CHANUTE — Bike Across Kansas arrived in Chanute Thursday afternoon for the third day of its annual trek.
The riders were to have arrived in Garnett Friday afternoon before reaching their final destination of Pleasanton on Saturday. Riders from all over the country have joined the tour to experience the beauty Kansas has to offer.
The tour began at the Colorado border and continued in Elkhart last Friday, June 9. Some of the towns the tour has stopped in included Satanta, Spearville, Stafford, Newton and Eureka. The trek covers 539 miles across nine days.
Theresa Vincent of Wichita was taking part in her fourth Bike Across Kansas after she began cycling in 2017. She always had a dream of being on the tour and trained to get to a point she could cycle longer distances. She usually rides her bike five times per week.
“Bike Across Kansas is a family. Coming back, everyone remembers your name or your face and it’s like a family reunion,” said Vincent. “You also get to meet new people. This is one of the bigger ones, the other ones I’ve done have been one or two day tours.”
The landscape of Kansas may trick people into believing the state is flat but Vincent knows better.
“Kansas is not flat when you’re on a bicycle. It may seem flat in a car but it’s certainly not flat on a bike,” she said. “It was almost desolate out west and now there’s more trees and hills. The terrain is so different from the west end to the eastern part.”
Vince Geiger hails from Columbia, Missouri and has been riding a bike most of his life. Geiger has also taken part in many individual tours including across the country, across Minnesota, the Oregon coast from Seattle to San Francisco as well as upstate New York.
One of Geiger’s upcoming tours will be through Europe, where he’ll start in Zurich, Switzerland and cycle up north to Amsterdam along the Rhine River. 
“I always say everything looks better on a bike no matter where you are,” said Geiger. “The people on this tour are super nice. I like small Midwest towns. They’re always fun. It’s something about being on your bike, the freedom and there’s not a care in the world. It’s been that way since I was a kid. Seeing the country and meeting new people is also fun.”
Geiger has enjoyed taking in what Kansas’ landscape has to offer and also enjoys that the riders on this tour are all into cycling.
“It’s not too crowded which is nice and it’s been relatively flat until the last few days,” said Geiger. “These are people really into riding, they aren’t just here to party and have a good time, they’re here to ride. The state has been really pretty.”
For Rick Syler of Ellsworth, this is his second Bike Across Kansas tour. His previous tour was in 2019, but since then Syler hasn’t had much free time, he said. He rides with his cousin who has done the tour seven times.
“Kansas looks a lot different from the seat of a bicycle at 10-15 mph,” said Syler. “Everything slows down. You hear the birds chirping and the crickets. It’s a great feeling to come across the state on your own power, not going 70 miles per hour down the interstate.” 
Conditioning for the Bike Across Kansas may be the toughest part of the ride.
