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| Erik, Maddy & Brad make the ride a family affair. |
Most
professional cyclists will probably list yellow as one of their favourite
colours. This is because the leader of the Tour de France wears the maillot jaune, or the yellow jersey. In
fact, the lead of each category in the Tour comes with an associated colour:
the green of the Points Leader, the red and white polka dots of the King of the
Mountains, and the white of the Best Young Rider. But there is one colour that
is not sought after by the riders of the Tour: the red of the Lanterne Rouge.
Named after the red lantern on the back of the caboose of trains, this title is
earned by the rider in last place. And on the 90-Day Challenge ride across
Canada, I am going to be the undisputed Lanterne Rouge.
After
spending a few days on the ride, two things have been made clear to me: Canada
is very big, and I am a lot slower than the men in my family. Although I spent
most of my time on the bike drafting behind Erik, I still found myself having
to crank it in a high gear to keep up. So somewhere between Kingston and Ottawa
I made the decision to approach this as more of a mental challenge than a
physical one. On a particularly difficult stretch of the road that had my legs
burning, I turned to an old strategy that I had used during my time as a rower.
I used to make a mental list of reasons to keep going, whether it was a person
who inspired me or a personal goal I wanted to accomplish, and dedicated 10
strokes of each race to each of the items on the list. On the bike, I broke it
down into 10-minute segments.
The first
10 minutes was a no-brainer: my dad. For obvious reasons, he is a huge
inspiration. His commitment to the community, to the Boy’s and Girl’s Clubs,
and to his 90 day challenges is more than reason enough to keep the legs
pumping. In the interest of time and space, I won’t go into all the details but
will simply say that he is one of the biggest inspirations in my life and
helped me get through those ten minutes in the same way that he has gotten me
through innumerable situations.
Next I pedalled
for the Boys and Girls Clubs. It sounds silly to say that I dedicated 10
minutes to them when the entire ride itself is devoted to them, but during those
few minutes I spent some time thinking about what exactly it meant to be riding
for them. I thought of the stories my dad had told me from the clubs out west,
the little boy in the bike parade in Kingston who showed up dressed like
Batman, and the look on a little boy’s face when he scored on a penalty shot
during floor hockey. Those 10 minutes were when I truly understood what my dad
had been saying this whole time about how the kids make it easy to get on the
bike.
In the next
few segments I rode for each member of my family who has contributed in some
way to the trip, for our family friends who have supported us in countless ways
so far, for the chance to see our beautiful country, and maybe a little bit for
myself and my pride (Sorry, Erik, but I just couldn’t let you have the
satisfaction of dropping your little sister).
While my first two days of riding certainly
weren’t easy, they were a ton of fun and I can’t wait to get back on the bike
in Moncton. Instead of one 90-Day Challenge, for me, this will be a succession
of 10-minute challenges. Hopefully my mental lists will help me claw my way to
Newfoundland, and maybe by the end of the trip I’ll be able to upgrade from the
red of the Lanterne Rouge to the white jersey of the Best Young Rider.
Maddy
