As the first week of Tour de Rock wraps up riders are reflecting on what a return to normal might look like for them when the tour ends at the legislature on October 5th.
Vista Radio’s Nicholas Arnold says he’ll always have a special bond with the other riders.
“It’s like if your family did Sunday dinners and then all of a sudden they just stopped. These people have become like a family to me. It’s going to be really weird to not have an excuse to see these people and a lot of them, but we’ll always have this bond that brings us together.”
Arnold says a part of the tour that no one prepared him for was the emotional high that comes with being a rider.
“You spend all this time with a group of people who all have their own idiosyncrasies which you come to learn and love. Soon enough, someone you didn’t know a year ago may be closer to you than some blood relatives.”
He adds that part of what makes the tour so special are the stories he hears from the people who come out to cheer them on.
“They share things with you that they might not share with anyone else. Their hopes and fears, their life stories, and their own experiences with cancer. Many who have personally experienced it and can’t imagine a child going through it,” he says.
Today the tour heads to Port Alberni for one of the more difficult legs of the ride, and then they will continue out to Tofino over the weekend.
