A group of student cyclists riding from Texas to Alaska while raising money for cancer have made a stop in the Border City.
Texas 4000 is a non-profit group run by students at the University of Texas. The group came into Lloydminster Monday evening with a police escort and stayed the night. The riders left Tuesday morning after being served a complimentary dinner and breakfast by the city’s Rotary clubs.
The 4,500-mile journey started in Austin, Texas and will end in Anchorage, Alaska with a pitstop each night. Rider Director Kyler Heintz says their mission is fighting cancer every mile and they do this firstly by riding through Canada and the United States, as well as fundraising and giving back.
“Each rider is responsible for fundraising $1 per mile that we ride so everybody is required to fundraise at least $4,500 before they go on this ride. In addition to fundraising, each rider is responsible for volunteering 50 hours in the Austin community. A lot of that takes place within the cancer community in Austin.”
There are three routes available for the riders and the stop in Lloydminster is the Ozarks route that sees the team riding through the America midwest. Heintz says the route was created because the midwest is heavily affected by cancer and they wanted to help change that.
“Part of our mission is to spread hope, knowledge and charity so while riding through the Midwest we go through Kentucky one state in particular that has the highest prevalence of cancer in the United States. We were able to visit a hospital and give what we call a program where we talk about simple facts about cancer and lifestyle changes that people can make.”
The 46 day of the 70 day ride has the students currently on their way to Vegreville where they will stay the night and then head to Edmonton Wednesday morning. Heintz says all 69 riders on each of the routes will end up in Anchorage together.
“We have a certain place to be every night. We have prescribed milages each day and we will meet up with the other two routes on day 60 of our ride so we will be able to ride the last 10 days together with the other riders of Texas 4000.”
For more information on the organization or to donate visit their website.