When his mother suffered a stroke in 2018, Matthew Stepaniak wanted to find a way to keep her active both physically and mentally. As an avid cyclist himself, Matthew had the idea to bring cycling to those who couldn\u2019t otherwise enjoy it themselves. So he teamed up with Darren Dobier and the two co-founded Limitless Cycling, which helps individuals of all abilities enjoy the outdoors through the power of a bike ride.<\/p>\n
On this week\u2019s episode of St. Croix Stories, learn more about the origins of Limitless Cycling, hear about Matthew\u2019s knack for taking care of others (both as the primary caregiver for his 91-year-old mother and through his work with Limitless Cycling), and learn about the impressive bikes and other vehicles that Limitless Cycling is bringing to riders all throughout the St. Croix Valley and beyond.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019d like to learn more about Limitless Cycling or want to get involved as a volunteer or donor, visit limitlesscycling.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Links<\/p>\n Attributions<\/p>\n Our theme song is Tanz den Dobberstein, and our interstitial song is Puck\u2019s Blues. Both tracks used by permission of their creator, Erik Brandt. Find out more about his band, The Urban Hillbilly Quartet, on\u00a0their website<\/a>.<\/p>\n This episode comes to us courtesy of the St Croix Stories podcast. It was produced by Tyler Mason and was transcribed by Ian R Buck. We\u2019re always looking to feature new voices on the show, so if you have ideas for future episodes, drop us a line at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n Transcript<\/p>\n [00:00:02] Ian: Welcome to the Streets.mn Podcast, the show where we highlight how transportation and land use can make our communities better places. Coming to you from beautiful uptown Minneapolis, Minnesota, I am your host, Ian R. Buck. At this year\u2019s Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota anniversary party, I met Matthew Stepaniak, who was telling me about his work with Limitless Cycling, a company that provides adaptive cycling equipment so that all ages and abilities can enjoy the outdoors. He was interviewed last spring by Tyler Mason of the St. Croix Stories podcast. So I\u2019m going to hand you off to them to hear the full conversation.<\/p>\n [00:00:47] Tyler: As the weather warms and we start thinking about outdoor activities, riding bikes might be something that\u2019s on your list, but cycling isn\u2019t always an option for everyone. Yet thanks to local nonprofit Limitless Cycling, bike rides are becoming more accessible for those who might not otherwise be able to experience the joy of riding a bike. Matthew Stepaniak is the co-founder of Limitless Cycling and as the caregiver for his 91 year old mother, he wanted to find a way to keep her active both physically and socially. As someone who loves cycling himself, Matthew came up with an idea to bring bike rides to his mom and others who couldn\u2019t enjoy it on their own. He teamed up with a co-founder to create Limitless Cycling, which has provided hundreds of bike rides to people all throughout the St. Croix Valley and beyond. I\u2019m Tyler Mason and on this week\u2019s episode of St. Croix Stories, learn more about the origins of Limitless Cycling, dive into Matthew\u2019s passion for caring for others, and hear some great examples of the joy these bike rides have brought to so many people. Well pretty soon the weather will be heating up and you\u2019ll be able to get back out on your bikes and there\u2019s a great organization that\u2019s helping people get out on bikes who maybe otherwise wouldn\u2019t have that opportunity to and that is Limitless Cycling and I\u2019m here with the co-founder and director Matthew Stepaniak. Matthew, how are you doing today?<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n [00:02:10] Matthew: Great,\u00a0Tyler. Thank you for having us.<\/p>\n [00:02:12] Tyler: Yeah,\u00a0absolutely. I\u2019m excited to learn a little bit about you and a little bit about your organization too. So maybe let\u2019s start with your background, just kind of your introduction and tell people who you are.<\/p>\n [00:02:18] Matthew: My name is Matthew Stepaniak. I am the primary caregiver for my 91 year old mother who just happens to be here in the library with us. It\u2019s one of her favorite places to hang out. My background, I\u2019m an architect by degree. I used it momentarily and then I did a favor for a friend. It had a 20-year professional career in collision industry working for Honda and Ford. My father\u2019s cancer came out of remission. I became a caregiver and shifted my whole life towards that and Limitless Cycling kind of came about all because of it.<\/p>\n [00:02:54] Tyler: Sure. So I guess\u00a0let\u2019s start with Limitless Cycling for those who haven\u2019t heard of it. Maybe share a little bit about the organization and what you do.