Texas 4000 for Cancer
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The Texas 4000 for Cancer or Texas 4000 is the longest annual charity bicycle ride in the world. Each year a new group of over forty cyclists, primarily students from the University of Texas at Austin, pedals 4,500 miles from Austin, TX to Anchorage, AK. Each rider raises at least $4,500 towards a collective goal to raise over $350,000 each year for the American Cancer Society and the MD Anderson Cancer Center. The cyclists also volunteer in hospital cancer units and provide hope and knowledge in communities across 17 states and provinces. To date the organization has raised over $1,000,000.
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[edit] Mission
The daily focus of the cyclists' trek is threefold: first, to use their personal experiences to bring hope to cancer patients they meet along the way; second, to educate others they meet about cancer; last, to urge everyone they meet to join them in their fight against cancer.
[edit] History
In 2004, Chris Condit, then a student at UT Austin, started Texas 4000 as a student organization. Condit was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma at age 11 and conceived Texas 4000 as a way to continue the fight against cancer. The ride is organized by student leaders and an increasingly large team of supporters and volunteers.
[edit] Routes
At the beginning of the trip, the cyclists split into two teams. One group of 20 riders, the Coastal team, heads west across New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California. The Coastal team then heads north through Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, the Yukon Territory, and into Alaska.
A second group of riders, the Rockies team, rides north through Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Alberta, British Columbia, and rejoins the Coastal team in the Yukon Territory. The combined team of roughly 40 cyclists completes the ride to Anchorage together.
[edit] ATLAS Ride
In 2005, the ride organizers conceived the ATLAS ride as an additional event and fundraiser. Each year, the community is invited to join the Texas 4000 cyclists for the first day's ride from Cedar Park, TX to Lampasas, TX. The ATLAS event has grown to several hundred participants who ride 50- and 70-mile routes.
