LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — When Caleb Cline goes for a ride on his recumbent trike, he really goes for a ride.
"If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing, in my opinion," said Cline. He is looking to become a 24-hour world recorded holder.
"My goal is to cross 500 miles and in doing that, that is actually 11 world records," he said.
It's an extraordinary goal and when you see the X-ray of his spine, you realize this is no ordinary man.
The Las Vegas native and West Point graduate was injured during a training mission to go to Afghanistan.
"It just got to the point where I quite literally couldn't give my newborn daughter a bath, change diapers," he said. "It became a quality of life issue."
"So not only am I dealing with some herniation and degeneration in my lower back, but I also have scoliosis. Whether that was caused by the incident, I don't know if that's exactly the case."
Cline tried pushing back his back pain.
"My body just decided that was enough," he said. "So I, unfortunately, was medically discharged in September of 2019."
Then, he was introduced to a recumbent trike by the veteran's organization Forgotten Not Gone. Riding the trike is much better for his back and it gave Cline a new start after the Army.
"For the first time, I finally felt like I had found my freedom and found something I could actually do for myself that I could actually control," he said.
At the end of this month, in Henderson, he will attempt to set a 500-mile record on a near seven-mile-long loop along Galleria Drive. "I will ride that approximately 70 to 75 times over the course of 24 hours."
To be clear, this is a world record for all recumbent trike riders, not the disabled.
"Instead of focusing on disability, which I am 100 percent permanently disabled through the VA [U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs], but instead of focusing on the 'dis' part, I like to focus on the ability," he said.
"The Army taught me how to be loud and proud and so I want to be a voice for other veterans and just other people that are going through a struggle."
Cline says his big goal is to be the first person ever to ride across the U.S. in a recumbent trike, something he hopes to do in about three years.
For more stories like this, visit ktnv.com/VeteransVoice.
