My Ride to Conquer Cancer

First I’ve got to apologize because I took all my pictures on this ride with my phone and I can’t seem to transfer them to my computer… so this is the only photo of me and my bike that I have at this moment.

 

 

 

 A sea of over 3000 yellow jerseys and bikes filled the CNE grounds of Toronto Ontario this past weekend. At 7 AM that morning the stage opened and a massive pack of cyclists began to move across the city, serving as a symbol of hope for future lives. Every rider had personally raised over $2500 towards cancer, and were all starting their 250 km road ride to Niagara Falls in an event called the “The Ride to Conquer Cancer”.

Among the cyclists were 7 time Tour de France rider Steve Bauer, his teammates …, and over 75 cancer survivors who had ultimately seen the worst. The white brace I wore on my leg was not easily overlooked, so let’s just say I stood out in the crowd a bit. I registered for this event while I was back in Ontario recovering from my broken leg. For me, the Ride to Conquer Cancer was not only a way to save lives, but also a test of my strength and recovery. Let’s just say I was pretty excited when I crossed the finish line 4 hours later feeling just as strong as when I had started.

The first day was supposed to be a 107 km ride to Hamilton, but due to my non-existent navigation skills, I ended up throwing on another 24k on that. The first 50 km of the ride was some of the most cycling fun I’d ever had. I rode in a large front pack where we easily cruised and chatted around the city at about 35/40k an hour. The roads were closed and crowds had gathered along the route to cheer us on.  The better part of the ride toured around the back roads of Ontario. It was gorgeous and I wish I took more pictures, but I soon learned that taking pictures with your cell phone isn’t so safe when riding in a pack of 40. Most people were pretty curious about my leg, so conversation wasn’t a difficult thing to keep up. One cyclist seemed particularly interested in my training. After about ½ an hour, I asked him his name and came to find out that he was Steve Bauer. I was a little embarrassed to say the least, as he was the guy that headed up the whole ride in the first place.

At about 50k my excitement got the best of me, and my attempt to hop some wood on a bridge gave me a very nice flat tire. That was the end of the easy cruise ride. I got it fixed and headed out again not only to get another one a bit later. I picked up 2 other cyclists who found themselves in the same situation. They were pretty strong and at first I found myself hanging on in the back dreading when I’d have to go up to the front and “pull”. Of course I showed no mercy and tried to make it look like everything was all fine and dandy. It was about this time that we got lost. I had bonked from a sugar low about ½ an hour ago because the feed station was in the opposite direction. As soon as I got some fuel into me things took a 180 back in the right direction. It was pretty good timing because my partners were now suffering from “the bonk” and I towed the rest of the way.             

We crossed the finish line at 12:30 that day. I narrowly missed death at the line, or something close to it. A storm was brewing and the wind was so strong that a gust knocked over the 100 pound steel finish gate. I heard screams and looked behind me to see the frame of the cyclist behind me being snapped in half. Luckily- I have no idea how- he managed to avoid it and it only hit his bike. As soon as I put my bike on the rack, the clouds opened up and it down poured for the next ½ hour. I felt bad for the other cyclists still out there, but no one seemed put out by the weather later that afternoon where we indulged in the luxury of free wine and beer in the hot sun.

After a restless sleep in tent city, I awoke at 5 the next morning to the groans of sore cyclists planning their next day of riding in my opinion WAY too far in advance. I was hoping to get up at 6:30 and start riding at 7, but the decisions of about 600 plus early birds far overrode my beauty sleep. You see, the Girl Guides of Ontario astoundingly set up about 1000 identical tents in rows along the Mohawk Campus. When we got there, our luggage was loaded off the truck and our tent awaited us. It was amazing, but the only problem was that there was literally no more than 2 cm between each tent. One thing I’ve learned is that tent zippers are impossible to sleep through, and if you think unzipping your tent more slowly makes it quieter, you’re wrong, it just makes it last longer. Also, there are a lot of people that snore in this world.  No matter, the extra time in the morning let me drink 3 cups of coffee- great for a wakeup call at the time, not so helpful on the ride though.

I was planning on leaving right at 7 so I could have another chance of riding with the front pack again. The previous day, however, I ripped off my participant number on my bike because it was flapping in the wind while I was riding. Needless to say, my mistake led to my being one of the last riders out of the gate because they had to confirm that I wasn’t trying to steal someone else’s bike. I burned up my frustration on the course where, for the first hour, I played a bit of tag with a team that had some very strange tactics. Team “Rock and Roll”, so they called themselves, all started together, but seemed convinced that “team” was definitely not the way to go. Every corner, every climb, every flat was a mad sprint followed by a backwards glance to see who they had successfully dropped. They were all around 45-50 years old and semi-leisure cyclists. Their pace was impressive- for the first hour. I couldn’t help but laugh; the two men I ended up riding with had successfully (in their opinion) dropped the rest of the team, but at the 50 km mark the pace had significantly slowed and they began to pray for Gatorade and gummy bears. Once we reached the feed station I let them go. I learned my lessons from yesterday and had energy bars coming out of my pockets, so I was feeling like a million bucks.

By this time we had caught up to some of the lead teams and I spent the last part of my ride hooking onto different groups until I finished with the Bauer- Zimmerman Team. The second day went much smoother than the first. It only took a little over 3 hours and the finish line greeted me still standing this time.

Along my ride, I got the chance to speak with many people and hear their stories. Some were so sad they brought tears to my eyes, while others were fun and entertaining, but all in all they were stories of hope. It was nice to know that we were all trying to reach one ultimate goal: to raise as much money for cancer as possible. The Ride was the most successful cycling fundraiser in Canadian history. Together, we raised 14 million dollars for the Campbell Family Research Institute at the Princess Margaret Hospital. It was a great experience and is something I’ll surely remember for the rest of my life. To find out more information about the ride, or to register for next year, go to www.conquercancer.ca. A big thank you to everyone who donated to my ride, and a shout out to Rebound Cycle who tuned and packed my bike as well as outfitted me with some much needed equipment!