Breaking the Cycle: $21k in 21 Days

3 min. Read • Posted 10/04/2017

An audacious plan to ride 1,600 miles in 21 days to raise money for some truly deserving charities.

In my early riding days as a wide-eyed, 21-year-old triathlon trainee, a good friend reached out to ask if I wanted to bike from Iowa City back to our homes in the northwest suburbs of Chicago – roughly a 250-mile one-way trip. Initially shocked and bewildered, I dismissed the idea. But after a few weeks of regular updates on his other biking adventures, I realized that the seemingly daunting effort of a multi-day ride, traversing the corn fields of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois, was exactly what I needed.

I came to my senses, we made the trip and it is by far one of the best memories I have of my early biking days.

Fast forward to the present day and my social media feeds are flooded with stories and images of similarly daunting, multi-day biking trips from around the world. This only serves to make me yearn for the chance to seek out another adventure, or at least live vicariously through others, who make untold sacrifices to go on biking pilgrimages, whether just for fun, the challenge or a good cause.

Breaking the Cycle

Enter three courageous men who just last month made a truly admirable sacrifice for several great causes on the Break the Cycle ride.

An audacious plan

Their plan was to start at the headwaters of the mighty Mississippi at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, and ride 21 days to the mouth of the Mississippi in Venice, Louisiana; a 1,600-mile journey.

Break the Cycle’s goal is to raise $21,000 for 21 families and use each day’s ride to highlight three charities – The Child Abuse Council, Bethany for Children & Families, and Alternatives for the Older Adult – and the way they support each family in need.

Over the course of their adventure on each day’s ride, the trio have focused on an individual person or family to support. Through the use of personal videos, pictures, and stories on Facebook, the Break the Cycle team highlighted each family’s challenge and how the money will be used for their support.

They completed their ride on September 30, dipping their bikes into the Gulf of Mexico. This ride was truly a testament to an unselfish trio of riders that wanted to address and support so many families and bring attention to three incredible non-profit organizations. They raised well over $21,000 and have provided priceless attention to current issues that plague our society throughout the country.

You can find more information about Break the Cycle here, or donate to their GoFundMe page here.

UPDATE:

As of October 5th, the Break the Cycle team raised a total of $108,494 – that's over five times their initial goal of $21,000. Congratulations to all involved!

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