The Cross Canada Cycle Tour Society August 2017, Volume 34, Issue #8
President’s Report John Pringle
The Dog Days of Summer
Dogs and bicycles. A good mix? Not usually. My 8th birthday had me receive a gleaming new bike on which was hanging a white canvass delivery bag with big red letters, “The Star Weekly”, along with a wee brown record keeping book. Never before had this weekly been delivered door-to-door in Langford. This wide spread village was my domain; hence the bike. To make a buck a week I had to deliver 100 papers each Monday, but first households had to be solicited. That was my first run in with an unruly Border collie mix who, thereafter, made each Monday afternoon hell. He finally sunk his fangs deep into my exposed right thigh as I rode as quickly as possible from the Lalonde family’s front stoop. As I pass down Carlow Rd. to this day that incident is front and centre. The experts claim I was deploying the best strategy, “… out-pace the predator.” This ploy worked when Kumiko and I fled a pack of First Nations Reserve dogs south east of Merritt, BC. If this strategy had not worked the experts suggest giving the beast something other than you to chew on.
Am I wrong in saying that dog vs cyclist events are rarer now than say 15 years ago? More frequently dog and cyclist interactions seem as buddies; Fido is seen in a bicycle basket or on a trailer. I chatted recently with a lad who completed a long BC ride with Lassie in his carrier.
Maybe more threatening to cyclists are those who take Rover for a walk while they pedal. Ok I guess if it’s a quiet cul de sac, but this morning I saw a mid-thirties gal with a good-sized German Shepard mix leashed to her bike and riding at speed as they crossed a busy Victoria street. Is this not “looking for trouble” or what? “Another way to irritate drivers”, I thought.
What’s in a Name? Most of us at one time or another try to give an interested cyclist the name of our Club: “Cross Canada Cycle Touring Society”, we state. “Huh”? Is the quizzical reply. “Well you can google CCCTS to make it easier” we reply. “CCTS” is mouthed back. “No, CCCTS – three Cs. “What does it stand for again”? You state, again “Cross Canada Cycle Tour Society.” “Ahhh you’re the group who take commercial tours across Canada?” “No that’s ‘Tour de Canada’ or ‘Cross Canada Bike Tour’. Besides we’re a non-profit Club.” “Oh sweet” can be the reply. “I’ll join CCST … uh CCCTS as I’ve always wanted to cycle across Canada and I’d rather do it with a Club.” “Well there was a time when we cycled regularly across Canada, but we haven’t done it for years” we might reply. “Well what does CTSCC or whatever you call your Club, do then, and why the name?” And on and on.
This is never a quick conversation: I now carry Club cards; it makes the dialogue much shorter. Yes it is a cumbersome name. It sounds like a handle from the distant pass; much like the 1936 Calgary-based Club “The Skyline Hikers of the Canadian Rockies”. Yikes. And we too are getting “long in the tooth”; 1983 seems a long time ago. And yes, the name no longer accurately reflects our touring activities. But, does that matter? Those interested in cycle touring will find such clubs are rare. They google CCCTS. Learn of our activities (now much easier as we now allow non-members to read the Newsbrief) and join up. We’ve been nigh on 600 members for years.
A Club name change has been put to an AGM vote on a couple of occasions. When a new member, changing this complicated handle may have appealed to me. Not now. “What’s in a name?” Shakespeare noted. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Indeed.
Welcome New Members
| Sue | Parent | Surrey | BC |
| Tilly | Jensen | Edmonton | AB |
| Nanci | McConnell | Surrey | BC |
| Andrea | Lang | Courtenay | BC |
| Josie | Greene | Ottawa | ON |
| Marie | Gendron | St-Zotique | QC |
| Edward | Dillon | Surrey | BC |
| Tyne | Jomkasiti | Surrey | BC |
Upcoming Tours
Tour Trip Report
‘I knew I could do it’: Quebec man sets record at transplant games
CTVNews.ca Staff CTV’s Vanessa Lee and CTV Montreal’s Rob Lurie
Published Monday, July 10, 2017 10:18PM EDT
A Quebec transplant recipient who was fighting for his life less than two years ago recently set a new record in cycling at the World Transplant Games.
Francois Forget, 50, struggled with kidney problems that left him so sick and tired that he couldn’t work – never mind work out.
In November 2015, he was told he would need a transplant. Forget was soon admitted to hospital and put on anti-rejection drugs, but a doctor informed him the surgery wouldn’t be happening and sent him home. He felt devastated.
Weeks later, he got a phone call informing him that another kidney was available. The surgery went ahead and his health improved.
Forget said the setbacks taught him to respect his body and enjoy life, so he took up cycling.
Forget didn’t know anything about bicycles but started training six days a week with the goal of competing in the World Transplant Games, which were held last month in Malaga, Spain.
“I just wanted to cross that finish line and to say, well, I made it,” he told CTV News.
Forget did more than cross the finish line. He set a new record for the games, averaging 44 km/h during his 5 km race.
“I had the will to do it and I knew I could do it, so I got myself involved 100 per cent,” he said.
Forget said he hopes other people who got transplants will see him and realize what’s possible.
Drivers save cyclist from possible grizzly bear attack on B.C. Highway
Two pickup-truck drivers in Radium, B.C. come between bear and rider on the highway
July 22nd, 2017 by Philippe Tremblay , Canadian Cycling Magazine
A couple of drivers on a B.C. highway near Radium took action last week to prevent a young grizzly bear from possibly attacking a cyclist.
Robbie Flemming was driving from Calgary toward Radium on July 14 at around 8:30 pm. He noticed a heavily loaded cyclist making his way up a long climb in the same direction.
“All of a sudden, I see a young grizzly jump over the Banff-bound guardrail in front of a tour bus and go loping across the highway,” Flemming told Global News who first reported the story. “As he gets into my lane…he stands up on his back feet, and I’m sure he can smell that cyclist coming for a bit, and I’m sure he had visions of supper.”
Flemming thought the about three-years-old grizzly bear looked lean and hungry. “It was very surreal,” Flemming said. “My first concern was that I was going to hit the bear. And then I realized I wasn’t going to hit the bear and then, OK, ‘He’s after that cyclist.’”
It was clear to Flemming that at the speed the heavily loaded cyclist was traveling at he was not going to outrun the grizzle bear. In order to warn the cyclist, Flemming pulled over and began honking his horn which the cyclist initially ignored.
“Finally he looked over at me and I said, ‘You’ve got a grizzly bear about 25 feet behind you.’ He looked back and went, ‘Oh!’ and started to pound on the pedals.”
Flemming realized the cyclist may still be in danger so instead of driving off her pulled his truck in between the rider and the bear, and turned his flashers on. A second pickup-truck driver saw what was happening and also pulled in between the space between the bear and the cyclist. Once the cyclist was out of the bear’s line of sight, the rider gave a thumbs up to the drivers and rode on.
Flemming said his friends and family initially didn’t believe the story adding that he wished he had a camera to record the close encounter.
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Photos by Cassie Beyer
The whole thing was witnessed by Cassie Beyer and Donald Poster of Idaho who were taking a trip to Lake Louise and came upon the scene in their RV.
“He saw the cyclist, we were going down, he was coming uphill and the bear was chasing him,” Beyer told Global News. “It looked like the bear was after the cyclist.”
“His head was turned, he was looking back, he knew [the bear] was back there.”
As they drove slowly by the scene in the opposite direction, Beyer took photos.
Newsbrief
Published at least ten times a year by The Cross Canada Cycle Tour Society, a non – profit organization for retired people and others who enjoy recreational cycling.
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