Tour de Cure 2023
*cough cough* The Tour de Cure 2023 ride is complete! Well, most of it. Here’s the recap:
After a summer of riding under the guise of “training” I headed over to Vancouver on the early Friday morning ferry. Early, because I forgot to get reservations until the week before… Early enough to drop off my bike in Cloverdale, work on school planning for a couple hours at the library, and do a quick tour of the Museum of Surrey! Even got to visit with an old colleague and friend before buying some cool new socks.
But anyways, the ride. Early Saturday I picked up my bike and made my way to the opening ceremonies. Along with 1,500 or so other riders, many who had teams with their own jerseys and inspiring stories of why they were riding, I heard the announcement that $7.1 million had been raised through this event for the BC Cancer Foundation! What a result, and a big thanks to my donors for helping with some of that.
It was nice to feel like a small part of the contribution to such a good cause and feel I was symbolically supporting my cousin’s recovery from cancer late last year. Being a solo rider and not having personal experience fighting cancer alongside some of these hundred-thousand-dollar-raising teams with remarkably moving personal stories did give a small feeling of not being “in the know,” but the friendly and supportive atmosphere helped make the point that every dollar counted and everyone taking part was an important part of the journey towards a cancer-free province.
With 260km on the cards, a week of sleepless nights leading up to the event, heat pushing to the mid 30s, and an Air Quality Health Index hovering in the mid-range warning levels, I told myself not to push it. But they don’t call me Ben Fast for nothing (groan, sorry)! Since I wasn’t on a team I was able to park myself near the front of the ceremonies and ended up in the first 50 or so to head through the starting arch. A quick loop around the Cloverdale Agriplex block and up a hill and before I knew it I was looking back and seeing a big gap. I was in the breakaway - Tour de Cure, more like Tour de France!
Actually, thanks to the riding I’d been doing I felt quite comfortable keeping a 26-28km/h pace up early doors, especially when catching on to the wheels of some faster groups. I was feeling good, chatting with some people, and enjoying the early morning haze as we headed out into the countryside. Then suddenly we were already at KM 25 and the first pit stop - and I’d only drank half a water bottle! If I wasn’t careful I’d put myself in a deficit and pay for it later. Stocking up on snacks until my pockets bulged, filling my third bottle just in case, and heading back out onto the road I was sure I’d do better for the next 25km.
But then I met Lee and Justin of team Love & Joy and I spent all my time chatting, of course! Lee is a double cancer survivor and a teacher, sharing some great ideas for language classes (of which I’m teaching a few this year) and navigating the career generally. She also seemed to have boundless energy and pushed our pace even faster! I would ride with them the next day too.
Just as I remembered my pockets full of snacks, pit stop #2 arrived (a few KMs earlier than advertised…) and I once again found I’d barely touched my bottles. Come on, Ben, this isn’t how you trained!
Setting out on my own from the pit stop I saw the route split and, with John and Tom from Victoria, decided to turn onto the long route. The air felt fine, the heat was still manageable, and a smaller group would mean I’d be sure to remember to drink more and eat more (looking back now, the omens were there: I’d spilled a bag of chips at the stop and as soon as we turned the corner dropped the bar I was trying to eat…). John turned out to be a very strong rider and Tom, out with his commuter bags and never having done a ride this long before, put me to shame with his consistency and endurance. I’d ride with them for 60km or so, see them at the lunch stop, then wave, exhausted, as I passed them already eating dinner when I arrived back at night. But I’m jumping ahead!
The 160km route was lots of fun, snaking out around Abbotsford and along the Fraser river for a while through some scenic landscapes that were easy on the legs and pretty flat. We three were having a good time riding a solid pace when we got passed by the Velogrit Lontreau Cycling Team, a women’s team that was really pushing the pace (though they, of course, looked like they were out for a relaxing Saturday ride). I jokingly sprinted after them as a way to get past some slower riders, but John was suddenly beside me shouting “Ben’s got the right idea!” and before I knew it we were wheelsucking our way around Fort Langley at 38km/h or more! The team rotated through two-by-two with me and John doing our best not to get dropped (remember, I’m on a steel-framed 1x gravel bike - meaning I have only one chain ring in the front to go fast - I was pretty maxed out). We rode behind the team for about 25km before they had a mechanical problem and we hit…the hill.
Having a 15% average climb arrive exactly 100km or 4 hours into a ride when you haven’t had a water stop for 60km was ROUGH. It is actually a categorized climb on Strava and it nearly killed me. Luckily we got some water from a support car parked at the bottom, but not everyone was so lucky as he quickly left to drive a rider up the hill. I spent more time riding sideways than forwards I S-turned so much, but I’m very proud to say I didn’t put my feet down once on the climb! I was dropped by the group I was riding with, however, and suffered through the 8km to the next pit stop (finally - this was one complaint about the event’s organization).
