The Ride Was Never About the Ride

In 2021, a friend — a far better cyclist than I was — encouraged me to sign up for the Empire State Ride. Five hundred and sixty miles from Staten Island to Niagara Falls, seven days, in the heat of July. I could not get my head around it.

For months I trained: long hours on the indoor trainer through the winter, longer rides outside as the weather opened. I will admit it plainly — there were moments I genuinely wondered whether I would survive the week.

A Personal Journey

What I Found on the Road

What I discovered on that first ride was transformational. Yes, the days are long. Yes, the hills are real, the rain is real, the headwinds are real. But the ride itself, I came to understand, was almost beside the point.

It is about the work being done at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center — the cures being chased, the patients being treated, the families being given more time. It is about the cancer survivors who ride alongside you, some of whom return to their tents at night and hook themselves up to oxygen before sleep. Their courage rearranges what you thought you knew about hardship.

"I went looking for an endurance event. I found a community, a cause, and a reason to keep my legs strong for as long as they will carry me."

It is about the names written on jerseys and top tubes — the people who could not be there. It is about pedaling through pain that is, by any honest measure, a small fraction of what so many others have endured. It is about turning grief into mileage, and mileage into research, and research into time for someone you have never met.

That first year changed me. So I came back. And I keep coming back.

Chad Ewings · with family

In Memory & In Honor

For Chad Ewings

Every mile on every Empire State Ride is dedicated to Chad Ewings — a friend whose absence is felt on every climb and at every rest stop, and whose memory turns hard miles into something closer to prayer.

And for the survivors who ride alongside us — some hooked to oxygen at night, all of them stronger than they should have to be — thank you for showing the rest of us what courage looks like in cycling shorts.

Context & Chronicle

The Ride & Its Purpose

The Route

Seven days, 560 miles, from the ferry terminal on Staten Island to the thunder of Niagara Falls. Riders cross the Hudson, climb through the Catskills, roll the long flats of the Finger Lakes, and finish along the Erie Canal — the geography of New York State unspooling at the pace of a bicycle.

The Beneficiary

Every dollar raised supports Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo — one of the original NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers in the United States, and a global leader in immunotherapy and cancer research.

The Riders

A few hundred cyclists each year — survivors, caregivers, doctors, nurses, family members of those lost. There is no minimum age and no upper one. The riders are united less by athleticism than by reasons.

The Tradition

Tents go up in fairgrounds and high school fields. Each evening, riders gather to share why they are out there. Some speak; many cannot. The next morning, everyone gets back on their bikes anyway. It is, quietly, one of the most meaningful weeks of the year.