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.
