Lance Armstrong may be the best-known cancer research advocate on the planet, but his most significance legacy might be the legions of cyclists inspired to battle cancer or cycle for a worthy cause.

Brian McGregor’s life changed forever the day he read Lance Armstrong’s memoir, It’s Not about the Bike. Yes, he was inspired by Armstrong’s well-known story of surviving testicular cancer to go on to win the Tour de France a record seven times, but McGregor’s story runs deeper than mere inspiration.

After reading It’s Not about the Bike, McGregor did his own self-exam and found a lump. In June 2003, he had surgery to remove his testicle, and a biopsy showed it as cancerous. By October 2003, McGregor’s cancer—the same type that Armstrong survived—had spread, and chemotherapy was scheduled the following month.

McGregor’s link with Armstrong, though, didn’t stop there. Coincidentally, McGregor’s first day of chemo corresponded with the day that Armstrong came to Calgary for the premiere Tour of Courage cancer fundraising event. Circumstances allowed McGregor, his wife Maureen, and son Evan to meet with Armstrong for a fifteen-minute meeting.

“He told me that we had the same chemo, and that I could beat it,” says McGregor. “It was during the meeting that he told me about his cycling event, Ride for the Roses in Austin. I vowed to myself that not only would I beat the cancer but that in 2004 I would go to Austin and ride in the event.”

The Ride for the Roses first ran in 1997, the year after Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer. The ride was in support of LIVESTRONGTM, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which was set up to help others fight the disease. The ride was based on Armstrong’s cycling tradition of an informal race through the Texas Hill Country, with the winner receiving a dozen roses.

Since then, the Lance Armstrong Foundation has raised over $250 million for the fight against cancer. Approximately sixty million people across the globe wear a yellow LIVESTRONG wristband in support of people living with cancer.

While McGregor’s chance meeting with Armstrong back in 2003 was motivational, it was due, in no small part, to the persistence of Joe Dutton, the founder of Calgary’s Tour of Courage. While Dutton didn’t have a personal cancer connection, he did have a personal commitment to give back to the community.

In 2000, Dutton had just moved to Calgary from Kelowna, where he was bitten by the cycling bug while racing triathlons. Armstrong’s win in the 1999 Tour turned a lot of people on to cycling, and Dutton, too, was hooked. While looking for volunteer opportunities, he settled on the idea of having Armstrong come to Calgary to support cancer survivorship. After three years of phone calls, e-mails, and letters, Dutton was able to convince Armstrong to come to Calgary.

“That was how it got started. I didn’t know Lance, but I was inspired by his greatness,” says Dutton. And that was no small feat. In 2003 Armstrong was in the middle of his record-setting Tour run, and time was precious for the sports and media star. But he embraced Calgary that year, returning again in 2004, 2005, and 2007, with a 2008 event planned, just as Calgary embraced him.

Dutton relied on corporate sponsors, like John Dielwart, chief executive officer of Arc Resources, to make the Tour of Courage successful. During the first November 2003 event, Armstrong gave private and public motivational presentations, met with cancer patients like McGregor, and rode with a group of cyclists on in-door spin trainers. In subsequent years, the Tour of Courage also included spectacular outdoor rides with Armstrong at Highwood Pass in Kananaskis Country, the Icefields Parkway, and Highway 93 over Storm Mountain Pass for the honoured few who raised the most funds for the cause.

Most recently, in 2007, Armstrong spoke to 170 people, including patients and families in support of the Tom Baker Cancer Centre. Forty-five top fundraisers rode with Armstrong, Canadian cycling legend Steve Bauer, and Tour de France legend Eddy Merckx on a three-hour Summit ride from Lake Louise to Radium. The 2007 event also included a community ride where two hundred cyclists had a chance to ride with the legends. The Tour of Courage raised $1.6 million in 2007, bringing total net fundraising contributions to the Alberta Cancer Foundation to over $4 million through Alberta appearances by Armstrong.

In Calgary in 2003 and 2004, though, McGregor was, like thousands of other Canadians, simply focused on surviving cancer. He lived up to his vow, and made it to the 2004 Ride for the Roses, where he briefly met up with Armstrong once again, this time on a bike. At that point, though, McGregor explains that as someone battling cancer, simply making it to Austin wasn’t enough. He wanted to do more.

“After I did it and had such a great time, I thought, why not just ride to Austin from Calgary next year,” says McGregor. “At the same time, I wanted to raise funds for cancer survivorship programs because after going through the experience, you realize just how tough it really is.”

