Take the Lane

Teen fundraiser gets an amazing bicycle

There are occasions when the strands of my life intersect, and so it is that this week’s column in The Waterloo Region Record is about something that might interest Take The Lane readers.

The column leaves out some elements of specific interest to cyclists, so I thought I’d share them here.

Briefly, the column is about Morgan MacPhee, the 13-year-old Elmira teen who raised $10,000 in his attempt to come up with the $25,000 necessary to be a full participant in the Ride with Lance earlier this year. Though he fell short of the goal, the organizers were impressed enough to offer him a “participation lite” package, including riding a short bit on the 120 K route.

The bike he used was older than he is: a blue and grey 1989 Kuwahara Caravan touring bike that belongs to his grandfather, Doug MacPhee. The well-worn bike caught the eye of Reinhold Schuster, a retired University of Waterloo engineering prof and inveterate bicycle tinkerer. Schuster’s first job in North America was in a bike shop in Bismarck, N.D. back in the 1950s, and he has maintained his love of bicycles and the bicycle culture.

He felt that Morgan had the spark, too, and decided to build him a bike.

He tapped his contacts in the local cycling community for help. He got a Specialized Allez frame (minus the odd part) from Gary Bonneville at McPhail’s in Waterloo. Schuster had convinced Mike Kelly of Waterloo to upgrade his component gruppo some time ago to Campagnolo, and still had Kelly’s old Shimano Ultegra gruppo in his bike workshop. “Take it,” said Kelly, “I’m not using it.”

Schuster got a set of Easton wheels on eBay from Shaw Hasyj of Cambridge, who threw in a $400 Campagnolo Record carbon seatpost when he heard about the story of the bike build.

Others who had been on the Ride with Lance or who knew Schuster – Bob Frank, Don Andrews, Phil Pfeifer and IanCook -- kicked in the cash to get the Easton handlebars, the Selle San Marco saddle, the ITM Millennium stem and the other bits needed to finish the bike.

Morgan got the bike Wednesday, and was as excited as a 13-year-old who mostly delivers one-word answers to questions could be. (Here's Morgan getting his bike from Schuster. Is Schuster a cycling fan? On the wall behind him is a Livestrong jersey signed by Tour de France champs Lance Armstrong and Eddy Merckx.)

Is Morgan a road racer in the making? I don’t know. He has loaded up on the kit – helmet, shoes, jersey, etc – and even convinced some of his friends to try road biking. He likes mountain biking, too. Maybe he’s an enthusiast – and we need more of those among the young -- who was lucky enough to connect with other enthusiasts who gave him a tremendous launch into the hobby that they love.

Ride for Refugees

If you are looking for a late-season ride for a good cause, you might check out the Ride for Refugees, which is a fundraising tool of the Elmira-based International Teams Canada.

The ride, to begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 18 at nine communities from Halifax to Moosimin (including Waterloo Region), helps the Christian non-profit agency provide refugee services and supports some church and community partners involved in refugee issues.

Distances range from 25K up to 100K, although all locations -- including the Waterloo ride at Creekside Church, 660 Conservation Drive, Waterloo -- have a 10K fun ride for the younger riders. You can get more info about the Waterloo ride at this website, which has thoughtfully included the route maps (perhaps for those who want to ride, but not raise any money).

For those who want to contribute money, but not ride, you might contribute to the participation of Nick Tensen of Waterloo, who sent me a link to his personal fundraising website.

Piling on the klicks for the MS Society

My legs are still a bit stiff after last weekend's MS Bike Tour from Brampton to Waterloo and return.

It was an advertised length of 189 kilometres, but due my brilliant idea of riding home at the end of the first day to sleep in my own bed, rather than stay in the dorms at the University of Waterloo, and then riding back in the morning, I had the pleasure of riding 227 kilometres. If you pledged to my ride, I earned your donation to the MS Society.

I sure slept well Sunday night. Perhaps some longer training rides would have been in order. Note to self: 30K rides are not enough.

Fewer riders this year -- about 443 compared to the usual 500 or so -- but they apparently raised more money than last year. The riders who were there were plenty eager at the start line on the first day. And on the second day, they were equally eager to get home.

Lots of Lycra being worn, and a number of custom jerseys and kit. Most complete bikewear belonged to the team from Stephenson's Rental Services of Mississauga: jerseys, shorts and jackets.

Lots of Specialized being ridden, too. Was there a sale on the Allez somewhere? I don't think I have even seen so many in one place (unless I just kept seeing the same ones...)

Toronto-Niagara cancer ride sets a record

I thought the Ride With Lance did all right raising nearly $1.4 million last weekend for Grand River Hospital and Sunnybrook Hospital.

This weekend's Ride to Conquer Cancer, to benefit Princess Margaret Hospital, has exceeded that mark by 10 times.

Today, 2,850 riders from eight provinces and 16 U.S. states set out from the CNE grounds in Toronto on what the organizers are billing as the biggest bicycling fundraiser in Canada.

