Flemings To Bike Across Canada

A horse owner and his sister are making headlines for their plan to bike across Canada -- despite not being avid cyclists -- all in an effort to raise money for a worthwhile charity.

Will Fleming, 20, of Londesborough, Ont. (just north of Clinton) was presented the idea in jest but quickly warmed up to it.

"I had a break of a couple months between when school ended for me and when I started my internship," Fleming told Trot Insider. "So I was thinking about something to do...a roommate mentioned as a joke, 'you should bike across Canada'."

A student at Western University in London, Fleming started to look into the idea and felt it wasn't as impossible and far-fetched as originally thought.

"I came home at Christmas and mentioned it to my sister [Claire], she said she'd do it too so we started to plan out a route and started training."

The journey will be 7,650 km in length as they bike from Vancouver, B.C. to St. John's, N.L. starting on April 13 and finishing on May 29.

"The whole thing is 50 days; 45 of those days are biking, five are resting. On the days that we bike we're thinking it's going to be about five hours of biking per day."

Will has a break post-exams at Western University. Claire, 17, is still in high school at Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton. She'll be completing extra work before she departs for the bike trip and finishing exams in June.

When asked how his parents, Jennifer and well-known harness racing participant Ian, reacted to the news, Will stated they were concerned with the risks involved -- "just like any parents would" but noted that when he mentioned it to their friends, "they thought it was great."

Even greater is that the Flemings are using the cross-Canada trip to raise money for charity. The goal: raise $1 for each kilometre travelled in support of the Canadian Tire Jumpstart Foundation. This charity grants kids across Canada access to organized sports by covering the costs of registration, equipment, and other related expenses.

"It doesn't get as much attention as some of the other charities," noted Will. "Claire and I grew up playing sports and we think it really did help our lives in a lot of areas. We were both surprised when we saw that one in three kids' families can't afford to put them in organized sports so we were just thinking we could help them out a little bit."

Will specialized in hockey in soccer growing up and still active in school intermurals while Claire was more focused on horseback riding and ballet.

"It was hard at the start, getting used to riding a bike for 15 hours per week but now we're more comfortable on it, the legs are a lot stronger, and just more confident going into a bike trek that long."

Will states that experts usually suggest about a year's worth of training for such a quest, but because he and his sister are in decent shape they feel the condensed three-month training regimen should be enough.

"But we still have to get used to the biking, which we haven't done."

The Flemings will have the support of their Mom, Jennifer, throughout the entire endeavour.

"Our Mom is driving a RV to each of the destinations so that we have somewhere to stay and it's better for supporting the bikes," said Will. "We can have more supplies in there that we don't have to carry and that will speed us up a fair bit."

Fleming, who had just finished four hours of training before this interview, is no stranger to long training hours. He jogged horses from a young age and worked for trainer Ross Battin for about four years. He's now graduated to horse ownership and currently has horses with former Ontario-based horseman Jason Brewer, who has relocated to his home state of Ohio.

"They're not lighting the world on fire but they're making more than it costs to keep them," said Will of his current stable.

Claire has also spent time in the harness racing industry, working as the official timer at Clinton Raceway.

The Flemings have set up a blog at bike7650.blogspot.ca for people to make donations and keep up with their progress.