The road from Hinton to Eagle Bay, B.C. is more than 650 kilometres on the ground, but that ground has a lot of vertical and horizontal curves as it roller-coasters through the Rockies. Imagine biking that distance and how grueling it must be.
Kevin Hardman scoffed at the thought, especially when considering all that his brother Mark is going through.
"As for the ups and downs, the approach mentally was, if Mark could battle cancer on a daily basis, then we could battle the ups and downs, rain, headwinds ..." he explained, noting the emphatic motto he and his riding partner Jonathan Waehrer took up: "No quit."
Cancer has been a devil dog constantly nipping at Mark Hardman's heels. Now 62, he has been in a decade-long battle with four different cancers, each taking their toll on his health. His first fight was with colon cancer in 2012 before the kidney cancer came four years later. In 2018, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He beat all of those, but now he is being treated for brain cancer at the Cross Cancer Institute. He was in surgery just this last week. His fight continues.
Kevin, a former triathlete who was on the ice for the first St. Albert Merchants game and also played ball with the St. Albert Tigers and Senior Cardinals, had never undertaken a long-distance bicycle ride before. He and Waehrer trained for two months and expected to top out at 100 kilometres each day.
Training wasn't Kevin's only preparation: his partner Paulette Glor drove a support vehicle and trailer loaded with extra parts, bikes, extra clothes, a cooler with food and water, lawn chairs, a table, and "many spots to hang wet gear." The trailer was adorned with signage that read, "Mark's Ride for Cancer." This was the same name given to a crowdfunding campaign Kevin started to help support Mark and contribute to cancer research. People can contribute by visiting gofundme.com/f/CancerrideforMark.
“The ride was something I always wanted to do, with the opportunity to raise money for brain cancer and support my brother,” Kevin said of the trek that took place in early September.
Day one was the toughest, he explained, with "extreme" headwinds.
"We both were not sure what we had committed to," he admitted.
The rest of the ride wasn't exactly downhill, although some of it was. Day two was calm and clear, followed by a day of rain. Originally planned to be a seven-day tour, they traveled up to 200 kilometres a day and ended up finishing it in four days. The scenery was great, and Kevin was deeply appreciative of Waehrer's company, but the best part came at Eagle Bay on Shuswap Lake, where Mark was waiting at his summer home.
"Reaching the end was amazing. It was very emotional with a lot of handshakes and hugs," Kevin exclaimed. "I have won national championships and provincial championships in sports before, but this was much more satisfying than anything else I’ve been a part of."For his brother Mark, the ride gave him a great boost of hope and motivation to keep fighting his cancer, Kevin said.
"For me the ride brought a feeling of doing something positive in light of these difficult times we are all living in," he continued, noting the fundraiser has brought in about $7,000 so far. It continues to rise online.
"The ride has shown me that there [are] a lot of very generous people out there and a lot of very kind people with kind hearts."