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n [00:03:01] Matthew: Great. Limitless Cycling, Darren and I, we founded this in 2019 for two different reasons and we were doing it on his side professionally, for my side personally and in the beginning, neither of us knew that we were doing the same thing at the same time and in the same place. Limitless Cycling was founded in 2019. It is dedicated to enhance the mental and physical wellbeing of our community. We empower individuals of all abilities to experience the outdoors by providing adaptive outdoor equipment with bicycles and action track chairs. With our partners with River Valley Trails and all the community engagement and the volunteers, we promote inclusion, connection and improved wellbeing for seniors, veterans and those facing\u00a0mobility challenges.<\/p>\n [00:03:46] Tyler: Sure. I guess how did the idea kind of come about? You mentioned your co-founder Darren and how do you pronounce his name for me? Dobier. There we go. I guess how did the idea just come about\u00a0to start this?<\/p>\n [00:03:58] Matthew: My mom had a stroke in 2018 and I was looking for a way to physically, socially and mentally engage her and we landed on a bicycle, but we really had to think outside the box as far as an able-bodied bicycle versus an adaptive bicycle. At the same time, Darren, who owned DIRO Outdoors, he brought kayaks, mountain bikes, fat tires to those who wanted to rent it, who didn\u2019t necessarily could own it, maybe didn\u2019t have the space to store it, but he had a mobile program that brought these equipment to the parks; state, city, campgrounds and what he was seeing, he was seeing the shift in a multi-generational outings and too often than not, he was seeing grandma and grandpa having to sit back at the picnic area campground while the younger generations were going out for bicycle rides. When I first got my adaptive bicycle for my mom, we didn\u2019t get very far very fast. \u201cWho are you? What is this? Where do I get one? I know someone, I am someone,\u201d and it really made us reflect that there are those in the community that had similar needs and wants such as my mother and myself. Darren was introducing the adaptive bicycling because that was a low-hanging fruit for his company and we started using focus groups. One of the things that\u2019s very, very important to us is having lived experience voices at our tables. As able-bodied, as able-minded, we can only assume we think we know. The first thing we have to admit is we don\u2019t know anything. We have ideas, good ones, but really to dial it in, we needed focus groups and Darren and I used the same activity director at the same senior facility and Sue Bryan Elmer who we both know and love said, you guys know each other, why aren\u2019t you doing this together? She was the one that brought us together and that\u2019s how it kind of\u00a0all started.<\/p>\n [00:06:03] Tyler: You met through that then, through\u00a0that connection?<\/p>\n [00:06:05] Matthew: Correct. We never intended on having a non-profit but it became so intuitive that it was just too powerful not to go for it and we did it. Here we are now in 2025. We have one of the largest diversified fleets adapted bicycles. We have introduced action track chairs which has bridged the gap for us, not only seasonally because our bikes are only three season, but now we are all terrain and now we can go places where our chairs, bicycles can\u2019t go year round.\u00a0<\/p>\n [00:06:41] Tyler:\u00a0That\u2019s cool. I\u00a0think I just saw a video somewhere in Stillwater recently in the winter, one of those the action chairs out at the, was it the snow, whatever the snow competition was or something?<\/p>\n [00:06:50] Matthew: The World Snow Sculpture Championship, an amazing event put on by the Greater Stillwater Chamber of Commerce and all the community partners and members that participate as volunteers. We were part of the accessibility day and the program to help those who couldn\u2019t enjoy it because of the terrain, snow, ice, whatever the case may be. We were able to take a six-year-old who was born with MS to go on a walk with his best friend and the parents. We just took a 92-year-old woman down to see the sculptures yesterday. Yesterday might be the last day to see them in their full effect. But yeah, the track chairs bridged a lot of gaps for us and we really leaned into expanding our program this year not only with our equipment, with leadership development and sustainability plans for the future as well.<\/p>\n [00:07:48] Tyler: Yeah,\u00a0very cool. I want to get into later on a little bit kind of just the experience of you seeing these moments and kind of what that\u2019s like for you. But I guess let\u2019s take a step back to after you and Darren met, what was kind of the process or the mindset of, you know, you kind of had this idea, but where did you go from there once the two of you kind of clicked and realized that this was something\u00a0that you wanted to do?<\/p>\n [00:08:05] Matthew: Darren and I have known each other for a lot of years. I am definitely the dreamer. He is definitely the analytic,\u00a0logistic side.<\/p>\n [00:08:15] Tyler: The yin and the yang, right?<\/p>\n [00:08:18] Matthew: Oh, absolutely. That\u2019s what complimented us. We\u2019ve known each other through the chamber for many years, ambassadors. We are collaborators and instigators at the same time and we definitely keep it fun and light. That is the first and foremost thing that we want with this program. I\u2019m actually wearing a hat that says Safety Third because the joke is fun will always be first, snacks will be second and safety will be\u00a0third.