The main purposes of Ride America are pretty simple (albeit ambitious) and are as follows:
Connect the American ideals of freedom, individual exceptionalism, and the pursuit of happiness to cycling.
Eradicate the concept of “flyover country” by showing that there’s no shortage of amazing people and places in America’s rural areas.
Provide an information resource for literally anyone who’s interested to help them get out on a bike and feel included in the sport.
Showcase American athletes, artists and creators, of both past and present, and show how what they’ve accomplished connects to our lives and landscapes.
A platform for occasional discussion of bicycle-related legislation, and advocacy for expanded bicycle access on trails.
Who I am:
I'm Drake Murphy. I'm a 21 year old student at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, CA. I'm into botany and bike racing, and I aspire to take both paths as far as they go. I grew up in a redwood grove in Northern California and since I was a tiny kid I've been out on trails in the coastal mountains and the Sierra Nevada.
Why I wanted to create this:
For me, getting into cycling was fairly difficult. I found a lot of things to be intimidating, from learning how to do intermediate bike repair, descending at speed on rocky trails, to understanding cycling jargon.
Even after being heavily involved with my high school race team and growing up in the exact place mountain biking was invented, getting involved with serious riding was really hard for me. It took quite some digging to find fast people to chase down and to ride with, too. Learning the lingo took a long time, and finding out best practices usually came from trial and error (with the exception of a few tips from friends).
Even though it’s been quite a struggle to get involved with the sport for me, there are very few things I like more than going out for a ride on my bike. Pedaling over hill and dale not only gives me the immediate happiness of getting into contact with the world, but it also brings me long-term satisfaction from building fitness and chasing down my goals.
Cycling has helped me so much in improving my health and outlook on life. So, I want to show the place on earth I hold dearest what I love to do, how I do it, and why I do it. I want to try and persuade my fellow Americans to get out on a bike, whether they decide to ride a singletrack trail, a lonely country road, or a city street, and regardless of their beliefs, appearance, age, or gender.
I want to solely focus on the United States, not only because it’s my home and I truly believe in what it stands for, but also because I think getting out on bicycles lines up well with our culture of individuality and may be the elusive “healthy activity” that so many have been looking for. Furthermore, it's been fairly overlooked as a wonderful place to ride bikes, and I'd like to change that.
Of course, many of the bike rides featured here will be highly difficult for first-timers, but I’m going to include my routes so anyone interested can see what I've done and ride it themselves if they want to.
In Ride America, I wanted to create a platform to share what I think cycling really is all about: the idea of inalienable liberty and the pursuit of happiness, which is the essence of why I ride.
Ride America is a place where country music and cycling will share the same stage. It’s the place where heartland values and hurtling down trails will be given the same priority. And in time, I may be able to illustrate how to I’ve found true freedom in forests and on fire roads.
Up to this point in my life, I’ve been mostly limited to riding in California and Western Nevada, and my current stories about rides and races are heavily focused on these areas. That said, I’ve been scouring maps for new places to ride all over the United States, and I’m in the process of building a plan to visit them.
So whether you’ve never set foot on a pair of pedals or are racing professionally, you’re welcome and wanted here.
With that, read some stories, go out, get pedaling, be free, and be happy!