Mission Accomplished!

Before the last 2 km to Montreal Children's Hospital.
Led by our junior rider survivors Georgie and Joey. 
I'm second from the left

Yes, we had a tailwind.  For 3 days.  And fantastic weather - no rain and not too hot.  What a fabulous experience to raise money for these kids and get to ride my bike in the process.  585 kms in 2.5 days door to door from Toronto Sick Kids hospital to Montreal Children's hospital.

Ready to ride for the kids

Day 1 started out by meeting on the front lawn at Sick Kids.  There were several speeches but the two most important ones were given by one of the oncology doctors and then a testimonial given by the mother of one of the kids undergoing treatment.  The doctor gave an overview of how previous 401 Bike Challenge funds were put to use and also the research that is candidate for current funding.  Pediatric cancer survival rates have increased dramatically in recent years - from 50% to 90%.  But that still means that 1 in 10 kids that is diagnosed will not survive - still a totally unacceptable situation. And it's also highly dependent on the type of cancer - some cancers have much lower survival rates.  So, research will be mainly focused in two areas: early detection and tailored treatment.  Childhood cancers tend to have very unique fingerprints based on the individual's DNA.  So broad based treatments tend not not work as effectively.

The holy grail is to be able to extract a patient's immune cells, genetically re-engineer them to suppress the cancerous replication and then re-introduce them to the patient.  The re-engineering is highly patient specific.  And the earlier that it is detected, the better - thus the focus on tests for risk.  Doctors figure we are probably about 10 years away from being able to do this with good success rates, but recent advances might shorten that timeline.

We were then introduced to Markie.  Markie is now 5 years old and he and his family have been put through what can only be described as living hell.  His first diagnosis was at 3, where he was brought in because of persistent cold/flu symptoms that would not cease (apparently this is quite typical).  His mother then went on to describe the battle that they were still in the midst of. 3 relapses, 400 plus days in the ICU, round upon round of chemotherapy and eventually a bone marrow transplant.  I can't even remember half the details because it was so jarring listening to the story.  

This is why we are fundraising and riding.

Sick Kids start group photo with Markie and family

The night before we rode, we were given the opportunity to select some magnetic badge pins with pictures of children who are undergoing or who have undergone treatment at one of the hospitals.  I chose two girls, because, well, I have two daughters.  My girls were rarely sick - I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times they were brought to the Children's Hospital of Easter Ontario (Ottawa).  So I feel very grateful.

So I chose Madison and Talia - both from Montreal.  They are both doing fine now - Madison was at the arrival in Montreal and gave an absolutely wonderful speech telling us a bit about herself and thanking us!  Talia, I found out, is a friend of one of the riders whose son also is a survivor.  She is doing well and will be starting grade 7 shortly!

Riding for Madison and Talia

Once we were finally moving, a police escort led us down University to Lakeshore and then east.  What an experience riding this way - no need to stop at any lights and people cheering and honking the whole way.  Lots of obstacles still, so we absolutely needed to focus on riding safely.

Under the Gardiner Expressway with police escort,
being led by Justin with me just behind

The police escort led us out for approximately 30 kilometers, by which time we were just past Scarborough.  At that point, we were to get into 3 riding groups based on speed.  Each group would be preceded by a safety motorcycle and followed by a support van, giving us a "shell" of protection.  I selected group 2 as I had done a prior training ride with some of the group 1 riders and knew I couldn't keep up with them.

I can't believe the job the front motorcycle has to do.  Basically, he races ahead of us to the next intersection and controls whether we need to stop or not.  The riding group should go through (or not) together.  That means if a light is green turning yellow, he blocks the intersection to prevent oncoming drivers turning left into us and drivers turning right into us from the right.  All the riders go through, even if the light turns red.  It's strange because I'm usually very careful at lights, but in this case you can't just look at the light and traffic - you need to follow the motorcyclist's instructions and go through because if you slow down suddenly when everyone else is rolling you can cause a crash.

