Congratulations Cyclebetes 2009!

I have to say this one last time:

• Thank you to the core team for putting this thing together.
• Thank you to our many Manitoba sponsors - I-NetLink Wireless, Westman Eval & Rehab, the Murray Auto Group, Tim Horton's, A&L Get Active and countless families, friends and strangers that sponsored the Manitoba cyclists.
• Thank you to the media in Westman that provided great coverage of our team and the events here at home.
• Thank you to everyone who followed us and supported us on the road.

And finally, THANK YOU to the beautiful, full-term pregnant love of my life that stayed at home with two kids and ran a household for our family while I was on the road. You are the most amazing woman in the world and I would be so lost without you, sweet girl.

I hadn't yet posted this video on my blog, but it was on Facebook. If you'd like to see the video I put together with some of the wonderful Cyclebetes folks I lived and adventured with for nearly two weeks, check this out:

Crew members from all across the country talk about Accu-Chek Cyclebetes - the biggest bike relay in the world - and encourage viewers to get involved.

This will likely be my last post on here for a while as I tidy up some 2009 loose ends and prep for next year...it's getting close!

Every mile traveled down that highway brought us two miles closer to the cure. Thank you to everyone!

Journey Coming to an End, but Really Just Starting

I got to ride in to Calgary for the last 3okms with some great folks – Jeff, Charlie, Heather and Steve – as I passed my personal goal of 1,000kms for this trip.

The personal goal was nothing, though, in light of what this trip is about.  The people I’ve met here and along the way have shown me again and again that Juvenile Diabetes is a disease that won’t last.  It can’t, not with a group like this fighting against it.

It’s a little surreal right now…taking a few minutes to upload a video while everyone is relaxing…tomorrow we’ll ride out to Bragg Creek and then I’m going home.

It has been such a great trip, and I’ve got so many more memories that I want to make sure I capture, but, for now, what I’d like to do is get down some of the advice that I’ve received over the last two weeks:

Megan: Tell everyone we’re leaving at 7.  Then we can leave on time for 7:30.

Kim: I can. I will.

Willie:  Apparently one cloud can screw you.

Joanne: Ride like you’re wiping off dog poop from the bottom of your shoes.

Megan: Don’t forget the tent.

Barb: Don’t ever ask anyone to do something you wouldn’t do.  Do it first, then you can teach them so they can do it next time.

Steve: Ride like a Kenyan.

Willie: Do it if you’re gonna do it.

I know there’s more and I’ll get them in here as soon as I can.  The video’s uploaded now and I’m going to get a last night in with this amazing group of anti-Type-1’ers.

This leg of the journey might be coming to an end, but I know that this group of people will accomplish great things – primarily curing Juvenile Diabetes – and I am so glad I sent that email to the H2V guys last year and got involved.

Thank You, Manitoba!

Wow.  That’s the only word I have.

I have been continuously blown away by people I have met on this trip.  I didn’t think that the biggest shock would come from someone I already knew.  More on that in a second…

I have some very big thanks to push out to some people and organizations that made the Manitoba leg of Accu-Chek Cyclebetes so successful.

Krystal from 94.7 Star FM took calls from us all day long as we made our way from Winnipeg to the Wheat City, pumping up the event and directing people to our Facebook group and our website.  People were honking at us from Portage la Prairie all the way into town.

We were met by an amazing group of supporters up on the highway as we rode into Brandon.  They had signs, cheers, and most importantly, my family ;o) It was so great to see my very pregnant wife and my two man cubs.

The Brandon Police Service met us on the Trans-Canada with two vehicles and led us, along with CKLQ/Star FM, all the way through town.  With about 5km left on the Community Ride, my son Beemer joined us and rode like a rock star into the apres-event at the Riverbank Discovery Centre.

When we got there, about 50 people joined us in thanking I-NetLink Wireless, Westman Evaluation and Rehabilitation, Murray Chevrolet Cadillac and A&L Get Active for their support and contributions.

The Brandon Sun had a reporter and photographer there to do some photos and to interview Megan Rose and myself.

Afterwards, we retreated to my brother’s house where he and my very dear Mother had made us a rockin’ supper for all the riders.  It was sooooo good to be able to sit down as a team and have supper at a respectable time!  …plus, the grub was amazing and everyone had a wonderful time.

So about this wow thing…

Jannessa rode as my stoker through the province.  This girl has a ton of stuff in her.  Seriously.  At age 14, she not only lives with Juvenile Diabetes, but has also overcome a myriad of health troubles and not only survives, but downright pushes through whatever life throws at her.  It was so great to get some time on the road to get to know her better, and even better for her to spend some time with a lot of Type 1’s who are living with the disease and fighting to get to the end of this thing.  She is brave, confident and is going to make a difference.  I was privileged to ride with her, and amazed that she rode for over 100kms in less than 24 hours.

What a great place to call home, but I didn’t get to stay.  Tonight we made it into Moosomin and  tomorrow we’re on to Swift Current.  The next day, Brooks, then finally Calgary the day after.  I’ll be saying my good-byes and driving home after that…

…I can’t believe this adventure is almost over…

Some Pics from the Road

It’s been so great getting to know so many people along the route so far.  One of those is photographer Carey Tarr, a Type 1 Diabetic that is following the crew along the way and rockin’ out some great photos.  Here’s a shot she got of me while driving past Kerry and I on the tandem…Carey was hanging out the side of the van!  Carey…thanks so much for letting me post this!

