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Local riders take on GranFondo Saturday

Disabled athletes Phil Chew and John Ryan will be among 4,000 cyclists on Sea to Sky Highway

Although Canada's top cyclists will be earning points at a new UCI ProTour event in Quebec this weekend, the RBC GranFondo is bringing 4,000 cyclists to Whistler on Saturday. About 200 of them will be racing the 120 km and competing for $12,000 in prize money.

The top riders are expected to take four hours from the start at Georgia and Burrard Street to the finish line on Blackcomb Way in Whistler.

The race version of the GranFondo, the Giro, is only open to 200 riders that are licensed in Category 1, 2 and 3. Several members of Team Whistler are in that group - Gary Baker, Mike Boehm, Trevor Hopkins, Otto Kamstra and Phil Chew.

A below-the-hip amputee, Chew is bound to turn some heads on the course on Saturday. The former Paralympian will rely on one leg to hammer up the long climbs, but anyone who has ever seen Chew in action knows that he's up for the challenge.

"I first bought a road bike three years ago, and that first year I was doing a lot of mountain biking so I didn't get out that much. Then I had a bad crash on the road and ended up getting 10 stitches in my head... That really shocked me and I went back to the mountain bike," said Chew.

Chew was riding his mountain bike the next year, with the odd road ride mixed in, when he had an off-road crash that resulted in a separated shoulder. Concerned that he wouldn't be able to forerun the downhill at the Paralympics in March, Chew pulled back to let himself heal.

This year, however, Chew has been on his road bike a lot more.

"I've been on the road all season and it's going well, and then the opportunity came along to ride in the Granfondo, and I leaped onto that."

Chew has been training with Team Whistler and doing their Tuesday night rides to get ready. He's also trained on longer distances and a few weeks ago went the full 120 km distance.

Chew knows he won't be the only disabled cyclist in the mix, but said he felt a duty to represent his fellow para-athletes.

"I'm a disabled ski coach and I wanted to carry the flag for disabled athletes and get some exposure for what we do," he said.

Chew says he completed his 120 km ride in five hours and 21 minutes, with a strong headwind on the way back from Pemberton. If all goes well Saturday he thinks he might be able to break five hours.

"If I could do that I would be really happy, but first I'm going to make sure that I do the job and if I feel like it's too much I'll pull back," he said. "I'm not going to go 80 per cent the whole time. There might be some opportunity to do a little drafting out there, but I'm not going to kill myself trying to hook up to a group that's faster than me.

"Even if I was around five hours I would be happy."

Weather and wind are on Chew's mind a lot, but whatever happens he's still in.

"I'd rather it didn't rain and have a headwind the whole way, but whatever it is I will be at the start. I might be a lot slower, but I will persevere."

Another disabled member of the Whistler community is also racing the GranFondo. John Ryan, who made national headlines in 1999 after hand-cycling across Canada, will be making the journey.

This time it's for personal reasons.

"For me, I always need a carrot - whether it's doing the New York marathon or another event," said Ryan. "It's something that gets me out training, and keeps me shape."

But while he's keeping a low profile, there are a number of parallels between the GranFondo and his 1999 venture to raise funding for spinal cord research.

For one, Sept. 11 will be 11 years to the day since Ryan rolled into Whistler - the last stage on his 132-day, 8,000-kilometre cross-Canada tour.

He will also be doing the GranFondo with some of his support team from the same cross-Canada journey riding beside him.

As well, Ryan met one of the GranFondo's race directors, Kevin Thomson, while he was on his tour. Thomson was crossing Canada from west to east and their paths met in northern Ontario.

"I had just registered, and I get this call from one of the organizers who says he thinks he met me 11 years ago while he was biking across Canada," said Ryan. "He remembered my name and when he saw it pop up he gave me a call to see if I was the same person."

Ryan is expecting a challenge.

"I can't wait... but it's going to be a tough one," he said. "I drove up from Vancouver on Saturday and really was watching the road, and the section out of Vancouver is a bit of a nightmare. From Stanley Park, over the bridge, up Taylor Way, up the highway, it's just climbing, climbing, climbing. Other than the other side of the bridge there's no downhill until you get to Horseshoe Bay."

The route itself has more than 2,400 metres of climbing from start to finish, starting pretty close to sea level in Vancouver and finishing in Whistler Village at 714 metres.

But while it's tough, the interest in the race was through the roof. Originally slated for 2,500 riders, the organizers bumped it up to 4,000 based on registration - and could have gone much higher. Now, the organizers believe the ride could attract 10,000 riders in a few years, which would rival the larger GranFondo events in Europe. It's already one of the biggest in North America.

"This is a great event for Whistler," said Ryan. "The ride is so picturesque, but it's also challenging for the real hardcore riders."