled, everyone knew it was going to be rough and that it would take a lot of coordination and a team effort to get it done.  The motivation we had going for us is that some of the past riders chimed in when they too saw the distance and said it was one of the longest Illini 4000 days they had ever seen.  We are pretty confident it is the longest post-2020.  

The combined group at the very end of the longest ride.

The morning was abbreviated to try to get on the road and rolling by 7:00 am even though we were only waking up at 6:15 am.  We were mostly riding by 7:15 am, so not too bad.  Riding through and out of Columbus, we almost immediately hit the Olentangy Trail which Max described as “feeling like another country.”  We rode past the Ohio Stadium and medical facilities we had visited yesterday and carried on West out of the city.  Our legs felt fresh from the rest day and quite early on we knew that the limiting factor for whether we were going to finish 130 miles before sundown was going to be the rest stops and making them short.  The first, went mostly as planned.  After more miles on bike trails (well over 90% of the day on the whole was on trails) we made it to the second rest stop in London, Ohio.

At this stop which was a trailhead and campground, we met Dave.  Dave is a volunteer at the campground who had just sent a troop of boy scouts on their way on bicycles too after camping the night.  We actually passed them on the road just before getting there.  He also told us about his experience with cancer and in the middle of that another woman walked by and had kind words and encouragement to say.  For trying to keep rolling along, this made things difficult, but of course our mission is to talk and spread the word of our cause, so we were happy to talk.  

Both teams on the road at this point (we had 2 groups rolling through the day) were keeping pace with each other separated only by the time difference from when they left each stop.  We were just trying to outrun time and continuing to be moving was the answer.  Before our next rest stop, one group met a pair of ladies who were biking in the same direction and decided to tag along for a few miles.  They encouraged us to keep going and wished us the best for our country crossing journey.  By the third rest stop at mile 62, we were feeling already one full day in almost (which in reality we were) and had a chance to meet with another local near the trail.  Anthony (not our Anthony) shared the story of him and his grandmother who passed from breast cancer when he was younger and made the team realize once more the gravity of creating positive change around cancer treatments with his emotional story.

At this point, the miles were blurring past and some of us just needed an idea or activity to latch onto, so one of the groups started taking pictures at the kabooses they found along the way because there seemed to be many along the rail trail that continued bringing us Westward in Ohio.  Eventually, Dayton came and passed and the riding was getting very difficult.  The temperature was in the mid-80s (°F) and the fatigue from the day was setting in.  We knew that if we made the rest stop at mile 111 in time, 130 was going to happen and that is what we set our minds to.  This was hard.  Regardless of the cycling background of anyone on the team, this was a major day.  Sometimes the communication paused while we each focused on our efforts individually, sometimes words of encouragement were passed between riders.  

The two groups rolled into the mile 111 rest stop at the same time and before 6:00 pm, so we knew that 22 miles was achievable before the end of the day. However, achievable and easy are two very different things. Despite a rough and tiring day of riding, the team was determined to finish, so we all loaded up our pockets with as much sugar as we could get our hands on and rolled out for the last 22 miles. With the thoughts in our heads of “20 miles, that is  just a midweek training.” (During the spring for training we would have a 20 mile ride in the middle of the week). The whole team made a final push towards stayover. Both ride groups today even met up around 3 miles away from the stayover so we formed what we like to call a mega-group! This was an amazing experience to finish a very hard day altogether as a full team. 

Parker, Vedang, Lauren, and Cole at the Indiana border (listed from left to right).

When we finally made it to the rest stop, there was a sense of relief, joy, triumph, and wanting to sit down desperately.  We had done it!  It was hard-fought and many miles through the day were grueling to each person because of mental and physical battles with the riding.  Nevertheless, we persevered and overcame.  Time to see how we feel tomorrow!

Cyclists’ Corner

Rider: Parker Bledsoe

How are you feeling today?

I am feeling proud of myself, tired, and reflective. I am both proud and tired because we biked 130 miles today, which is the furthest I have ever ridden the bike. It feels a little weird to be the one getting interviewed instead of being the one asking the questions. But yeah I have seemingly no thoughts in my head right now after biking for 10 hours today. 

What was your favorite part of today's ride? 

Okay so, usually I am anti bike path/trail as most of the ones on the ride so far have not been paved. However today I really enjoyed the nice shaded 90 mile long bike path that we were on. Even though it was a super long ride I felt that it went by quicker than I thought I would. I was just super excited to hit 100+ miles as the furthest I had biked previously was 94 miles. 

And what motivated you to join Illini 4000?

Originally when I first heard about Illini4000 I was very intrigued by the aspect of biking across the country. However, soon after I signed up my mom was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. This gave me a lot more reason to care about the cause and I am riding in honor of her. 

