Three Duchess Park francophone students are participating in The Great Crossing, or en francais, La Grande Traversee, as they head to Saskatchewan this week.
Nadine Finch, Grade 9, Alyssa Hartford, Grade 11, and Matyas Legate-Sary, Grade 10, are taking part in the 2,000 kilometre two-wheeled cross-Canada trek to counter youth inactivity.
The journey is a road cycling relay and the three local students will cover about 300 km over three eight-hour days during the fifth leg of the relay.
The students, who have trained for months with their chaperone Cindy Hartford, a local ultra marathoner for 16 years and Alyssa's mom, start in Regina, Saskatchewan and finish out their first day in Moose Jaw, which is about an 80 km ride. The second day they travel from Moose Jaw to Gravelbourg, which is about 127 km and during their third day they go from Gravelbourg to Ponteix, which is about 91 km.
The idea behind the event is to offer healthy-living role models to school-aged children, so each day starts and ends at a school where the team of cyclists, their supervisors, and other volunteers like police officers, athletes, and public personalities, hold an assembly each morning to encourage students to adopt more active and healthy lifestyles. Participants stay overnight in the gym of francophone schools where they make their presentations.
Alyssa and Matyas did the cycling relay last year and feel they are much more prepared for the grueling long-distance event this year.
The students agreed it helps to have an ultra marathon runner train them for a long-distance, multi-day adventure.
"For training we have our own road bikes, but when we actually go to the Grande Traversee everything is provided," said Cindy Hartford, who will be riding with the students. "We leave on Tuesday and return on Saturday."
The group started Wednesday and will finish up Friday.
Hartford, who does death races and just last year did a 100 km race in Utah called the Zion 100 that she completed in about 18 hours, booked the Duchess Park fitness room for training in the colder months of January and February where everyone did spin classes and weight training four or five days a week to prepare for their cycling trip. When they got outdoors they did hill repeats on Cranbrook Hill, rode Blackburn Road and the Blackwater and cross trained with mountain bikes.
It all started when a presentation was done during a class Legate-Sary attended.
He realized not a lot of interest was shown for the life-changing event and since he's an avid mountain biker who wanted some road-biking experience to up his fitness level he signed up.
"So I said why not? It's a way to prove to myself that I could do it, and it's a different discipline of biking where I can expand my knowledge away from what I usually do," he said .
Each student is a member of the conseil scolaire francophone of B.C. (French school board) that offers programs, like The Great Crossing, which emphasize culture and growth for francophone students, explained Hartford.
Alyssa Hartford, who was in the Barracuda swim club for about six years, said she hadn't participated in any of the other conseil scolaire francophone programs offered and thought the biking relay would be something she could do.
"I didn't want to do any of the leadership camps but I thought hey, I can ride so I signed up for that because I thought it'd be fun," she said. "Last year was harder than I thought it was because I didn't have a coach and I was very unprepared."
The leg she rode in last year was in Manitoba and the cross winds on the highway were so strong they blew her into the next lane, so she got a ride in one of the two vans that travel with the riders - one in front and one in back that take up a whole lane of highway. Lead riders move between the two vans to make sure everyone is safe and doing well.
Finch, who spent a decade swimming with the local Barracuda club, and just did a triathlon recently, is not sure what to expect when she does the great crossing.
"The idea of it seemed like a lot of fun," she said. "It's a good way to keep in shape because of all the training."
