Please note: To receive our discounted member rates, log-in to our membership portal.

Not sure if your membership is current? You can also log on to check! (Any questions, email us at info@rideillinois.org.)

Rates:

Six-Day Tour, Sunday – Friday

• Single Occupancy Hotel Rooms: $1,275 (Member rate: $1,240)
• Double Occupancy Hotel Rooms: $965 per person (Member rate: $930 per person)

Three-Day Tour Option, Maroa- Springfield- Maroa (Sunday -Tuesday):

• Single Occupancy Hotel Rooms: $690 (Member rate: $655).
• Double Occupancy Hotel Rooms: $585 per person (Member rate: $550 per person)

Three-Day Tour Option, Maroa- Champaign- Maroa (Wednesday -Friday):

• Single Occupancy Hotel Rooms: $645 (Member rate: $610)
• Double Occupancy Hotel Rooms: $565 per person (Member rate: $530 per person)

If you wish to have a double occupancy room, and do not have a roommate, you must register for the single occupancy option and indicate you desire us to help you find a roommate. If we are able to find a roommate for you, we will refund the incremental fee.

*Please note that our online registration system allows for credit card users to donate the amount of credit card processing fees to Ride Illinois. PayPal does not have an option to donate processing fees.

Questions? Email gibt@rideillinois.org.

Please read our cancellation and refund policy below. It reflects stricter group cancellation policies now common at hotels. Be sure to get trip insurance!

The ride is limited to 140 hotelers.

Registration will open online November 1, 2023 or email us to request a PDF registration form.

For the first time, we will have a Grand Illinois Bike Tour jersey! These will be sold for $70 each and will have to be ordered when you register.

We will have both women’s and men’s sizing! You can choose small through XXL.

Please note that, to place a jersey order, you will choose the appropriate “Event Session.”

The tour begins and ends at Maroa Forsyth High School, with free parking for the week and post-ride showers available on Friday. Overnight stops will be in Springfield (two nights), Forsyth (one night) and Champaign/Urbana (two nights).

On each of the four days when we move to a new town, we offer a basic route of 46-54 miles with longer options of 62-77 miles. Ride at your own pace on quiet, rural roads and some paved trails. Enjoy plenty of time each day to explore the small towns and attractions along the route and in our overnight host towns.

The second and fifth days will be layover days, during which you can explore sites and other local attractions, choose between the route options we provide, or just enjoy the days however you wish.

Preliminary Route Mileages (subject to change)
Day 1: Maroa to Sprigfield
Basic Route – 52.0 miles, +705 ft climbing (hotel)
Long option – 75.2miles, +1153 ft climbing (hotel)

Day 2: Layover in Springfield
Springfield Trails Route – 53.9 miles, +806 ft climbing (hotel)
Springfield to New Salem – 56.8miles , +1389 ft climbing (hotel)

Day 3: Springfield to Forsyth
Basic Route – 54.1 miles, +995 ft climbing (hotel)
Long Route – 77.0 miles, +1503 ft climbing (hotel)

Day 4: Forsyth to Champaign
Basic Route – 51.3 miles, +991 ft climbing (hotel)
Long option – 74.6 miles, +1578 ft climbing (hotel)

Day 5: Layover day in Champaign/Urbana
Champaign to St. Joseph on the Kickapoo Trail – 26.3 miles, +360 ft climbing (hotel)
Champaign to Homer Lake – 51.8 miles, +793 ft climbing (hotel)

Day 6: Champaign/Urbana to Maroa
Basic Route – 46.8 miles, +903 ft climbing (hotel)
Long option – 62.0 miles, +1077 ft climbing (hotel)

Navigation 

Since 2022, we have successfully switched our primary navigation method from paint-marks to RideWithGPS – supplemented with printed cue sheets and overall segment maps. Smartphone-based RideWithGPS provides audio instructions for navigation with the ability to add other cues about rest stops, points of interest, etc. Because it uses GPS signals, which are everywhere, it will work for you in places of poor cell phone coverage, too.

We will continue to help our riders make the switch to RideWithGPS, with steps including:

• Editing RideWithGPS’ default audio cues for better user-friendliness, and adding key info on services and sites along the route.
• Providing in our pre-ride Rider Info Letter tips on using RideWithGPS’ audio cues and maps effectively on your phone.
• Offering a directory of RideWithGPS practice routes for several sample routes throughout Illinois – and elsewhere on request – so you can get used to using this method before you get to GIBT.
• Asking riders who are already comfortable with RideWithGPS and are willing to have newbies ride with them to let us know, so we can give them a different-colored name tag on the back of their bike.
• Adjusting our printed cue sheets to be more user-friendly.

Hotels

Sunday night: Springfield’s Abe Lincoln

Monday night: Springfield’s Abe Lincoln

Tuesday night: Comfort Inn, and Country Inn and Suites

Wednesday night: Champaign Holiday Inn

Thursday night: Champaign Holiday Inn

On Thursday, an included dinner will be hosted at Papa Del’s Pizza Factory Inc in Champaign.  Each of the other four dinners will be “on-your-own” dinners at nearby restaurants. All hotels will provide breakfast in the morning. We will have evening receptions for hotelers on some nights.

Bikes will be kept in hotel rooms. One 40-pound bag per registrant will be accepted. Please, no oversized luggage!

