Bike-a-thon photos

Here are some photos from the final day of riding at the MCC Summerfest Bike-a-thon

1496 km, $237,500

Well, the riding is done. Did the last 106 km (it was supposed to be 100, but I got a bit lost) of the trip yesterday as part of the MCC Summerfext bike-a-thon. It was a rainy and windy (35 km/h) day, but I got to ride with some great people, and had a lot of fun. Total kms ridden for the trip is 1496 km, and so far, $237,500 has been raised! We'd like to thank all or our sponsors, as well as everyone who donated to the trip, volunteered ,or prayed, or followed the trip in any way.

There will be more pictures coming soon, but in the meantime, here is the final day's ride below. I'm off to enjoy the Summerfest!

Adam

Arrived in Sherwood Park

These photos are all starting to look the same

New aerodynamic helmet design. Not sure why I'm brandishing my fist at the camera

Many mosquitos were harmed in the making of this cycle trip

Well, after 11 days, we finally made it. Arrived this afternoon after 76 km of biking, joined once again by my Uncle Byron. It was nice to have a bit of a shorter mileage day. Our total mileage so far is 1390 km (1355km on the cross Alberta trek, and 35 km on our launch ride with Menno Simons right before we left for La Crete- we'd forgotten to include that so far). Now we're looking forward to joining the MCC Summerfest bike-a-thon tomorrow. Weather is not looking so hot at the moment, but it'll be fun anyways.

Adam

Beautiful weather yesterday and more hills. It was great to ride with Leon Janzen, who was also a rider in the Kenya portion of Cycle for Life. Due to a bit of camera mishandling, I don't have any pictures today, but allow me to assure you, in the absence of our handy stencil, that our mileage as of the end of today was 1279 km.

We did film one video, which I'd like to put below in honour of Rod Reynar, an incredible person, coworker, and friend. Rod, we hope your memories of your time driving during last years trip are as fond as ours.

More Linden Photos

Riding with local cyclist Sidney on the way into Linden

Linden Pictures

Great Support Drivers Anne and Linda


John and Abe on two of the fun bikes provided by Cal's Cycle



The ride through Linden, complete with bike police escort

Got pulled over for speeding. Just kidding.

Having some trouble uploading photos tonight, hopefully I'll be able to put them up tomorrow.

A great day today in Linden, as Abe said. Thanks so much to all the organizers and people who attended- it was lot's of fun. As for riding, we're into rolling hills now, which makes the fact that Steve Heidebrecht, a friend (and ride sponsor- than you Green Acres) did the latter half of the ride today on a single speed very impressive.

John's knee is continuing to giv him trouble. At this point, I think the plan is to take things a say at a time, and not push things too much.

Thanks to Anne and Linda, our stupendous support drivers today. We stopped at a gas station this afternoon, and before we knew it, Anna had arranged free BC cherries, a donation to the ride, and Gelato for everyone. Very impressive! Tomorrow we will be joined by Leon and Mugasa.

Adam

More Linden Cycle for Life

Other cameras took better photos and they will appear later this evening. For now, thank you to Christine and her committee and the local churches for creating a really cool day in Linden to support Cycle for Life: Build Peace. Stop AIDS. Linden, in this noon-hour event, raised 2,500 dollars today, for AIDS, which puts the total now up to $232,500. Wonderful.

Linden Cycle for Life Day Continued

All ages enjoyed the "wonderful world of Cal's cycle inventions" today.

More Linden (Cycle for Life Day)

Seth and Rob ... thank you for showing up today at Linden ... escorting the cyclists into town and hanging around during the festival ... reminded me of Simon and Maureen, two Peace Officers in Kenya who accompanied us during the ride ... Maureen in the vehicle and Simon on a bike. Thank you, all four of you.

Day 8 Kathyrn to Linden to Lousana

Adam, John, accompanied by Anne and Linda D, headed north from Kathyrn (not Kathryn) to Linden, and then to Lousana. Here a group of us caught up them as they approached Linden today, for what was a wonderful noon hour of hotdogs, Kim Thiessen's CD music, Cal's wonderful world of weird and wacky cycles (total fun), Kris Peters entertaining the kids, bookended on a town block by two firetrucks, the presence of two policemen, and 260 people... a really cool stop for Cycle for Life today.

Vulcan, AB

No riding today. It's good to have a bit of a rest and some time to get organized for our last four days of cycling, and of course the upcoming MCC Summerfest at Sherwood Park (check it out at www.mccreliefsale.com)

A long (short) day

Very happy to be riding with Jeff and Byron today and had a wonderful send off from the folks at Lethbridge Mennonite, but the 35 km/h head/crosswind made today feel like a very long 87 km. The rain missed us at least. No pictures, sorry but here's a video.

Day 7 Update

Hey, Byron and Adam... great day ... good work you guys. Thanks for biking. For AIDs. For MCC. For MCC Partners who work with prevention/education, with medication provision, and with orphan care. A woman donated 5,000 today, designated to Mengo Hospital in Uganda, where they built an entire wing, a few years ago, for working with Patients who have AIDS. And then Global Fund and others started to reduce their funding and so Mengo, and other major partners are pressed to be able to provide the kind of essential services that, for the past few years, they have been able to provide.

I am so glad we are doing this Cycle for Life... for AIDS, and for Peace work. With the 5,000 today, we have reached, in pledges and sponsorship totals, 229,000. Our goal had been 200,000. MCC has not been able to raise all the money we commit to the numerous partners in about 27 countries, and so, if we can go well past 200,000, we still may not reach the commitments that MCC has made. This is urgent; thanks John, Adam, Byron ... for cycling. People have been responding generously.

Photos from Day 7

Thank you so much to the sponsors of Cycle for Life:

Tekton Construction

Clarity Glass

Birchwood Furniture Galleries

Kesho Construction

Mennonite Mutual Insurance

Genetics International

P2 Energy Economics

Green Acres Landscaping

Enterprise Rent-a-Car

Happy Trails Campground

Different Bikes

Great Western Bikes

Day 7 - 942km and counting!

Moving Pictures

A very pleasant day today. My dad has joined the ride as a support driver for the next two days assisted by John, who is resting his injured knee. My Uncle Byron, who was a rider in the Kenyan portion of Cycle For Life is riding for the next two days, so it was great to bike with him. We had good weather (27 degrees! and not too windy, which is a bit unusual for Lethbridge) and reasonably flat roads. We were planning to stop once we hit Vulcan (around 100 km) but ended up going right to Mossleigh for a total distance of 134 km. All in all a good day. I also finally got to see the big USS Enterprise in Vulcan, which excited my not-so-inner Star Trek nerd.

Tomorrow the forecast is for a 35 kph cross wind which could be not so fun. As I'm writing this John is watching a recap of the Tour de France, and the speeds, efforts and fitness of those riders makes a small crosswind seem pretty trivial.

John tried his hand at doing some video while in the car- you will hopefully see the fruits of his labour in this post, and in a couple more posts over the next couple days.