AUSTIN, Texas — Some University of Texas students are spending their summer on the road as part of the longest charity bike ride in the world.

Nearly 70 riders are leaving Austin Saturday for the 15th annual Texas 4000 ATLAS Ride ride.

They've been training for 18 months, and over the next 70 days, they'll travel 70 to 80 miles a day from Austin to Anchorage, Alaska.

Along the way, they plan to stop to share knowledge about cancer research and prevention.

"At the end of the day cancer is what unites us,” Samantha Finkenstaedt, Texas 4000 ride Director said. “Camp Kesem is why I ride, but for others it could be their mother, their grandmother, their sister, their brother. So we all have our very specific reasons, but at the end of the day, it's all to fight cancer."

Texas 4000 also made donations this year to UT's biomedical engineering department and Dell Medical.