The Tour de Rock riders and I were still buzzing from the official team presentation on Friday — a whirl of cheering Reynolds Secondary students, shiny new bikes and camera flashes — when we gathered Saturday morning at the Saanich police station for our first official team ride.
Our challenge: Time trials up the Saanich Observatory. Our goal: race up the hill as fast as possible to set a benchmark for improvement a few months down the road when we do it all again.
It was up to the 13 South riders to show the 11 North riders the lay of the land, as we biked down Lochside trail to Interurban and West Saanich Road toward the Observatory.
At the base, we all had a case of the nervous fidgets, stomachs in knots as we prepared to test our limits up this hill. Our trainers gave us the motivation we needed: “Don’t forget who you’re doing this for,” said our head training, Saanich police Const. Rob McDonald. “Those kids battling cancer don’t have the option to quit.You get to get off this bike and go home at the end of the day. They don’t have that choice.”
It was the sobering reminder we all needed.
Chris Kippel, an auxiliary constable with Comox Valley RCMP, had his reminder around his neck: A little vial that contained the ashes of his wife, Katie, who died of breast cancer on March 4, 2008.
Saturday May 10 would have been her 44th birthday. He was doing this for her.
“It was emotional on Saturday,” Kippel said. “I left the group for a bit on top to talk to her and let some of her ashes go over looking the city she loved a lot.”
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