Rides We Like: The Longest Day Challenge 2021: North America

Cover photo is lifted from Rapha’s website. It does not belong to us.

(2021) At 11:31pm Sunday June 20th, summer will drop its bags in the foyer of the year and proclaim ownership of the house. It is that time of year again when the sun cracks the horizon in the northern hemisphere at 5:30am and dips westward fifteen hours later at 8:34pm. Adjust for residual illumination and a lighted sixteen hour ride is entirely possible. Welcome to Rapha’s Longest Day Challenge.

I’ll admit this is a challenge that has eluded me year after year. There have been ambitious plans to ride the 160 miles north to the Catskills into the town of Phoenicia where I would collapse at the reception desk of the Phoenicia Lodge. In my imagination I hope I provided enough information to automatically get carted to my room. This year any sort of ride will be acceptable, no doubt a fraction of possible miles compared to the desired distance. But that doesn’t stop the day dreams. 

This year has been an interesting one for sure. Spring riding events have populated the calendar next to races. We haven’t even explored the fundraisers and group rides stoking again. Before we all know it, the fall will be here to show summer the exit, and we’ll all be wondering how we missed so much. To shove as many miles into one day on the calendar might be the way to add diverse miles to an already askew year.

In prior years Rapha has hosted an event on the solstice, but this year there appears little - if any - information on The Longest Day. It would be inspiring to ride with fellow cyclists again for sixteen hours, but the lack of fiery training would have us collapsing well before the reception area in the Catskills. Making it to Port Jarvis would be a miracle in today’s fitness.

As it’s likely that June 19-20 is filled with hellacious race pace events, the notion of riding a possible 200 miles is not on many riders’ minds. But don’t overlook the potential. The options are endless. There’s the point-to-point option like our Catskills idea. There’s the trusty out-and-back, a risky prospect. And then there’s the laps approach. This sounds boring but is advantageous to fueling and repairs. The only downside is the closeness of the couch and cooler of freeze pops. Given that vaccination rates aren’t at eradication levels, people might be more inclined to subscribe to the laps model, preventing mingling with crowds or stores. 

Last year the Rapha North America Challenge provided five checkpoints for riders. These included pictures of: the bike and sunrise/ sunset, favorite snack and tunnel/ bridge, selfie with a city limit sign, bike and animal, and bike next to a highest point sign. Participants were required to submit three of the five checkpoints for consideration of prizes. Perhaps these are enough inspiration to get out there and ride as far as possible. 

Don’t worry about the Catskills idea. There have been dreams of riding it through the night during the winter solstice, a completely horrible idea until it is pointed out that some of the roads are seasonally closed at that time. Then again, riding for sixteen hours in the heat isn’t convincing either.