OLDS — Former Olds-area resident Kevin Spicer cycled across Canada in less than a month, far shorter than the 50 days he targeted.
Spicer, 27, originally from the Olds area, now lives in the U.S. state of Georgia.
When contacted by the Albertan last week, he was already in Newfoundland after setting out from the west coast on May 23.
“We're by Grand Falls,” he said, estimating he had about two days of “easy” bike riding to cover the remaining 405 kilometres to St. John’s.
Not long after he set the initial target of cycling across the country in 50 days, Spicer felt he could make it in 30 days, so he set that as the target.
“We're gonna hit it on the dot,” he said last week. “It is a really good feeling.”
With a support vehicle, he cycled through every province except Prince Edward Island, opting instead to take the ferry from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland.
Originally, an impetus for the trip was to fulfill a dream his dad had, to cycle across Canada to his hometown of Peterborough, Ont.
However, partway through the trip, that idea was abandoned.
Spicer said his dad was good with that.
“He saw the vision of the 30 days instead of going there. It wasn't a hard requirement when we first started,” Spicer said.
“It was a nice thought to have at the beginning, but our eyes were more locked on the 30 days instead.”
As he cycled across the country, Spicer generally put in nine-hour days, often cycling a couple of hundred kilometres a day, benefitting from strong tailwinds in many cases.
His longest day, he said, was an 11.5-hour push through Nova Scotia.
Heat was a big problem, especially in the Maritimes.
“Quebec was very, very hot. And then New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were very nice days,” he said.
“The first day on Newfoundland was extremely windy, but the wind was in the right direction and it was very, very windy and very hilly on the first day.
“And then today, it was 25-mile-an-hour wind not in the right direction and it was 34 degrees Celsius for the majority of the day, and it was so hot.”
Spicer said he coped with the heat by taking lots of breaks and drinking as many fluids as he could.
Along the way, Spicer had to install a new tire three times.
He says he didn’t suffer any injuries per se, but suffered from sore knees for a long time.
“At the beginning I was having problems with my knees. The knees would hurt. The left knee would hurt, the right knee would hurt,” he said.
“But at about 20 days, it just kind of it went away and honestly like injury-wise, it's just mental injury now of getting through the rest of this.”
Spicer says he sees himself now as “kind of half Canadian.” He has a new appreciation for how big Canada is and how sparsely settled it actually is.
“In Ontario, one of the people that we stayed at, they said ‘nobody gets to see Canada. Like you get to see Canada’ and that thing has really stuck in my head since then,” he said.
“You don't realize how big it is if you're just living in Olds.
“You don't realize how small Western Canada is until you hit that Ontario border and you realize you're not even halfway through the country yet.
“And that's one thing, is how just how big and massive it is, but also how desolate it is and how there is so much space.
“And there is so much nature out here, and the only really real connection through it all is Highway 1 and that's where everybody drives, all the truck drivers.
“But it's a pretty remarkable place, especially after riding through the entire thing.”
Now that the ride is over, Spicer plans to spend the next 10 days or so relaxing with family.
