Ministry: Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming and Ministry of Sport
Years doing the B4UW? First year
What’s your day job? Senior Coordinator – Regional Services Branch – Regional Support Unit and North Team
What’s your past biking experience?Mainly recreational touring and triathlon (2x Iron Man, Xterra, Victoria to Thunder Bay (Solo)). Thunder Bay is home to a phenomenal community of riders, routes and world-class MTB trails right in our backyards. The cycling clubs here graciously welcomed me in over a decade ago; and,I’m grateful to be among the many to set up roots here with a major thanks to the foundations that they’ve built, maintain and nurture.
What’s your inspiration for this ride? Haven’t found a better way to connect, learn and experience the planet’s untamed beauty, mother nature’s merciless and generous temperaments or to witness the hidden human goodwills, kindnesses and trade drivers throughout communities than by exploring them via immersion on two wheels. The rarity of an opportunity that aligns these experiences with likeminded adventurers, backdropped by Ontario’s rugged wilderness, while building awareness and showcasing the great works of a group that makes giant life changing impacts every day, starting with the smallest actions, is an inspiration that speaks for itself.
How are you preparing for B4UW? Rides, rides and more rides.
What do you think will be your greatest challenge on the ride? Keeping pace with the seasoned vets.
What do you like to do other than riding your bike? Fill as much downtime as I can with music, trails, paddling, the pup, good friends, family and food.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself: Lucky enough to have checked swimming from the prison the shore in the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon off the bucket list in 2013 – it CAN be done and highly recommend to the athletically curious!
What’s your day job? Engineer Design Process, Contract Management Office
What’s your past biking experience? I ride bike occasionally to tennis court or shopping.
What’s your inspiration for this ride? New adventures and a great way for fund raising
How are you preparing for B4UW? Planning for supporting for riders
What do you think will be your greatest challenge on the ride? Inclement weather
What do you like to do other than riding your bike? Tennis, Skiing, Hiking, Golfing, Camping, House maintenance.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself. One day, I went out for shopping and was not sure if I turned off stove. I spent half a hour to go back home and found it was turned off.
Years doing the B4UW? This is my first year What’s your day job? Manager, Integrated Energy Policy and Research What’s your past biking experience? Riding a big, heavy cargo bike is my primary way of getting around the city year-round. I also go on occasional longer weekend rides in the countryside, preferably the Halton Hills area. What’s your inspiration for this ride? I have always wanted to go on a really long ride. I think it will be a great way to really experience the distance, the landscape and how it changes along the way. I am really looking forward to doing this together with a fun and diverse group of OPSers while raising money and awareness for a good cause.
How are you preparing for B4UW? I have some nice and challenging rides mapped out in the city that I plan on doing much more often, plus a few long-distance rides over the summer.
What do you think will be your greatest challenge on the ride? Getting back in the seat every morning.
What do you like to do other than riding your bike? Family, friends and projects around the house.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself. When I was 14, three friends and I decided to go on a multi-day bike ride into the hilly countryside outside our hometown. We planned it all ourselves and figured out a way to pack bulky tents, sleeping bags and other equipment on our city bikes. Big praise to our parents, who let us go, even though there were no cell phones. I think we just called one of our parents every night from a campground. That was it. It was such a great experience and really empowering.
Ministry of the Environment,
Conservation and Parks
Years doing the B4UW? This will be my first year participating in the B4UW.
What’s your day job? Hydrogeologist with the Ministry’s Technical Support Section, Northern Region, Drinking Water and Environmental Compliance Division
What’s your past biking experience? I’ve always been cycling to some degree and really ramped up my dedication since the onset of the pandemic. I enjoy cycling year-round including commuting, fat biking, trail riding, gravel grinding, Saturday morning coffee rides on the tarmac, and zwifting.
What’s your inspiration for this ride? A cycling vacation has been on the bucket list for a while. I’ve always enjoyed driving the north shore so when the B4UW opportunity was shared with me, I was hooked. I’m excited to support the United Way.
How are you preparing for B4UW? Every week I aim to get out on the bike(s) at least four times. I’m ramping up my mileage week by week since the snow lifted. Ideally, 7-10 hrs of cycling per week but there will those “rest” days 🙂
What do you think will be your greatest challenge on the ride? The B4UW will be an overall milestone challenge to my cycling career.
What do you like to do other than riding your bike? Kettlebell, hockey, squash, swimming, skiing, hunting, fishing, and dog walks!
Tell us a fun fact about yourself. Before cycling took over my extracurricular activities, I was a competitive swimmer, member to the University of Alberta Golden Bears Varsity Swim Team. I also competed at provincial, national, and international lifeguarding competitions.
What’s your day job? Program Manager, Assistive Devices Program
What’s your past biking experience? Recreational cyclist only, all types. What’s your inspiration for this ride? The overall experience in seeing different communities via bicycle, the challenge to complete the ride and the ability to fundraise for those in need all combined.
How are you preparing for B4UW? Attempting to increase time in the saddle. What do you think will be your greatest challenge on the ride? Putting the hours in day after day.
What do you like to do other than riding your bike? A variety of outdoor activities, all seasons with my family.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself. I cycled on and off growing up but only started adding distance and time to my rides in the last two years.
