OLDS — A former Olds-area resident cycling across Canada is making incredible time.
Kevin Spicer, who grew up about five miles north of Olds but now lives in the U.S. state of Georgia, started his trip May 23.
He’s cycling across Canada to fulfil a dream of his dad’s, to cycle back to his hometown of Peterborough, Ont.
Spicer plans to not only cycle to Peterborough, but all the way to St. John’s, N.L.
By May 22 he was already in Olds, where he stayed for one night to visit family before hopping back on the bike, headed for Saskatchewan.
“We saw both of my grandmas and saw my dad and that's it,” Spicer said during an interview with the Albertan. “Then back on the bike.
“Basically, I feel like if I stopped riding for more than 12 hours, my legs would fall apart and I wouldn't be able to get up back on my bicycle.”
By May 30, Spicer was already in Saskatchewan.
He said he was able to make such great progress thanks to a tailwind most of the way, especially into and out of Olds.
Most days, Spicer has been cycling for at least seven hours a day. However, he rode for nine-and-a half hours one day in a push to get to Olds and see his dad.
“I wanted to get home to see my dad and the that was the only day that the winds were blowing out of the south, straight north,” Spicer said.
“When I hit Cochrane, it was a 30-mile-an-hour or a 50-kilometre-an-hour tailwind all the way home to Olds.”
Spicer described the tail winds as “fantastic.”
“We’re taking advantage of it, riding as much as possible in the tailwinds,” he said.
Spicer was asked what has been the most memorable part of the trip so far.
It wasn’t anything pretty.
“The first day the entire crew, including myself, got the flu,” he said.
“(The most memorable part of the trip is) being stuck in between Pemberton and Lillooet and having a stomach flu where you can't keep down any food.
“You’re throwing up at every 30 to 45 minutes down the mountain, all riding the bike, and then having to take naps on the side of the road.”
Then came the rain and the cold.
“I was pretty close to hypothermia coming out of Lillooet into Kamloops,” Spicer said. “It was a pretty miserable day. It was extremely wet. It was extremely cold and we just knew there were better days on the horizon.”
That cold weather followed Spicer right out onto the Prairies.
“It is pretty cold right now,” he said Thursday. “I'm all dressed up in my full winter gear.”
That surprised him, given that it’s almost summertime.
Spicer says so far he’s been on schedule.
“My plan is one night in Saskatchewan and one night in Manitoba,” he said.
“And then if I can hit Ontario, because Ontario’s so massive, I think I can spend 10 days in getting through Ontario and Quebec, which is good, because there's lots of hills there.
So I think we're still on track.”
He’s hopeful he can make the trip in under 30 days.
Along the way, Spicer and his crew have seen lots of wildlife: grizzly and black bears, elk and antelope. Some animals have been as close as 10 or 20 feet away, across the highway.
He’s been buoyed by the presence of his best friend, Jordan Collin of Olds, who came out for the start of the trip in Vancouver and has driven in a vehicle with Spicer’s mom as part of the support crew all the way to Saskatchewan.
“His dad was my middle school gym teacher,” Spicer said.
Despite all the ups and downs, the flu, the rain and the cold, Spicer said he’s having fun.
“It's a blast,” he said. “It's a fantastic. It's type 2 fun, but it it's a lot of fun.”
