Hey, I’m Nicholas Arnold your midday guy here on 89.7 Sun FM and I’m chronicling my experience of being on the 2024 Tour de Rock team. The 14 day and over one thousand kilometre bike ride has been done every year since 1997 and raises funds for the fight against childhood cancer.
It was an incredible day to be riding the Tour de Rock, and our last really big ride on the docket. We awoke at Shawnigan Lake School – enjoyed an remarkable breakfast – and made our way over to the Valleyview Park & Ride via van to pick up where we left off cycling the day before. From there we made stops at a couple of schools in Cobble Hill and continued back to where we began the day.
Riding into Shawnigan Lake School was pretty amazing for a few reasons. I’ll touch on another reason later, but the school was lining their long driveway and cheering for us. We returned to the quad where the pie fight had happened the day before and dismounted. The populous had followed us in to the quad and assembled to hear words from a couple of student speakers. After that, they sang their school song for us, which was in the style of a church hymn. It was like something you’d see in a movie, an indelible moment.
After that we went to a couple of stops in Mill Bay at Frances Kelsey Secondary School, then Thrifty Foods, before tackling our final hill of note: The Malahat.
It’s another one of those things that’s talked about with a little bit of fear, but mostly excitement for the way down. It holds a special place in my heart because it’s the road I take commuting from Langford to Duncan everyday, so biking over it is a bucket list item for me.
Just like the rest of our big hills, the hump into Port Alberni and Hydro Hill, this one wasn’t as bad as it was built up to be. It was certainly a process to get up, but nothing we couldn’t handle. Once at the top, we stopped at a viewpoint and enjoyed a nice snack and chat before descending. It was a lot of fun and it wasn’t lost on me that this was our last big descent as a team. We made it count working like a hive mind doing a rolling paceline of switching within the peloton to build up as much speed as we could. It brought a tear to my eye thinking back on how much we grown as a group and seeing how cohesive we have become.
After a couple of school stops in the Westshore, we made our way out to our final location in Sooke. We closed the day at the Sooke fire hall, where they let us shower and lounge watching Seinfeld as we got ready for the evening’s event.
Tonight was a much anticipated gala at the Sooke Lion’s Club. Mostly anticipated because our very own Mary-Ellen Somerville with Sooke RCMP (known best for her silent auction skills), shaved her head after raising several thousand dollars to do so. We’re talking long locks of hair too, untreated by chemicals, and enough to fashion a wig out of. She did amazing and I’m so proud to see her putting her hair on the line for such a great cause.
And now for something completely different…
Training for this Tour has not been an easy process. In March many of us were re-learning how to ride a bike, let alone ride a bike at upwards of 60 km/h through mountains less an a metre away from another rider. So naturally, there has been a learning curve along the way with some incidents leading to injury.
The other reason our Shawnigan Lake School stop was so special today was because we pulled over in town to allow retired Saanich PD rider Dani Frohloff into the peloton. She’s a part of our team, but was injured during training and so hasn’t been able to ride most of the journey on her bike.
She hit someone’s back tire while going downhill and flipped over her handlebars and the person behind her rode right over top of her. That resulted in a weeklong hospital visit, with a concussion, fractured ribs, collarbone, and pelvis (pubic ramis to be specific). A horrible injury, especially since she was riding this year with Jereme Leslie, as a husband and wife team.
Regardless she’s found an invaluable role as a member of our team as a liason making sure we’re all in order. She’s also done a phenomenal job working with our honourary riders (child that’s experienced a cancer diagnosis and get to hang out with the Tour) that have been tagging along in the support team vehicles. She’s been great at keeping them excited and entertained. While my heart breaks knowing she’d rather be with us on her bike, it brings so much joy to see her making a difference in those kids lives. She has been a comfort blanket for all of us with her kind demeanor and warm presence.
Along with the husband-wife team, we were expecting to have a father-son team on Tour this year: The Fosters. Dad, Steve, and son, Adam, had been waiting to find the right year that they could do this ride together. Both spent time with the RCMP in the Westshore detachment, and they decided this was their year.
Fate had other plans, and disaster struck on a rainy day early this summer. One rider touched the brakes too hard on wet pavement on a downhill segment with significant speed causing the tires to slide out from under them. A couple other people were caught up in the ensuing crash including both Fosters. Steve was sidelined for over a month with a broken tailbone and Adam was forced to withdraw from Tour altogether after suffering a concussion that still has him off from work as of writing this. A heartbreaking thing to see happen for the father and son duo, but Steve has pushed on and remained in the ride. He’s been such a source of fun, great stories, and wisdom, I’m so happy he stayed on the team. It wouldn’t have been the same without him.
We’ve seen Adam and his young son, Steve’s grandson, a handful of times since his withdrawal, including at a stop in Parksville earlier this week. I’m sure his feelings are similar to Dani’s but his support meant a lot. He certainly gave the team a bump in morale.
The actual Tour hasn’t been without it’s incidents, fortunately none major. We had a minor crash on Day 2 or 3, involving slow moving bikes touching and collecting a couple of riders behind them. Everyone was okay with only mild bumps and bruises reported.
A key part to the training process is learning how to “save it” when something happens on the road. I’ve actually touched tires with someone four times on Tour and twice today (oops). Cst. Warren Kongus had a mechanical issue while riding down the Malahat at 50+ km/h when a bump in the road knocked his chain off it’s track. He was able to stay calm, make a brief stop and get back up to speed shortly after. The dangers of the ride have been made apparent to us, but so far we’ve been able to handle everything that’s come our way.
As we continue to peddle onwards, our cycling distance will get shorter and our amount of stops will increase. The next two days will be spent within Greater Victoria until our finale at the legislature at 5 pm on Friday.
The end is so near, I can almost touch it. It does bring me melancholy to know that I’m less than 48 hours away from parting ways with this surrogate family I’ve found over the last eight months – these connections I’ve made have meant the world to me. But while my heart will be sad, my legs will be happy to finally get some rest after taking on all that Vancouver Island has to offer. Chat tomorrow!
Daily and Overall Stats
Total kilometres ridden on Day 12: 89.58 km
Total kilometres ridden: 941.70 km
Total elevation on Day 12: 1,083 m
Total elevation climbed: 8,888 m (Mount Everest is 8,849 m high)
Total sodas consumed on Day 12: 6
Total sodas consumed on Tour: 52
