This article originally appeared in the Columbus Dispatch. Last Saturday, I rode my bicycle from my home to the start of Pelotonia 2015. Joggers and walkers called out greetings in the early morning solitude. That solitude soon gave way to the sight of thousands of cyclists queued at Columbus Commons for the formal opening of the 100-mile ride to Gambier. Sen. Rob Portman was doing a video interview about 20 feet away. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but he looked like a U.S. senator at work. Minutes later, when he donned his riding helmet, Portman looked like the rest of us: people who had trained for hours and hundreds of hard miles and who had received support from generous donors that totaled almost $12 million. The streets of Columbus — and those of every village and town on the route — were lined with throngs of people who wanted to see an end to cancer. The most touching support came from a man who called out and held a handwritten sign thanking us for saving his wife. That thanks applied to all riders, but perhaps specifically to the many cancer-fighting professionals from the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute who were riding for the cause. Along the way, I had a chance to speak with many cyclists, including: A young cancer researcher from Los Angeles who told me she was drawn to Ohio by the reputation of Pelotonia and the green fields of Ohio. With standard pedals, her bicycle was not particularly ready for 100 miles — but she was. A man whose Cleveland-area sister has been battling brain cancer for five years. A fundraiser from Bexley whose team of 45 riders expected to raise $1 million. A high-school-age food-service volunteer who caused great laughter when she exclaimed: “Get your chilled pickles! They help reduce cramping!” A 20-something young man with a linebacker body. I passed him on the way up a steep hill; he passed me for good on the way downhill. A 30-something cancer survivor who, at the 92-mile mark, was doubled over her handlebars in fatigue but was still 100 percent committed to making it to the finish line. I was part of a perhaps 40-mile-long ribbon of riders, negotiating the back roads of Ohio to help raise the funds that Pelotonia will turn over, penny for penny, to the James. It is a wonderful cause; it was a wonder-filled day. BILL MERRELL Columbus