ride to conquer cancer – D’Arcy Norman dot net

2010 Ride to Conquer Cancer

I’m riding in the Ride to Conquer Cancer again this year. It’s a 2 day, 200km ride south of Calgary through the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, June 26-27, 2010. Last year, we were able to raise nearly $7 MILLION for the Alberta Cancer foundation. I’m hoping we can top it this year. But I need your help.

Please sponsor me for the Ride. Every dollar helps. Every donation $10 and over gets a receipt for tax purposes (in Canada, anyway).

And, as a bonus for people that sponsor me, I’ll send you a print of a photo taken during the Ride. I’ll be lugging along my DSLR again this year, and posting photos to a set on Flickr (here’s the set from the 2009 ride). Just pick the photo you want, send me a mailing address (through either through the donation form, or through the contact form on my blog) and I’ll send you a print.

I’ll have the photos from the 2010 ride up within a day or two after the Ride, and I’ll be able to make prints of any of them.

If you’ve already sponsored me, THANK YOU, and I offer you the same thing. Let me know if you want a photo print, which one, and where to send it.

Here’s one of my favourite photos from last year’s ride. It ain’t ugly countryside…

video from the 2009 Alberta Ride to Conquer Cancer

I lugged my camera and Flip on the Ride to Conquer Cancer, to document some of the ride. It was a pretty epic bike ride – the hardest thing I’ve ever done – but was well worth it.

Thank you to everyone that supported me in any way – it definitely made the pain of the ride easier to push through.

Full resolution photos are available on Flickr, and I apologize for my severe lack of video production skills…

jersey

2009-06-17 jersey

the official jersey for the Alberta Ride to Conquer Cancer arrived in the mail today. It’s getting close to the big day, and it’s starting to feel real (as opposed to some long-distant abstract thing).

there’s only 1 jersey. it’s a 2 day ride. I hope there’s some form of laundry service at the overnight camp…

Ride to Conquer Cancer route

I guessed at the starting point before, and was wrong. Looks like the Alberta ride starts at the Deerfoot Casino, then must head down Deerfoot to 22X then west to 22 before shooting south.

Here’s the route, complete with the elevation profile:

Elevation Gain: 1555 meters
Elevation Loss: 1392 meters

Ride to Conquer Cancer Route

They just (vaguely) announced the route for this year’s Ride to Conquer Cancer event. Looks like we’ll be leaving from the south end of Calgary (I’m guessing the parking lot at Spruce Meadows, but I could be wrong), heading briefly west then south along the Cowboy Trail on highway 22. The overnight camp is at Bar U Ranch near Longview. On day 2, we go another 100km (or so) south – finishing the ride at the Sierra West Ranch near Pincher Creek.

This part of the country is famous for the flat topology and calm wind conditions. You may have seen it in such films as Unforgiven, Brokeback Mountain, and Open Range. Hrm. Now I’m not so sure what to expect at the tent city.

Wait. What? It’s the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, and consistently insanely windy? That’s where they build the wind-electric farms? I’m exhausted just looking at this route.