Sometimes the best rides lead you exactly where you need to be.
For Mary Schulz and Camden Bryant, that destination wasn’t just the finish line of another century. It was each other. Their story proves that Love Between the Spokes isn’t just a poetic phrase—it’s a real phenomenon that happens when community, courage, and two-wheeled adventure collide in the most beautiful way possible.
On December 11th, 2025, in Birchtown, Tennessee, Mary and Camden said “I do.” But their journey began two years earlier, on a week-long BRAG ride where a shy baggage handler, a confident cyclist, and one well-meaning friend created a love story worthy of any romantic comedy.
Mary’s Road to Freedom: From Tandem Captive to Century Crusher
Mary didn’t just stumble into BRAG—she fought her way there.
Long before anyone called it Love Between the Spokes, Mary had cycling in her blood. She grew up watching her older siblings and her dad embark on the Bicycle Ride Across Georgia — a tradition so legendary in her household it practically glowed. To Mary, the ride symbolized freedom, adventure, and time with her dad. It felt like summer camp mixed with a cross-state parade, something magical and just out of reach.
As the youngest sibling in a cycling family, Mary watched enviously as her siblings pedaled off each summer with Dad for the legendary week-long adventure. Year after year, she begged to join. Finally, her parents relented… with one humiliating catch.
“You can come,” they said, “but you’re riding on the back of the tandem.”
Picture it: a spirited young girl, desperate for adventure, sentenced to stare at her father’s backside for miles and miles while the open road beckoned just beyond his shoulders. It wasn’t exactly the freedom she’d imagined.
But Mary is nothing if not persistent. Eventually, she graduated to her own bike, and that first solo ride felt like liberation itself. The wind in her face. The road stretching ahead. The pure, unfiltered joy of propelling yourself forward under your own power.
Over the years, life pulled her siblings away from BRAG one by one. Jobs, families, other commitments, the usual suspects. But Mary? She stayed. Ride after ride, year after year, she returned. Not just participating, but thriving. She became the kind of rider who completes centuries and immediately asks, “What’s next?”
By 2023, Mary had ridden BRAG approximately thirteen times. She knew the rhythms, the climbs, the culture. She knew that BRAG wasn’t just about cycling—it was about belonging to something bigger than yourself.
Camden’s Confession: When Baggage Handling Gets Complicated
Meanwhile, in the summer of 2023, Camden Bryant was having a very different BRAG experience.
Camden worked the baggage crew, loading and unloading riders’ gear from town to town. It’s physical work requiring patience and care—qualities Camden had in abundance. What he didn’t have was confidence when it came to talking to pretty cyclists.
Self-described as shy, polite, and “not great with girls,” Camden noticed Mary immediately. How could he not? She was strong, capable, radiant with the kind of joy that comes from doing what you love.
So Camden did what any smitten baggage handler would do: he took extra special care moving her bag. He also did something braver—he confided in John Lobello, a mutual friend, that he thought Mary was cute.
John, bless him, couldn’t keep a secret to save his life.
He pulled Mary aside and delivered the news in his own inimitable way: “Hey, that Camden guy? He wants your number”
Mary, who’d been oblivious to Camden’s careful attention, found herself intrigued. Here was this kind, thoughtful guy who’d been quietly watching out for her all week. On the last day of BRAG, Mary made her move.
She popped her head into the U-Haul where Camden was working.
“Hey,” she said, casual as Sunday morning, “that guy said you wanted my number.”
Camden, heart probably hammering like he’d just climbed Brasstown Bald, managed to say yes.
Mary handed over her Instagram handle and rode off into the sunset—literally.
Love Between the Spokes Takes Root: The Aftermath of a Brave Yes
Camden returned to Chattanooga, thinking about Mary constantly. After a few days of agonizing deliberation, he sent her a message on Instagram.
Then he waited.
And waited.
Twenty-four hours passed with no reply. This is an eternity in modern dating. Camden, assuming he’d misread the situation entirely, began making peace with the idea that it wasn’t meant to be. Perhaps she’d just been polite. Perhaps he’d imagined the spark.
Then she replied.
What followed was a whirlwind courtship that moved with the speed of a downhill sprint. First, she gave him her phone number. Then her address. Then—perhaps most tellingly—an invitation to family dinner.
For context: this is not something you do for someone you’re lukewarm about. Family dinner is the real deal. It’s where you bring someone you’re serious about, someone you can imagine keeping around.
Mary’s family, those same siblings who’d once ridden BRAG with her before life intervened, got to meet the man who’d fallen for their sister during a week of cycling, community, and serendipity.
The Wedding: December 11th, 2025
On a chilly December day in Birchtown, Tennessee, Mary Schulz and Camden Bryant became husband and wife.
The ceremony was intimate, heartfelt, and infused with the same spirit of adventure that brought them together. Friends and family gathered to celebrate a love story that began in the most unlikely place—a baggage truck at a bicycle tour.
Because that’s what Love Between the Spokes really means: finding a partner for the long ride, someone who’ll celebrate your centuries and stick around during your bonk days. Someone who sees you at your strongest and your most vulnerable, and chooses you anyway.
Why This Story Matters: The Magic of BRAG Community
Mary and Camden’s story isn’t just adorable; it’s a testament to what makes BRAG rides so special.
According to a study on cycling and social connection, group cycling creates unique opportunities for bonding that don’t exist in many other contexts. You’re literally moving through the world together, sharing challenges, celebrating victories, and existing in that perfect state of exertion where walls come down and authentic connection happens.
BRAG amplifies this by creating a traveling community. For a week, you’re not just riding together—you’re eating together, camping together, solving problems together. You see people at their best (crushing that final climb) and their most human (desperately searching for coffee before the ride starts).
This environment breeds authentic relationships. The kind where a shy baggage handler can confess his feelings to a friend. The kind where a confident cyclist can pop her head into a U-Haul and ask for what she wants. The kind where love stories begin with a brave yes and a passed-along Instagram handle.
Finding Your Own Adventure: Join the BRAG Family
Mary started as the jealous youngest sibling, stuck on the back of a tandem. She became a seasoned rider who’d completed BRAG thirteen times. Camden started as a nervous baggage handler with a crush. He became a husband.
Both of them found something on BRAG that they weren’t necessarily looking for but desperately needed: community, adventure, and in their case, love.
Your BRAG story might not involve romance, though honestly, with odds like these, who knows? But it will involve challenge, beauty, camaraderie, and the simple joy of pedaling through Georgia with people who understand why we do this crazy thing called bicycle touring.
Whether you’re an experienced cyclist looking for your next adventure or someone contemplating your first multi-day tour, BRAG offers something special. It’s where youngest siblings find their independence. Where shy individuals find their courage. Where strangers become friends, and sometimes, where friends become family.
Love Between the Spokes Lives On
Mary and Camden’s wedding day marked the end of their journey to the altar, but it’s just the beginning of their life together. Their story will forever be intertwined with BRAG—the community that brought them together, the adventure that sparked their connection, the brave yes that changed everything.
Love Between the Spokes isn’t just their story. It’s the story of every meaningful connection made during a BRAG week. Every friendship forged on a tough climb. Every moment of encouragement from a stranger who became a riding buddy. Every shared sunrise, every potluck dinner, every “see you next year” that actually comes true.
The best part? BRAG creates these stories every single year. Maybe next year’s story will be yours.
Ready to find out where the road leads you? Explore upcoming BRAG rides and register for your own adventure. Who knows? You might just find what you’re looking for between the spokes.
