While we normally call each other out on being huge bike nerds, today’s trip brought out a completely different type of nerdiness within us. As you may have learned by getting to know the team through the journals, a good portion of us started as runners. Today the team rolled into Eugene, OR, better known as Track Town USA. Home of the University of Oregon and countless symbolic sites of the world of track and field, we had a fairly uneventful — which is a good thing — ride day into the beautiful town. The quicker ride gave us more time to explore everything from running tracks and trails to the UO campus itself. We’re continuing to love the Oregon nature, and as we approach the final ten days of the ride, we’re taking in every bit of scenery we can before we return to our beloved flat cornfields.
Ride Overview
Mileage: 76.9
Elevation: 1,743’
Ride Dedication: Clair, a survivor we spoke with in Portland
Points of Interest: Oregon State Capitol, Santiam River, Shedd Market, Albany, OR, McKenzie River, Willamette River, Lane Community College, Steve Prefontaine Trail & Memorial, Hayward Field, University of Oregon
Quote of the Day
“I wanna increase my status on Google Maps.”
Tales of the Trail
Today’s morning activity, again brought to us by Kavin, put a fun twist on the classic game “two truths and a lie,” and instead asked us to each come up with two lies and one truth. We had a great time figuring out each other’s weird but true stories — Emma has switched her minors three times, Anthony originally didn’t apply to Grainger, Maaike only owns one pink item of clothing, and Logan’s favorite metal is in fact titanium! We then chowed down on some breakfast burritos donated to us by the Kroc Center, a recipe that has apparently stood the test of over 25 years — and we’re happy to report, they’re still absolutely delicious.
The early morning ride out of Oregon’s capital city gave us a gorgeous view of the capitol building. Slightly overcast skies gave us a light drizzle, but mostly just some nice cloud cover and cooler temperatures, which we’re very grateful for after the past couple of weeks. We knocked out pretty much all of the day’s climbing in the first 20 miles, which warmed up our legs nicely for an easy ride for the rest of the day. Our first rest stop, which took place at one of our now beloved Dollar General stores, saw a somewhat failed promposal — but don’t worry, plenty of prom excitement was yet to come.
Anthony and Maaike’s reaction to Olivia telling them to “do something” on the bike. OU? Oregon University, perhaps?
You gotta admit, this is a pretty epic find for Tommy.
Much of our riding today was through the (kind of) flat farm fields of Oregon, which many riders commented reminded them of the training rides through the corn crops of Champaign-Urbana. Even though we’re so far from home, the slight winds and cooler weather transported us right back to weekdays in the spring, where we’d roll out from Allen hall for a short trip near campus and come right back. We stopped by a small market for our second rest stop, where Anthony surprised Neal with an adorable promposal — never mind the balloon almost flying away a little later (thank you to Kev for catching it).
Anthony and Neal’s promposal, featuring the balloon that is still safely secured in the van.
Some water bottle bike art? Fairly impressive, considering how difficult it is to draw a bicycle even with proper art supplies.
Logan doing Logan things.
Eugene has a unique feel to it, from its huge bridges to the University mixed right in with nature. A few members of the team took a small detour to stop at the Steve Prefontaine trail and memorial, which celebrates one of the most legendary runners in history who lived and raced in Eugene. We arrived in good time at Lane Community College, which is kindly hosting us for the night. Maaike wasted no time in setting up the projector and sound system in yet another promposal, this time for Joey (our favorite 6’6” man in Computer Science). We are enjoying kind dinner donations from the local Papa John’s and Dave’s Hot Chicken restaurants — on the way to pick up food, Maaike, Emma, Joey, Lucas, and Riddhima stopped by Hayward Field and the Duck Store on campus to nerd out over running things and buy some epic merch. Tomorrow will bring us a fairly tough day into Crescent, where we’ll hopefully avoid issues with air quality — as always, we’ll stay safe and keep you updated on our adventures!
Lucas on the Steve Prefontaine trail!
Maaike and Joey’s promposal!
Emma, Maaike, and Lucas with a celebrity duck at the Duck store.
Cyclist’s Corner
Today’s Rider: Maaike Niekerk
How are you feeling today?
I’m doing very well. We are in Eugene, OR, which is TrackTown, USA, and I’m so excited to be here! There’s a lot of very significant things here in terms of the world of running, so got to drive around and see some of it and that was super super cool. This is kind of somewhere I’ve always wanted to go, so low key for me this is just as exciting as the National Parks – which is a little stupid, however, I think it’s super cool. So, having a good time, the weather has been lovely, and, most importantly, I promposed to Joey and he said yes! Nothing but wins today, it’s been a great day! One of my favorite days of the ride.
Which chore have you been doing for the team during the ride? Can you share your process doing this chore?
