How Cycling 29,029 Vertical Feet During 24-Hour Summer Solstice Ride Is Helping Fight Homelessness
EVERGREEN, Colo. (CBS4)- Sunday morning was a great time to get outside and work up a sweat on a bicycle. That's what Corbin Clement and his friends AJ Sherer and Dillon Wilson did, among many others.
The only difference- those three started their ride at 8 p.m. Saturday.
"Hey, I'm tired," Corbin told his girlfriend, who joined him for a while.
"Are you?" she asked sarcastically. "It's not like you've been riding," she jokes.
The three men have been riding up and down Whitter Gulch Road and Squaw Pass in Evergreen over and over again.
"It's pretty. It's steep," says Corbin.
Corbin is "Everesting" for donations. That means he is using all of the daylight on the Summer Solstice to ride 29,029 vertical feet, the same height as the top of Mt. Everest. In all, he will ride over 178 miles in 24 hours. He roped AJ and Dillon into doing it with him.
The thing is, Corbin isn't the most experienced cyclist even in his own family. It was something that rubbed off on him. That title belongs to his father Kevin who has been waiting for this day for a while.
"My dad twisted my arm for a long time," Corbin says.
It took a pandemic for Corbin to finally come around, "I think it was right when ski resorts closed we were like, 'Well... we'll start riding bikes more.'"
Frank was so excited, he suggested Corbin sport his cycling team's colors. Corbin thought he would give it a shot.
"I was like,'Well... if I'm going to wear it, I should probably earn it," says Corbin.
That's because they both now ride representing Samaritan Cycling. A cycling team that raises awareness and money to help the families and individuals experiencing homelessness in the Colorado community.
To earn his stripes, Corbin put together this challenge. While he knows he will suffer, he thinks it is nothing compared to the struggle of experiencing homelessness.
At the halfway point Corbin says, "Everybody could use a nap but we are good."
