The events will start and/or end at Chicago and St. Louis because these are the two most populous cities in and around the state of Illinois and also the largest cycling markets.

Based on a nominal target daily riding distance of 160 miles (the distance ridden on other similar cycling events), Moline and Vincennes are the largest towns the appropriate distance away to be the starting and ending towns for Chicago and St. Louis respectively.

Starting and ending in these cities (as opposed to very small towns) makes transportation the easiest for the most amount of people, especially people who either don't have a car, and allows for the greatest number of necessary services to be available such as hotels, restaurants, and hospitals. In addition at least one long distance public transportation service (train, bus, etc.) is available in every town.

The route will go from west to east because the prevailing winds are generally out of the west and also the sun will not be in your eyes at the end of ride when you're more tired and less able to concentrate. Participants from the Chicago area will be able to ride all the way home, and participants from the St. Louis area will be able to depart from their home!

Supported Hotels
Our specific supported hotels were chosen primarily based on their proximity to the major transportation hubs in each town. Participants travelling via long distance public transportation (train, bus, etc.) will be able to easily walk between the supported hotel and all transportation hubs in every town.

• Click Here for more information about our policies and procedures about our supported hotel.

Route Opening and Closing Times
The route will officially open with a group departure around sunrise at 5:30 am and close at 8:30 pm around sunset in order to give you the absolute maximum amount of daylight and time to complete the event. Participants may not depart before the route opens.

• Click Here for our policies regarding riding at night.

We will provide our on road support services during the times the rest stops and routes are officially open.

• Click Here for our more information about our on road support services.

Roads and Traffic
Because we need to assure that the highest number of participants can complete the event during daylight hours, minimizing the length of the route was a priority in road selection. In addition, because we expect that our participants will be avid, experienced cyclists they will be comfortable riding in heavy traffic (including heavy trucks at highway speeds). Accordingly, a large percentage of the route will occur on heavily travelled roads, particularly state and U.S. highways, because these roads generally follow the shortest, most direct routes between the starting and stopping towns.

• Click Here for more information about the types of roads and bike paths the route will follow.

In heavier traffic it will be best to ride with other participants whenever possible because you will be more visible in a group and therefore safer.

• Click Here for more information about our riding policies and procedures.

Rest Stops
There will be 5 supported rest stops on the route.

Because your legs will be fresh and you will have plenty of energy, the rest stops will be further apart at the beginning of the ride because you won't need to stop as much. We realize that if the first rest stop is too close to the start you may not even stop at all.

The distances between the rest stops will will generally decrease along the route (their frequency will increase) as you naturally get more fatigued and need more frequent breaks.

• Click Here for more information about our rest stops.

Riding Paces and Rest Stop Times
Information about specific riding paces and rest stop opening and closing times and is posted under the information for each event.

• Click Here for more information about planned riding paces.
• Click Here for more information about rest stop opening and closing times and transportation to the end.

Lunch
Even though we will not provide a separate lunch other than our rest stop items, there will be plenty of places along the route to stop at for lunch. However we only recommend stopping for lunch if you're absolutely positive that doing so will not interfere with your ability to depart the rest stops by their closing times.

• Click Here for more information about our food and beverages.