Years doing the B4UW? This is my first! What’s your day job? Operations Technician for Wabakimi P.P. Working in the backcountry of the park doing maintenance, helping out our biologist with projects and running the Wabakimi Facebook page, amongst other stuff. What’s your past biking experience? Cycle commuting across Thunder Bay to work. Also an absolute weekend warrior, cruising backroads of Thunder Bay and area with the pals. What’s your inspiration for this ride? I want to challenge myself and see the beautiful landscape that I’m usually too busy driving through to take in. How are you preparing for B4UW? Lots of training and healthy eating. What do you think will be your greatest challenge on the ride? The North Shore of Lake Superior! Those hills are killer! What do you like to do other than riding your bike? I enjoy skiing down hill and cross country, canoeing, hosting parties, volunteering with community organizations and sipping a good cup of coffee.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself. I starting attending a local Finnish Folk Dancing group recently and found out it’s very fun and easy! All the ladies told me I was a prodigy, despite not being at all Finnish.
Ministry: Ministry
of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (seconded counsel from the Ministry
of the Attorney General)
Years doing the B4UW? Second
time
What’s your day job? Counsel
What’s your past biking experience? Public transit was terrible in Fredericton and that necessitated year round cycling from an early age! In my later life, I’ve done a few charity rides (Ride to Conquer, B4UW last year – Team Manitoulin) as well as sightseeing rides (Simcoe County Loop was lots of fun).
What’s your inspiration for this
ride? The United Way is a fantastic
charity and an even better excuse to get out in the fresh air for a few days!
How are you preparing for B4UW? I’m hopefully going to get more diligent on Zwift over the next few weeks, but once the weather is more predictably good I’ll be out doing weekend loops on the roads north of Toronto. What do you think will be your greatest challenge on the ride? My advancing age.
What do you like to do other than riding your bike?
I have a family, so absolutely have to say spending time with them! Beyond that, I have Toronto FC season tickets
and biking down to the lakeshore every few weeks to spend a couple hours
yelling till I lose my voice is a pretty great outlet.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself. I love corgis. My current good boy is named Bruno.
What’s your day job? District Manager What’s your past biking experience? I’m a weekend hobbyist! I enjoy mountain biking, exploring new towns or cycling routes, including the occasional 100Km ride What’s your inspiration for this ride? Supporting United Way, challenging myself and, meeting and learning from other riders.
How are you preparing for B4UW? I enjoy training on my Peloton in cold seasons and commuting to my office (42 Km one way) when I can. I also enjoy running half marathons, mountain biking and any other opportunity to get out and moving.
What do you think will be your greatest challenge on the ride? My seat. That’s a lot of time in the saddle… I might need to by a new one, and upgrade my cycling shorts!
What do you like to do other than riding your bike? I love to be outside. I enjoy hiking, including backcountry backpacking trips. I love doing puzzles and reading classic books with my kids (we’re in the Chronicles of Narnia now).
Tell us a fun fact about yourself. My goal is to have some kind of adventure every day! You’re welcome to join me, but you have to be willing to just go with it…
Name: Michael
Lanois Ministry: Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
Years doing the B4UW? First time
What’s your day job? Caseworker,
Ontario Disability Support Program
What’s your past biking experience? Exploring the trails of Simcoe County What’s your inspiration for this ride? To show to my children (and to myself) that accomplishments can be made through endurance and perseverance.
How are you preparing for B4UW? I am participating in more community events, such as the Soldiers’ Ride 2024, where I will be completing 100km in support of the Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital on June 2nd and other local community events as they become available.
I am preparing for B4UW ride through a tougher training regiment. The idea of biking over 100km per, for over 10 days, is a daunting task. To prepare for this trip I am focused on a gym routine that will help build to this level as endurance as well as “putting time in the saddle” to put pedal-to-pavement to develop stamina. What do you think will be your greatest challenge on the ride?
I think the greatest challenge will be the motivation to keep moving forward through differences in weather, elevation, and exhaustion. What do you like to do other than riding your bike?
I enjoy spending time with my kids and wife.
I am preparing my kids for adventures of backcountry campingand
kayaking/canoeing. I enjoy making use of the many beautiful provincial parks in
Ontario and like to share with my children why our provincial parks are such a
valuable resource for visitors and the for the environment.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself. Before my career in the OPS, I worked in some restaurants and bakeries. I can be quite useful in the kitchen whether it is prepping food or washing dishes.
Ministry: Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry
Years doing the B4UW? First!
What’s your day job? Counsel at Legal Services Branch What’s your past biking experience? Weekend rides, a few sprint and Olympic-distance triathlons. Longer rides from Toronto to Holland Marsh and Toronto to Niagara Falls. What’s your inspiration for this ride? I love riding with a group whenever possible – even better when it’s for a good cause! I also suffered a pretty serious knee injury in November 2023, so this is part of my recovery plan.
How are you preparing for B4UW? Indoor cycling is one of the few cardio exercises that I was able to do as part of my knee recovery, so I’ve been doing some 20-40 minute rides a few times a week on my stationary trainer. When the weather is nice, I like to do the 12km ride to my office. What do you think will be your greatest challenge on the ride? Having confidence to push myself after recovering from my injury. I did a Toronto-Niagara ride after recovering from an injury 3-4 years ago, and found that some of the hills really put my legs to the test.
What do you like to do other than riding your bike? Surfing/stand-up paddleboard, canoe/kayaking, soccer, running, swimming, cooking, gardening and playing mandolin.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself: I raised four homing pigeons as a kid and could call them on command by whistling!
