Inside the grueling 24-hour ‘Day Across Minnesota’ bike race

CATHY WURZER: While many of you were likely relaxing outside and enjoying the beautiful weather this past weekend, hundreds of people embarked on a grueling endurance-testing bike ride. It's known as the Day Across Minnesota. Bikers geared up at midnight Saturday on the Minnesota South Dakota border and had just 24 hours to get to the border with Wisconsin.

That's 240 miles, people, meaning riders had to bike at least 10 miles an hour to make it under the time cap. Yikes. NPR photojournalist Ben Hovland was there to capture the ride for all 24 hours, and he joins me right now. Ben, what were you thinking? I mean, this sounds like this is way too hard.

BEN HOVLAND: Well, you know, for 400 starters, they didn't think it was too hard. It was a blast, Cathy. Basically, people started in Gary, South Dakota, which is just across the border, and rode all the way to Hager City, Wisconsin.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, my gosh. So this is obviously a very popular thing.

BEN HOVLAND: Yeah, absolutely. You know what, registration sold out in four hours when it opened in January.

CATHY WURZER: Wow, OK. Did you have a chance to talk to anybody?

BEN HOVLAND: I sure did. Here's what one of the riders, Steven Wilson, had to say when I asked him why he wanted to start his fourth time across Minnesota.

STEVEN WILSON: I've done it three times before, managed to somehow get to the finish line on all those occasions. Nothing's guaranteed, though.

BEN HOVLAND: Why? Why do this?

STEVEN WILSON: You know, it's-- in a way, it's fun. It's definitely a challenge, so you know, you're not proving anything to anyone but yourself, but there's something to be said for that. Just proving to yourself what you can do if you put your mind to it.

BEN HOVLAND: So starters ranged in age from 11 years old to 84. And, you know, the 11-year-old didn't actually complete the entire course, but she still made it 121 miles, a feat her parents dubbed the day across half of Minnesota.

CATHY WURZER: Well, she put me to shame, let me tell you. So I've never heard of this race before. How did it get started?

BEN HOVLAND: Great question. The race is organized by a person named Trenton Raygor, and he actually has been organizing a smaller bike race, a gravel bike race in Southern Minnesota called the Filthy 50. He's been doing that since 2013. But several years ago, he got thinking about designing this route that would go across Minnesota and wanted to give it a try. And here's what he had to say about it.

TRENTON RAYGOR: I initially created the route, the 240 mile route to ride with my father over the course of like, three days. And he and I were going to do it together. And in 2016-- and I told my wife, I said, you know, I'm going to go out and we're going to ride this-- ride across the state on my birthday weekend.

And she goes, your birthday is a day. It's not a weekend. You get a day. And so I talked to my dad and I said, Dad, like, I get a day, right. And he's like, I can't do it in a day. So I asked my friend Robert Hess and my friend Karl Newberg if they would join me instead.

BEN HOVLAND: Right. So that September day, the three of them, they sailed across the state in under 15 hours. It was enough of a rush for Raygor that, you know, when he was telling this to me, his buddy Rob turned him and said, you've got to do something with this course. So over the winter, he put out an invitation for riders to come and join him next August. And in 2017, 150 riders lined up at midnight in Gary for the first official edition.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, my gosh. OK, I know you are an avid cyclist, and I've had the great, good fortune to ride a bike with you, which was really fun. I know that you are really good at this, but how in the world would you prepare for something like this? I mean, yes, physically, but also mentally.

BEN HOVLAND: Yeah, a great question. You know, there's actually a lot more to it than just riding a ton of miles. Several riders, they told me they had actually already gone and ridden 200 miles. But others told me that they actually practiced riding at night. So the midnight start means that racers are riding for just about six hours in pitch darkness. And so that takes a lot of practice and skill.

Also, some pre-rode the final sections of the course into Hager City. So the last few miles are actually some of the toughest. They take you through the bluff country down near Cannon Falls and into Red Wing. So they knew ahead of time that they needed to mentally prepare for those toughest sections of the course.

CATHY WURZER: And if I'm not-- well, I'm familiar with the Hager city area. There's some gravel there, too. I mean, and you say it's hilly. I mean, it can be kind of tough.

BEN HOVLAND: Yeah, exactly. Actually, I'm not sure of the exact figure, but the vast majority of the entire route is on gravel roads. So that's another factor you have to deal with, you know, the right tire choice, the right tire pressure as well as to make sure that you have the best grip on these roads.

CATHY WURZER: We only have a couple of minutes left here. I want to ask you about the bikers. I mean, they have to take breaks, right? I mean, at least bio breaks, have to fix their bikes, maybe. I mean, this is a 24 hour race. So who's helping them?

BEN HOVLAND: Great question. A lot of the riders-- most of the riders have support teams. And they are allowed to rendezvous with the riders at three self-designated checkpoints along the route. And those support teams are huge. It really takes a village for these individual riders to make it all the way across. So at these checkpoints, they stopped and got food, got water, changed their clothes, all of that.

How are your legs feeling?

ANTHONY WILSON: Legs are fine.

BEN HOVLAND: It's just the saddle?

ANTHONY WILSON: Yeah.

BEN HOVLAND: Or your--

ANTHONY WILSON: Just my butt hurts. My butt hurts a lot. A lot.

BEN HOVLAND: I got some Skittles if you want some Skittles.

ANTHONY WILSON: Nice.

BEN HOVLAND: Yeah. So that--

CATHY WURZER: Skittles are always good.

BEN HOVLAND: Yeah, yeah, exactly. That was rider Anthony Wilson stopping at the halfway checkpoint. And, yeah, you're right. Skittles fueling is one of the most importance of the race. Like, riders consume thousands of calories throughout the day.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, my gosh. OK, so what would you say was the biggest challenge that riders were facing?

BEN HOVLAND: Besides making sure that they had enough energy to get across the line, I would say the mental barrier of pushing your body, asking your body to keep going. The riders were out there for, some, up to 23 hours. And just to keep pushing your bicycle over and over really takes a lot of mental fortitude.

SPEAKER: I had a really hard time staying awake.

BEN HOVLAND: Yeah.

SPEAKER: At the first beginning part. I like, had to stop and--

BEN HOVLAND: Just chill for a second?

SPEAKER: Yeah, I like set a timer on my phone to the [INAUDIBLE], so like the timer would play on my headphones to wake me up so I didn't fall asleep. That part was really hard.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, my gosh. I can't even imagine that. Yikes. So did the winner of the race get anything for all this grief and pain?

BEN HOVLAND: There's no prize money. There's no tour de France glory. I think the first finishers in some of the categories got a plaque. But really, it's the satisfaction of knowing you did something incredibly, incredibly difficult.

CATHY WURZER: Wow. Well, that is one heck of a story you told, my friend. Thank you so much, and I bet you took pictures, too, didn't you?

BEN HOVLAND: Yeah, definitely. You can check them out on mprnews.org.

CATHY WURZER: And you are a fine, fine photographer, Ben. Thank you.

BEN HOVLAND: Thanks so much, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: That's MPR photojournalist, Ben Hovland.