Crossing Canada on a Tandem
Crossing Canada on a Tandem
Trans Canada was one of those dreams that you file away at the back of your mind but never forget. At that time I was serving in the Royal Air Force and believed that on my retirement I would take 3 months off to complete my challenge. In the event I left the RAF and immediately started at my current job without a break, the dream remained 'On File'. In the summer of 2007 Paul & Pauline intend to take 3 months off to cycle across Canada from Victoria on the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast. Paul & Pauline will be 59 and 57 years old respectively. The original plan was to do the trip in 2005 but with only 2 weeks prior to departing the U.K. Paul was taken ill and instead of having 3 months off work to ride a bike instead took 4 months off work being ill. With all of the best laid plans to nothing, 2006 became the year to recover some fitness and re-prepare for the journey. Hopefully this time we will be able to realise a dream.
In 1992 I was visiting Canada on business and had a stop over in Victoria on Vancouver Island. Exploring the local area I saw a large carved wooden sign identifying the road as the start of the Trans-Canadian Highway. The sign also indicated that St John Newfoundland was at the other end of the highway and 5000 miles away. At that moment I started considering this to be the ultimate cycle ride. Previous to this I had cycled around Great Britain, a distance of 1200 miles in 12 days, and also followed the Tour de France for one week through Northern France.
Trans Canada was one of those dreams that you file away at the back of your mind but never forget. At that time I was serving in the Royal Air Force and believed that on my retirement I would take 3 months off to complete my challenge. In the event I left the RAF and immediately started at my current job without a break, the dream remained 'On File'.
In 2003 I started to plan the ride with the intention of completing the ride in 2004. In preparation for the ride I started to carry out research using the internet as a source of information. I considered that my basic cycling fitness would be sufficient for the journey. At an early stage of the planning Pauline decided that she would ride with me. This initially was a bit of a shock, I have been riding for many years and completed many long distance events, Pauline rode rarely but put up with my cycling. Having been married for over 30 years I had no doubts about the seriousness of her intention to ride with me, and no doubts about her determination to complete the ride.
Through the summer of 2003 we started going out on a regular basis on our cycles, but it was obvious that we would have to re-schedule the ride to 2005. However, due to the 2005 ride being cancelled 2006 became our preperation year and we are now going to ride in 2007. In the first instance Pauline would require a great deal of ground-work to obtain the required fitness level and secondly we considered that to be successful we would require a tandem. The advantage of a tandem is that we would be able to share the work within our capabilities and keep together. Searching the internet and local cycle shops we eventually purchased a good quality, aluminium frame, Dawes touring tandem from our local cycle shop, 'Pauls Cycles'. During the latter half of 2003 and during 2004 we started to work up the miles . During this time we also obtained a full range of cycle clothing for Pauline, and panniers, tents and assorted camping equipment from a range of sources. Our Family was very supportive of our venture from the start and were instrumental in providing much of the camping equipment and building this web site.