After 6,668 kilometres on the road a group of Red Deer cyclists dipped their tires in Halifax Harbour on Friday ending a fundraising journey that began 54 days ago.
Organizer and Red Deer teacher Ben Pelletier was joined by Red Deerians Logan Davey, Tristan McDonald, Keith Weber and his daughter Jade Weber, and Karina Bennett from England, on an epic cycling adventure to raise money for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Red Deer and District.
Shortly after finishing and celebrating with a beer at one of Halifax’s waterfront pubs, Keith Weber talked about the journey, which was chronicled daily by Pelletier on their GoFundMe.com page under “The Great Cross Canada Bike Trip Extravaganza.” They have raised $4,755 so far and donations will be accepted for another week.
“Everyone’s happy and healthy. It was just amazing. It was a life-changing trip for all of us,” said Weber, who with wife April Weber, owns Weber Physiotherapy.
Their journey began on May 1 in White Rock, B.C. They pedalled 137 kilometres to Hope, B.C. their first day — a pace they would continue for most of their journey up and down mountain ranges, across the Prairies, through the Canadian Shield and out to the East Coast. They suffered through bone-chilling rides, torrential rain, brutal headwinds, wildfire smoke and searing temperatures.
“Honestly, I think the biggest challenge was making sure that you took good enough care of yourself to be able to ride the next day so you didn’t let the group down,” said Weber. “So, everybody really pulled together as a team for that.”
Besides the daily physical workouts, mental endurance was tested constantly.
“There were a few tough stretches where we had day after day of rain. We just had to make sure we stayed positive, which honestly wasn’t a problem with this group.
“I’d wake up to laughter and I’d go to bed hearing laughter. So, it was pretty uplifting for me.”
Keeping up energy levels was also key. “You’re always on that verge of exhaustion and every little bit adds or subtracts from that so you had to focus on managing your energy.”
They typically hit the road between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. and cycled for about eight hours, although there were days where they went as long as 12 hours.
Only a handful of days they rode less than 100 kilometres and on May 17 pulled off a 220-kilometre ride from Indian Head, Sask. to Virden, Man. a feat they repeated two days later on a Brandon to Winnipeg leg.
This was not a casual, sightseeing tour, but at the same time they didn’t want it to become a torture test. Over the 54 days, they were on their bikes for 50.
“That was the real issue. You knew the next day you had to do the same thing over again.
“We really kind of had a mission. We all had jobs to get back to. We wanted to make it as efficient as possible and fun at the same time, and I really think we accomplished that.
“I don’t know another group I could do this with who would do it this well.”