<\/p>\n [00:08:44] Tyler: I was going to ask what the first two were after I saw the hat, but yeah,\u00a0I like that.<\/p>\n [00:08:48] Matthew: But Darren and I, we got together and we got to work. Our focus groups were really pivotal for us, really thinking about how we were going to diversify our fleet in comparison to other Cycling Without Age affiliates, not only around the nation, but around the world. And we needed to make sure that to the best of our ability, equipment and financially, that we could take out as many individuals as possibly we can. We have a reverse trishaw where the riders are in front and the pilots are in back. Our wheelchair bicycle where we can take residents in wheelchairs, in their wheelchair for bicycles. The therapy bike, the Fun2Go sort of for my mom and I, where she can sit alongside me, be in control of pedaling and add to the motion, but the pilots are in control of the steering and the braking. The OPair, which is a fully functional wheelchair that can divide off the bike that allows us to do in-room transfers that really created an amazing opportunity this year when we took out a mother who was in the latter stages of ALS and we were able to do a transfer in her home with dignity and respect with her care team, take her for a ride with her family and then bring her back and then reverse the process into her home. So the intentionality, the forward thinking is super important to us. And once again, we are not experts. We are guided by experts and our participants in our focus groups with lived experiences.<\/p>\n [00:10:24] Tyler: And we mentioned Stillwater earlier as taking some people there. You\u2019re based in Hudson here, I guess, a two-part question. Are you from this area originally? And then also as far as kind of the coverage area for Limitless Cycling, how far and how wide is the program\u00a0kind of grown to?<\/p>\n [00:10:36] Matthew: We like to say St. Croix River Valley. It encapsulates both sides of the river. Tanya and myself and my mother who\u2019s been living with us since 2018. We live here in Hudson and had lived here in Hudson since 2015. Our core area of service is Hudson and Stillwater. We love working with the senior living facilities, Christian Community Homes here, Woodland Hills, working with Comforts of Home, Memory Care that\u2019s up on the hill by the post office, working with the St. Croix County ADRC with their Almheiser\u2019s Journey Along group. And then we just flip it to the other side where we\u2019re working with our Veterans Associations in Stillwater. We\u2019re working with the senior living facilities like Croixdale and the Presbyterian Homes. And we have evolved to individuals in our community who we are now consulting with them to work through providing bicycles that they can purchase themselves for their children who are now young adults who has a social worker that might need a little bit more help envisioning what adaptive equipment looks like and feels like because the insurance company will pay for adaptive equipment, but it will not pay for a leisure equipment. And too many times and not sometimes leisure equipment gets subjectively changed and then it just falls. So we\u2019ve been doing a lot of advocacy work and consulting with individuals in the\u00a0community.<\/p>\n [00:12:10] Tyler: Sure. So the vehicles that you have or that they fall under that leisure category then as far as insurance purposes go, or do you have some that fall under the ones that would be covered, I guess, by\u00a0insurance?<\/p>\n [00:12:21] Matthew: Our equipment is adaptive medical equipment. If you can take a wheelchair, a person in a wheelchair for a bicycle ride to me, that\u2019s medical equipment. That\u2019s a slam dunk. A physical therapy bicycle where someone can physically and mentally and socially engaged in the pedaling of the bicycle, but not have control of the steering or the braking, whether it\u2019s a cognitive decline, whether there\u2019s a physical impairment or barrier that allows the pilot to take care of that safely, not only for the individual, but for the community as well. And that\u2019s also a slam dunk for a piece of medical equipment. And for what we pay for our bicycles, these are not leisure pieces of leisure\u00a0equipment.<\/p>\n [00:13:03] Tyler: Yeah. I guess tell me a little bit about that part of it and also just kind of the fleet that you have. How many total bicycles or different vehicles do you have? And I guess, does it continue to grow?<\/p>\n [00:13:14] Matthew: It has continued to grow since day one. We started with three bicycles. Right away, we came out of the gate with a Chat, which is a Trishaw, front facing Trishaw, the wheelchair bicycle, the VeloPlus, and the Fun2Go, which is the therapy bicycle. We wanted to try to hit as many people out of the gate as we possibly could. So no one was left behind for different reasons. Then we really started evolving our program with the OPair, added another Chat. We just added a third Chat. We just took delivery of it last Friday from our supplier. And the track chairs was something that we always had in mind since 2022 when we first started hearing from our focus groups. At the end of the season, we wanted to get feedback. What did we do good? What could we have done better? What should we never ever do again? But it was always, how soon are we going to see you in the spring? And right there, that was that catalyst to tell us we needed to do something during the winter. One of the things we do with our equipment is we fund forward, meaning that we will not buy a piece of equipment until we are fully funded. It might take us a little bit and $15,000, $20,000 for each piece of equipment is a big lift, but it\u2019s worth it. Once we can pay for it in full, we have a hundred percent equity in it. We pay no interest and we don\u2019t owe nothing to anyone, which allows our organization River Valley Trails and Limitless Cycling, which we are a program of RVT to be completely debt free and to have modest reserves.