The Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock journey is coming to an end.
Over two weeks, the team of cyclists covered 1,100 kilometres of asphalt to raise funds for childhood cancer research and support services.
The wheels will finally stop turning late this afternoon at Centennial Square in Victoria.
So far, the team has raised $1.1 million with more donations expected.
Gord Burton, a military police officer with CFB Comox was among the riders.
Burton said it was an odyssey that he’ll never forget.
“It’s hard to explain really. They’re prepared us for the 1,100 kilometres of cycling but no one really prepared for the emotional experience,” he said. “I don’t have the words to describe it. It’s incredible.”
He was impressed by the reception from small communities like Port Alice, Port McNeill and Sayward.
“They have such a small communities, tight-knit communities, they come together and they have so much money to give to the tour and that to me is so emotional and makes me proud to riding in this tour.”
He said the training program conditioned the team members for what was ahead. “I wasn’t a cyclist before, and our first ride is 30 kilometres, maybe less, and several of us were thinking in our heads, ‘What did we get into?’ Now, we do 100 kilometres, 120 kilometres and it’s almost like nothing.”
The team members he spent the last two weeks with over the past two-weeks are like family, he said.
“It’s not friends, we’re family.”
To date, Tour de Rock has raised more than $25 million, and has spawned three other similar Cops for Cancer rides elsewhere in B.C.
