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An announcement:

Unfortunately, we will be unable to formally announce the dates of this summer’s ride until April 15. Until then, keep following our posts and stay tuned for more information!

Thanks,
Mike

Hello friends!

It’s great to be back working on getting ready for Biking for Babies 2011! Thank you once again to everyone who has helped support the pro-life cause through B4B in the past whether it has been through financial support, prayers, lodging, media contacts, etc.

We hope that, with the increased magnitude of the ride this year, that we can provide a further increase in awareness and financial aide to the pro-life movement.

This summer, four of us–Jimmy Becker, Eric Johannigmeier, Stacy Hague, and myself–will ride the entire distance from New Orleans, Louisiana to the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois in just 7 days–totaling 870 miles, or about 125 miles each day.

Proceeds will go towards the on-going pro-life efforts of Living Alternatives Pregnancy Resource Center and Students for Life of Illinois–both located in Champaign. We will also be riding for another pregnancy resource center that is being built in Wisconsin–A Women’s Care Center.

Training on the bike commenced for myself this past weekend (compared to a usual schedule composed of  just running and lifting)–riding 180 miles from Champaign to my home in Freeburg, Illinois. It was pretty exhausting! It took me just over 10 hours and 11000 calories! Phew.

Please continue to help the pro-life cause through whatever way you can–keep the ride and the riders in your prayers as our training continues to build up for our summer ride!

Stay tuned for videos, the other riders’ training blogs, ordering t-shirt info and other important B4B information!

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory with the glory to be revealed in us.”–Romans 8:18

Stacy and I finally rolled into Aurora, IL last night around 6:30p.m. Thanks to everyone who was able to make it out to welcome our arrival at the Planned Parenthood. Good luck to Team Wisconsin which begins their trek today, leaving St. George’s in Aurora and making their way out to Moline.

Yesterday’s ride, on my part, was one of the toughest. Extremely strong winds of 20 something mile per hour head winds made it very slow going from the Newman Center at Bradley in Peoria to Planned Parenthood in Aurora. Stacy and I were able to maintain pretty good pace along the Great River Road where we were able to hide from the wind behind John Paul’s car and the Illinois River bluffs. Her brother Brian Hague, who joined us starting in Champaign rode the second half of yesterday’s ride with us–his presence was a great boost to morale!

Traffic entering the outer suburbs definitely got a bit crazy compared to the mostly un-trafficked country roads or secondary highways that we’d been traveling on the majority of the trip. Speaking for myself, it’s always a bit of a rush though–dodging cars with the excitement of your final destination!

While riding along somewhere in the middle of the trip it was a huge surprise to have my buddy Joe Puhr coincidentally drive right past us on his way back to U of  I! Crazy, small world.

Once again, thanks to everyone who made the ride possible for Team Illinois–Stacy and her brother, John Paul for driving and other admin jobs, Rose Schmallen for some really good videos she made (please check those out!) and putting up with moving at a snail’s pace in the car for many parts, the Brummers, my parents, the Daystar Community Center in Cairo, and the Newman Center at Bradley for housing and feeding us, and also the Newman Center at EIU for feeding us; and great thanks to those who prayed and supported the pro-life movement financially! You can still donate and keep Team Wisconsin in your prayers this week as they’ll be finishing in Champaign on Friday!

Finished up day 3 of riding here in Champaign this afternoon. I think I may be speaking for Stacy too when I say that mustering up the motivation to get on the bike this morning was more than a challenge after being forced to cut yesterday’s ride short due to “unfavorable” conditions. Just to recap–yesterday we only got in 77 of the 114 miles due to 30+mph headwinds, driving rain, and temperatures dipping into the low 40s. Veteran cyclist Frank Brummer, at whose house we stayed at called the day “the most miserable he’s ever experienced riding”. Well, I guess it will work. The pro-life students at the Newman Center at EIU put together a great lunch of spaghetti for us–thank you to them. We experienced some nasty headwinds again this morning until lunch which made relatively slow-going–about 15 or 16 mph for the first 40 miles. The head wind turned into a moderate cross wind in the afternoon which allowed us to ride around 19-21 mph for most of the afternoon back up here to Champaign. Special thanks to our driver John Paul for blocking the wind for us in his car.

Highlights to mention from day 3: great breakfast by Cathy Brummer in Teutopolis/T-Town, sunny day, below freezing temps for first couple hours of riding, great lunch at EIU, nice weather and good riding speed from EIU to Champaign, supper with donors Hank and Tess Wilkinson, a few positive signs of encouragement from passing drivers, and a few negative ones along with that.

Tomorrow, we’re riding to Bradley University in Peoria. Stacy’s brother will be joining us for the last two days. 40 Days for Life ends at the end of this week so keep that in your prayers as well!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

We finished up our first day of riding today, covering the 132 miles or so between Cairo, Illinois’ southernmost city, and my house in Freeburg. Stacy was pressing hard all day on the pedals, dragging me along it seemed, especially on the uphill sections–which there were a lot of for a good portion of the ride.

Highlights to mention: A dead beaver the size of a platypus south of Cairo (we took a 3 mile detour to truly begin at the state line of Illinois and Kentucky), maxed out at somewhere between 45 and 50 miles per hour on a couple of separate occasions, great driving by John Paul and very great video making by Rose, 3 hecklers, a couple of signs of positive encouragement (special thanks to Rose for her great B4B sign we tacked onto the back of the car), great tailwind for a large portion of the day, my buddy Tim for joining us for the last 20 miles, great weather with a high in the upper 60s, sunny, and a great supper put on by my mom and dad when we arrived at home.

Tomorrow we start off with a mass and special blessing by my parish priest, Father Mark Reyling, then we roll out of Freeburg headed for Teutopolis, just east of Effingham where we’ll be met by the wonderful Brummer family. Weather is looking to be on the sour side with headwinds and rain. We’ll have to see!

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed in any way so far! Keep us in your prayers and check out Rose’s great video covering Day 1!