<\/p>\n [00:14:44] Tyler: Sure. As\u00a0far as the funding goes, I know for any non-profit that\u2019s always one of the big challenges is how do you get the money? So I\u2019m curious what\u2019s worked for you guys in that regard and what do you have planned for continuing to raise money for these\u00a0bikes?<\/p>\n [00:14:58] Matthew: We never stop asking. We know that the fundraising landscape has definitely changed after COVID. 30 percent of all non-profits went by the wayside. It was razor thin margins. They didn\u2019t have reserves. The donor base wasn\u2019t cultivated and everything changed. We know that 95 percent of the people we ask, 95 percent of the grants that I write are going to say no, but it\u2019s that persistence of that five percent that really, really brings it home. Our first breakthrough grant, what really started our equipment was the Stillwater Community Grant. It was specific to mental health and social isolation after COVID and this grant was a kickstart for us. We\u2019ve done crowd, speaking of kickstarts, we\u2019ve done crowd sourcing. We\u2019re here at the Hudson Library. I have jumped in the river multiple times for the Hudson Rotary River Dunk to raise money. I will throw myself in a cold river if someone wants to give us money for our program. Private donations. We do not charge for what we do. We do not solicit funds when we are on site, but if someone feels so motivated after they see an emotional or physical or social response from a loved one that they would like to give us a donation, we will humbly and graciously receive it from them. But we\u2019ve been writing some big grants and I tell you what, you\u2019re actually going to get a sneak peek on this one. Inclusive Foundation was our biggest grant to date. $50,000 was awarded to us by the Inclusive Foundation to bring the first two new action track chairs online. Prior to that, another organization that we collaborate with, Hometown Hero Outdoors, had an underutilized track chair that we borrowed from them to start doing photo shoots, to start doing videos, to start our campaign when we were really ramping up this year to bring the track chairs online. It worked awesome. At the same time, towards the end of it, when we were about to give it back, they said, well, Matt, why don\u2019t you just buy it? We weren\u2019t ready for it, but my mom was. She\u2019s a boss. She talked to the executive director and they worked out a deal. My mom actually owns her own action track chair. In the meantime, the grant that we wrote, the videos that we took, the pictures that we provided really brought home the Inclusive Foundation $50,000 grant. Beginning of this year, when we just got back from winter break, we went to our PO box and we just received another $50,000 grant from the Hardenbergh Foundation out of St. Paul, Minnesota. They are one of the lumberjack royalties for Stillwater in regards to a family that came to Stillwater, made their fortune, and they are still giving back to this day. This is it. We are going to be two more action track chairs with their $50,000 grant that we were just awarded.<\/p>\n [00:18:05] Tyler: That\u2019s awesome. Congratulations. That\u2019s great. You alluded a little bit to the pandemic and just for non-profits, what that meant. From my understanding, you guys had to restart a little bit after the pandemic. Is that right? Tell me about it. It was right around that time where you guys were getting going. Take me through what that meant to have to pause a little bit.<\/p>\n [00:18:24] Matthew: Yeah, that was fun. Hey, let\u2019s do a non-profit where it\u2019s going to be the most afflicted population, afflicted demographic, our seniors, our veterans, our immune compromised individuals, and have to put a pause on it. It wasn\u2019t all bad though. It really allowed us to perfect our processes, create the programming, and written handbooks for our volunteers. In the end, when we were able to reengage, we were one of the first ones because what we did was outside. We had social distancing mastered. We were outdoors and we masked up. The only thing that we couldn\u2019t do is we couldn\u2019t go into the facilities right away, but the facilities could bring the residents out to us where we would be waiting for them. We found ways to get really creative but safe at the same time. My wife and I, we took lockdown pretty seriously. When you have an 86, 87-year-old woman living with you, the last thing we wanted to do was compromise her health by not respecting what we needed to do, going out, maybe bringing something home, and then I have to answer to four siblings, including myself and Namir. We knew that the percentages and probability were against us, but as long as we did everything we possibly could. If something did happen, we talked about it as a family unit and we could live with that. We locked down hard, but when we were able to go out, we went harder on\u00a0that.