Some people flock to the Midwest in the summer to enjoy some combination of cooking, camping, fishing, baseball, beer or going to the beach. Others are just there for the ride.
On July 31, Sam Westby began a bike trip across Wisconsin that most people wouldn’t want to drive in a car. Over the next four days, the Fort Atkinson native and Ph.D. candidate at Northeastern University biked from the bottom to the top of the state — alongside his childhood friend Caleb — in just five days. The ride started in Beloit and ended with a plunge into Lake Superior.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
So, 430 miles later, how was Westby feeling?
“It was pretty relaxing.”
How could 430 miles be relaxing?
“There’s less pressure, less distance to cover, less to think about. So it just makes for a more fun trip rather than a put-your-head-down-and-crush-miles type trip.”
Long trips are nothing unusual for Westby. Last year, he set the Guinness World Record for most U.S. states visited via bike by a male by biking to eight states in 24 hours. Other journeys he’s taken include biking from Oregon to New Jersey in 2023 and taking on the Tour Divide, an annual bikepacking race that stretches roughly 2,700 miles.
So why Wisconsin? He enjoys his home state, and Westby saw the ride as an opportunity to use his platform to show off the Badger State.
“I live in Boston right now, and a lot of people out here couldn’t even tell you where Wisconsin is on a map,” he says. “It was also for the people living in Wisconsin. There were a lot of comments of ‘Oh, they were in my town,’ and that kind of thing is super exciting. If you live in a town of 400, I don’t think you’ll ever see that town featured on social media.”
Westby plans his rides out ahead of time, so there usually much that surprises him. However, there were a few Wisconsin staples that Sam and Caleb missed.
“We didn’t pass that many Kwik Trips or Culver’s,” he says. “I was a little sad. We didn’t pass a single Culver’s on my route that I made. I think I should have detoured.”
Another big reason for Westby returning to the land of cheese curds and beer was his friend Caleb, who has been getting into biking more and, according to Westby, is always down for anything.
“Yeah, it was definitely the biggest mileage [Caleb has] ever put in a week,” Westby says. “But he’s fit. He’s been riding his bike and loves the adventure. It kind of opened the doors for bigger trips in the future … we might do Lake Superior next year together, going circling around it.”
Westby got into cycling at a young age because of his parents, Chick and Kim, who he says always rode bikes when he was growing up. When Westby was 9 years old, the family did a four-day bike trip in Door County. In 2021, a year after Westby graduated from UW-Madison, he and Chick rode around Lake Michigan – roughly a 1,000-mile venture.
“After that, it just kept escalating into a pretty healthy obsession,” he says.
Looking ahead to the future, Westby has big plans. On Sept. 6, he’s going to attempt to bike through 18 states in seven days, which would give him the world record by a whopping four states. He’s set to start from the intersection of Georgia and South Carolina.
You can follow along with Sam’s world record attempt or the rest of his riding on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Facebook.
