Despite rolling his ankle only four days beforehand, Athabasca’s Jonathan LeMessurier completed his 130-kilometre bike ride to fight breast cancer in about six hours last Saturday.
He also exceeded his goal of raising $1,000 by an additional $500.
“I’m very impressed with the time,” said LeMessurier, an avid runner but inexperienced cyclist.
LeMessurier started from St.Albert at 8:15 a.m. and arrived at Athabasca’s riverfront at 2:17 p.m. He was accompanied by veteran cyclist Neil Pitman, who also loaned LeMessurier a bike for the day.
“It was awesome to have Neil there because he’s an experienced rider — he kept me motivated, kept me going,” said LeMessurier.
By the end of the journey, he said his quads were killing him, not his bruised and swollen ankle.
“The legs are unstable,” he said.
Aside from brief stops to eat and one stop for a flat tire, LeMessurier and Pitman moved at a brisk clip — often around 30 kilometres per hour — and got from St. Albert to Clyde in two hours.
LeMessurier’s mother followed in a vehicle to ensure their safety, and LeMessurier said he appreciated “all the honks along the way up” from supportive drivers, some of whom stopped to donate.
Friends and family gathered at the riverfront to greet the cyclists, including LeMessurier’s grandmother, Eileen Chamberlain, whose fight with and victory over breast cancer was in part what inspired the bike ride.
LeMessurier’s girlfriend’s mother is undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer; this also spurred him to take action.
“I’m feeling very proud,” said Chamberlain. “People are very generous.”