<\/p>\n [00:20:03] Tyler: I\u2019m curious how these groups, whether it\u2019s a senior home or veterans or whatever, how they go about getting this service for the residents or for whoever. What does that process look like, I guess from both sides?<\/p>\n [00:20:16] Matthew: A lot different than when we started. We were the ones that were going out and knocking on their doors, making them aware of this new program that was an up-and-comer with full support of the community, and now they\u2019re knocking on our doors. We\u2019re receiving emails. It\u2019s tough to say no, especially for some of the outliers that are on the way west side metro area, that are down in Dakota County, Duluth. We were in Madison last year. We were at a community bicycle event that needed help with answering the call for an able-bodied bicycle event. What does inclusivity look like for this? We\u2019re the largest fleet. We brought the house with our volunteers, with our bikes, and we drove to Madison in the morning. We did the thing, and then we came back in the afternoon. It was a long ass day, but it was worth it because being around that many able-bodied individuals and allowing those individuals, other individuals that might need a little bit more help, is powerful because it opens up a conversation for those who might not see or even know what\u2019s available. I can do it. Everyone else can. There\u2019s that assumption. There\u2019s that ableism that goes along with it. Seeing is believing, and being on site is very powerful. We commit, we do the work, and then we\u00a0show up.<\/p>\n [00:21:42] Tyler: I\u2019m curious, from your perspective, whether you\u2019re the one giving the ride or just being there to witness the look on these people\u2019s faces when they have this experience, what has that been like for you? I can imagine it\u2019s just pretty exciting, but just tell me what that is like from your perspective to see what these people get to experience when they\u2019re on these rides.<\/p>\n [00:22:03] Matthew: There\u2019s been tears,\u00a0not going to lie. There have been some powerful, powerful emotional responses, whether it\u2019s for myself, our volunteers, the individuals that we\u2019re working with, the family that\u2019s with them. One of the big ones that really did it for us was Denise and Nancy up at Birchwood Senior Living up in Forest Lake. Josie Muddingford gave me a call. She reached out and said, hey, Matty, we got two girls that live right across the hall from each other. They\u2019re both visually impaired. They want to go for a bicycle ride. There was a lot of hugs that day. Mary Divine from the Pioneer Press, she came up, did a full story on us, the wind in their hair, and really told the backstory about these two girls that basically just live together in the senior living facility. Even now, thinking about it, I kind of get a little teary. They always joked that we made them famous because they were on the front page of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Even when we go up there now, they have both passed. They have friends up there that actually carry the article with them when we take them for rides. There was the woman I spoke of, the mother, the matriarch of the family who was in the latter stages of ALS. One of the most beautiful mission moments that was shared with us is that the family told us that for a couple hours, it was like she didn\u2019t have ALS. For a couple hours, she was free. When we attended her celebration of life, we were mentioned and it was really, really powerful. Another celebration of life that we went to up the Arcola Flower Farm for Brad, he was a Berkey. He was one of the original Berkey skiers. I think he only missed one. He had a huge, huge stroke that was just debilitating. To know Brad as long as we did, to know how active he was, and when we were called up towards the latter stages of his life, and we got to take him out in his wheelchair alongside of one of his bicycling buddies. Man, I tell you what, those missions I try to put to words and there are sometimes I just can\u2019t, but we do our best. It\u2019s gratifying. It\u2019s rewarding. It\u2019s so much more than a bicycle ride. It\u2019s so much more than a track chair ride. It is so much more.<\/p>\n [00:24:26] Tyler: I forget which TV station, one of the Twin Cities TV stations did a feature as well. I think you\u2019re at a senior home. I can\u2019t remember exactly. You might know better than I would, but just the joy on the women\u2019s faces in that ride. I think you were the one actually pedaling too, but to see that, I got a smile on my face just watching how much fun they were having. It was pretty cool.<\/p>\n [00:24:45] Matthew: Yeah, that was\u00a0at the Waters in White Bear Lake. Fun group, great senior home, great facility. To say that we are not emotionally involved, emotionally invested in this, I don\u2019t need to be that big strong guy. Like I said, there has been many tears. I would rather get paid in hugs than anyone handing me a dollar\u00a0for a donation.