Final hours

In the spring, as I was planning for August, I wasn't sure what to expect. I have been very blessed by a supportive community who has been kind and generous over the years, and am so thankful for your support again this year! GCCC has been a huge success again this year, and we know the riding is only a footnote on the much more important work of battling childhood cancer. The newest number I have seen is just shy of $6.5mil raised, but that might be last year's number, which understand will be beaten by this year's donations.

In terms of my own participation, I wasn't certain of what I would be able to do. Since going on medical leave, I have been able to ride but I am not able to handle much pressure/stress, and my ability to concentrate isn't as good. I attempted a longer ride mid-month, and was only able to do about 90min solo. If I'm with people, I'm still able to go a bit longer (2.5h range at most). My longer rides of the past just aren't possible still. I've been fortunate, however, in being able to be very consistent. I thought 800km might be a good goal, and if it was the spring, that would have been a stretch. With 2 days left, however, I'm at 1103km, which is only a little behind the last couple years. I suspect my final number will be around 1200km, meaning August has been a victory of sorts. One day at a time...

One final note: we are pursuing proper sponsors and expanding the Nowhere Ride for 2026. Our 30 riders this year made it a great event and represented good growth over 2024. We are working to draw in more of the broader cycling community and get more GCCC riders to join us as well. We are excited to see what a group of maybe 100 riders will be like, circling the NE Swale here in Saskatoon. All riders will be welcome, including YOU.

Thank you for your support again this year. Off to do my last couple rides.

Nowhere Ride, and exceeding mileage

Thank you all for your ongoing support.

The Nowhere Ride 2025 was a success. The wind fought against the riders along the northern leg of the course and limited the distance some were able to achieve, but it was still a great course and a great day. We had 30 riders on the course, and are already planning for 2026. Our plans are to change the name to better reflect the location (Circle the Swale maybe) and attempt to find corporate sponsorship for the event.

Due to my illness, I am still unable to cycle outdoors, so I didn't participate with the Nowhere Ride. This was a little disappointing, but I really enjoyed helping coordinate the ride. I have continued to ride the simulator most days, and last night I crossed the 800km mark, which was my initial goal for GCCC this year. Since I fell ill last fall, riding has been more challenging, especially longer rides, but my consistency has been good, and I am now thinking I will exceed 1000km this year again. As I said before, my mileage isn't correct due to how my devices talk to each other, but I keep track for my "accurate" riding. One significant help has been to do my indoor simulator rides in regular groups. There are different ways this can be done, and because we run a voice system, we are able to talk and encourage each other as we ride. If not for the support of my group, I doubt I would have been able to make my goal this year.

In the next 10 days there is still time to ride, but also time for donations. It is a formal charity, so you even receive a tax credit for any donations you make.

Thank you for the support. Now back to riding tonight. :-)

Double Donation Day!!

Wednesday, August 13th will be DOUBLE DONATION DAY!

All donations made towards Great Cycling Challenge Canada will be matched, to a national maximum of $1,300,000. The Garren family, who lost a son to cancer in the 1970, have donated 10s of millions in the battle against childhood cancer, and every year they have been generously supporting GCCC. So amazing...

I continue to ride my miles indoors on the simulator. My numbers have been good, and I have ridden more by a large margin than any other month since last August's GCCC event. My drop has also been tied to a fairly serious mental health crisis this year which did affect my riding, along with everything else in my life, but as I have gotten better, my riding has also improved, which is a huge blessing.

I plan to smash the 800km goal (please note: my mileage counts wrong on here, and is effectively counting my miles twice so I have completely 480km so far this month. For the Nowhere Ride this weekend, I will be working as the organizer, but I am still unable to cycle outdoors, so I am going to do a modified event. On Monday the 7th, in the aftermath of the Nowhere Ride, I will do my own ride where I am aiming to complete as many KM as possible in 7 hours on the indoor simulator. If this sounds boring... it is. It is painfully boring. But as Larry the Cucumber says (if you don't get the reference, Google "VeggieTales"), "It's for the kids."

5 days down, 250km covered

Because I have been unwell, I wasn’t sure what I would be able to reasonable do on the bike side this year. As with other years, because of quirks in how I track my data, the GCCC mileage is about double what I’ve really done. I will continue to track my riding properly but I do not think my 800km goal will stand. 5 days in, and I’m on pace for closer to 1500km, though I do need a coupe rest days. Other years I’ve done about 1200km, and now I think I MIGHT be able to match that again. Yes, I’m riding on the indoor simulator so it isn’t real world, but then again the simulator features something we do not have in Saskatoon: hills. Yesterday had a good 10km climb in the middle, and there may have been some gasping for air.

Thank you for your support again this year. I know what we are raising matters to the families of children battling cancer.

August is coming

This is my 8th year of riding for GCCC. Because it is close to my heart, given our history with Katherine, I always look forward to participating.

On August 16th, we are hosting the 3rd annual Nowhere Ride. The city of Saskatoon has again given us our own lane on Central Ave, so that we have a great 10km (approx.) course to ride loops on from 5am-12pm. So far, we have 13 riders signed up, but we know there will be more on the course that day. Anyone is welcome to join us for the day, even if not part of GCCC, so if you are in Saskatoon and want to come ride, details can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeAaTof4cXLjJZ0PmCm_Fc3sgA8wqJPO4iELowGcbGX7tf9pg/viewform?usp=header

On a personal note, this will likely be a different year for me. Some of you are aware I've been facing some serious personal challenges, and outdoor riding isn't really possible for me right now. I'm hoping to be on the course for the Nowhere Ride, but even that may not be possible. Because of the wonder of modern technology, I'm riding on Zwift, an online simulator for riding. So even if I'm not outside, I will be putting in serious riding miles, as Zwift aims to be as accurate as possible to the real world. It is actually harder, in many ways, because Saskatoon doesn't have much in the way of hills, while last night I logged over 1500m of climbing on a model of one of the hardest rides in France. Because of the weirdness of online tracking, my mileage will again be wrong, as it usually counts my rides twice, but I will be tracking my real distance.

Thank you so much for the support and encouragement