OTTAWA — If you took part in the CN Cycle for CHEO event on the weekend and are still walking like John Wayne, spare
a thought for Ross Rader’s posterior. Rader, 37, is getting ready to cycle from Ottawa to Windsor to raise money for the Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation, a childhood cancer charity. Anyone interested in making a donation can do so via Rader’s website at crossontario.ca. The ride is approximately 774 kilometres long and he intends to do it in less than 36 hours to break a record. Rader will leave from Parliament Hill Saturday morning at 8 a.m. The current record is 35 hours, 43 minutes, set in 1987 by Ron Dossenbach of Windsor. “There will be breaks here and there, but they will be limited to a minute, maybe two,†Rader said Monday from Toronto where he works as general manager at an Internet company. “A big break would be five minutes, anything beyond that would be excessively long. In all, I’m expecting to be off the bike no more than two hours.†Rader will be switching back and forth among three bicycles during his trek.
“Two of the bikes are identical and are set up for what I would call endurance racing, mainly because there are a ton of hills between Ottawa and Toronto. It’s meant to be more of a comfortable ride for me. It’s basically flat from Guelph to Windsor, so I’ll be on a time-trial bike for that.â€