The 37th annual North Shore Century bike ride took place on Sept 18. The 100-mile ride started at Dawes Park, looped up to Kenosha, Wisconsin, and then ended back in Dawes Park. Around 2,200 people attended the ride. Bikers can complete as much of the ride as they’d like, as well as go at any speed. The age range for this year’s ride spanned generations with people as young as seven and as old as 83. The younger ones mostly did shorter rides compared to the older and more experienced bikers. 

11th grader, Aiden Cooney has taken part in the ride a few times. In 2021, he finished 62 out of the 100 miles. 

“I’ve done the ride three times and have always enjoyed it,” Cooney said. 

One of the challenges that he faced was towards the end when he was on Sheridan and had to join in with the 100-mile bikers. Cooney mentioned it was fun to do a day-long bike ride, but something he disliked was how it got harder the further he rode. Cooney would be open to doing the bike ride again. 

President of the North Shore Century Alan Cubbage has been president for a year. His job as president is to be responsible for the business of the club. Each month, the club has a meeting where members bring in speakers to talk about bicycle-related activities. Cubbage was there on Sept. 18 signing certificates for people who had finished biking. But how many people actually finished the event? “Right around 2000,” said Cubbage. 

For Cubbage, planning the event is a “huge amount of organizational work.”  The group has 160 volunteers who are all members of the Evanston Bicycle Club. During meetings, the members plan routes, mark the ground with arrows and coordinate with the local police. They also plan so the riders have access to food and water. 

Each year, the riders have to pay a fee to join. The money that gets collected gets donated to different organizations. This year around $40,000 was collected, some organizations are the Evanston-based Center for Independent Futures, Orchard Village and Over the Rainbow.