I finally got a chance to put some video online as well tonight.  KOA Rocks!  Free wifi?  Hu-zah!

These are the video highlights for Day 6 from the Biggest Bike Relay in the world. Cyclebetes is all about finding a cure for Juvenile Diabetes, with the hope of helping millions of children around the world, including over 200,000 Canadians!

All Uphill

I’m losing perspective: all roads that aren’t dramatically downhill are starting to look like big climbs.  Yoy.

Another night shift for RV2 and we’re totally rockin’ it. We’re still averaging 25km/hr even with these nasty up-hills.  The Sault area is nasty on a bike, but so much more amazing on a bike because you can take in the scenery.

We had a pit stop in Wawa for the RV change where we found out that the other team totally knocked down a high speed of 71.8 on the tandem.  Way cool…but way making Kerry and I want to destroy it!

We paced ourselves on a bunch of ascents and easy downs until, around 11pm, Kerry and I found our hill.  We got into top gear and were totally blasting the descent.  There was one big dip left in the road and we found another gear, pumping our legs as hard as we could, lungs burning, heart racing…and then we blew a pedal with 150 meters to go on the hill.  So disappointing!

There was a bit of panic going on…not too sure what order things happened in because we were going too fast to look down and figure out what was going on.  It was too dark.  I caught 69.8 km/hr on the bike computer, but we’d lost a little bit already.  We certainly didn’t bust through the 71.8, but we had at least 70km/hr, if not 71!

The threads on the crank were completely stripped.  The pedal was still clipped in on my shoe…pretty crazy.  It was a shaky moment, but luckily I was in the drops and Kerry is a real steady rider.  I didn’t need to move my hands to reach the breaks, so we just had to shake off a wobble and slow down.

We’ll get it tomorrow, Kerry, tomorrow. ;o)

Got into camp and Canadian Olympic rower Chris Jarvis had made the most amazing campfire-cooked banana bread with walnuts and chocolate chips.  Dude actually cooked it on the campfire in foil.  Made the batter from scratch.  Epic.

Really hoping to get some internet access soon…have some video we NEED to get up here and lots of pictures.

I’m also thinking of my beautiful wife, who is officially going to celebrate her birthday without her husband.  Love you baby…tomorrow we’ll be in Thunder Bay and I’m hoping Rogers has their act together for cell phone reception…

Big Night of Riding – And LOTS of Rain

We rode all through the night last night into Mississauga and had one heck of a ride.

As we took the RV to start the all-nighter – Willie, Kim, Mark, Joanne, Jen and I – we looked up into the most amazing clear sky…crazy awesome stars and a nice cool night.

There was one cloud in the sky.  One cloud. Willie looked up and had the nerve to say, “There’s one cloud, there is no way we can get screwed!”

20 minutes later he and Kim were hunched under a gas station shelter while gallons and gallons of water poured off the roof of the building.  We couldn’t see them for a couple of minutes before they pulled over.  It was insane…and I have video to show it!

Mark and I rode together as the second tandem, J & J rocked shift three.  We rotated through the night until we busted a couple flats in a row and switched over to singles.

Willie rode all the way through Toronto.  When I say he ‘rode’ through Toronto I mean he totally destroyed that city.

On the last 20km stretch to Mississauga he came back to the RV and said, “James, it’s your Beemer.  Do you want to take it in with me?” 

It was the most incredible ride of my life.  Willie let me draft pretty much the whole way and we rocked that last strip of road at 40-50km/hr the whole way, and got into the community event in M-Town at about 7:30 AM. 

As I got off the bike, Googs came up and asked if I could help with the event.  I was feeling pretty high so I was like, “Hell ya!”   Then she told me I was doing the 30km ride.  Nice. hehehe.

It turned out to be awesome and I got to ride with Patti for most of the shift…what a great morning, too.  It is so incredibly lifting to share with other parents about D-Day, about the changes in life and what our hopes and aspirations for our kids and their life with this disease.

Googs totally rocked the event – for her first event where she had to write the entire script, it was incredible – and there was a strong group leading the team out of the city while she and I went to return a bunch of gear.  We met up at the team change event (ON East to ON West) and had to say some good-byes to a great group of people while we got rolling with the next.

What a blast…so fortunate to be riding with a group of people that want so badly to totally lick this disease.

Broke in on the Tandem

Kim Hexter is a ROCK STAR. If you’re ever going to do your first ride on a tandem in the dark, this is the lady you want riding the stokes is Kim.  Thank you so much for an amazing first ride.

We’re doing a wild downhill right now with tandem needed some serious love.  It’s lived through a hurricane, several thousand kms and a serious rain storm. Getting some big help tomorrow after the community ride in Mississauga.

Today my wife joined with Cyclebetes Manitoba team mates Jannessa Phillips and James Juliak went down to do a benefit BBQ for the team.  Murray Chev Olds hosted the event and covered the expenses, allowing us to collect over $600 for the JDRF! Too awesome.

Drove for three hours and am about 3.5 hours away from my next cycling shift.  Joanne and Jen rockin’ the tandem now and we’re about to do a change.

Looks like a great night of riding ahead of us!

Ride hard!