By Mike Pound

Globe columnist

I’m a trained journalist, so an important question occurred to me the other day when I was talking to Tracy Cope and Steve Cooper about folks who like to take 100-mile bike rides.

“Why?”

That’s what I asked Tracy and Steve. Why would someone spend eight hours or so on a bike to go 100 miles when you can easily cover the same distance in a car in under two hours, and with much less chaffing? When I asked “Why?” — which, by the way, I figured was a pretty good question — Steve didn’t hesitate to answer.

“To say you did it,” Steve said. “For the same reason rock climbers or marathoners do what they do. It’s a challenge.”

“It’s like having a baby,” Tracy added.

I need to point out that Tracy didn’t mean riding a bike 100 miles is literally like having a baby. That would be silly. Riding a bike 100 miles is WAY worse than having a baby. Ha.

No, what Tracy meant is that after you ride a bike 100 miles, and after the feeling returns to the lower half of your body, you think to yourself, “Hey, that was fun. Let’s do it again.”

That’s what she meant when she said, “It’s like having a baby.”

So as you can clearly see, Tracy and Steve are crazy. Ha. Again, I joke. No, Tracy and Steve just like to ride bikes — a lot. For Steve, riding bikes sort of comes with his career choice. He’s the owner of Spokes & Spandex Bike Shop at 531 S. Main St. For Tracy, riding a bike ... well, come to think about it, Tracy really doesn’t have a clear explanation why she likes riding a bike for obscenely long distances. She just does.

Tracy and Steve are members of the Joplin Bicycle Club, which has a pretty big bike event coming up on July 7 (or as they like to say, 070707): the first ever Tornado Alley 110.

Essentially, the Tornado Alley 110 is chance for Tracy, Steve and other like-minded bike folks to get together and spend the day touring the Four States on bicycles. So far, 260 like-minded bike folks from seven states have registered for the daylong event. It’s really a pretty cool deal. First of all, there is the challenge aspect. See, most big bike events cover 100 miles, but Steve said the Joplin Bicycle Club decided to raise the bar a notch and set its bike route at 110 miles.

Also, the bike club is offering some alternatives for riders who might not be quite ready to tackle a 110-mile ride. There is a ride of 65 to 70 miles offered and a more family-friendly ride of 25 miles.

And for folks who are hovering around my bike-riding level, there is something called the Tour de Beer. Tracy explained that the Tour de Beer is a ride that will cover roughly two miles. The beer route will run from Joplin High School (the official starting point of the Tornado Alley 110) to the official Tornado Alley 110 beer garden.