Constable: Golden Gate finish beckons for Libertyville cyclist
Libertyville resident Maggie Piazzi's dream of bicycling 4,711 miles across the country to honor her father and other survivors and victims of cancer hit a snag on Day One.
“My train was canceled, so I had to take a bus to Toledo,” says the 20-year-old Piazzi. She caught a train in Ohio to take her the rest of the way to New York City. In transit for more than 23 hours, she arrived in time to leave Central Park with her fellow bicyclists on May 21. “We started with 60-some miles that first day,” she says, adding that New York has “some ginormous hills.”
Today, a jubilant Piazzi should pedal across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and into the arms of her happy family. About 20 cyclists, all students or recent graduates at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, are expected to complete the pilgrimage and raise more than $110,000 as part of the Illini 4000, a nonprofit organization begun in 2007 to raise money for cancer research and patient-support services and to document the American cancer experience through a collection of stories.
“I didn't know anyone going into the ride. Now I have so many close friends from this ride, and that's awesome,” Piazzi says.
Her inspiration for the journey is her 57-year-old father, Chris Piazzi, president of Mundelein Community Bank, a branch of Libertyville Bank & Trust. Diagnosed in 1996 with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a rare, chronic and potentially serious bile duct disease, he had a kidney removed in 2015 after doctors found cancer. On Feb. 27, 2017, he underwent a successful liver and kidney transplant at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He remains cancer-free.
“I wanted to do it for him, other survivors, and all those who died,” says Maggie Piazzi, who volunteered to donate part of her liver before doctors determined that her father needed organs from a cadaver.
“It's everybody else who is inspiring,” Chris Piazzi says, pausing between words to gather his emotions. “Somebody had to die for me to live.”
The family support from his wife, Katie, their son, John, 29, and their daughters, Katie, 25, and Maggie, was buoyed by relatives, friends, neighbors, co-workers and the 20 or so riders in the Illini 4000.
“We are so proud of our daughter, but she's not the only one,” Chris Piazzi says. “It takes a village.”
Other local riders include Nick Fishburn and Mandy Tainter of Palatine, Justin Hauter and Mike Rotter of Naperville, Phil Kagebein of Mundelein, Hitarth Patel of Lindenhurst, Paul Latreille of Glenview, Matthew Niewiara of Elmhurst, Lauren Sargeant of Park Ridge, Caroline Bair of Downers Grove, Emma Ritz of Northbrook, Alex Timmons of Highland Park, and Aaron Beliles and Elias Martin of Plainfield.
“The adrenaline would get you halfway there,” Maggie Piazzi says of the grueling schedule that saw riders often do 90 miles or more in a day. The group would bike from five to nine consecutive days before taking a day off to rest. Nearly every night, they camped or slept in churches and YMCAs. They biked through New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Oregon before reaching California. They rode in a van a couple of times when risky heat and wildfires made biking impossible.
“Iowa and Nebraska were the toughest,” Maggie Piazzi says.
In addition to facing strong headwinds in those states, she recalls how the scenery improved once they pedaled into Colorado, with wheat fields lining the road. “It's so golden and it blends with the blue sky, and then you see the mountain peaks,” she recalls. “Everybody cried tears of joy. We made it.”
Today's finish will be emotional, too, says Chris Piazzi, who will meet his daughter at the finish line, then spend a few days celebrating with their entire family and relatives who live in the area.
“To have him see me do this and be a survivor is so important to me. I have an image of me with tears just rolling down my face,” Maggie Piazzi says. “I'm going to be a waterworks out there. I'm sure he's going to cry, too, because he's a softy.”