The motorcyclist also has to act as a lane blocker to ensure cars behind us don't pass at the wrong time.  He'll hold cars off from the back and then check the front oncoming passing lane and signal to the driver when it's okay to pass us without coming into our lane.  He takes his share of driver abuse just like cyclists do.  But the amount of concentration required to do this job is incredible.

Once we were past Oshawa, things got easier as the city turned to country and the number of lights and intersections dropped significantly.  Here is where the real riding began - the route basically follows highway 2, which in many areas is known as Kingston Road. We rolled on all the way to Belleville with a lunch stop in Port Hope.

Day 2 was what everyone feared and anticipated - 260 kms from Belleville to Cornwall.  In some ways it's easier than the 190 kms on Day 1 because it's all on rural roads, so you're rolling most of the time except through the towns.  It's just a long day in the saddle.  Unlike Day 1, we were on the road at 7 am.  The planned stops were Napanee, Kingston, Thousand Islands National Park (Mallorytown Landing), Brockville, Morrisburg and then finally Cornwall.  The park lunch split was at 143 kms, which is nice because mentally you're "over the hump" when you drag yourself back onto the bike after lunch.

Skipped the full dip at Thousand Islands National Park on day 2
for a simple foot soak

We made good progress in the afternoon and group 2 arrived at the Cornwall hotel at around 6:15 pm.  For reference, the fastest rider arrived at 3:15 pm.  Three fricken hours earlier!  Ridiculous.  I am humbled.

Just short of 260 km averaging 30.5 km/hr for 8.5 hours
on day 2. We had a great tailwind and some fine group
rotation

For fun, I posted to Facebook everything I ate and drank on Day 2:

• 1 bagel with peanut butter
• 1 bowl of raisin brand w/milk
• 2 vanilla yogurts with oatmeal
• 2 coffees w/cream
• 2 glasses of apple juice
• 1 cup scrambled eggs
• 1 fruit leather
• 3 Cokes
• 2 Gatorades
• 1 small bag Lays chips
• 2 packs Welch fruit gummies
• 2 quarter pounders with cheese (lunches sponsored by McDonald's)
• 1 caesar salad
• 1 Apple pie
• 1 blueberry/cheese turnover (if you've never had one of these at McD's, you haven't lived!)
• 2 beers
• 1 glass of white wine
• 1 cup penne pasta
• 2 pieces salmon with cream sauce
• garden salad
• 10 Wedge fries
• 1 piece of strawberry/vanilla cake
• god knows how much water

The only thing that felt "excessive" in retrospect, was the 2nd QP w/cheeze. Urp. I should have skipped it but felt no ill effects (unlike some others - one rider threw up his lunch on both Wednesday and Thursday 🤢).

The last hour into Cornwall was challenging.  The road was not very good, the shoulder was narrow and we were yelled at be several drivers to get off the road.  I thought of the kids.  People were starting to "pulse" because their rear ends were sore.  By pulsing, I mean that they would pedal a few strokes, and then stand up to get some temporary butt soreness relief, and then sit down and pedal again.  This is not good, because what happens is that when you stop pedaling for a moment, you slow down.  So your speed is pulsing and when you're riding in a tight group, the person behind you has to be really aware because they might need to suddenly hit their brakes - which can then cause a dangerous chain reaction.  

At one point, two of the riders touched tires as a result of this pulsing.  Luckily, neither one went down although they were both quite shaken as the result could have been very bad.  Nerves were a bit frayed and we were all quite tired.  Our motorcyclists kept encouraging us by frequently telling us how much further we had to go.  We finally arrived safely.  What a fabulous day!

