Rode His Bicycle
Across the United States
Last Summer, Mark Thorsheim rode his bicycle across the United States - alone, and with all his equipment on board - cycling 4,100 miles from Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk, Connecticut, to Astoria, Oregon! He dubbed it the ‘Thor Tour’, set up a website at thortour.org, and was successful in raising over $150,000 for the Connecticut-based non-profit Career Resources, Inc.
Mark is 58 and - by the time this feature is published - will have retired from a successful career in corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions banking focused in the technology, media, and telecommunications industries, having last been a founding Partner of DH Capital, which was acquired three years ago by Citizens Bank. He lives in New Canaan with his wife of 26 years, Margot, where the couple raised their two sons, Max and Ben, who are now in their twenties. The family are active members of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.
“Like it was for most kids growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, my bicycle was my primary mode of transportation. My bike gave me my freedom as a kid. I rode everywhere,” Mark recalls. “But biking was never really a sport for me. My family moved from Minnesota to Marlboro, New Jersey, when I was seven, and from as early as I can remember I was playing soccer with my three-year-older brother, Chris. I followed him through the public school system in Marlboro, and then to Susquehanna University, where we were both Finance majors and where we got to play on the Soccer Team together when I was a freshman and he was a senior. I continued playing soccer as an adult, and for years I’d been playing soccer in New Canaan - in a regular twice-a-week ‘pick-up’ game on the Town fields. But I had to get my knee replaced in 2022, and figured I was, as they say, ‘at the twilight of a mediocre career’, and that it was time to hang-up the cleats.”
“I got harassed by my buddy AJ into buying a ‘real’ road bike when I’d turned 50, and had eventually joined an informal crew of casual riders in New Canaan,” Mark explains. “I liked the camaraderie, and after a while I was riding three or four days a week in the summertime and got pretty comfortable doing 25 miles or more in a ride. …And at the same time I started to get into riding on biking trails. Pacific Cycling, on High Ridge Road in Stamford, does a great job of organizing gravel rides all around Bedford and Pound Ridge. And then I started to take my bike with me whenever I went out of town so I could explore new places.”
“Right before the pandemic, I was on a bike trip in the spectacular setting of Deep Creek Lake, Maryland - and it just hit me that I’d really love to ride across the Country! …And I, of course, immediately started to talk with my brother about doing it with me,” Mark recounts.
“…And then, on March 31, 2021, my brother was mountain biking at McDowell Mountain State Park outside Phoenix, Arizona, came down from the ride, and died of a massive coronary at 57. That was the real inspiration for my trip. There was no stone left unturned between us,” Mark says with emotion welling. “I still grieve. In a way it’s how I stay close to Chris. But I knew Chris would be angry if people were just sad and not living their lives to the fullest, so we had a big celebration of his life at a soccer field in New Jersey with hundreds there to help comfort Chris’ wife, Lori, and their adult children, Chelsea, Chris, Jen, and Matt. …For me, the life lesson of losing my brother was carpe diem. Be present for all the people you love while you’re alive, and make life an adventure! That’s exactly how Chris lived - and what drives me today.”
“Though there was never a question in my mind that I was going to do the ride solo…I really had the feeling the whole time that my brother was with me! The trip was kind of mystical in that way,” Mark proclaims. “I’d had my hip replaced in February 2024, only four months before my target date to depart, but I’d done a lot of cycling as a part of my recovery, and I just knew I could do it…and I relished the opportunity to have two months of uninterrupted time to just be alone - for the first time in my life. And I visited over 50 friends and family, and met a whole lot of new people.”
“In Richardton, North Dakota, I was invited to stay at a Benedictine Monastery and join the 40 or so Brothers for dinner in the Assumption Abbey, located high on a bluff overlooking 60 miles of pristine plains,” Mark recalls. “The next morning I was up at 5 a.m. and getting ready to leave at 6, as usual, and a Brother - who looked like he could be my brother - approached me while I was taking in the sunrise and told me that he’d been particularly inspired by my talk at dinner the night before and by what I was doing - and then introduced himself as ‘Brother Christopher’. I was speechless. That was pretty spiritual!”
61 nights with no camping, 50 days riding about 80 miles a day
“I followed well-established routes designed by the Adventure Cycling Association, with some detours to accommodate stops with friends and family. My bike was a carbon fiber, Lauf ‘Seigla’, which means ‘true grit’ in Icelandic, with 42 cm gravel tires, so I could ride on roads, rail trails, gravel, or whatever. I stopped in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and Bellefonte just above State College, to visit with friends, then rode through Pittsburgh to see family, and continued northwest along Lake Erie following the ‘Northern Tier’ route into the Midwest and up the Mississippi, and eventually to Minnesota. I picked up the ‘Lewis & Clark Trail’ in North Dakota - where I discovered Medora, the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and the future site of the incredible Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, being built into the landscape and set to officially open on July 4, 2026,” Mark says looking like he’s got the Library in his view. “…I’ve always been fascinated with everything ‘Lewis & Clark’, so it was compelling for me that this route to the West followed the path and waterways they followed all the way to the Pacific Ocean.”
“My parents had been divorced, and my mom passed just prior to the Pandemic in 2020…so I was able to organize a belated family gathering and memorial service in her home town of Cambridge, Minnesota, which Margot and the boys flew-in for, and where we interred her ashes. And my dad passed away in November 2023 at the age of 90, just eight months before the trip. I had originally hoped to visit him when I began planning the trip,” Mark paused, “…so instead I had an emotional but rewarding visit with my stepmother in Stevensville, Montana, located in the Bitterroot Valley, near Missoula,” Mark relates. “Like I said, I’ve had a lot of grieving…but I have great faith.”
“I took-off on June 25th and met my family at the Pacific Ocean on August 24th - 61 nights with no camping, 50 days riding about 80 miles a day, maybe 85% on-road and 15% off-road - one 50 mile ride in the wrong direction…helpfully corrected by a ride in a squad car with Deputy Jason Grey Eagle of Montana’s Prairie County Police,” Mark recounts.
“I used the ride to raise money for Career Resources Inc., the leading workforce development non-profit agency in Connecticut, because I wanted to ride for a purpose outside of my personal motivation. For 30 years, CRI has been providing job skills training, ‘halfway’ living assistance and therapy, and educational programming to those exiting incarceration, along with the unemployed, underemployed, and those who just need help with something as basic as getting a GED,” Mark campaigns. “I have been a Board Member at CRI since 2020, and knew this ride would be a great way to spread the word of our good work. And Citizens Bank, which acquired my firm and had me under contract, was completely supportive.”
“To answer the questions everyone asks,” Mark says with a smile, “No - I haven’t been training or riding much since the trip - with a 50 mile local ride on a weekend being about the most I’ve done, particularly in the cold weather. Yes - I would do it again, but definitely with other people. And I’d rather plan shorter trips, like maybe through the Badlands, and be able to share the joy and the experience with friends.”
And as for future plans, Mark says, “We’re definitely here in New Canaan for the long haul. We love this community. Margot is an EMT with the New Canaan EMS and is a Co-Founder of Planet New Canaan. We’re both very involved at St. Mark’s, and I’ll continue to work with Career Resources. …And I intend to learn conversational Spanish.”
…Perhaps a bike ride (paseo en bicicleta) across Spain on the famous Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route?
As featured in the May/June 2025 issue of Bedford & New Canaan Magazine