Cyclebetes 2009

With Internet service being hit and miss throughout the trip, I'm now finished the ride and am sitting in the airport waiting to board my flight to China in less than an hour!

Cyclebetes was great - bottom line! I can't stress how much fun I had meeting all the people involved, being educated on Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and lastly, riding the tandem bike over 600km's in 7 days. This was the first time I'd gotten involved supporting a cause to this extent. It was a financial commitment from my end that was well worth the money, a supporting commitment to raise money for the association and lastly a physical commitment that involved weeks of training prior to starting on my bike riding up mountains and staying out there for hours on end.

My tandem partner, Heather, was a Type 1 diabetic having recently been diagnosed just over a year ago. I learned a lot from her as well as from the others about the daily routines, struggles and life battles this disease entails - and from this, I became aware of what I was doing on a personal level and knew that I was in the right place to help out. She was a rockstar on the tnadem bike and pretty much did all the work across each province (with her ENERGY LEGS (inside joke)).

Overall this Cyclebetes event was perfect. I have put my name into the hat to ride across the entire country next year and to support the event in the background in any way I can. I can't say enough positive things about those who have diabetes and continue to challenge their physical levels day in and day out, as the struggles are prevalent and the due diligence is that much more important.

So the event finished and we passed things off to Team BC yesterday. My brother was at the Alberta boarder to pick me up and we sent the teams off with a few honks of the horn, then off we went. This morning we drove back from Golden, BC to Vancouver in just over 8 hours. After a dinner with the family, I met up with my West Vancouver Little League team for a wrap up party at Jeff's place. This guy is dialed in. He not only organized this get together, he and his wife Carol exceeded everyone's expections with gifts for the coaches and signed gear from the players. This meant so much to me as it was my first time coaching at this level and to have that type of family atmostphere and support really blew me away! The whole team, parents and players, have made for a great summer and some amazing friends. I hope to continue with the league in any way I can and look forward to helping Jeff and Marty out when they need that extra hand!

Talk to you all when I'm in China!

Cyclebetes Ride Across Canada

Day 2 - Winnipeg to Moosamin, Sask.
Distance: 350 (ish) km's

All I wanted was to see a flock of moosin, but that didn't happen. Today's ride was a good test of battling headwinds and challenging trucks passing bye 5 feet from you on the bike while on the shoulder.

We made it into Brandon, MB for my first community ride and we were welcomed with some great supporters, lots of signs and a police escort through the town. One of our riders from Cyclebetes was able to raise nearly $15,000 from this town of only 35,000 people - nice James! The ride took us about 10km's through the town and residential area only to finish at James' brother's place for a well-deserved hamburger and hot dog dinner. Whoever made the mac salad with bits of ham should be considered a saint!

With tummies full and riders ready for a long night, we pressed on into the night for another 175km's of riding into Moosamin. My riding partner and I took on the 10-11pm leg and thought how we could best pass the time as there was NOTHING to see during the ride. We came up with our Plan B's on if an animal jumped out at us during the ride what would we do and if we had to hit a deer in our headlights which direction would be fall. Corney I know but you gotta think of these things before they happen.

Arriving very late into Moosamin I couldn't get a decent photo of the town welcome sign but I know in my heart it was there for us somewhere! Camping in the RV for a few hours we woke up 4 hours later to start our next day with a staggering 465km's to Swift Current, Sask.

I'm writing this as we're about 30 minutes outside of Regina having already ridden for 5 hours.

Keep those donations coming and check us out live at www.cyclebetes.com

Cyclebetes Ride Across Canada

Ontario boarder to Winnipeg – 170km’s

Thursday night proved to be one for the ages as right from the get go in the airport our fun and games just never stopped! When trying to rent a truck our reservation was done incorrectly and therefore no vehicle was available upon arrival. Plan B was to rent a fully loaded luxury truck on the group’s accord – the only way to get from point A to B (of course!). The people at the rental centre felt bad for us so they gave us the vehicle for the same price as our reserved rental…what a deal!
Now we’re travelling in style from the Winnipeg airport to destination 1 – Kenora, ON. We got to the campsite around 8pm then got a phone call from the team saying that they were running a few hours late and wouldn’t get to the site until the wee hours of the night. So we had a few hours to kill in Kenora, no sleeping equipment and an SUV that had wicked 4x4 capabilities…. See where this is going! Bushwhacking through the side roads of Kenora (all was safe of course) we got lost on a golf course, found that we could drive over curbs and climb up some major inclines (and back down with the reverse camera light and image on our navigation system).
The team finally got to the campsite and we had a monster fire going and a loud welcome with hoots and hollers ready for the riders. We set up an 8-person tent in the dark, stuffed all 8 inside and called it a night. The next morning we took a look at the tent and saw that it was done completely wrong, was on an angle somewhere near collapsing and the waterproof shell covering the top was actually on only half the tent, thus the dampness inside in the morning!

Onto the ride… We got an early start and left Kenora en route to the Manitoba boarder. With a warm welcome we met up with the Manitoba team and departed with the Ontario members. It was really a touching moment seeing one of the rider’s little boy run over to him yelling out his name and giving him a hug. His dad was riding for his little boy and this combination was really touching. This s what it’s all about… there’s no selfish attitudes on this ride, it’s not about who’s tired or sore from the day before, it’s about getting onto that bike and riding for the cause – and plain and simply seeing this little boy climb into his dad’s arms for riding was a special moment.

The Manitoba team took over and off we went with a quick turn around. 170km’s to Winnipeg before setting up camp. This was an uneventful ride let me tell you. The roads were totally flat, the headwinds were gusting I’m guessing around the 20km/hour mark and the roads had so many bumps and cracks in them because of the brutal winters here. That’s about all I can say about the ride today – we got to the campsite, had the most budget of budget showers and were overwhelmed by the mosquitoes. I mean these things attacked like they were on a mission… I have a new appreciation for GOOD bug spray.

All in all this was a good day. Everyone rode hard, people had fun and I think everyone got a half-decent sleep. I’m on the road right now in the RV on our way to Brandon, MB where we meet up at 3pm for a community ride with 30 or so scheduled riders to follow us through the city.

Keep posted on our journey through our LIVE MAP on www.cyclebetes.com