Most people might spend their weekend mornings sleeping in and enjoying a leisurely brunch, but not Greg Kennedy. The senior wealth consultant with Meridian Credit Union in Toronto usually partakes in early-morning bike rides of 50 to 90 kilometres with a local cycling club.
“We’ll leave at 8 a.m. and pick a different route each time,” Kennedy says. “Maybe we’ll go to Lake Simcoe or to Musselman’s Lake near Richmond Hill. It’s like being in cottage country. Nice, pleasant rides through fields, passing by a lot of ranches and horses.”
Kennedy has put significant mileage on his three bikes recently. Over the past two years, he has participated in cycling marathons supporting the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.
Kennedy’s first Rona MS Bike Tour covered Ontario’s Niagara region. He began on his own, but joined a group along the way. “It was much more enjoyable riding with people who talk to you,” he says, “and keep things going.”
Although rain soaked the 650 or so cyclists for the first 20 km, Kennedy enjoyed the ride, passing through the city of Niagara Falls and along the Niagara Parkway. The mostly flat terrain of that 75-km ride was in stark contrast to Kennedy’s next MS tour in Ontario: a hilly, two-day, 200-km trek stretching from Acton to Waterloo and back. “That one was really difficult,” Kennedy recalls, “because it was also hot — around [27°C] — and the first day was sunny.”
The highlight of that trip came at the finish line: Jennifer Botterill, three-time gold medallist with the Canadian Olympic women’s hockey team, was there to congratulate Kennedy and the other cyclists individually.
That was not Kennedy’s first time meeting elite athletes. When he first joined the cycling club, the organizers, who try to group participants based on their endurance levels, mistakenly put Kennedy in with a group of ironman triathletes.
“I start riding with this group and I think, ‘Wow, these people are really good.’ They’re going up a hill so fast and I’m falling way behind,” Kennedy says. “They felt sorry for me, so they waited and showed me the route ahead, then off they went.”
Kennedy now rides with friends from the Rotary Club he belongs to when he’s not with his Newmarket, Ont.-based cycling club. “Cycling groups are quite popular in the York Region area because of the agricultural land and horse country,” he says. “On some routes, you can bike safely at 60 km an hour because there’s no traffic.”
He’s especially drawn to the Trans Canada Trail — a 4,000-km network of old railway lines converted into hiking and cycling trails. “Sometimes, I’ll put my bike on my car and drive to a small town on the Ontario trail system,” Kennedy says. “You can ride [54 km] from Palgrave to Port Credit; that one is a beautiful trail.”
Kennedy began his love affair with cycling when he lived in and around Vancouver from 1978 to 1994 and started riding his bike to work almost every day. He also rode his bike for more recreational purposes. “There are all kinds of trails along the Lower Mainland,” he says. “It’s beautiful; they have old-growth forests with trails in them. Around the ocean, you also can ride around the seawall.”
Kennedy’s next plan is to ride another Trans Canada Trail route, a 150-km journey that will take him from Barrie, Ont., to Midland, Ont. He also would like to try the regional GO Transit commuter train system’s program that allows cyclists to bring their bikes on the train for a return day trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
Beyond the sightseeing and benefits to his health from cycling, Kennedy says, he enjoys the emotional effects as well.
“When cycling,” he says, “you’re thinking about pacing yourself and concentrating on the road ahead. It’s a way to take your mind off work, as work can be stressful sometimes. Cycling takes you away from it.” IE