The total pledged: $14 million. That is an awesome achievement, and raises the bar for bicycle fundraising events across Canada. And it is pretty amazing to put 2,850 cyclists on the main roads and back roads of the Golden Horseshoe over two days.

The first 100 kilometres wraps up today at Mohawk College in Hamilton. Tomorrow, they head for Niagara Falls.

The ride is such a success that they have already set a date for next year: June 12-14.

You can pledge to this year's ride, or sign up for next year's online. 

Ride to Conquer Cancer

Way back in early April, when I wrote about Rick Doktor and his participation in the first Ride to Conquer Cancer, the ride date of June 21 seemed like a long way in the future.
And here it is, two days to go.
A lot has happened since April. Doktor keeps raising the bar on his fundraising goal. He was aiming for $35,000, but has passed that and is on his way to $50,000. And a couple thousand riders have signed on to raise the minimum of $2,500, including 42 of them from Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge. That Doktor is No. 7 of the Top Ten fundraisers tells you that this event is going to raise a pile of cash for cancer treatment and research.
This will be an epic ride: 200 kilometres over two days, from the CNE grounds in Toronto to Mohawk College in Hamilton on Saturday, and then on to the Niagara Parkway near the Horseshoe Falls on Sunday.
Canadian Olympian and cycling celebrity Steve Bauer will ride with the pack, and will lead an "afternoon afterburn" ride of 50K on Saturday after the main ride, for those who want to put some extra klicks on their bicycle computer, or use the extra distance as a fundraising tool.
Whether you know a rider or just want to pledge to the ride, you can do so here.

A really young Armstrong fan

Maria Pegg should win some kind of award for timing.

She was two days overdue with their baby when hubbie Shane, a sales manager at Research In Motion, pushed off Saturday morning on the Ride With Lance.

Three hours after the wrapup dinner Saturday night, her water broke and at 10:50 p.m. on Father's Day, Shane Pegg got the best Father's Day gift when Emily Rebecca Pegg came into the world. Shane sent a note to say that Maria and Emily are doing fine.

And he sent along this photo, of young Emily modelling her Lance Armstrong-autographed jersey.

A little young to be out on a ride quite yet, but I predict a two-wheeler in her future.

More Armstrong moments

Ziggy’s Cycles of Kitchener shouldered a huge responsibility as the bicycle technical support team for the recent Ride With Lance, having to ship, store, service and return the bicycles of the participants.

Dave Bryan, assistant manager at Ziggy’s, had one of the bigger responsibilities: Lance Armstrong’s bicycle.

“I greeted Lance when he arrived and he handed me his bike and as I was walking it over to where the other riders were, they were saying, ‘Let me get on it, oh, come on, let me try.’ ”

Armstrong’s bike was a Trek Madone 6.9, painted in New York City “checker cab” stylings, complete with graffiti, such as “Driver has more money than a rich Texas oil baron” (a reference to Armstrong’s own Texas background) and “If you find this bike, dial 777-7777” (the seven “sevens” refer to his seven Tour de France victories).

Bryan said his anxiety level of keeping an eye on the bike was rising, “I just thought, ‘I want to get rid of this bike.’ So I found a nice safe spot for it, and then Lance came out and just looked at me and said, ‘Dave, where’s my bike?’”

Armstrong can appear pretty intense, but when Bryan made a comment that riffed on the bicycle graffiti by referring to someone having “more money than a rich Texas oil baron,” Armstrong “got that twinkle in his eye.”

Bryan also got Armstrong’s bicycle ID plate. Each rider’s bike was identified by name and number (RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie, for instance, was No. 1). Bryan said Armstrong “gave me his name plate . . . his number was 10/2, for Oct. 2 (1996), when he found out he had cancer.”

Bryan said that for Ziggy's, the event went smoothly thanks to their staff and volunteers. "There was a lot of stress, but the day went excellent."

Share your Lance stories and photos

Do you have a story or photo you'd like to share from your brush with seven-time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong and the Ride With Lance this past weekend?
Send them to me, and I'll share them with our Take The Lane and Record community.

Wrapping up the Ride With Lance

Wrapping up the Ride With Lance

Some movie-star glamour was injected into the evening reception for the Ride With Lance participants last night when actor Kate Hudson joined the head table.

The presence of the woman described by some of the riders as “Lance Armstrong’s new squeeze” was a closely held secret until the dining tent on the grounds of Woerner House in Cambridge began to fill.

Ian Cook, of Cook Homes, raised $63,000 for the Ride With Lance, which was raising money for the cancer centres at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener and Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. As one of the top five fundraisers, he was invited to sit at the head table with Armstrong and other guests.

“I’m walking around the table looking for my name tag and whose name do I see but Kate Hudson,” Cook said.

