1240 Coast AM radio’s Sandra Boyd credits Port McNeill Const. Brent Shemilt for inspiring her to join Tour de Rock as a media rider.
“I’ve MC’d at least 12 Tour de Rocks over the years and I’ve seen lots of riders go through the experience,” said Boyd.
“He was the first rider that I really got to know, and when I heard his story about why he was doing it, it really inspired me… He was always like ‘you know, you should do this’ and I was like ‘I don’t know, I’m not RCMP’ and he said ‘no, you can do this as a media rider’.”
Boyd, who was born and raised in Port Alice, admits she was terrified of bikes growing up. “I found I walked my bike more than I rode it because I was terrible on hills, which hasn’t changed much by the way,” laughed Boyd.
After mulling over the idea of riding for Tour de Rock a bit more, Boyd was then contacted by Jan Buehler, spokesperson for the Canadian Cancer Society, to put an application in.
Two weeks went by and Buehler contacted her again, asking “how come I haven’t seen your application?”
“Finally, thats when I confessed to her,” said Boyd. “I said I’m terrified of bikes, I’m going to be 55 this year and I’m probably going to be the oldest person involved.”
Boyd ended up thinking the idea of being a media rider over some more, before eventually coming to the realization she should at least give it a try.
“I thought well, you know what, you’ve been given the opportunity to make a difference, and you’re never going to get the chance to do this again, so you have to try. You have to at least try.”
Boyd showed up in Parksville for her first ride with her “Canadian Tire bike” and her “little purple helmet” on her head.
“I’m sure they must have smiled when they saw me get out of the truck,” laughed Boyd. She added they rode 38 kilometres that day, and when she came back the next week, they had an actual road bike for her to use.
Boyd had to learn to shift gears and also had to start conquering her fears.
“I had to learn to do my first downhill ride in the rain,” she said, adding it was truly a defining moment for her in her journey with Tour de Rock.
So far she’s only had one fall, which was on a railroad track of all things, “but it was fine, it was just my pride that was hurt,” she laughed.
Since March, she has peddled almost 1,300 kilometres on her bike, which has helped her continue to deal with her fear of bikes.
“I can actually let myself go down hills now,” said Boyd. “I’m not the fastest rider, but I also learned I’m not the oldest, as there’s two riders who are older than me.”
When asked what her goals are when it comes to fundraising, she said Shemilt raised almost $42,000, but she is aiming for $30,000 “because I found out it costs $1,500 dollars to send a kid to camp and I wanted to send 20 kids to camp. I set that goal myself.”
Boyd said the main thing she has learned so far from the training is that most of her issues are mental and she needs to keep pushing when she sees hills in front of her.
“I force myself to just keep moving because as hard as it is for me going up that hill, I’m not hooked up to a machine dying of cancer — things could be a whole lot worse.”
