The Tour de Coast peloton is back.
After public health restrictions last year forced police, corrections and border services officers, as well as paramedics, participating in the annual Cops for Cancer bike ride to clock their kilometres individually or in small contingents, the band is back together again for this year’s effort.
That’s good news for Cpl. Ranjit Seehra, one of four officers from Coquitlam RCMP scheduled to take up places in the ranks of approximately 30 riders who will travel about 900 kms around the Lower Mainland and Sunshine Coast in September.
“I’ll be able to draft,” said Seehra, who’s getting ready for his third Cops for Cancer tour.
And while coasting in the slipstream of riders ahead of him will make the 80 or 90 km days on his black carbon fibre Trek road bike a little easier, it’s the camaraderie of the group and support from the roadside as the peloton breezes past with a motorcycle escort to ensure an uninterrupted route that Seehra most values.
The exact structure of this year’s ride, and whether it will be able to make stops at schools and other public venues, will be determined by the state of public health restrictions in place. But the province’s restart plan is allowing the riders to come together again for training, fundraising and the Tour itself.
“It creates a big bond between the riders that we’re all in this together,” Seerha said.
The 35 year-old officer hadn’t been on a bike since childhood when he first signed up for the Tour de Valley three years ago when he was stationed with Surrey RCMP. He found the experience of lifting a leg over a lithe, lightweight road bike liberating.
“I just figured a bike was a bike,” Seerha said. “I was surprised how fast you can go on a road bike.”
Communing with fellow officers and other first responders as they slogged training miles together took his sense of place within the community beyond his uniform. Hearing others in the peloton share their stories of encounters with young people enduring cancer reinforced the purpose behind their pedalling.
“You’re able to reflect,” Seerha said. “We have tough days at work, but I have no right to complain about the long hours if kids can go through all that treatment with a happy face.”
July 23, Seerha and the other riders from Coquitlam RCMP — constables Hilary Murray, Bradley Potter and Soumia Aboub — will be kicking off their fundraising effort in earnest with a 24 hour spin-a-thon at the courtyard in front of city hall, 3000 Guildford Way. The event begins at noon and runs through to noon, July 24.
