A state senator and Assembly staffer biked over 200 miles to Albany this week from New York City to commemorate National Bike to Work Day. 

For five years, Sen. John Liu, a Democrat from Queens, has cycled to the Capitol from his district each May. The informal holiday is celebrated every year on the third Friday in May, but the senator makes the trip the following weeked because there's no scheduled session on Fridays.

"When you finish, you're thinking 'Holy cow! I did it!'" Liu told Spectrum News 1. "And it does give you a high."

Liu and three staffers set out on their 206-mile trek at 5 a.m. Sunday. Two of them finished the journey after cycling for 22 hours straight — arriving before just 4 a.m. Monday.

The journey, their longest ever, didn't stop them from going to work in the Capitol only a few hours later.

"It's not an easy ride, I'll concede that," Liu said.

The 58-year-old senator first cycled to Albany from the city in 2020 during the pandemic, and has made it a spring tradition ever since.

This year, the group took the Empire State trail, which opened in 2017. From Queens, they cycled over the Tri-Boro bridge into Manhattan and stopped in Mahopac at Dana's Diner for breakfast.

They meandered along the trail north to Poughkeepsie, then west over the Walkway over the Hudson, northeast through Kingston and the Bard College campus.

But they lost two riders along the way — battling severe headwinds, rain, bicycle malfunctions and injuries.

"All in all, the glass is not always half full," Liu said. "It's like 95% full on the Empire State Trail, we could always find some imperfections to fix."

Alejandro Avellaneda, a legislative director in the Assembly, finished the ride with Sen. Liu — cycling up the east side of the Hudson river to East Greenbush.

They crossed over to Albany, arriving at the state Capitol just before 4 a.m. Monday.

"When you're cycling these kinds of distances, so many things can go wrong, so many things can happen," Avellaneda said.

Avellaneda is a former U.S. Marine who cycles regularly between Albany and Troy, and around the capital city.

He and the senator did a 100-mile ride earlier this month to prepare for the long journey, but otherwise relied on personal mantras and staying positive to keep going to the end.

"All the pain all the suffering, I don't fight it," Avellaneda said. "I tell myself, 'I accept this, this is my life, I asked for this.' I keep telling myself everything that has a beginning has an end, so if you make your peace with that, all will be well. So, all that pain all that suffering is temporary and will be worth it."

Liu said cycling is good exercise that reminds him of the perserverance needed to be successful in the Legislature, adding he'll channel that strength in the 10 remaining days of the legislative session.

"On Sunday's case, it was the physical headwinds as opposed to political headwinds, but you have to stick to it and at the end of the day you will get past the finish line," the senator said.