At 4:25 a.m. Wednesday, Colleen Reardon Chapleau slowed her bike as a new team prepared to take over the relay. Chapleau had been riding for more than four hours and was happy to be back in her home state.

“When I finally crossed onto Iowa ground, I bent down and kissed the earth,” Chapleau said.

Chapleau, from North Liberty, works at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics as associate director for the Iowa Marrow Donor Program and the Adult Blood and Marrow Transplant Program. She was selected from almost 1,200 applicants to ride the Tour of Hope.

The Tour of Hope is backed by a partnership between Lance Armstrong, a six-time winner of the Tour de France, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, a pharmaceutical company that manufactured the medicines that helped Armstrong overcome testicular cancer. The event’s purpose is to increase awareness and support for cancer clinical trials.

“I’m still pinching myself,” Chapleau said as she stood in the McFarland Clinic parking lot. “It’s so surreal.”

Chapleau received an Iowa welcome from a group of her friends.

“Welcome to Iowa, Home of Colleen!” was written on a sign held by Kathy Murray and Julee Darner, who work with Chapleau in Iowa City. Murray and Darner said they had been up since midnight and were taking the day off to support Tour of Hope riders. More than 100 people turned out for the early-morning event.

“The entire Tour of Hope group is just amazing people committed to fighting cancer,” said Chapleau, a cancer survivor. “This disease has taken too many lives.”

To prepare for the ride across the country, each person did in an individualized 16-week training program developed by Chris Carmichael, Armstrong’s coach.

Chapleau said she practiced at night for the eight-day event without leaving work. She said she was prepared for the distance but not wholly prepared for the weather.

“We had some sleet up in the mountains at 10,000 feet when it was really dark,” Chapleau said. “There have also been a lot of head winds and cross winds.”

Tour of Hope participant Dr. Brandon Hayes-Lattin said the scenery has been amazing.

“We’ve seen all kinds of stuff,” said Hayes-Lattin, a cancer survivor. “We rode into Las Vegas right down the strip our first stage.”

Hayes-Lattin, a resident of Portland, Ore., said he wants to debunk some of the myths surrounding clinical trials.

“When we arrive in D.C., we want to have a list of hundreds of thousands of peoples’ names who are committed to supporting cancer research,” Hayes-Lattin said. “We all really believe in this message.”

He said he was impressed with the early-morning turnout.

“When you come to a place like this and see people awake at 4 o’clock in the morning, it really pumps you up,” he said.

The relay continued past Ames to Mason City, where another rally was held. The Tour of Hope will conclude in Washington on Saturday.