Cycling club in downtown Toronto offers its services to training Pan Am riders

Concerned by the recent story of the Brazilian national cycling team’s ride in error along the Don Valley Parkway, a local Toronto cycling club is extending a helping hand, offering to act as ride guides for the South American cyclists and others as they train.

“We’re hoping to extend some host-city hospitality and use our knowledge of inner-city routes to give them a good workout,” said Wil Mills, founder of the Cabbagetown Cycling Club.

On Sunday, as Canadian Cycling Magazine reported, the Brazilian team embarked on a training ride along Eastern Avenue, close to the Pan Am Games Athlete’s Village in Toronto’s east end. Taking an access ramp that led them on to the Don Valley Parkway — an expressway that could conceivably be a high-speed shooting gallery, as far as cyclists are concerned — the team was escorted off the Parkway by Toronto Police, a little red-faced.

As the closest cycling club to the Pan Am Athletes’ Village, the Cabbagetown Cycling Club is hoping to see a few Brazilian faces out for their next ride, planned for Thursday morning. Among the routes the Club believes will be better for the Brazilian athletes, rides are conducted between Parliament Street in Toronto’s east end and the Toronto Zoo, as well as other corridors. They’re routes chosen to maximize the amount of uninterrupted road time participating cyclists can have, while also keeping them safe from heavy traffic congestion — perks that most certainly aren’t available to cyclists on the Don Valley Parkway.

It’s an invitation they’ve opened to other participating Pan Am cyclists, too.

“As local Torontonians with decades of history riding these streets,” Mills said, “we have local expertise we’d like to share with all visiting cycling teams so that they can tray hard and stay focused on their fitness, not dangerous traffic conditions.”