Before joining Illini 4000 how much bike training had you done? What other athletic background did you have that you feel would help for the ride?

Before Illini4000 I had bought an old used road bike and used it for two local short triathlons, but I definitely would not have referred to myself as a cyclist before I started Illini4000. I was more of a runner. I joined cross country and track in my senior year of high school. Also I have run quite a few races, most notably I ran the champaign marathon last year! 

What is your bike's model, and does it have a name?

My bike is a 2025 Trek Domane SL5, and currently it does not have a name, but I do need to figure one out. I hope that the name will come to me as I bike more. 

What are you most excited about and nervous about? 

I am nervous mostly just about the amount of miles in a row, especially as I have been dealing with some hand pain during the beginning of the ride. I believe I have fixed the issue though after changing my saddle a little bit. Also I am slightly nervous about the mountains when we get further west. I am excited mostly about exploring the country, especially visiting the national parks. I have never really been to that side of the country before so it will be an amazing experience. 

Creamy or Crunchy Peanut Butter?

I definitely prefer creamy peanut butter. Not really sure even why, I just know I always have been and I always will be. I also just don’t like the crunch. 

Day 11: Rest Day in Columbus and Visit with Past Damon Runyon Fellows at The Ohio State University

Waking up in a climbing gym really was a novelty we were not expecting to have throughout the Summer.  Something was just really neat about waking up in a place that feels like it holds some of the same adventure and outdoor motivations as we do being on this cross-country ride.  Everyone was up and out of their sleeping bags around 8:00 am this morning.  This is an early rise for most of us in normal times, but today it felt like a luxurious sleep in.  In our ever persistent search for calories, we decided to bring the van, with all 12 of us here, over to a Bob Evans for breakfast before the bigger events of the day were to unfold.  We certainly got some energy and probably a bit more stuffing than we were hoping for when we were trying to pack in the van again.  As it turns out, 12 people do fit, and we make it work quite well, but along with 8 bikes it can be difficult.  

The whole team packed in the van!

Breakfast then proceeded into our next short drive over to The Ohio State University.  We were greeted by Professor Vladislav (Vlad) Belyy who immediately made a great impression on us by joining in the crowd in the van to help find us a parking spot.  That was pretty bold!  He then gave us a quick walking tour of the buildings leading up to the Pharmacy Building and Biological Sciences Building.  We observed the strange crossing out of “M”s on any written signs and learned about some thermal engineering where a heating pipe was built in a meandering pattern to change the way it expands with heat from purely lengthwise to some in length and some in the side to side axis.  Maybe this was more information than you needed to know, maybe this was more information than we needed to know, but alas.  Inside, we sat down with Vlad and discussed some of his connection with Damon Runyon, our mission, and some about us personally.  We found out that he was a Damon Runyon fellow for his postdoctoral degree which gave him the opportunities to work freely on projects of his own inspiration.  Since Vlad is a great teacher too, he gave us a quick lesson on some of the mechanisms inside eukaryotic cells and some of the methods through which cancer treatments are targeting these pathways to stop uncontrolled growth of cancerous regions.  Although we could not explain it all for you here, his research essentially focuses on the messages that are sent within cells telling them to go into cell death (apoptosis) and how they can be read and controlled in normal and cancerous cells.

Visit to Vlad’s lab.

We toured his lab spaces and looked at a $400,000 laser imaging setup, then met some of his students during pizza lunch (our favorite).  Next, it was onto a visit with Professor Maria Mihaylova and her lab group.  She was also a Damon Runyon fellow during her postdoctoral degree and has studied how cell aging influences cancer.  While definitely a slightly different field from what Vlad looks at, this has some similarities.  After hearing a few different scientists talk about cancer and related treatments over the Summer now, we are all picking up on some patterns here and there of the techniques trying to be developed to solve this disease.  The reality is that many solutions will be for very specific scenarios and that there will likely never be one catch-all solution since cancer in itself is not all the same.  In Maria’s lab, we had a demonstration of how they look at and sequence mRNA to try to uncover patterns in the messages being sent by the cells (see a pattern even in these two labs?).  We also met some of her students and the whole time were in the Pelotonia Research Center which is neat because it is also a cancer fundraising organization based on cycling.  Pelotonia has been around since 2009 and has raised over $300 million dollars for cancer research.  We now have one of their magnets attached to our van!

Visit to Maria’s lab.

After an amazing tour of the facilities, with stomachs full of pizza and brains full of knowledge, the team was definitely ready for a much needed afternoon nap. Despite our stayover being a climbing gym we were much too tired from yesterday to think about climbing or really any other physical activity again until tomorrow. As it was such a nice day more than half the team decided to bring their sleeping pad outside and rest in the shade. (Maybe some of the best sleep of my life) As we gradually woke up, the team decided it was time for dinner. We all piled into the van once again, with 12 bikes this time! It was a tight fit as we all fell into our seats like tetris pieces and headed towards downtown to get a bite to eat. Most of us went to get poke bowls, but a few of us split off and got subway and one person even got persian food! After we had all eaten we decided to make our way altogether to a restaurant named Tasty Dawg. While primarily a hot dog establishment they also had ice cream which all the team was excited to eat.