In the spring of 2005, McGregor and a group of his friends and colleagues in the oil patch organized the first Calgary to Austin Peloton Project (CTAPP). Thirty riders in groups of six rode in a non-stop relay to Austin, arriving in time to participate in Armstrong’s Ride for the Roses. With the first ride successfully completed in 2005, CTAPP turned into an annual event, raising over $400,000 per year to support cancer survivor programs.

“The motivation was, for me, a year after cancer, that I needed to set a goal. I think everyone who goes through cancer sets goals, and CTAPP was one of the ways that I could also help others,” says McGregor.

CTAPP has since made the yearly trek to Austin, and in 2007, the organization established Cancervive Foundation of Alberta, a non-profit organization established to raise awareness and support for the Canadian cancer survivors and their families. Completely volunteer-based, one hundred per cent of funds raised are donated to Wellspring Calgary, a local facility for cancer survivors. CTAPP was renamed the Cancervive Peloton Project (CPP), one of several events that Cancervive hosts throughout the year.

In 2006, the program was also expanded to include the Cancervive Warrior Program, where each rider sponsored a cancer patient to fly down to Austin to participate in a Ride for the Roses event. The Warrior Program was to provide additional support and motivation to cancer patients undergoing treatment.

“When I was sick, my wife just wished she could give me a day off. You feel crappy every day, so the Warrior Program was started to give cancer patients a break,” says McGregor. “It’s turned out to be the most emotional component of the program, for both the riders and the Warriors.”

In 2007, twenty-five Warriors were flown down to Austin. This year, the Cancervive Peloton Project is heading to the Philadelphia LIVESTONG Challenge, with the goal to raise enough funds to also bring thirty Warriors to the event.

The Ride for the Roses expanded in 2006 to become the LIVESTRONG Challenge and now includes walk, run, and cycle events. In 2008, it will be held in four U.S. cities, Philadelphia, Portland, San Jose, and Austin.

This year, the Cancervive Peloton Project already has its thirty riders selected, who have committed to raising a minimum of $10,000 each, although, based on past efforts, many riders raise far more. The riders include McGregor, as well as his wife Maureen for the first time. His son rode to Austin the first year. The riders will leave Calgary in early August for the August 24 Philly LIVESTRONG Challenge event.

While Armstrong’s connections to Calgary have strongly influenced the Tour of Courage and Cancervive, these two events are by no means the only charity cycling events in Canada.

In British Columbia, Cops for Cancer ran four cycling events in 2007 to raise over $1.3 million at the Tour de Coast (Vancouver), Tour de North, Tour de Rock (Vancouver Island) and Tour de Fraser Valley. Over seven to twelve days, teams of cyclists made their way through British Columbia, stopping in select communities where riders participated in various fundraising events and speaking engagements. Each rider was paired with a child who had experienced cancer or who was living with cancer. Proceeds from these events were donated to the Canadian Cancer Society. The 11th Anniversary Tour de Rock will run September 20 to October 4, 2008, with other Tour dates pending.

Another cycling event, Team H2V Coast to Coast, in support of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, ran in 2007. Five cyclists, led by Matt Young of Vancouver, rode relay-style from Halifax to Vancouver in the record-breaking time of eight days, raising $815,000 and entering the Guinness Book of World Records.

Many more events are underway for 2008, including the Sears National Kids Cancer Ride across Canada. On June 2, 2008, a peloton of approximately fifty cyclists will leave Vancouver on a nineteen-day, 7,600-kilometre transCanada ride to Halifax. The fifty selected national riders will cycle the entire distance in rotation, joined by other cyclists in communities along the way who will cycle shorter distances of twenty-five to two hundred kilometres in their fundraising efforts.

The Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation is organizing the Sears National Kids Cancer Ride, and like many other events, has a link back to Lance Armstrong. Like so many families, the foundation’s founder Jeff Rushton had encounters with cancer, so in 2002 he marked his fortieth birthday with his good friend Kevin Wallace by cycling across the U.S. from California to raise funds for cancer research. Twenty-four days later, they had raised $185,000 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and Canadian cancer charities.

The following year, Coast to Coast Against Cancer benefited from Rushton, Wallace, and four other cyclists riding non-stop in pairs across Canada in 241 hours raising $510,000 in support of childhood cancer. In 2004, the foundation established the Tour for Kids, a four-day, fully supported, eight-hundred-kilometre tour through cottage country in Ontario. Over $250,000 was raised for three childhood cancer charities focused on camping and support programs in Ontario. That year, Rushton and Wallace also raised funds while setting a record in the hard-core Race Across America (RAAM) by completing the five-thousand-kilometre race in six days and fourteen hours, with funds once again going to the Lance Armstrong Foundation and Canadian cancer charities.