Day 3 started out a bit stuttered as we were now 4 riding groups to accommodate the riders who were doing only the Cornwall to Montreal leg.  I was now in a smaller group 2 and just after we left, one of the riders couldn't clip into his pedals.  So we waited while the mechanic replaced the pedals and dealt with his shoe cleats.  As we were getting going again, I had the only "mechanical" issue I faced in the whole 3 days.  Highway 2 at this point includes a "rumble strip" to alert drivers if they are edging off the road.  A good safety measure for cars.  Problem is that some of the paved shoulder contained debris or bad pavement which means that if you're on a bike, you end up having to move from the paved shoulder to the road and back occasionally.  So you get the "brrrrrr" and some handlebar vibration when going over it.  My bike frame and fork were built for riding on "pavé" (cobblestones), which can handle the rumble strip quite comfortably.  But it turns out that the mount for my Polar GPS device is not all metal like I thought.  There's a plastic ring that holds the device via a twist lock mount.  The plastic failed and my GPS went absolutely flying over my right shoulder.  I turned to see it bounce multiple times behind me with the white protective rubber case flying off.  I thought it was toast.  I stopped and ran back to get it.  Behind me was the now stopped mechanic's truck, which amazingly didn't run over it.  I picked it up and it was still tracking!  I couldn't mount it, so I just put it in my rear shirt pocket for the remainder of the ride.  I could still see my speed on my bike because I also have the old school trip computer that works by counting wheel turns using a magnet on one of the spokes.  Backup systems work!  Otherwise, my bike performed like a complete charm - all my prep maintenance paid off.

We continued along at a good clip - averaging around 36 km/hr for the 45 minutes once we got beyond the town limit.  I got to do some good pulls on the front which felt great!  We stopped in Coteau-du-Lac, about 60 km east of Cornwall.  At this point, group 2 arrived before group 1 (the fast group) because group 1 made a detour to visit the mom of one of the riders who lived in the area.  She made us all these amazing oatmeal cookies.  I had 2 at the stop and one more later at the lunch stop. I heard one of the other riders say that he had eaten 7!

We made some jokes to the group 1 guys about leaving before them so we could "stay ahead of them".  Instead, since we were smaller groups than the previous day, one of them suggested that we all ride together.  I mentioned to my fellow Ottawa rider, Matt - "let's see how long this lasts 😁".

The group 1 riders stayed on the front in a nice tight formation and we averaged 38 km/hr, which means that we were doing 40-42 km/hr for periods within this.  After 30 minutes of this, I was starting to feel that I couldn't keep up and was falling off the wheel of the rider in front of me.  Then I heard from behind me: "Minus 1!".  That's cycling speak for "you lost a rider off the back".  I looked around briefly to see who it was and it turned out to be Matt.  At that point I figured that if I tried to keep up, I'd be a total wreck once we reached the lunch stop at John Abbott college, so I let up and yelled "Minus 2!".  The pace formation kept going and slowly disappeared into the distance.  Usually it's a badge of shame to be dropped, but I feel honored that I could ride for a while with these really strong riders.  My whole training for this ride was about endurance - not pace.  So, I really enjoyed the opportunity.

Matt, Steve and I rolled into John Abbott not too long after the group 1 riders for lunch.  The remainder of the ride from here would be another controlled speed police escort, which we would do as one big group for the last 30 km to Children's Hospital.  

Arrival at John Abbott College in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue

3 of the riders in the event are fathers of survivor kids.  This year, the event organizers decided it would be special if the survivor kids could lead us into the hospital  So we stopped about 2 km before the hospital so they could join and lead us from the front.  What a great reception when Georgie and Joey rolled into the hospital service road, followed by all the riders.  Many families were there to greet us.

Andre and his son Georgie lead the ride into
Montreal Children's Hospital

After refreshments and ad hoc pictures, we settled in for some ceremony and speeches.  We got to hear more about how funds would be used and Madison gave her great speech.  Finally, we got to see the end tally of the fundraising for the event - $205,496, which exceeded the goal of $200 k!  During the ride I got a notification that I also exceeded my personal fundraising goal thanks to all of my sponsor donations - in the end this event is all about the donors and kids, the rest of us are just enablers.  There were many thank yous for everyone involved.  This event requires a huge amount of coordination and effort.  The riders get much of the attention, but nothing happens without getting corporate sponsors, booking hotels, finding mechanics, motorcyclists, van drivers, dealing with media, organizing food, ride logistics, training and many more activities I'm not even aware of. 

