Another year, and another roundup of all the happenings on two wheels in the family. In some ways, for me 2023 was more of the same:
- 11th year with the Bow Cyclist Club, 4th as Ride Director
- 8th participation in the Tour de Victoria, 6th Gran Fondo Badlands
- 3rd time raising money for charity
- Etc., etc.
And yet, it’s always fresh. There were new gravel rides, new bits of road and path I’ve never done before, and best of all, Ian’s second year with the BCC really kicked it up a notch. 2022, being Ian’s first year, we tended towards the shorter and easier rides (that’s relative: he did more than one 100 km ride!) but this year it was full-strength. Ian joined in on most of the Saturday endurance rides, and notched two full century rides (100 miles). That pushed me in turn, and I ended up with personal bests for total distance and elevation.
The winter held on in 2023. The weather in early April was harsher than it has been in December this year. Ian insisted on trying the Ronde van Cowtown this year. He was in pretty good shape from riding to Bowness High School through the winter, but going from 8 km rides to 40 km or 140 km rides is a quantum leap. He managed the first half before calling it a day when the ride reached our house. No one will forget Tammy’s homemade stroopwafels.
Once the weather turned from icy to spring, I started the fundraising for the Tour Alberta for Cancer in earnest. It was stressful to be the team captain as well as being responsible for my own $2500 minimum, but I made it, with a much-reduced BCC team of Joel and Duncan (and then just Duncan, when Joel got sick). The ride was an experience, but I’d say that the Cycle of Life Tour beat it by a country mile.
The air quality got bad early in the summer with wildfires in BC and Alberta. The club cancelled twice as many rides this year than ever before because of it. Our first “big ride” was Water Valley, but then Ian and I took part in Perry’s “Summer Solstice” ride in late June. He ran it last year, but this was the first time I’d taken part. There were three distances: 100 km, 140 km and 200+ km. Ian wanted to do the long one, but then cooler heads prevailed. He notched his first full century that day.
Drumheller was my first long ride with my new bike, Tigger. Tammy had given me the green light to get a new bike for my 50th birthday, but during the winter I’d lost momentum on the idea. I’d been thinking I would get a titanium frame, but that would have pushed the price tag too high, just when our mortgage would be up for renewal and interest rates the highest they’ve been in decades. I worked with Mark at Bow Cycle to put something together that with a little less eye-watering price tag: a 2022 Norco Section steel frame with Shimano Ultegra and carbon fibre around it. With the weather that preceded it and then things getting busy, it was a while before I could snap some nice pictures of it.
Not all went well in cycling-land, though. On the first day of the TAFC, the kids rode to Market Mall to shop and have dinner (Tammy and I were still in Strathmore) when their bikes were stolen. 🤬 Tammy’s 2013 Specialized Dolce and Ian’s Kona Fire Mountain were locked, but perhaps not with the highest quality lock. Both Miranda and Ian were sad and angry about it, and the police report accomplished nothing. We needed to replace them so we worked with Daniel at Bow to get them a pair of Kona Rove gravel bikes. For Miranda, her bike was a bit more rugged for riding to work. For Ian, that meant that he could try the BCC gravel rides. He did well, even though he crashed hard on his first night.
Once back on the bike, Ian joined me in Victoria for the 140 km distance of the Tour de Victoria for the first time. He did well and we also enjoyed riding to the Pender Island ferry for the second time. This time, Baba and Grandpa were there, so we just rode to their place instead of all the way to South Pender.
Once back from Victoria, that’s when the cycling season usually winds down in Calgary, but we still had some nice weather for the Sheep River ride, and I even did the north half of the Greenway. After a bit of snow, things cleared up again and I found myself commuting to the office into December.
With so many great memories for the year, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention what might have been the worst ride of the year. On October 6th, just as Ian and I were getting ready for the last gravel ride of the year, Stephanie let us know that Dad had had a stroke and was in the hospital. He was in rough shape and there was no guarantee that he would survive the night. Since there was nothing else I could do, we went to the ride. I had to stop a number of times as Stephanie was texting updates. Knowing that Dad might not live put the whole ride into perspective, both as a celebration of life, but also a sense of powerlessness. I choose to remember the joy of knowing that I was sharing an experience with my son, even if my heart was being torn in two.
