More than 40 cyclists pushed it to the limit for CASA Foundation’s Best of the West Tour. The seven-day bike ride started June 19 in West Glacier, Montana and wrapped up at Marmot Basin, June 26.
Aside from bragging rights, the ride’s main purpose was to raise money and awareness for children’s mental health. The money collected during the tour will be put towards CASA’s two-year commitment to raise $500,000 for the construction of the $24-million CASA Centre. The Edmonton centre will open in September and will provide mental health services for children, teens and families throughout the city and northern Alberta.
CASA is a non-profit organization that provides mental health services for infants, children, adolescents and their families within greater Edmonton and central and northern Alberta.
As of press time, the tour had raised more than $272,000.
“The cause is amazing for us. Children’s mental health is so important and something we need to bring more awareness to. It’s something that is very dear to us because it’s something that affects all of us,” said Edmontonian Kim Novotny, who completed the tour with her husband Jan. “Every time there was a hard hill to climb I just kept thinking about a kid who had a hard time getting up every day, and that just made the hill that much easier.”
According to Kim, the most challenging part of her trek was the second last day, which had her slogging up the Columbia Icefield.
“I’m a virgin rider so some days it was really hard,” she said “When I hit the Icefield I just thought that climb was never going to end, but somehow I found more energy in my legs and I kept going.”
For Jan, he said he struggled most with keeping his mind focused.
“Some climbs just seemed never ending so you have to go into a meditative state,” Jan said. “You just kind of think of your next pedal and nothing else.”
Aside from the 900 km ride, the tour’s organizers decided to try something a little different this year, adding a Jasper challenge at the tail end of the tour. The local challenge had two options. The first saw cyclists making the 126 km trek from the Columbia Icefield to Marmot Basin while the second was a 28 km climb from Jasper up Marmot Road.
“We wanted to give people a shorter option,” said Nadine Samycia, CASA Foundation’s executive director, adding that the local challenge was a success and will most likely be included in next year’s tour.
Linda and David Morris were two locals that decided to participate in the 28 km challenge.
“I used to do a lot of these support rides for money, but I haven’t been doing them in a few years so I thought today would be a good day to start up again and support all the riders,” Linda said. “It was perfect for us to have this shorter option that we could just do in one day.”
Kayla Byrne [email protected]