Tour for Kids has since grown in Ontario, raising $500,000 in 2005, and $850,000 in 2006. Kevin Wallace also returned to RAAM, competing in the solo category to raise $250,000 for a cancer treatment facility named in his mother’s honour.

Coast to Coast Against Cancer has also spawned other regional events across Canada and works with local organizers to produce the charitable cycling events. In Alberta, the inaugural 2007 Tour for Kids had approximately sixty cyclists riding 340 kilometres over two days in the foothills of Southern Alberta. In 2007, the Tour donated $150,000 to the Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta to support approximately 150 kids at cancer camp. The goal for the 2008 Alberta event held July 18 to 20 is $250,000 says volunteer event co-organizer Rob Motherwell of Calgary, who links his connections to Rushton through personal friends.

“Jeff has such an infectious energy, and everything he does, he does it for the kids. We’re just a couple of guys from Alberta who want to help out,” says Motherwell.

In 2008, the Alberta Tour for Kids has been expanded to a three-day event, July 18 to 20, cycling from Canmore, through the foothills north to Rocky Mountain House, and then down the Icefields Parkway through Lake Louise and Banff, back to Canmore. A one-day ride is also planned for those not looking for the three-day epic.

For 2008, Dutton says Lance Armstrong will return once again to ride in Calgary on August 22, this time to benefit the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. The organizers decided to discontinue the community ride in 2008, settling on a group of fifty riders who will raise funds to ride with Armstrong. Eight of ten team leaders have been selected, and each will recruit another four riders. The top fundraising team will ride with yellow jerseys and sit at the head table during the evenings’ presentations. Comedian Robin Williams, a long-time supporter of Lance Armstrong’s efforts and an accomplished road rider, has tentatively committed to the ride as well.

The minimum fundraising goals for events can be intimidating, but Dutton says that fundraising challenges people in unexpected ways. “Our top fundraiser last year was initially worried about the suggested minimum donation of $5000 that he had to raise, but in the process, he told me that the process had changed his life,” says Dutton. “Once he started fundraising, people started sharing all these emotional and motivating stories about family and friends with cancer, and he ended up raising over $54,000. He was so inspired that the night before the ride, he went out to Storm Mountain and wrote the names of the people that he was riding for on the pass that the Tour would climb the next day.”

For McGregor, now four years and three months cancer free and feeling better than ever, surviving cancer is a defining part of his live, and the motivating factor behind Cancervive. But whether people are inspired to participate in charitable cycling events by Armstrong’s story or their own personal struggles with cancer, there is no doubt that cancer changes lives and motivates people to accomplish extraordinary heights—none more so than battling cancer.

Cyclists with a Cause

Here’s a partial list of national and regional charity cycling events:

Sears National Kids Cancer Ride

The longest charity cycling adventure in the world. Vancouver to Halifax, June 2, 2008, organized by the Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation. Arriving Edmonton June 4, Calgary June 5, and ultimately Halifax, June 20. In support of kids’ cancer programs.
www.nationalkidscancerride.com

Ride with Lance ’08

Fifty riders will cycle with Lance Armstrong and Robin Williams in a one-day cycling and dinner event in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
www.calgaryridewithlance.ca

Cancervive Peloton Project

Thirty riders in groups of six ride relay style, non-stop from Calgary to arrive in Philadelphia’s LIVESTRONG Challenge on August 21, 2008. Funds go to cancer survivorship programs.
www.cancervive.ca

Tour for Kids

Events produced by Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation and held in Ontario and Alberta in support of children’s cancer camps. One-day and three-day rides in the foothills and mountains near Canmore.
July 18 to 20, 2008
www.tourforkids.com

Cops for Cancer—British Columbia

Hosts a variety of events across the country, including cycle tour events in B.C.
www.cancer.ca/ccs/internet/standard/0,3182,3278_367929__langId-en,00.html

Rona MS BikeTown

Road tours to raise funds for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada. Held across Canada, including four each in B.C. and Alberta rides. Raised a record $8.2 million in 2007 across Canada.
www.msbiketours.com

LIVESTRONG Challenge

Events in Portland, San Jose, Philadelphia, and Austin. Walk, run, and cycle events.
www.livestrongchallenge.org

About the Author

Bruce Barker is a freelance writer and still has his first bike, a 1968 red CCM cruiser. When not writing, Barker can be found biking and trail running in Bragg Creek, Alberta. One day he hopes to have as much energy and endurance as his chocolate lab retriever.

"One Pedal Stroke at a Time" was originally published in the Cycling and Multisport Issue of IMPACT Magazine, May/June 2008.