Fundraising target exceeded!  $205,496 raised this year

Everyone completed the ride and everyone got to Montreal safely.  With an event like this there are sure to be some minor mishaps, but there were no major ones. Kudos to the organizing committee for doing everything they could to ensure the safety of the participants.

Just before leaving Cornwall. 2nd row seated, far right

I am honored that I was able to help out a great cause, make new friends and share lasting memories and experiences with them.  Bring on 2020!.

Take care,
Dan

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Help kids with cancer at both Toronto SickKids and Montreal Children's hospitals and support my fundraising goal. You can donate to my ride via Dan's donation page at the Air Canada Vacations 401 Bike Challenge website.  100% of your tax deductible donation goes to the hospitals

Follow me on social media: 

Toronto to Montreal in 2.5 days - Bring it On!

At Narrows Locks on Big Rideau Lake with fellow KNBC riders Terry, Tony and Neil

Less than 6 days until the big ride for ACV 401 Bike Challenge for Children's Hospitals and I'm READY.  Clocked over 3000 kms of riding since early June most of it with the Kanata Nepean Bicycle Club.  The weather has been mostly fantastic although there were a few hot and humid days in late July.  Very little rain, although I did get in a rain ride last week, just to be prepared.

I feel like I've ridden every cyclable road in Eastern Ontario 😀. West to Renfrew, North to Buckingham Quebec, East to Hawkesbury and South to Portland.

In July, I had the great opportunity to ride with some of my 401 Challenge colleagues in upper New York state on a route called the Lyon Mountain loop.  It was a great chance to meet some of the Montreal based riders beforehand and it was also a good hill workout with 1200m of ascent.  The rural roads in upper New York state are so great for cycling - smooth and very little traffic.  First time I've crossed the border on my bike!  So weird that Canada Customs officials ask you if you are bringing back any cannabis 🙄. "Yeah I have some stuffed in my seat tube...."

A week and a half later, I did my peak training distance ride - 228 kms from Barrhaven, to Perth, around Big Rideau Lake and then back.  Started at 6 am and ended at 7:15 pm, but the lunch stop was like 90 minutes (too) long.  I met up with KNBC riders in Perth for the loop portion.  The point of this was mostly psychological - had to convince myself that I could do the middle day portion of the 3 day Toronto-Montreal ride which is 260 kms (Belleville to Cornwall).  It worked.  I now feel confident that I can handle it - bring it on!

33% of this is on stone dust railway beds.  Ouch my arms. And butt.

3 days later, I conquered back to back (almost) century rides.  An (imperial) century ride is 100 miles or 160 kms.  On the 2nd day I met up with fellow 401 riders who live in Ottawa and we tackled Cantley, Val-des-Monts, Buckingham just north of Gatineau.  What a hill workout! Not including the fun of going off course and ending up on some dirt cottage roads which caused Gustavo to have a flat.

Century ride with fellow 401 Challenge riders Matt and Gustavo

On the fundraising front, I'm at 85% of my goal of raising $3500, which is kinda in line with the overall event fundraising which is also at 85% of raising $200 k from combined sponsors and riders.  So I'm going to do a final fundraising push this weekend.

For updates during the ride I will primarily use my Facebook account for posting.  For anyone who is interested in following my live progress, send me an email or FB message and I'll send you a Google maps tracking link at the start of the event.

Now let's hope for some great weather! And a tailwind!

Take care,
Dan

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Help kids with cancer at both Toronto SickKids and Montreal Children's hospitals and support my fundraising goal. You can donate to my ride via Dan's donation page at the Air Canada Vacations 401 Bike Challenge website.  100% of your tax deductible donation goes to the hospitals

Follow me on social media: