Editor's Note: This interview first published in the November/December print edition of Bicycling. Subscribe now!

Prior to this year, social worker Nick Basalyga had rarely traveled west of his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania. That changed on a foggy day this past July when he embarked on a ride from San Francisco to Philadelphia. When we checked in with him along the way, he explained why he took to the road and how cycling has healed him.

So you started in San Francisco, and you’ve never been there before?

Nope, I’ve never visited any of the states or towns (with the exception of Pennsylvania) on my tour.

Why is that?

I grew up with addiction. My dad was an alcoholic. He made poor financial choices, had trouble keeping jobs. My parents relied on family members to keep us afloat. And we didn’t always have extra money for things like travel.

But now you’re out West, and what exactly are you doing?

I’m doing a cross-country bike tour to raise money for a nonprofit I began called In the Saddle. It’s a play on the addiction term “on the wagon,” and also the sentiment “I’m doing good. I’m back in the saddle.” The other piece, of course, is that bike seats are called saddles. It’s for people who decide to get sober and spend time in a drug or alcohol treatment center, but who find that they don’t know what to do or who to hang out with once they’re out. With In the Saddle, they’ll be with people the same sex and age, and we’ll do group rides, community service, and support each other throughout our recovery.

Are others riding with you?

No, but I’m hoping for a slow build—kind of like Forrest Gump, but on a bike.

How did you get into cycling?

I started riding when I was 4. Then in college, my mom bought me a Trek 3700. I used that to get to class but mostly for my job that summer—I was a handyman for an elderly couple outside of West Chester, Pennsylvania. It was three miles from my apartment, so a six-mile round-trip. I loved the physical effort of biking to work in the morning, being out in the sun doing yard work, and riding home in the late afternoon. I was training to walk on to the West Chester University soccer team in the fall, so I was focused, getting in shape, and helping people. I was happy.

And then you started drinking more?

Yes. My drinking affected my soccer, which contributed to me losing my starting position. And my grades suffered.

D. Scott Clark

How bad did it get?

I had a problem from the moment I had my first drink at 16. I enjoyed the taste of beer, but I always drank to get drunk. It came to a head during a blackout episode in 2010. A friend and I had been out partying and he got locked out of my apartment. He called me 20 times trying to get in. Fortunately, he made it inside, but the next morning I found the doorframe busted. It was also Mother’s Day, and I had such a bad hangover. My mom had already dealt with an alcoholic and now I saw how she’d have to deal with another. So that day I stopped cold turkey. A year and a half later, I purchased my Specialized Secteur.

Nice. And cycling helped you?

It totally lifted my spirit. I mostly rode alone, but I felt free, confident, and at peace with the changes I had continued to make in recovery.

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Did you ride continually after that?

By a year later [three years into his recovery], I’d become what I’d call a high-end recreational cyclist. My favorite game was to go faster than the guys with the nice stuff. But then in 2013 I went to grad school for social work at New York University and stopped riding. Perhaps as a result, I made a rash of bad decisions. I felt like my recovery wasn’t in a good place, and I didn’t feel stable. Two years later, I got back on the bike, doing a 30-mile round-trip commute to a job at an after-school program in Harlem. It was a great way to start my day and end it, and it’s been a staple ever since.

You eventually started working at a retail bike shop, right? Bicycle Therapy in Philly?

I did. And it’s funny. Because they don’t actually do therapy.

Were there times when you really wanted a drink but went on a bike ride instead?

Oh yeah, absolutely. After a long day at work I’d want a drink, but I’d know that I just needed to get on the bike and hammer for a couple of hours and I’d feel better. Even now, six years into being sober, I know if I’m not exercising, being around people in recovery, and giving back to my community, I start to rationalize sliding back into bad behavior. And that’s the model I’ve used to build In the Saddle.

When did you come up with the idea?

In November of 2015. I had seen too many people relapse after treatment, heard too many stories of people overdosing and dying. They had a common theme: “I stopped going to meetings, started hanging out with my old friends, and fell back into addiction.” I thought about my recovery, the services that are out there, and a program I’d worked in as a social worker that was great but lacked group therapy. You need all of the pieces: a group, an activity, community service, and therapy because when someone is in active addiction, they struggle with their self-identity, lack purpose, and need more connections to meaningful relationships.

How will In the Saddle address this?

By developing the skills to ride and fix bicycles, someone in recovery has the opportunity to reshape their self-identity. By using these skills to positively impact their group and community, they can develop purpose. And by meeting regularly and talking about personal challenges in recovery, they can develop relationships.

How much money are you hoping to raise on your ride?

About $250,000 will cover our first program year, help us secure a space, and buy cycling equipment and parts. We’re also hoping to get donations to help pay for [things like] urine tests to assure that everyone is sober.

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How much have you raised so far?

Just a little over $3,500, but we’re far from the end, so I’m hopeful we’ll get there. In the Saddle is already a legal nonprofit, no matter how much we raise on this ride. By running at a smaller scale, we’ll be able to collect data, and then apply for city, state, and federal grants, and establish ourselves as a recovery program.

And how do you plan to attract people to In the Saddle?

This fall, we’ll fund-raise, recruit at treatment centers, and coordinate with other addiction/recovery organizations to connect with individuals interested in early recovery.

What’s the first thing you’ll tackle?

We’ll start programming during the winter with indoor rides and bicycle education so group members can learn to build and repair bikes for themselves and the surrounding community. And our counselors will facilitate group therapy sessions.

Now that you’re a few weeks into the ride, what’s one highlight of your trip so far?

I met this guy Charlie, out on Nevada Highway 50, who was training for the 508-mile Silver State Race. He was driving by and saw me and stopped to talk. I was on my way to speak at a treatment center in Fallon, Nevada, that night. After that, for several days, he’d drive to meet me at the end of each ride and we’d grab dinner. Other than that, it’s people who see my shirt with the In the Saddle logo on the back and tell me about people they’ve lost to overdose or addiction. When they do that, I know I’m doing the right thing, even though before this ride, the longest one I’d ever done was 63 miles.

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