North Van’s Bianca Hayes was on a final 48-hour push 1,000 kilometers from her goal when she collided with her.
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Bianca Hayes was about 1,000 kilometers from her goal when she was run over by a motorcycle in an attempt to set a world record for cycling from Vancouver to Halifax in 15 days.
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The accident happened on June 26 during his last 48-hour push, with only 10-minute micronaps here and there.
The North Vancouverite trip was to raise money and awareness for ovarian cancer, which was claimed by her sister Katrina in April 2018, aged 32, leaving her three-year-old nephew without a mother. But instead of arriving in Nova Scotia’s capital on June 28, she was on her way home in an RV after being released from the hospital.
“It could have been a lot worse,” Hayes said from somewhere in northern Ontario along the empty expanse between Moonbeam and Nipigon. “Another inch or two might have broken bones or he might not be talking to you right now.
“It’s devastating that I couldn’t finish my career. It was exhausting, but every hard moment was worth it if one more family doesn’t have to suffer the same anguish that my family experienced.”
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For There isit was his second world record attempt. Her firstin 2020, it took her 19 days, the fastest recorded time for a woman to cycle across the country, but more than the 15-day mark decreed by Guinness World Records as the world record for a woman.
The fastest man to cycle the almost 6,000 kilometers of road to cross Canada did it in 9.4 days. Guinness defined the official route as from town hall to town hall following roads and trails where it is legal to ride a bicycle.
Hayes had approached a railroad crossing at an awkward angle. A similar crossing had caused her to crash two years earlier, slamming her helmeted head hard on the ground.
“You are not allowed to walk your bike anywhere, you have to go all the way, so to cross at 90 (degrees) I had to go out and cross the street,” he said.
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There was a curve in the road behind her.
“I checked the shoulder when I got to the tracks, went out to the shoulder, checked again and everything was clear. I started to cross and heard something behind me.
“When I turned to look, I saw a motorcycle from the side flying towards me.”
The bike skidded when the driver tried to brake, knocking the bike out from under him and breaking his shoe.
“Of all the things that could have happened, it was very lucky,” he said. “Very shocking, quite a dramatic way to end the whole journey, but I’m very lucky how it turned out.”
In the end, Hayes suffered a sprained ankle, a concussion, a road rash, and an unfinished mission.
“Not all riders are so lucky when it comes to car accidents, so I try to stay positive and remind myself because losing the world record really hurts.”
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She is 11 percent of the way to its objective to raise $1 million for ovarian cancer (you can donate anywhere biancahayes.com), and departed from Vancouver on June 13. The money he collects is divided between ovarian cancer canada and the BC Cancer Foundation.
Although ovarian cancer rates are similar to breast and prostate cancer, because the latter two receive much more publicity, they have enjoyed more research funding and patients have better survival rates.
Fifty years ago, survival rates for all three were about the same, Hayes said, but today, while it’s the fifth most common cancer among women, it’s the deadliest, killing five Canadian women a day. This year, 3,100 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer, according to Ovarian Cancer Canada.
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The Hayes fundraiser is an effort to provide the same level of screening and treatment options that exist for, say, breast cancer, and much longer life expectancy for those diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
“One of the things that struck me when Katrina was sick, she really only had a year of treatment and being able to fight the disease. She has no survival. The survival rate is so low that there are no people who really talk about it and defend the cause. It’s up to family and friends to talk about it and make people aware of why it’s so important to fund this.”
She was accompanied by two physical therapists and a documentary crew from The Coconut Creative in a mobile home. She felt as if she had battled all the elements, she said, including one day in Manitoba when it was so hot that the Winnipeg Marathon was canceled mid-race.
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Hayes encountered her first prairie dust storm, hundreds of mosquitoes swarming your face the moment you stop moving forward, headwinds that seemed to push her back, and just the pain of riding a bike 20 hours a day. (most days, the shortest was 13 hours).
She’s not sure if she’ll give him another chance. It took her two years to recover from the last one and then start planning for the next one.
“It bothered me those whole two years that I hadn’t done the last one in the time they gave me and that was the point of doing it this time.
“I don’t know. It will probably continue to bother me. I feel like if I say never again now I’ll eat those words.”
