Hi everyone! This is me, your friendly neighborhood journalist - Valerie. This year I will be the one posting daily blog posts from our 2022 ride right here on the Illini 4000 website. So get settled, get excited, and get ready to follow along on our adventure!

The bike riding begins tomorrow, but for right now here are just some updates and photos from our first two days of traveling to NYC and getting ready to ride.

Our journey started bright and early with a 6 AM plane from Chicago to NYC. We made our way to our NYC stayover - St. Johns’s Lutheran Church in Manhattan - and spent the rest of the day unpacking the van, assembling bikes, and eating some of the famous New York pizza and bagels.

Next day started out with a visit to one of the Illini 4000 beneficiaries - the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. The generously provided breakfast for us and we got to meet and hear from two of their amazing researchers - Jose Reyes and Sophia C. Tintori who told us all about the cancer research they are doing.

Afterwards, the team explored the city and did some sightseeing.

The evening was spent in a very important team meeting going over the many practical details of our upcoming ride. We are all incredibly excited (if only just slightly scared) for tomorrow’s first day of riding. Thanks for tuning into our not-quite-first-day and stay tuned for further updates!

-Valerie