The nation’s largest statewide bicycle nonprofit throughout the state.
With a mission to improve lives through bicycling, we teach the joys of bicycling, advocate for safe places to ride, and produce world-class rides and events.
My history
I’m a Brazilian living in the USA for the past 25 years, since the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996.
Learn more about me and my history in Brazil and in the USA. You will see how big is my love for bicycles and for cycling around! In the end, don’t forget to make a donation for this project! Thank you!
At the end of 1995, Adilson Pedro Maria, who was 22 years old at the time, from Santa Catarina – South of Brazil, took his bicycle and left Itajaí, his hometown, to see the 1996 Olympics.
For seven months, he cycled through 17 Brazilian states and ten countries until he reached Atlanta. Since then, he has not returned to Brazil.
Twenty years later, he plans to take the same route, on the same bike, with the same objective: to see an Olympics, this time in Rio.
The first two days of the trip, I almost died. I was very tired. On the third and fourth days, I got used to it. I learned that every day you ride, the more preparation you get. In the end, it was like going to the bakery.
I left Itajaí by bicycle on December 9, 1995 and arrived in Atlanta, USA, on July 15, 1996.
I cycled about 100 km a day. I went through 15 capitals and 17 states. I visited ten countries. In total, I covered 15,320 km by bicycle, not including the plane and bus sections.
An uncle came up with the idea of the trip. He used to travel a lot from Curitiba to Itajaí by bicycle and joked that we could ride to the US to see the 1994 World Cup. We didn’t take it seriously, but he insisted.
I went to talk to the mayor, and he supported us. We did a project, but we didn’t get sponsorship in time. My uncle, who was 20 years older, gave up, and so did I. I taught tennis and thought about doing physical education.
Only the trip changed my plans. Brazil played the last friendly for the World Cup in Florianópolis. I got on my bike and went to the game, with no money for a ticket. It was 120 km away.
When I got there, they interviewed me just because I made this trip. And a citizen gave me the ticket. Everyone wanted an autograph and a photo. I said: “Then I’ll try to go to the Olympics in two years.”
My uncle didn’t want to know by bicycle anymore. But that fever of his passed on to me.
I invited a cousin. We made a trip to Florianópolis at the end of 1994 and another to Curitiba in May 1995 to be able to appear in the newspaper and become known. Even so, no one supported us.
I went to São Paulo to try to talk to some sponsors. At the time, I was studying at Yázigi, who gave me a Caloi bike for R$715. I went to Caloi and they didn’t even take me in.
The city hall in my city gave me R$1,000, and the Commercial Association of Itajaí, another R$500. My cousin had already given up. “If you don’t go, I’ll go alone,” I said. The other R$1,500 were from Yázigi. In each capital, I took R$ 100 with them.
I cycled along the coast. There were many cities, three months in Brazil, more than 6,000 km. In São Paulo, they stole my walkman and my watch. In Recife, I gave eight interviews.
On March 23, when I was taking a plane in Manaus, the girl who handed me the ticket said that there was a phone call for me. My sister found me and said that my mother, who had diabetes, had died. She said there was no point in going back.
When a person is dead, there is nothing else to do. So I continued the journey.
My mother didn’t want me to travel. She thought I might die. Aside from her death, the most difficult moment was climbing 48 km of the “Mountain range of death” in Costa Rica.
I slept in barracks. As my father is in the military, I got support from the police. I took a tent and spent 30 nights on the road. I ate lunch at restaurants and tried to eat more carbohydrates. I drank 600 liters of water on the trip, two liters a day. It wasn’t so much.
For the past two weeks, I’ve felt really bad in the saddle and tried to pedal without sitting down.
The easiest border to cross was that of the US. I just had to show all my luggage, and the dogs had to sniff it.
I arrived without speaking any English. I was stopped twice on the “freeway” because I can’t bike. The policeman was very nervous, and I didn’t understand anything. It said, “get off, get off”. He had the patience to find the expression in my dictionary so that I could understand that I had to look for another way out. It was very funny.
In Atlanta, I saw tennis and basketball games and had the pleasure of meeting Pelé, who was the minister of sport.
Yázigi gave me a ticket to return, but I didn’t want to. I met some Brazilians who gave me support, work, a place to live. And I stayed. I delivered pizza and was a construction assistant. Today, I wash the pool, car, and carpet. I got married twice, but I got divorced.
Now, 25 years later, I’m on the project to ride the legendary and classic Route 66, which cuts across the United States, from Chicago to Santa Monica, using the same bike. I’m going out in February of August. My family is already used to my craziness. The support this time is greater.
From: Folha de São Paulo Newspaper.
Learn a bit more about this legendary American route.
U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66, also known as the Will Rogers Highway, the Main Street of America, or the Mother Road, was one of the original highways in the U.S. Highway System. US 66 was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year.
With a mission to improve lives through bicycling, we teach the joys of bicycling, advocate for safe places to ride, and produce world-class rides and events.
Please help me do the Bicycle Route 66. Donate Now!