Each year, a few riders want to sign up for double occupancy without already having a roommate in mind. Please register for the single occupancy option and email us that you are interested in us helping you find a roommate. If we are able to find you a roommate, we will refund the difference in registration fees.

Contact gibt@rideillinois.org with any other questions regarding the hotel option.

Due to a lack of suitable locations along the planned route, Ride Illinois has decided NOT to offer a camping option for 2024’s GIBT. Unfortunately, only Springfield had a good site available, and Champaign had no realistic options. 3-day camping-only and 6-day hybrid options were considered. However, our conclusion was that the projected numbers would be too low to justify the resources needed to provide our campers with a good experience.  We encourage those interested to join us for GIBT and our hotel stays.

The Grand Illinois Bike Tour is the only multi-day ride in Illinois that specifically raises money to support the goal of a more bike-friendly Illinois. Proceeds benefit Ride Illinois, a nonprofit advocacy organization working to make bicycling better in Illinois.

We encourage all participants to fundraise a minimum of $150 on top of the registration fee to better support the costs of the ride and help propel Ride Illinois’ mission to make Illinois better through biking.

The fundraising program is optional but is strongly encouraged. Riders can also make a donation in lieu of fundraising. Contact gibt@rideillinois.org with any questions.

Ride Illinois is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations supporting a rider are tax deductible. All donations from personal fundraising will be distributed to Ride Illinois and are nonrefundable.

Please review our revised 2024 Cancellation and Refund Policy – which applies for ALL situations including personal or family medical emergencies:  

1. At any time, for no cancellation fee, you may transfer your registration to someone else having the same lodging arrangement. Same thing, if there is someone on our waiting list able to take your spot (this is uncommon).
2. Between registration and Jan. 30, the cancellation fee is the sum of $100 and any processing fees if you paid that way.
3. Between Jan. 31 and May 9, the cancellation fee is the sum of $100, a hotel cancellation penalty ($440 single occupancy, $220 per person double occupancy), and any processing fees.
4. Between May 10 and June 1, the cancellation fee is the sum of $200, a hotel cancellation penalty ($660 single occupancy, $340 per person double occupancy), and any processing fees.
5. No refund June 2 or after.

Hotel cancellation penalties that we incur (and pass along to those canceling) have become much more severe since COVID. Due to this, and the fact that each year many riders (>10%) have to cancel, we HIGHLY recommend that YOU get trip insurance! Third-party trip insurance is quite affordable for many medical and other unexpected situations leading to cancellation – and historically in almost every case, it cost less than the cancellation fee. Travelex is one provider option.

Finally, no refund will be given for:

• Participant’s late arrival
• If a participant chooses to leave the tour for any reason after the first day
• Food, lodging, side trips or other services for which a participant paid but did not use

Please note that the Grand Illinois Bike Tour is Ride Illinois’ largest annual fundraiser. The funds raised from the Grand Illinois Bike Tour helps us to continue our advocacy work to make Illinois a land of safe and enjoyable bicycling for all; and to promote bicycle access, education and safety.

Velosophie, a sort of “book club on a bike,” has been part of the Grand Illinois Bike Tour since 2005 and is unique to multi-day bike rides.  Originally planned by and discussions led by staff from Illinois Humanities, volunteers now choose the theme, reading materials, our nightly  gathering spot, and lead the discussions.  Still the basic format is unchanged with a heavy dose of mostly fiction, great literature, philosophy, history, classics, poetry, essays and the occasional non-fiction offering.  Travel in general and bike riding specific literature can be included, but are more the exception than the rule.

This year on GIBT 2024 our theme will be “Lincoln and Ebert: Life Itself,” inspired by native sons of Springfield and Urbana and the roads we will be riding and places we visit.  With this in mind, here is the reading/viewing list for Velosophie 2024:

*Sunday – Movie discussion/Compare & Contrast – “Lincoln” (2012), “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” (2012), and “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” (1940).

*Monday – Short story discussion – “The Purloined Letter” by Edgar Allan Poe.

*Tuesday – Poetry discussion – by Edgar Allan Poe: “Annabel Lee,” “The Raven,” “A Dream Within a Dream,”  “Eldorado;” and by e.e. cummings: “anyone lived in a pretty how town,” “next to of course god america i,” “spring omnipotent goddess,” “i carry your heart with me,” and “pity this busy monster, manukind.”

*Wednesday – Book discussion – “Life Itself: A Memoir” by Roger Ebert.

*Thursday – Movie discussion – “Casablanca” (1942), “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), and “Barbie” (2023).

Believe it or not: this is fun, even after a long day in the saddle.  Almost all the materials are available on-line or at your local library. I can send you some links if needed. You should also read the movie reviews on rogerebert.com.

We will try to meet at 4:30pm each night at the meal site before dinner or in the hotel bar or lobby on the nights noted above.  It is always helpful when discussing books, movies or readings to come prepared, but this does not trump enthusiasm for the topic or personal interest, so everyone is invited to participate.

Please let me know if you are interested in participating or any other questions or comments:
Marc Adami
300 N. Jackson St.
Morrison, IL 61270
marcadami53@gmail.com

815-718-5347

Enjoy your readings/viewings and training rides and we’ll see you June 9.