GRAND RAPIDS — Connor Stefan is not a cyclist. He wanted to make that clear.
But on Sept. 20, he rode his bike loaded with 70 pounds of gear into his hometown of Grand Rapids. He had spent 38 days pedaling over 2,700 miles from Seattle through mountains, plains and strong headwinds.
He did it to raise awareness and funds for men's mental health.
"(Men) kind of bottle it all up," Stefan said on a recent Bright Spot segment on the KAXE Morning Show. "And what I've found over the years, because I've dealt with the same type of things ... [is] going out and doing something pretty hard — something that kind of puts you out of your comfort zone — makes all those daily stressors that you build up inside of you a lot easier. Just because you went out and did this crazy hard thing."
He started a GoFundMe to support his trip and Movember, a nonprofit organization that focuses on suicide prevention and mental health intervention. The organization also funds research and awareness aimed at prostate and testicular cancer.
Stefan started each day of his bike ride as early as possible to beat the heat and the wind.
"I'd never biked over a mountain," Stefan said. "And I get there and it's an 8% grade for 10 miles, it's raining, and ... I don't know how I got through it, but I did."
You might assume that once he was out of the mountains, it would be smooth sailing across the plains. But the wind had other ideas.
"The whole time, I was dealing with headwind. I was like, 'I'd rather go climb mountains again,'" Stefan said, noting he didn't go above 8 mph for eight days.
Most of the time, Stefan felt safe while riding. He described an incident in which he came close to crashing when his gear hanging from his front wheel wasn't properly balanced and he got "speed wobbles."
"I was about one wobble away from crashing at 25-30 mph," he explained.
Stefan rode into Grand Rapids, where he grew up and currently lives, on Sept. 20.
"I had a big bunch of people just kind of cheering me on coming in," he said. "I was really just happy to be done and just really happy to not be sitting on a bike seat for the next couple of days."
Donations for Stefan's cause, Riding to Break the Silence #RID2LIV, are still being accepted.
Listen to our full conversation above!
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