<\/p>\n [00:25:05] Tyler: Sure. Well, kind of on that note of just compassion, you mentioned that you\u2019re caretaker for your mom now and you\u2019re also caretaker for your father. Is that sense of compassion and caring for others? Is that just something that was instilled in you or where does that come from?<\/p>\n [00:25:20] Matthew: for me personally,\u00a0I think? Yeah, definitely being raised in a Polish Catholic house. When your family is one of the founding parishioners, treat others like you want to be treated. That was ingrained, that was instilled into this day. I always joke that I will always be a Boy Scout. I was and I still am. Sure. So there\u2019s golden rules that we lived with and still live with. And it really wasn\u2019t until my father\u2019s cancer came out of remission in 2013 that I really realized what caregiving meant. And being with my father through his treatment, watching him do everything he possibly could to make it to mom and dad\u2019s 60th wedding anniversary, and then passing a couple months later. You know, you take those things to heart and then all the compassion that my parents gave to myself and to my brothers and sisters growing up and watching how they with friends and family. That\u2019s the second nature to us now. And to be able to provide to my mother what she gave to me growing up definitely comes around full circle. And I really wish multi-generational households in our society was more common. And I think we\u2019re going to be seeing that in the very near future as we are entering what\u2019s called the Silver Tsunami. 2020 was the first time that 65 plus years eclipsed K through 12 versus cumulative population. 2040 that\u2019s going to be 25% of the population where the oldest baby boomer will be in their late 80s and the youngest baby boomers will be in their 65-ish area. There is a reason the senior living facilities are scrambling right now let alone put workers, skilled staff in there. There are a lot of nursing homes, a lot of senior living facilities that are running at 80% capacity, not because they don\u2019t have the rooms, it\u2019s because they just don\u2019t have the staffing to run it 100%. And they\u2019re very acutely aware of it. But sooner or later, the number of the population is going to catch up to us. And we\u2019re like on that cuspice, we\u2019re right there. We\u2019re seeing younger generations move back with mom and dad. We\u2019re seeing they\u2019re called sandwich generations where mom and dad are taking care of their parents while they\u2019re still taking care of their children in the same home. We are an open face sandwich since Tanya and I, my wife and I don\u2019t have children. We have mom, we\u2019re an open face sandwich that we joke about. I want to say it\u2019s coming, it\u2019s already here. The population is such where not only does facilities need to be built, staffing needs to be increased, but amenities such as Limitless Cycling and a lot of other, the programs out there really need to reinforce themselves right now because we are going to be needed more than ever before in the very\u00a0near future.<\/p>\n [00:28:20] Tyler: Yeah. But on that line of compassion and caring, I know you\u2019ve also spoken about just being passionate about fostering a sense of belonging. And I think that\u2019s pretty evident in just the work that you do and being inclusive with everybody being able to have these opportunities. But can you just maybe share a little bit more about that and why that\u2019s so important for the work that you do?<\/p>\n [00:28:38] Matthew: Well, that\u2019s pretty deep right now. With the current climate of events, we are leaning into belonging. That is the heart of Limitless Cycling. We love, we cherish the shared moments that people bring together that create memories that really last. And by fostering a welcome community of riders, volunteers and partners, we ensure that everyone who joins us, rider, volunteer, donor, feels part of something bigger, a network of support, laughter, and adventure. Once again, we are not experts of DEI by any means. We are students. We are learners by experts and by those with lived experiences. And it\u2019s our foundation. It truly is. Diversity enriches us. Equity drives us. Inclusion strengthens us. Accessibility empowers us. And belonging binds us. And with all of that, we make the outdoors a place for\u00a0all.<\/p>\n [00:29:36] Tyler: That\u2019s great. I love that. A couple of questions specifically about you that I wanted to kind of dive into before I let you go here. I know you\u2019ve competed in some Ironman competitions. I saw that in my research. I\u2019m curious about those because I am not one that could ever come close to doing that. So obviously, you\u2019re an avid cycler and that kind of plays into Limitless Cycling. But just the whole Ironman competition, I guess, how many have you done and how did that go for you?<\/p>\n [00:30:00] Matthew: Great. One, I\u2019ve been racing for many years, many, many years, 20 plus years. Ironman though is new as of like 2020 because what does a 45 year old need to add to his life while he\u2019s taking care of his mother, getting a nonprofit off the ground and let\u2019s start training 40 to\u00a050 hours a week.<\/p>\n [00:30:22] Tyler: You had lots of free time for you.