A bicycle ride across Nebraska, also known as BRAN, had its starting point in Alliance on June 5, with the riders riding from Alliance to Wahoo, Nebraska, from June 5-11, a 424-mile journey that has overnight stays in seven different towns.
Every 10 to 15 miles, the ride has checkpoints called S.A.G.’s, which stands for support and gear. Riders can stop to refuel on snacks and water, and check their health to see if they can continue the long ride across Nebraska.
Doug Scherlie was at the first pit stop. He is the Director of BRAN who helped set up the pit stop for the bicycle riders for their first S.A.G. of the day.
“This will be the 40th annual year for BRAN. It started in 1980 and has had delays since Covid-19.
We felt as if it wasn’t safe enough to risk putting any of the people in towns in jeopardy because we draw such a large crowd from all over the continental United States,” said Doug Scherlie.
This year they had two participants from Canada since the borders opened back up and individuals from 30 different states. One of the riders, Al Roeden, who resides in Omaha, has participated in the BRAN since it first started.
“I ride in these because of habit, people, good people, scenery of different sorts that you won’t find in Omaha. It’s just gratifying for me,” said Roeden.
Also, among those riding were a couple Teri Mauch and David Sweeney, from Omaha, who ride in BRAN and similar events to take time out of their busy work lives.
“This is our trip together every summer. Whether it’s Tour de Nebraska or Cycle Oregon, it’s a time when we can just get away and be together. We both work really hard, so this is nice. I’m a pediatric nephrologist, the division chief at children’s in UNMC. David works in an emergency room in Salt Lake City. David commutes home back and forth, but we work hard, so it’s nice to take time off and be away from everything for a week,” said Mauch.
BRAN started as a project from the northwest rotary to help conserve and educate the community. Many of the members were teachers and the first ride started in Omaha and went west.
“After that first year’s experience, BRAN learned an essential fact: that the predominant winds in Nebraska came from the west. The second year that all changed, and at that point, they started realizing they had some cash to work with. They founded the idea of donating a scholarship to each of the overnight towns. That tradition is kept true today,” said Scherlie.
The whole idea about BRAN is its bike riders helping bike riders.
“They’re all family,” said Scherlie.
The northwest rotary was diminishing in members. They started out with 200 members and the membership dropped down to 25 members. They decided it was time for the members to consider giving up the BRAN ride because they couldn’t support it.
Financially it was in good standings. They offered it to the Omaha peddlers bicycle club and Omaha took it over in 2019. They have been running it ever since.
“BRAN has had a long history of helping students get scholarships. It’s not necessarily only for college. Not to talk down on trades or anything like that because we include trade schools. If we have a gentleman or a lady that wants to become a welder and wants to take the scholarship money and buy equipment to learn, we allow that. It’s not just mandated that you have to go to one of the top schools in the state, but the only thing we do regulate on that is that it has to be Nebraska. They don’t allow it to go across the borders,” said Scherlie.
BRAN brings people from all over the United States and even different countries they all come together to enjoy their passion for bicycling.