After a long day the team all piled back into our van and made the venture back to our stayover to prepare for the long day of biking ahead. We made sure to prioritize our time well and get some necessary things done that come with a bike trip across the country. The first of these being taking out all of our bikes, backpacks, and numerous other random items that accumulate so we could deep clean the van. While half the team was cleaning, some others either took the opportunity to shower or do some needed bike maintenance. While nothing was catastrophic, accumulating this many miles on a bike in such a short time means that small issues are bound to occur, so we took advantage of our rest day to fix these problems that arose. While we ride our days usually blend together, so it is very refreshing to have a day to relax and (mostly) not have to follow a rigid daily schedule. This however can not last forever as our team is gearing up for a big ride tomorrow, but we made sure to try and get as much rest and do everything we can to prepare ourselves for the days ahead. The team is very excited as we are getting nearer and nearer to Champaign with every day of biking.

Cyclists’ Corner

Rider: Max Zhu

How are you feeling today?

Feeling good! The rest day was really good, feeling really strong on the bike recently. I was super sore at the last rest stop at Penn State or State College, but I'm feeling a lot stronger now.

What was your favorite part of yesterday's ride?

There were a couple standout points. Yesterday was 67 miles, so it was a lighter day, and it went really, really fast, which is really nice. We stopped by apparently the world's largest basket, which was cool. It was on the side of the road, I think it was a big headquarters for a basket company at some point. I believe since then they've moved out, but it's just like on the side of the highway, and you could see it for literally miles coming in. So that was cool. There were also a lot of bike paths yesterday, and the weather was really good, so it was good temperature. The sun was out, and we had tailwinds on the last 20 plus miles, so we were just booking on the way back. So that's really fun.

What motivated you to join Illini 4000?

I think my motivation to join Illini 4000 is kind of two part. I think it's both for myself and to be able to give back. For the first part, for myself, I've always been really active. I like to play just  pretty much any sport I can get my hands on. A lot of intramurals, I think I was on seven new intramurals at one point in like one semester. I enjoy playing sports outside, just getting outside, lifting, doing whatever. So, Illini 4000 posed like a new kind of challenge that I thought would be interesting to kind of test myself with. I ran track in high school, but it was really short sprints. Doing cardio and stuff is not as fun as I thought, but it's alright, and it's a good time for sure. And then the second part is just really giving back, you know? I know a lot of personal family and friends that have experienced, or been affected by cancer, and I'm fortunate enough to be in a position where I can do something to give back. So, I think it's good that I take the opportunity to do so,

Before joining Illini 4000 how much bike training had you done?

For bike training specifically? This is my first road bike. I've owned a bike and ridden a bike around before, maybe in middle school, but for cycling I've never clipped in or out until I applied to Illini 4000. I found out the hard way, I had fell probably like five times at a complete stop. So pretty new to cycling, but yeah, generally otherwise pretty active with other stuff.

What is your bike's model, and does it have a name?

My bike is a Giant Contend AR four. I don't know what year it is, but I bought it new this year, so I assume it's 2025/2026 or something like that. You put me on the spot for the name, but me and Tada have been calling each other little Jit, which Jit is just like Florida State slang. I think, for just kid. So basically we're calling each other little kid, and because my bike is a giant I'm gonna name my bike Giant jit. 

What are you most excited about and nervous about? 

Oh I'm really excited to get out west for a lot of the scenic stuff. Generally, I'm just really playing it day by day. I think thinking too far ahead is gonna get stressful, for sure, especially thinking about the mileage and what really is ahead or lies ahead. So, I'm taking it day by day, but I'm really excited for the West Coast. I think there's a lot of natural beauty out there, which would be cool, but we got to get through a lot of miles of flat midwest first. And then what I'm nervous about is, I guess, similarly, just like the sheer amount of miles that we continue to put in. I've ridden every mile so far, and I would really, really like to continue that streak, but obviously I'm gonna listen to my body, and if I need to rest, I'm gonna rest, so we'll see. But also, we have the 130 mile day tomorrow, so that'll be a test for sure. 

Anything else you want to say to the world?

I don't know, again, put me on the spot. I think with something like this, something so unique, I guess my mindset going in, and I think what I want to tell everybody else is: continue to challenge yourself, have fun with things, and just take things one step at a time.

Are you on Team Sprinkles or Team No Sprinkles?

Absolutely no sprinkles. I want that on record, bang.