<\/p>\n [00:30:25] Matthew: Yeah, I really did. Part of that though was God, I needed something to do during COVID. We could do what we could do, but I needed to train. Otherwise I would have went just absolutely crazy. So that really was my motivation. Plus I got some crazy friends that I\u2019ve known all my life that I saw them doing Ironman. They\u2019ve always been motivators for me. They inspired me to get into it. And I tell you what, there is less physical training in comparison to mental strength and perseverance. You have to, your body will stop before your mind will. And that\u2019s where your mind has to lie, bag, cheat, steal. Tell your body that, oh my God, I am so sorry. I will never make you do this again. Let\u2019s just get to transition and get on that run. Let\u2019s just go one more mile. Let\u2019s get to that tree. You find those small victories that you can celebrate while you\u2019re still trying to run 26.2 miles after biking 116 and swimming 2.5 miles. I do triathlons, Ironmans because I get to bicycle. I swim not to drown. I run to finish, but God damn it, Tyler. I love bicycling. The passion that goes along with it, you got to be batshit passionate in order to do something like that. And to start a nonprofit from the ground up, you got to have that same mentality of never give up because the reward is too big, whether it\u2019s personal, professional, nonprofit, or Ironman.<\/p>\n [00:32:03] Tyler: Obviously I\u2019m guessing the cycling is the strongest one, which is the bigger challenge for you, the swim or the run?<\/p>\n [00:32:09] Matthew: I hate\u00a0running.<\/p>\n [00:32:10] Tyler: Most people do.<\/p>\n [00:32:11] Matthew: I used to hate swimming, but I got better at it and I realized there were different strategies that really made it more tolerable. To get to the bike, all the people that passed me on the swim, I would catch on the bike. And after I really started to be non-competitive and be a traditional age grouper who was just looking for good finishes, it became so much more relaxing and more fun. My last one I did in Chattanooga, I had a really good swim, amazing bike, and I caught one of my team members who was struggling in the first couple of miles of a 26.2 mile run. I decided to throw my race out and just hang out and get them across the finish line. I picked one up and then we picked up another team member and the three of us not only crossed the finish line together, but we were able to grow personally as friends and as teammates. I stole a plate of nachos off of a table restaurant that we ran by, stole their beer the next time on the run. We were just having the best time and we all finished. Whereas I know that if I didn\u2019t, it would have been a long, long race and they might\u2019ve got pulled if they didn\u2019t get hit the car. But it was more about camaraderie\u00a0than anything.<\/p>\n [00:33:26] Tyler: Yeah, that\u2019s super cool. As far as cycling locally goes, I\u2019ve had a few other guests that we\u2019ve talked about that, including Art Doyle. He was telling us some of the places he likes to bike, but I\u2019m curious where maybe there\u2019s Hudson or St. Croix Valley in a wider scope. What are some of your favorite\u00a0trails to ride?<\/p>\n [00:33:42] Matthew: Art is an animal. That man will forget more about bicycling than I will ever learn in my lifetime and I will never catch his cumulative mileage. When I see him biking on every Sunday, regardless of the weather, while I\u2019m home because I don\u2019t want to go out, he makes me feel guilty sometimes. But around here, we don\u2019t have the best interconnectedness of trails, but what we do have are really good shoulders that were made specifically for bicycling where I feel safe enough, where I can ride my bike from Hudson through Somerset up to Osceola across the bridge down 95 into Stills down to Afton and Prescott. And that\u2019s like one of my favorite 80-mile training\u00a0loops.<\/p>\n [00:34:28] Tyler: 80 miles is\u00a0training.<\/p>\n [00:34:30] Matthew: That\u2019s an easy day. But ultimately, you know, I love Lakefront Park down here, especially when we got our bikes out. We\u2019re going to be down here at Lakefront Park, not with our bicycles, but with our Action Track Chairs in a couple of weeks because we are being sponsored by First State Bank and Trust to bring our track chairs to coldest night of the year, which is part of the River Valley Charities Fundraiser. They got two routes this year, different than last. We\u2019re going to have a track chair on both to be there for those who want to take the walk who might not be able to do if our chairs weren\u2019t there. We don\u2019t have to worry about snow this year. We don\u2019t have to worry about ice this year, where we were talking with Andy and his group with possibly our bicycles, but we couldn\u2019t fully commit. This year, we\u2019re all in with our track chairs, which is why we love the addition of these to our program. Yeah, that\u2019s awesome.<\/p>\n [00:35:23] Tyler: Well,\u00a0last question for you is the one that I ask everybody, and you\u2019ve lived here, I think you said in 2015, so it\u2019s been about 10 years, and obviously you set up a pretty awesome nonprofit here in town. But I\u2019m curious, Matthew, what\u2019s your favorite thing about Hudson?