My chore partner is Riddhima, who is interviewing me right now, and chowing down on some Dave’s Hot Chicken, might I add… and together, we write the journals! Which means that every day, at the end of the day, after we’re done riding, is when the real work begins. We sit down on Riddhima’s laptop, and we usually divide it so one person does the writing and the other person does the interview and the images – the pictures, I used to call them the pictures, but Riddhima always calls them the images, so now I call them the images! And yeah, I’m very glad that there’s two of us because it is a very time consuming chore. We sacrifice a lot of sleep for it, but it’s so worth it because everybody gets to follow along on our journey. We try to publish every single day, but that is not entirely possible a lot of the time because we’re camping, or because we have no cell service, because we can’t charge the laptop, or also just because we want to call our families or sleep or eat or do laundry. So, you know, a lot of opportunities for multitasking, like doing the interviews in laundromats and stuff like that, but we get it done! It’s a really fun chore, I really really like it. I’m so happy I have Riddhima by my side doing it with me too, because none of these other buffoons could write this journal! We know because they tried!
What’s the best food you’ve eaten on the ride so far?
One thing about me, I love food. Because I wrote this question, I’ve thought about it a lot, and I have three categories for my answer. My favorite meal that I’ve eaten on the ride – The Smoking Mule in Chamberlain, SD. Anthony and I found this burger and we were like, “we gotta eat this burger,” it had like three different types of meat on it and it was just as good as we dreamed. It was so good. Best ice cream – Pearl’s Ice Cream Parlor in La Crosse, WI. So good! And I’ve had a lot of ice cream in my life. That is the best ice cream. And then my best beverage, because I like to get fun little beverages – in Missoula, we went to this like butterfly tea place and they had a coffee milkshake. I’ve never had coffee ice cream in my life, I don’t even really like coffee that much, but they were like, “this is the best thing on the menu,” so I got it and it was phenomenal. My favorite part, they give you the extra ice cream that they didn’t use in a cup. So you get the milkshake and then you get the extra ice cream! And that was splendid, I loved that. So, ten out of ten, we’ve eaten a lot of good food but that’s my top three.
Do you have a favorite team memory?
My favorite team memory, it’s hard to pick. White water rafting was a standout, probably because my entire side of the boat fell into the river. That was really fun – thought I was gonna die for a second but then my head came up above water and Olaf was next to me because he had also fallen in and he was just like, “YEAH, THIS IS AWESOME!” and I was like, “okay, so I’m fine…” it was also very nice to just like float on the river, like they let us get out of the boats and just swim a little bit. It was very relaxing to just tummy float on the river and not be on the bike for a little bit. I really enjoy physical activities other than biking with the team, that’s super fun. But I also really like just having one-on-on time or smaller group time with people on the team, like, Neal, Logan, and I got lunch one day and that was super fun… running errands in the van, just getting to know my teammates a little better. Whenever we go camping, me and Olivia and Riddhima share a tent and we always tuck each other in every night! That’s a top-tier team memory… the teammate tuck-in.
Is there anything you’ve learned during the ride that you didn’t expect?
I feel like there’s two things I’ve learned… our planet is dying. I already knew that, but I feel like climate change is something that a lot of people don’t really think about unless they're actually seeing it, and I started thinking about it a lot more last summer when Champaign was super smokey from the wildfires in Canada. But we’re just kinda seeing it everywhere, especially with all the flooding in Minnesota that we had to route around and then our shuttle days in Montana and just in the West in general. We were showering at somebody’s house in Portland… and they were talking about how they schedule their summers around the wildfires now, and that’s just very sad to hear obviously, and makes me kind of darkly wonder how much longer this ride is gonna be possible. The I4K ride used to go a lot further south, and now we can’t really do that, we just had to adapt it and move further north because of the temperatures. So obviously this ride, biking across the US is not gonna be possible forever because of the way the climate is changing. So that’s a really huge thing to be thinking about, and it’s just been a heavier thought on my mind since we started biking. The other thing, on a happier note, is that people are really good! People are beautiful, I think we’re all kind of learning that. And I’m really happy to be doing this ride in an election year, weirdly, because I know that in the fall I”m gonna be very bummed out by the state of the world and hearing a lot of arguing, I’m sure. But for now, it’s really cool because we’re kind of just like traveling across the country and seeing all these people who really aren’t that different and who are all just really really kind. So I don’t know, it’s a very beautiful thing to know that people are so good and people will be nice, people are beautiful. So that’s a big takeaway, I’d say.
What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get home?
Well I think I need a haircut, because I can’t see! So unless I find a way to style it better, I will be getting a haircut very promptly. And past that, I’m in the same boat as Neal – I will be picking up my clarinet and never putting it down because less than a week after I get back to Champaign I have a memorization test for Marching Illini, so I will be memorizing all of my music. Yippee! I’m very very excited for marching band, however it is gonna be a lot of work in a very short period of time. But I’m pumped. This summer is the vacation, the work starts when I get home!
Anything else you want to talk about?
I’d like to give a shoutout to my Marching Illini sunglasses, which have made it through the ride – I guess I shouldn’t say that so soon, because we still have eleven days. But, I would like to say, I got those sunglasses for free my freshman year of the Marching Illini and they are still here! And everyone on the team is very confused as to how they’ve made it this far and how I’ve never bought a better pair of sunglasses! They’ve served me well.
(A reminder that any unfamiliar terms can be found in our handy I4K dictionary.)