The weather had kicked past 30 degrees by this point, so I spent more time than normal hiding in the shade and getting some bags of ice from the amazing volunteers. It was a slow, hot, painful solo 20 km down through Bradner and across the Matsqui plains (are these the names of these places?) to where the lunch stop was supposed to be, only to realize they’d bumped it back another 5km to the end of the second categorized climb (shallower, but longer). My head was spinning, it was already close to 2:00pm, I was again almost out of water, so I had to take a pause on this hill. Nothing left in the tank. Lunch was a daze, though the first aid people didn’t think I warranted a look and so I wished John and Tom good luck and spent nearly an hour just sitting and recovering, watching others lie on the ground looking more grey than I apparently did.
When I finally did get back on the saddle I knew the hardest riding part was done, I just had 30km of downhill (Sumas mountain, that was fun!) or flat riding into Chilliwack (less fun - pave your roads, people!) and I could make that even with the heat and increasing smoke. My pace was a good 10km/h slower than with the race team but I managed to keep it rolling. I got into camp around 4:30pm after eight hours out there but only 6:21 actually riding. Not a bad day and very comparable to my last 160km ride!
Camp life was alright, I tried to get some dinner in me and enjoyed some chats with my riding companions while stifling yawns and shuffling back and forth through the barns we were staying at. The party atmosphere wasn’t there, something some people complained about compared to other years, but I was looking for an early bedtime anyways since we had to do it all again the next day.
I managed to get to sleep in my tent around 10:15 but woke at 11:30 with the absolute worst headache I’ve ever had! Dehydration was striking hard, and the water bottles I’d chugged over dinner were more a hindrance than a help if you know what I mean. I wasn’t sure I’d make it to the portapotties and nearly keeled over twice on my way. Could I even ride the next day? Was the smoke thicker at night or was that just my head? A couple more jolts awake through the night had similar feelings but it was getting better by 5 and seemed back to normal tiredness by the 6am wakeup call. Lots of people were questioning how much worse the smoke was but we’d received the go-ahead text: the ride was on!
The second day had departures in waves with everyone doing the same 100km route and I set off with Lee and Justin in wave three, Lee pushing the pace so fast I got dropped a couple times! I stuck with them to the first stop but set out before them thinking most people would catch me later anyways. My legs were tree trunks, and not in the big-muscles-sense. Nonetheless, riding solo and saying hi to people going faster or slower than me gave me more time to think about the riding I’d done and the end of a bike-filled summer. I was trying not to think too much of school, so focusing on the scenery and holding my breath through the waves of manure smells around Chilliwack and Agassiz helped keep me focused.
After some wild backroads that hugged mini mountainsides (Limbert Road and the Kent Municipal Cemetery being some highlights) before breaking into pastures and farmland, I passed a guy and made an offhand comment like “it just keeps going and going doesn’t it.” His response: “Well it’s almost over, they’ve just cancelled it.” Cancelled? Nearly over? What was he talking about, we were only 65km in!
Turns out the smoke was coming and coming down heavy into the Fraser Valley. A fire was starting north of Hope and the highway near Boston Bar was closing, people were needing the highway clear for evacuations and the Air Quality Health Index was spiking up to a 10+, the worst it can be. The organizers made the tough but absolutely correct call to cancel the ride at our lunch stop and try to get us back to Cloverdale. What a logistical effort it was, semi-trucks for the bikes, buses diverted to get us and those fast riders who were already on their way to Hope, lunch and other snacks, emergency opening of school gyms for people struggling with the air… amazing work by the team. I was on the last bus out of the Seabird Island Band two hours later and still managed to have my bike and bag packed into my car in Cloverdale by 4-ish pm. We may not have finished it (or had the symbolism of riding to Hope) but honestly, I was glad to be done.
The ride stats:
Day 1: 161.9km; 6:21:36; 25.5km/h average speed, 1,194m elevation.
Day 2: 67.2km, 2:47:37; 24.1km/h average speed, 87m elevation.
Total Raised: $2710 from 30 donors (including a group donation from the VIBC bikepackers)! THANK YOU!!!
I’m not sure about next summer’s adventures yet but another Tour de Cure could be on the cards. I’d love to see something like this on the Island (I know there are some bigger bike events, but I’m not sure I’ve seen such a fully-supported ride with a good fundraising cause) as riding with so many people and having such support really is a cool experience. But I’m not sure I’d do the challenge route again if the weather and smoke was the same as this year - it took me quite a few days to feel recovered.
A big thanks to the organizers, event staff, and volunteers - a lot of work goes into these and you made it all work pretty darn smoothly!
This weekend symbolically ended my summer of riding. I rode 1,316.7km in July and August, a combined total of about 61 hours of riding (doesn’t actually seem like a lot looking back!). A ride a couple days ago to catch up with my friend Chris (an absolute beast who rode about this much in 84 hours straight at a big cycling race in France in August…!) pushed me over 700km in a month for the first time in my life! Long distances don’t seem as difficult and definitely not as scary as they once did and I’m already planning some big adventures for future years. I do think I need to have some more focused training - which my brain really struggles with - so I will see how this learning experience through 2023 translates into the off-season and builds back up for next summer. If I can do it, anyone can!
