Day 1 — where to begin? Today was the epitome of all things I4K — the team experienced torrential downpours, a grand total of NINE flat tires, a maze of a route that twisted and turned through major urban areas, and more. On the flip side of the chaos and unpredictability, though, was our unrelenting support of one another. That may sound cheesy, but every mechanical mishap or wrong turn was met with an unwavering sense of patience, determination and camaraderie from everyone on the team.

Ride Overview

Mileage: 84

Elevation: 2,282’

Points of Interest: Princeton University, Rutgers University, the George Washington Bridge, the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park Trail

Quote of the Day

(Our teammates are so unendingly funny that we couldn’t bear to pick just one.)

“One flat was cute, two is annoying.” - Dylan

“SAV is short for ‘savior’ at this point.” - Neal

“It was between dropping the granola bar and dropping the bike, and for some reason I chose the bike.” - Emma

Tales of the Trail

The team woke up at the unholy yet necessary hour of 4:40 a.m. in order to ride to Strawberry Fields at Central Park on time for our meeting with Carlie Gallagher, a program manager at the B+ Foundation. As a representative of another one of our beneficiaries, Carlie grounded our mission with stories of the children whose cancer treatment our fundraising efforts go toward. After, the team circled around the iconic “imagine”  circle to take a group photo, as per I4K Day 1 tradition. Anthony even got some cool drone shots of us (we are constantly in awe of the randomly impressive skills our teammates possess).

It seemed the weather was kind enough to wait and let us have our picture-perfect photoshoot, as it immediately began raining when the first teams rolled out into New York City. Nevertheless, we charged on, aided by the relative calm of the city streets at such an early hour in the morning.

The team’s traversal of the George Washington Bridge marked us crossing over into our first new state — New Jersey, the Garden State! From there, the state was determined to give us a taste of anything and everything that a cross-country bicycle ride can throw at its participants. In addition to the trials detailed in the introduction, we navigated narrow debris-ridden sidewalks of busy highways, industrial backroads lined by FedEx shipment centers and construction equipment, and, of course, the unique challenge of Newark traffic. As mentioned before, our teamwork never faltered in the face of this unfamiliarity. Groups would wait for the ones after them to point out glass on the road, or give them the run-down on how to make it across a particularly tricky intersection. One never felt alone in tackling the roadblocks of the ride.

Eventually, we made our way to some quieter roads, zooming down an especially steep descent and got to experience views of the NYC skyline from a seaside path. Our first rest stop was comfortably located in the expansive and empty parking lot of a Chart House restaurant, where the team was glad to air out their drenched socks and cleats under the watch of a thankfully emerging sun. Claudia reminded us all to apply sunscreen, Logan passed around his homemade beef jerky (as we said, the randomly impressive skills never stop), and Lucas (our van driver for the day) supplied us with everything from Welch’s fruit snacks to Chamois Butt’r — it was a welcome and complete system.

With dryer weather on the horizon, the team shed their jackets (for now) and continued on through a range of environments. 

Our next rest stop was at the first of many gas stations we will frequent on the ride, where we unfortunately found out that we had misplaced our mechanical box at a previous stayover. Nevertheless, the team mechanics and those in the van were able to put together a makeshift version of the box later in the day. 

From there, we embarked on what became the longest continuous stretch of the ride, cycling through the rolling hills of New Jersey suburbia with a pleasant amount of paved park roads sprinkled throughout. The increasingly lush greenery of our surroundings indicated we were getting closer to the narrow forested roads that led to our stayover in Princeton. Many stops were made to rectify mechanical issues, and SAV came to each group’s rescue when called — thank you Lucas, our beloved ride leader, for being our superhero.

The final stretch of the ride provided us with a much-welcome solace from car traffic in the form of the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park Trail, a 77-mile-long pathway hugged by the Delaware River on one side and a beautiful assortment of flora and fauna on the other. We then climbed a few brief hills to arrive at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton, our generous stayover host for the night. Soaking from the second bout of heavy rain, the team was incredibly thankful to be welcomed by its doors.

Of course, we have to lend a moment to the food. After a morning of iconic I4K oatmeal and a lunch of PB & Js, we were beyond grateful to receive a food donation for dinner from Riddhima’s parents, who had Chipotle catered for the entire group. Additionally, former I4K rider Jonathan Yuen brought snacks to the stayover for everyone to enjoy. A huge thank you to these two for providing an amazing end to an exhausting, but incredibly rewarding day.

Our first day of the 2024 ride was undoubtedly demanding, from the mileage to the various unexpected incidents the team experienced. However, there is no beating the mutual feeling of accomplishment that we all feel today for having gotten through it together. Onwards to the rest of the summer!

Cyclist’s Corner

Today’s Rider: Anthony DiRico

How are you feeling today?

Day One! I’m doing really well. I think as a whole, we’re in high spirits today. I’m doing really good. I get to drive the van tomorrow, which is kind of exciting because if I’m super sore for tomorrow, I’ll have a day off. I had a lot of fun with my group today.

What was your favorite part of today’s ride?

Almost at the end of the ride today, it was probably mile 80 or so, we were biking on gravel, which wasn’t bad at all, it was nice gravel. But we came to this clearing, and we were biking along a lake the whole time, a body of water. And we decided to stop and throw stones. So we all found a couple of really good rocks to skip, and we just had a skipping competition. And it was really really fun.

My other part that I want to highlight is that I was able to bring the drone and get some really cool drone shots of us biking through New York City with all the skyscrapers in the background. Keep your ears posted for when that video comes out at the end of the summer.

What model of bike are you riding?

I am riding a Specialized Diverge, it is a white bike that I bought in Chicago, and it is treating me really well so far. No flat tires as of yet!

Before joining Illini 4000, how much bike training had you done, and did you have any other athletic background that you feel prepared you for this ride?

Not a ton of bike training. I biked from Chicago to Champaign, kind of off a whim, I just wanted to try and do it. It took two days, it’s not like we did it all in one day. I did that on a fixed gear bike, it was just this kind of cheap bike that I had lying around, and it was only after I joined I4K that I started learning more about bikes — I still don’t know a lot — and actually buying a nice bike and learning when to shift and stuff like that.

As far as my athletic background goes, I was on the boxing team at U of I, and they train a lot. Some of the coaches ask you to practice like six days a week, so I was definitely in pretty good cardio shape. But in my opinion, I feel like biking, since you’re doing it all day, is very different, and the training has to be very specialized compared to other types of cardio that won’t last as long. Boxing is like six minutes compared to what we did for like 12 hours today.

Is there anyone that you’re doing this ride for, or any specific person you think of when you’re on the ride?

My Aunt Barbara passed away a few years ago from cancer. I hope her family knows that I am dedicating this ride to her. But more generally, all of the stories and portraits that we’ve heard of people who have passed away from cancer or people that are in remission, for their sakes hopefully we’re able to donate to them and to let them know that we’re here as a support system.

Is there anything you want to say to the people out there who are cheering you on during this ride?

I have very supportive friends and family who are following along the journey, so thank you guys for being there, and thank you for believing in me, and yeah I know I’m crazy. Hopefully I’ll see you all at the finish line.

Is there anything we didn’t talk about that you’d like to share with us?

Earlier today, I said that this was a growing day. I do hope every day will be a growing day over the summer, but going through the day we just had, I think we all have become stronger people. I also just really want to say that, even after only spending a few days with [the team], you’re making me feel like I have a lot of love to give. Everyone here is very willing to open their hearts and share their love with other people, and it’s making me kind of do the same. So thank you guys for that.

(A reminder that any unfamiliar terms can be found in our handy I4K dictionary.)