Ride to Conquer Cancer beaten by smoke

By Mo Cranker on August 21, 2018.

mcranker@medicinehatnews.com @MHNmocranker

Poor air quality over the weekend cut short what would have been a 240-kilometre bike ride for four Medicine Hat cyclists taking part in the Ride to Conquer Cancer in Calgary.

Mathew Hill, Fabian Huber, Tim Johnson and Ade Hindson all were set to take part in the ride but had to cut it short by Saturday afternoon due to the weather.

“We started Saturday around 8 a.m. and by noon we found out the ride was cancelled,” said Huber. “They started sending out emails and the people monitoring the intersections started telling people to stop.

“At first we were being told we could continue on but there would be no medical staff at the camp. Eventually they shut the whole thing down.”

The group of four riders tried to stay together for as much of the ride as possible but did split up. They were able to complete 75 of the 120 planned kilometres for the day.

“We started phoning each other and catching up to each other once we started getting the news,” said Huber. “We were kind of taking it slower because one of our riders was struggling with the air and with breathing — we were making decent time until we had to stop.”

Huber says the poor air quality was noticeable right from the beginning of the ride.

“It felt like I couldn’t get a full breath — it was not easy to breathe at all,” he said. “When I was driving back to Medicine Hat that night I could feel something that felt a bit like chest pains and had a bit of a headache so I definitely felt it a little bit.

“There were a lot of people getting medical attention and a lot more complaining — it’s for sure a letdown and not how we wanted to weekend to go but everyone understood why the call was made.”

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