Surviving the world's toughest bike race

This is what it looks like when one man attempts the grueling 3,000-mile Race Across America — for the third time

Kathryn Krawczyk
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(Bryan Cereijo)The goal was to cross the finish line in Annapolis, Maryland, in just shy of two weeks. This goal had evaded him twice already: In 2011 he made it to Manchester, Ohio, and in 2014, he was forced to stop at West Union, West Virginia.But for his third attempt, Reeves, an airline pilot and co-owner of a bike shop in Florida, had a new source of motivation: This year, he was racing with 3,000 Miles to a Cure, which raises money for brain cancer research."[The Race Across America] is about the dumbest thing to ever try, let alone three times," Reeves said before embarking on his latest attempt. "In a lot of ways, it relates directly to our fight against cancer. It's never easy, often frustrating, but the only way to really fail is to give up. So in RAAM, as in the cancer fight, we haven't failed, we just haven't won yet."

(Bryan Cereijo)

(Image credit: (Bryan Cereijo)Racers are typically followed in cars by a small crew. Last year, Bryan Cereijo, a photojournalism student at Syracuse University, tagged along with Reeves' six-person team, ca)

(Image credit: (Bryan Cereijo))

(Image credit: (Bryan Cereijo)This year, Reeves will take off across America again, but this time, he'll be working the other side of the race. Some of his road crew members, bikers themselves, will be part)

Kathryn Krawczyk
Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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