<\/p>\n [00:35:35] Matthew: Community. Yeah. The interconnectedness of residents, business owners, and locally owned, locally operated. We don\u2019t get out of the valley that often because we\u2019re choosing not to. It\u2019s because we have everything here that we want. I can go to Lolo. We love Brad and Joe\u2019s place. Agave, Paul, you go to Carol and Chad\u2019s place at Urban. I mean, you walk in, you can feel the community. Art Doyle, he\u2019s the only one that touches my whips in regards to my race bike because him and Eric and the rest of the crew, they know their stuff and is that locally owned bike shop that you will not find in big metropolitan areas. They got bike shops, but they got no personality. They don\u2019t have shop cats. Is it really a bike shop if you\u00a0don\u2019t have shop cats?<\/p>\n [00:36:23] Tyler: Gotta have the cats here.<\/p>\n [00:36:26] Matthew: So being\u00a0able to go down Main Street to have everything we need to know that our money, to know that our support will not just stay in the community, but the business owners are so generous here that they just give. So we know that we can see tangible, we can see the results. We can see the impacts first and foremost as far as how beautiful our community is, how beautiful the people are in our community, and that\u2019s the community we want to be a\u00a0part of and support.<\/p>\n [00:36:55] Tyler: That\u2019s awesome. Well, I should have maybe one last question for you. If people want to know more about Limitless Cycling or want to get involved, I guess, where should they look or what else should they know?<\/p>\n [00:37:05] Matthew: Wow. Well, where can\u2019t you look and see us right now? We had a really good consultant this year, Princess Paula Consulting come in and she schooled me in social media. We are on Facebook. You can follow all of our shenanigans on Facebook and Instagram and Reels. www.limitlesscycling.org. We also are on LinkedIn and on Google. The social media landscape is definitely changing. We don\u2019t know where to go right now, so we\u2019re just trying to be where we can make the most impact, diversify ourselves. Google limitlesscycling.org and you\u2019ll find us and you\u2019ll see the good that we\u2019re doing. Once again, have fun and definitely see the shenanigans that we get away with\u00a0some days.<\/p>\n [00:37:48] Tyler: Matthew, I want to thank you for taking the time today to share more about yourself and about Limitless Cycling and for the great work that you and the rest of your team do for the community and bringing this experience to others who might not have it. Again, thank you very much.<\/p>\n [00:38:02] Matthew: Tyler, we thank\u00a0you. It\u2019s your world. We\u2019re just living in it and you are giving us an amazing opportunity to let people know more about us and where they can find us. If you are someone, if you know someone, reach out. Let\u2019s get them outdoors. It\u2019s healing. It\u2019s social. It\u2019s fun. Thank you,\u00a0Tyler.<\/p>\n [00:38:19] Tyler: Yeah, thank you. And thank you to everybody for listening to this episode of St. Croix Stories with Matthew Stepaniak, the co-founder and director of Limitless Cycling. If you don\u2019t already subscribe to the podcast, I would really appreciate if you did. You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or get all the episodes at StCroixStories.com. And just like Limitless Cycling, you can also find St. Croix Stories on Facebook and Instagram. Give it a follow there too and you\u2019ll catch all the updates as well. But until next time, I hope you all have a great day.<\/p>\n [00:38:47] Ian:\u00a0And thank you\u00a0for joining us for this episode of the Streets.mn Podcast. This episode comes to us courtesy of the St. Croix Stories podcast. To hear more interviews with people doing cool stuff in the St. Croix River area, check them out on your favorite podcast player or at StCroixStories.com. The music you\u2019re hearing right now is by Eric Brandt and the Urban Hillbilly Quartet. This episode was produced by Taylor Mason of St. Croix Stories and was transcribed by me, Ian R. Buck. We\u2019re always looking to feature new voices on the Streets.mn Podcast, so if you have ideas for future episodes, drop us a line at [[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>]. Streets.mn is a community blog and podcast and relies on contributions from audience members like you. If you can make a one-time or recurring donation, you can find more information about doing so at [https:\/\/streets.mn\/donate]. Find other listeners and discuss this episode on your favorite social media platform using the hashtag #StreetsMNPodcast. Until next time, take care.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When his mother suffered a stroke in 2018, Matthew Stepaniak wanted to find a way to keep her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[60930,181657,64,63,784,85161,181658,85,181659,181660],"class_list":{"0":"post-322697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-accessibility","9":"tag-adaptive-cycling","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-cycling","13":"tag-hudson","14":"tag-limitless-cycling","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-st-croix-river","17":"tag-stillwater"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}