The main theme of today: climbing. Something that I, Parker, totally forgot about when I first signed up for this. In my mind I somehow had this too optimistic image that it would be flat and downhill the whole way. (News flash, it is not) This only being our third day on the road means that we haven’t quite come to grasp how large mountains and hills can be, but today gave us just a brief taste of what is to come. I am sure that at the end of the ride we will look back on these early rides and appreciate them for preparing us.
Ride Overview
Mileage: 74.7 miles
Elevation: 4,939’
Tales of the Trail
The team rolled out bright and early at 7 am in the most beautiful weather the team has ever seen yet. This combined with the early morning Pennsylvania mist covering the mountains in the background provided us with some very wonderful scenery to start our morning. The sun rejuvenated us in a way that is almost indescribable, and the team made a few goals for the day. The first being, as always, is to have fun and enjoy the day. The second was to decorate the van. With all the busyness and rain of the first few days we hadn’t had a chance to write on it yet, and it was looking quite bland. Special shout-out to Nishk for drawing a near-perfect outline of the U.S. and for all the other van crew and contributors to making our van look much more lively. This even led to quite a few in person donations! I am always very appreciative of the van crew, always helping when and wherever they can, even if they are quite tired! The team also dedicated our ride today to Leslie, who we did a portrait of the previous day in Lehighton.
Nishk’s amazingly accurate map of the United States
As the team started biking, vibes were high, and of course one of us got a flat just 5 miles into the ride. Luckily one of our resident team mechanics happened to be in the group and was able to get the glass out of the tire and assist with swiftly repairing the flat and getting back on the road. Besides this, the first 20 miles until the rest stop went swimmingly. The area in Pennsylvania that we are in, as we heard from some locals, is as they say: “coal country”. This being said is evidence that we are not quite in New York anymore. A fun fact about this is today we brought out Zoleos for the first time. For those of you who are not familiar, Zoleos basically connect to satellites and let us connect our phones to them to be able to send messages to the support van in case we have an emergency and have no signal.
Days since last flat: 0
Despite the wonderful weather, today was a tough day for many. The main reason for this was on our route today we had 5 or 6 significant climbs. One climb is usually not so bad but after being tired from the first, and another one coming up rather quickly your legs can get quite fatigued. The fun thing with a tough climb though is that usually most of us pull off the road for a little rest and get a drink of water. On the ride today this gave us the chance to meet up with the other groups during the ride which was very fun and also encouraging! The main tough climb today is a 1.6 mile long climb consisting of a constant grade anywhere between I believe 6-13%. For my legs this was a great shock, as I have never had to pedal so forcefully to go so slow. However I think many people on the team discovered they were actually better at climbing than they gave themselves credit for. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I have heard someone doubting themselves saying something about needing to walk up a hill, me included, but then being able to make it up perfectly fine. (Not that there is anything wrong with needing to walk. One of my personal favorite days consisted of being on a team where we named ourselves “Hikers not bikers,” as we walked up a couple hills) I personally believe however that most people are a lot stronger than they give themselves credit for.
““Wow Ehsan you look so strong on this climb.” -Cole
”Yeah. I changed my diet to... sugar!” - Ehsan”
On the route after this climbing the team was then rewarded with some big descents, which many riders were looking forward to. (I have a tiny friendly competition everyday with a few of the riders to see who gets the fastest top speed, today mine was 45.1 mph). As the day got hotter some of the riders in my group were passing around water bottles to share with others who ran out. This felt fun for me as I envisioned myself as being in the tour de France and passing water bottles like they do in the support vans. It also doubled as a fun "exercise" to help us work on our balance on the bike.
Some beautiful Pennsylvania views
After a fulfilling but tiring day in the sun the team rolled into Trinity Lutheran Church in Milton Pennsylvania. We were greeted by the wonderful church staff, including Chuck who we actually did a portrait of last year. We also were greeted by a local reporter who was able to do an article on the Illini4000 in a local newspaper. After a long day in the sun the team was definitely in need of a shower, which the church set up for us at a local pool. For the first time, but definitely not the last, all 13 of us piled in and got cozy in the van to go shower. When we got back, the church had graciously made us dinner filled with sloppy joes, mac n cheese, and many more. After being clean, getting food, and gradually getting tired the team went about their nights. Whether journaling, relaxing, working on various chores, the church started getting quieter as the team slowly began making their way to bed in preparation for the activities of the day ahead.
Getting cozy in the van
Cyclists’ Corner
Rider: Aadit Kolar
How are you feeling today? Physically? Mentally?
Tired, but very grateful for the opportunity to do this ride and to see such beautiful parts of the country. Even though it's so tiring, it's easy sometimes to just fall into, “oh my god, this is so hard.” But also, just to look up and be like, “wow, this is beautiful.” That is something I'm very grateful for. The first day was actually the worst day physically. After the first day, my knees were hurting. And then the second day, in the morning. But now, now I'm good. Surprisingly, today was pretty rough, but we worked on it. Tomorrow's [ride] should be more chill though. Fingers crossed.
What was your favorite part of today's ride?
That's a good question. Ooh, the descent after the really steep 12% hill!
Do you remember how fast you were going?
I know my top speed over the whole ride. Wait, don't tell Maaike… 45.5.
What motivated you to join Illini4000?
Let's start with the cancer side of things. As with most of the writers on the team, I've been touched and my friends have been touched by cancer. I've lost a few people to the disease. And especially hearing about, when we spoke with B+ [Foundation] and hearing about the kids that get it, it just seems so unfair. We spoke to someone, who was driving us to showers nearby at their house. And, you know, they had a six month old that had cancer. I was like, “what do they do to deserve that?” You know? So that's kind of why I was motivated to help the fight against cancer. And also just personally, I had a few friends who were doing it and that made it less intimidating to sign up for it. So that helped.
Before joining Illini4000 how much bike training had you done, if any, and did you have any other athletic background that you feel prepared you for this ride?
Since halfway through freshman year, I've been part of the cycling club. I was vice president this year, which was fun. I've been a fairly active cyclist and part of the cycling community. So that part of the ride was slightly less intimidating for me which helped for sure, but definitely people (the team) are very, very strong. I've been blown away by how strong all of our team has been.
Cycling is your sport, right?
Cycling is cycling because there's so many like cycling races all the time. It's hard to keep up with anything else, but it's great.
What is your bike's name/model?
I unfortunately do not have a name for my bike and I don't think that's going to change. It is a BMC Road Machine X 2019. With awesome bar tape. Bright yellow.
What are you most nervous/excited about?
What I'm most nervous about is honestly not the riding. This is the first time I've been, apart from living with my family, is the first time I'm living closely with a group of people. Obviously cycling makes people tired and tired people get upset, including myself. So that's probably what I'm personally most worried about is the interpersonal aspect of things or the team aspect of things. But it's worked out in the past and I'm sure it will for us too. The vibe has been great with the whole team. For that, I'm very glad. As for what I'm excited about, the next few days in Pennsylvania I'm sure are going to be absolutely beautiful. Going through Champaign and Chicago, meeting alumni, riding along with people, in both cities, I'm looking forward to that too. And then Utah, Colorado, Yellowstone. Oh my gosh! It's the whole second half of the ride. It's going to be amazing!
Anything else you would like to talk about?
I really love neon. I really love neon. I'm sad that there's not more neon on this year's kit but that's why I'm joining the board next year: to get more neon on the jersey. That's my fun fact.