Spending time with old friends can be restorative, like hearing an old favourite song from your
youth. I emerge from Peter and Louise’s lovely home feeling refreshed and reinvigorated just
when I needed it.
We start with an interview with Global Peterborough, which wasn’t our best, but certainly good
enough.
This will be a challenging cycling day with an immense reward. The day started with a dark and
gloomy sky, flecked with rain and distant thunder. It got worse. The rain volume multiplied and
the thunder neared, until rivulets formed on the roads and lightning flashed just ahead. Today
we plan to meet supporters at three points along our route, based on the distance they wanted
to ride.
Among many others, we meet up with a Rigid Rider who suffers from a debilitating form of
Parkinsonism that has dramatically limited his cognitive skills and ability to communicate.
Astonishingly, he has retained his cycling talents and personal resolve, and we push off
together into a wall of rain water and a crackle of light, followed in the car by his caring wife. She
is intent on giving him every opportunity to cycle in a group and to preserve his abilities. Though
he is a strong rider, he tires with effort and requires monitoring. It is an honour and a duty that I
take seriously, as do others who help keep watch. At a halfway point, he stops abruptly to
labour in his backpack and presents his phone – he wanted to make sure that Strava continued
to capture this feat; he is all in.
He continues on for 50km to the end, despite the extreme weather, plentiful hills and the near-
constant deluge. I learn afterwards that this is probably hist longest ride ever. I am so proud of
his effort today, and expect that he feels the same way.
When we get to Peterborough, we are treated to the most amazing sight – despite intense rain,
and the fact that we are two hours late, we are greeted in the Wild Rock Outfitters parking lot by
two dozen supporters, including a journalist and a world leading cyclist (Travis Samuel), and
then again at dinner. I doubt that any of these people will ever truly understand how much their
presence at either of these events means to us, no matter how hard we try. Thanks
immeasurably to Lanny, Nancy and Liana for helping to organize such a meaningful stop on our
tour.
