The first 24 hours...

I will continue to overuse the word AWESOME as I blog each day. I cant help it...because it is AWESOME. The first day started with our launch party...riders, volunteers, warriors, family, friends, and supporters converged on the Wellspring house in Oakville. Ann Rohmer from CP24 emceed the event and everyone had an opportunity to hear from our 5 Wellspring Warriors about what the charity means to them and the significance of the over $300,000 raised from this event so far. We heard of their experience battling cancer and how it affected their lives. Their stories were inspiring as we embarked on our non-stop cycling journey, knowing that the battles we will inevitably face along the way is nothing in comparison.













And yes...our first 24 hours had challenges. As we are Team 1, we did 2 riding shifts in this time period - 60kms from 9am to noon and again at midnight to 6am for 120kms...all with very little sleep in between. The night ride was cold - zero degree temps with winds....however our team persevered and completed the distance with time to spare. Awesome.

Team 1 after our night ride....notice the frost on the car windows!



In terms of bad news good news....unfortunately one of our volunteers was not able to make it across the border (don't ask...). We were down a key person for about 12 hours. Problem solving by our committee and the team at Wellspring kicked in. One of the staff at Wellspring, Julie, recruited her dad Derek, who graciously volunteered at the last minute, and was driven down to Ohio in the morning to meet up with the team. We are complete again. Awesome.

Oh yes...more challenge on day 1....a bird decided to fly into the windshield of our van...bounce up...and impaled itself to the front chainring of MY bike. I won't describe how much fun it was to remove it...




Our Wellspring Warrior Donna, gave our team an envelope for each day of the ride to help keep us going. Today...we got Starbucks Ready Brew coffee (Ryan holding the coffee in photo)! Awesome....can't wait to see what's in store for tomorrow!




-billy