Hudson, the daughter of Goldie Hawn, was rumoured last month to be dating Armstrong. The 28-year-old Hudson was divorced from The Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson in 2007 and had briefly dated actor Owen Wilson. Hudson’s latest film is Fool’s Gold, released in February. After his divorce from his wife Kristin, the 36-year-old Armstrong was engaged for six months to singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow before that relationship ended in 2006. Pictured here, 13-year-old Morgan MacPhee of Elmira was the first to ask for a photo with the celebrity couple. (Photo courtesy Jacinta Faries. For more on Morgan's story, click the link below.)

During the dinner, while Armstrong left his seat to table-hop, Deb Gemmell of Waterloo stopped star-gazing from afar “and sat beside Hudson for a bit.” Gemmell told Hudson about her journey with cancer and how the people at Canaccord Capital had raised the funds so that she could participate in the ride “and she was genuinely pleased that I could be there.” When Armstrong returned, Gemmell got a souvenir photo of the three of them.

For more about the weekend of souvenir moments for the participants.

Previous Ride With Lance posts.

• On the sidelines of the Ride With Lance
• Scrapbook from Ride With Lance
• Phil Liggett on the state of cycling
• Elmira boy rides with Lance

 

On the sidelines of Ride With Lance

When it came right down to it, I didn’t even see Lance Armstrong.

I arrived early today at Woerner House, the Roseville-area estate that is the country conference centre for Waterloo’s Centre for International Governance Innovation.

This was the secret start and finish of today’s 117-kilometre Ride With Lance, to raise money for the cancer treatment centres at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener and Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto.

I arrived so early that I drove up the long driveway unchallenged, found a decent parking space and began checking out some of the 40 bikes as the crew from Ziggy’s Cycles checked tire pressures and made last-minute adjustments. See pix here.

Someone from Sunnybrook figured out that I was “the media” and I was politely escorted to the front gate, where I showed I was a good sport by helping them set up the media registration tent.

And pretty soon, cars began to arrive with the media, riders or spectators. Riders and crew were allowed on site, but family, friends and spectators were directed to park along the road, no matter how convincingly they argued that they were personal friends of RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie, the person who had persuaded Armstrong to be the star-power for this event.

The onlookers included people like Jim Edmondson of Kitchener, who saw Armstrong win his record-setting seventh Tour de France, and Jan Serwin of Cambridge, who was tricked out in the full cycling kit of the U.S. Postal Service, the team Lance used to ride for. I rubbed elbows with Natasha Stoynoff of People magazine (her brother was riding) and staff from The Record and CKCO. And there were people like Tina Bettridge and her daughter Candice Shrigley, both of Kitchener, who had been out for a Saturday morning bicycle ride along the nice paved shoulders of the Roseville Road, and stopped to see why the crowd was gathering, then stayed to catch a glimpse of Lance.

Kitchener oncologist Dr. Carolyn Campbell, representing the Grand River Hospital cancer centre, rode out to give the good news that today’s ride has raised $1.2 million, to be shared between the two hospitals. She told a media scrum of the amazing response locally to this event, “from family and friends, from the cancer centre staff, from hospital housekeeping staff who were handing us money.” And she talked about the commitment of Lance Armstrong himself to the message about battling cancer, that he feels he has a responsibility as a cancer survivor to share the story of his cancer, his journey and his “survivorship.” “He’s taken that on very seriously.”

Phil Liggett, a familiar face to anyone who has watched the Tour de France on television, dropped his cycling commentator role for a day to ride with the team, but also took time to come out and yak about this fundraiser, this year’s Tour and the future of cycling generally. More about that in a later post.

While we waited out on the street, at Woerner House, the riders had fruit, carbs and a pep talk. The coveted yellow jersey for the top fundraiser went to Perry Dellelce the night before, so everyone was surprised when ride organizers acknowledged the challenging journey through cancer of Deb Gemmell of Waterloo, whose story I’ve reported earlier (Tales from Lance’s Waterloo Region team), and presented her with a special yellow jersey to commemorate her participation in the ride. Yeah, you can bet there were tears. More on that in an upcoming post, too.

Finally, the moment of truth. They rolled down the driveway toward us, turned left and they were off, down Roseville Road with the police escort. Was Lance in there? Yeah, I think so. Did I see him? No way. I’ll have to wait for another chance with Lance.

Tidbits from the Ride With Lance:

Nice hats handed out to the volunteers, crew and riders. The riders got full kit, including a snappy grey windbreaker . . . Ziggy’s Cycles had to rustle up eight pairs of cycling shorts, six jerseys and one pair of socks (had to be black) for riders. (Who comes to a bike event with no cycling shorts?) . . . Four police officers from Calgary City Police and one from Edmonton City Police, where they have had some escort experience with previous Ride With Lance tours, flew in for this event . . . I heard that someone (you know who you are) leaned over at the reception and tightened up the front brake on Phil Liggett’s loaner Trek bike. These cyclists, just like a bunch of kids. See the scrapbook.