Spiritual Cycle Emporia minister Neil Taylor to take on UNBOUND XL

Emporia’s own Neil Taylor will be taking on that challenge this year. But he is no extraordinary cyclist. Taylor is a minister at the Emporia Church of Christ and got into cycling a year after he came here in 2012. He credited someone from church for getting him into cycling, though he was skeptical at first.

“A guy at the church that I’m a minister at kept asking me if I wanted to go ride bikes and I kept telling him no,” Taylor said. “Finally, he got me to go on a bike ride and it was the first time I’d been on a bike in 20 years and I got hooked.”

That experience prompted Taylor to train for UNBOUND’s 100K in 2014. He then did three 200Ks from 2016 through 2018 before taking a few years off. But he has done other marathon events since then and has been involved in most years by helping at Gravel City Adventure and different expo booths while also supporting other riders.

Taylor is originally from suburban Chicago and came to Emporia for his job. He was ministering at a church in Ottawa when he applied for and got the position with the Emporia Church of Christ. His wife, Brandi, is from Oklahoma City, so Emporia was a bit of a culture shock for both of them. But they have come to love the town and its people and the cycling scene is a big thing that has kept them here.

“When we first moved here, I honestly wasn’t sure if I would love it or not,” Taylor said. “But we just fell in love with our church community and Emporia in general. When cycling got introduced and I started getting to know that community, I said to my wife, ‘I don’t know if I ever want to leave this place,’ which was mind-blowing to me because the suburb of Chicago that I grew up in is probably 10 times the size of Emporia. But once cycling got added on top of everything, it was a place that I knew I would want to stay.”

Taylor said the training has really never stopped since he got back on the bike a decade ago. He said he is already over halfway to the number of miles he rode all of last year. The training for the XL started about five months ago and it will continue to ramp up as race day draws closer.

Taylor was able to complete a double-double last year, which was doing two different events a few months apart. He did the Mid-South in May, which is a 50K run on Friday and a 100mile bike ride on Saturday in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The other half was when he did Gravel Worlds in August in Lincoln, Nebraska. That was another 50K run followed by a 150-mile bike ride.

He is in some pretty select company of folks who were able to complete all four events.

“The running kind of made me nervous,” Taylor said. “I had done some running in the past before cycling was introduced to me, but I hadn’t run since

2019 and I was worried about durability. But I got through the training pretty smoothly and was one of only 21 people that completed all four of those events, so that was pretty special to be part of what is a pretty small group of folks that were able to go out there and do that.”

Completing both of those events gave him the confidence that he could take on the XL this year.

Training for the XL specifically has included doing a lot more events than in previous years. Taylor started in early April with the Flint Hills Gravel Ride in Americus, which was about a 130-mile bike ride. His next event was the Open Range in Pratt at the end of April, which is a 200K event. He then took on La Grind right here in Emporia in early May, which is 100 miles and Elrod’s Cirque in mid-May, which is 150 miles down in Winfield.

“I’m basically slamming four events that don’t put out the easiest courses and will challenge us, and that’s a big part of how I’ve adjusted with training,” Taylor said. “Then as the weather starts to warm up, I will be adding some more overnight riding by myself. Basically, I’ll hop on my bike at 9 or 10 at night and ride until sunrise and that’ll be a new thing for me that I haven’t done a whole lot of.”

Another thing that keeps Taylor motivated through all of this is a fear that he sees in a positive light.

“I will sometimes describe myself as someone who doesn’t know any better and just wants to go out there and do something that scares me,” Taylor said. “Riding for 350 miles is on a different level that puts a little bit of fear in me, but it’s a good fear. It’s the kind of fear that motivates me to keep moving forward with this training that’s different from anything I’ve done before.”

Taylor has been married for 16 years and has two kids: a 13-year-old daughter named Abigail and a nine-year-old son named Lane. His primary responsibility is as a husband and a father, and he needed all of their approvals to go forward with this.

“Before I really seriously contemplated this, I asked all three of them if it would be okay because training for this is a little different than anything I’ve trained for before,” Taylor said. “I rode 150 miles a few weeks ago and that was 11 hours of the day that I was away from my family. I asked my wife if she’d be okay with it because it would mean more responsibilities around the house on her shoulders and she was all right with it. She has always been very supportive of any of the riding events I’ve signed up for in the past.

“My kids are a really important part of my life. I always want to make sure I’m involved with them and giving them the time they need and deserve, and each of them was supportive and okay with it. I made sure to explain to them I wouldn’t be around as much, but I’ve still made sure to make time for them. The day I did the 150 miles, I came back home and spent a few hours with the kids before they went to bed. That was a priority over my own recovery and taking care of myself.”

Being a minister, faith comes into play with most things in Taylor’s life. But he looks at riding as an opportunity to appreciate what God has put on Earth for people to enjoy which not many get to experience.

“Whenever I’m on my bike, my correlation with faith is really going out and seeing creation,” Taylor said. “Being a minister, I can’t help but see God throughout creation and when I ride my bike way off somewhere, I get to see things that a lot of people haven’t seen and appreciate things that God made for us to enjoy that are just there. Even if it’s a nasty hill that I have to climb that is beating me up and making life miserable, I look at it as that was something that was created and made for us to enjoy.”

The long hours on the bike can also provide an opportunity to think some work and life-related things through.

“Sometimes, sitting on the bike is the best time for me to figure some things out when it comes to church or life in general,” Taylor said. “It’s a quiet time to just get away and think about the people I need to be praying for or the lessons I’m preparing. That can help a lot more than sitting in the office with emails, phone calls and all the other distractions that sometimes get in the way.”

Taylor will be going up against some of the top cyclists in the world once June rolls around. He knows this. But he’s just grateful for the opportunity to have this experience and soak in all that God has created.

“I might take every last second that is given to us to complete this, I really don’t know,” Taylor said. “I’m just an average, ordinary guy with a wife, kids and a job who tries to squeeze in as much time as I can to ride my bike. But I get to go out there and do something that is pretty special and I can’t wait to be a part of it.” UG