The best Canadian cycling challenges of 2020
Canadians that pushed themselves and others this year
It was a year of personally motivated goals and challenges. Some cyclists chose to take some time off this bike, others, such as essential workers, were forced to reduce their training. For some, this year presented a unique opportunity to try something new, exciting and maybe a little stupid. There were Everests, long rides and lots of local exploring. These are some of the Canadian cyclists that set out challenges for themselves and others this year.
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100km in the Don Valley
This challenge was created by Mitch Kaiser as a way to stay local while still challenging himself to try something new. The challenge was soon taken up by some local teens (aged 12-19) who planned out a route and spent the day pushing themselves to complete it. Read more…
The Toronto moose
Official group rides were a no-go for this year, so Mason Zeinali’s cycling club held a Strava art challenge to encourage club members to explore Toronto. The cyclist he came up with an extremely Canadian 101km route around downtown Toronto. The moose got the attention of local media and even Canadian beer brand Moosehead reposted his ride. Read more…
The Metric Ton Challenge
Kamloops, B.C. cyclist Chris Hatton set out an intense challenge for himself this this summer. In what was called “the metric ton challenge” he climbed 1,000m every day, for 30 days. The cyclist actually overshot his goal, climbing 40,185m in 30 days. All told, it took Hatton 94.5 hours of riding over 30 days. Read more…
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6,300 kilometres in 21 days
Ed Veal’s three week cycling challenge was created to raise money for his Ride4Real charity. The cyclist rode nine to 12 hours every day, pushing himself to raise funds for the Forest City Velodrome, the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada and The Real Hero.
Crush COVID
Toronto Hustle’s Crush COVID 24 hour Zwift marathon had teams and individual cyclists riding to raise money towards supporting frontline workers at the Michael Garron Hospital. The event was successful, and even broke a world record, as Canadian cyclist Travis Samuel rode 1,008 km in 24 hours on Zwift, the farthest 24 hour ride ever recorded on the platform. Read more…
Ontario Singletrack Challenge
With this year’s racing calendar was wiped clean, 18-year-old Oakville cyclist Kaitlyn Shikaze created her own goal, setting out to ride as many local southern Ontario trails as she could in seven days. Covering 16 different trail networks, she rode 600 kilometres, with over 9,000 metres of vertical elevation gain and averaged six hours in the saddle per day. Read more…
BC Epic 1000 record
With the Paralympics cancelled, Canadian cyclist Tristan Chernove has some free time on his hands. He decided to take on the BC Epic 1000 in support of the Paralympic Foundation of Canada with a goal of finishing the route with the fastest known time. The 1,066-kilometre ride passes through south central B.C. from Fernie to Merritt mostly along the Trans Canada Trail. Chernove was the first para cyclist to complete the ride and beat the previous route record by about eight hours. He rode the Epic 1000 in three days, seven hours and five minutes. Read more…
Learning to wheelie
Proving that all challenges don’t have to leave you exhausted, Canadian pro mountain biker Andréane Lanthier Nadeau spent 14 days teaching herself how to wheelie. She posted updates on her Instagram and included tips and tricks she was using, inspiring others to join in on the challenge as well.
