Biking Across Kansas coming to town, sort of

This year's route for Bike Across Kansas. Click image to enlarge. Image from Biking Across Kansas via Kansas Cyclist.

Bike Across Kansas, the state's pre-eminent cross-country cycling event (Randy notes that more than 800 riders will be participating), begins next week. Over at Kansas Cyclist, Randy has a nice preview of the route and points of interest along the way. You can find more, including updates on the event as it happens, at the BAK website.

As you can see on the map (here's the Google Map for more detail), the route comes quite close to Wichita this year, stopping on the evening of Tuesday the 9th in Halstead (on U.S. 50 just west of Newton) and then, on Wednesday the 10th, passing through Sedgwick, Furley, Towanda, and El Dorado on the way to that evening's stop at Eureka. If I were not teaching on Wednesday, I'd head out there somewhere to see the riders pass by and see if maybe, just maybe, I get inspired to ride with them next year. After all, if 10-year-olds and people in their 70s can complete the ride (as has happened in the past, then surely I . . .

If some of you are able to, head on out to some place along their route and give 'em an Atta boy/Atta girl.