The Tour de Cure has three levels; courage (a 50 km ride), champion (a 100 km ride) and challenge (160 km ride).
Sean Dalin is taking to a whole new level. Maybe call it conqueror.
The Langley man, who just started cycling in 2020, has decided to take on a massive 400+ km ride from West Kelowna to Kitsilano Beach to raise money as part of the BC Cancer Foundation's cycling fundraiser (which is replacing the Ride to Conquer Cancer).
"I started cycling a year ago and it was a really big game-changer in my mental health," he tells Vancouver is Awesome. "I wanted to find a way to give back and do some fundraising."
Dalin was inspired by a close friend of his was diagnosed in 2017 with a type of brain cancer; he underwent surgery and chemo and is stable now. Other friends and family have also been touched by cancer, and the cycling fundraiser seemed like a good cause.
As for why he's decided on the massive 412 km route from the Okanagan to the coast, Dalin says ambition pushed him.
"It's been a year of pushing myself and challenging myself and I thought it would be a lot more interesting to go from one destination to another rather than a loop," he says.
The challenge route is 160 km and Dalin thought doing the ride from Kelowna to Vancouver over two days would be a good personal challenge; that'd be about 200 km per day.
"Then, realistically, I think I can possibly do it in a day, so I'm going to shoot for that," he explains.
Dalin's one-day record is 177 km and he aims to hit 300 km each week. Since November he's hit that all but 5 weeks; sometimes he hits 500 km. Just yesterday, Aug. 21, he knocked off 150 km. His average speed is 30 km/h; if he's able to keep that up on his massive ride it'd take under 14 hours.
However, he's expecting it to be more difficult. For one thing, the ride includes 4,000 m of elevation over the route he's mapped out. For another, it also includes a section on the Coquihalla where there's highspeed traffic.
"It's going to be very cautious riding, especially on such a busy road and unmaintained on the shoulders," he says.
To make it he's planning on leaving his dad's house in West Kelowna at 5 a.m., with an arrival time expected around 9 p.m. To help him make the last stretch he's hoping friends and fellow cyclists will join him.
As for support, he's already tripled his fundraising goal. In fact, he met it surprisingly fast, he says.
"It's been absolutely amazing," he says. "I posted it (his fundraising page) before bed one night and by the time I woke up and checked midday it had exceeded my goal of $1,000."
With a week to go until the big ride he's at $3,040 (as of publishing) and hopes to see it go even higher, with all funds going to the BC Cancer Foundation.
"My friends and family that have been affected by cancer are B.C. based and I'm B.C. based, so I'd like to see it go into the local community, " he says.
The big ride is Saturday, Aug. 28. Dalin says to keep an eye out for him on the Okanagan Connector, Coquihalla highway and through the Fraser Valley into Vancouver.
"If you see a person on the side of the road going down the Coq it'll be me."
