The rider representing Nanaimo on this year's Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock is raising money for cancer research not only by cycling the tour, but also by selling jewelry he fashions from bicycle chain parts.
Const. Ian George is training for this year’s Tour de Rock, and this isn’t his first rodeo when it comes to fundraising for the fight against cancer.
In 2017, the lifelong cyclist rode the Cops for Cancer Tour de Coast, a nine-day 800 kilometre tour through Greater Vancouver, the Sea-to-Sky region and Sunshine Coast.
Raising donations during that tour, while juggling work and life with a young family, proved a major challenge.
“That was much harder because Nanaimo has the most amazing organization where they already have a cancer fundraising committee,” George said. “When I did Tour de Coast I was basically outside of Walmart, outside of Save-On-Foods, with my own tent that I bought, with my own [bike] trainer, and my daughter would come out and we would just ask people for money … So just to raise $6,000 took a lot … In Nanaimo, they just want me to show up at the events they’ve already organized, so there’s a lot less stress.”
Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock, a 1,200-kilometre, two-week ride that starts in Port Alice and ends Victoria, is the original Cops for Cancer cycling tour held annually to raise donations to support pediatric cancer research and to operate Camp Goodtimes, a summer camp in Maple Ridge for children with cancer and their families. Since the first ride in 1997, the team comprised of police, firefighters, paramedics, and guest riders have raised $54 million for cancer research.
George, 57, has served with the RCMP since 2009. He came to Nanaimo in 2023 from Duncan, where he worked for four years after working in Richmond for the first nine years of his career.
He’s motivated to ride the tours by personal experiences with cancer.
“I think we’ve all had cancer touch our lives,” he said. “I lost my mom in 2003 from colon cancer and I think, at the time when I was a police officer, it was just an opportunity that was presented to the detachment and because bike racing, bike riding … has been in my background, I thought it would be a good fit, good cause.”
Tour de Rock riders train three times a week, practising for hills, speed and distance on different days, and riding on the Island is physically challenging, George said.
“The training here, because Vancouver Island is so hilly, you feel it all the time,” he said. “Even for an easy flat ride, to get to the flat areas you’re still climbing.”
The Strathcona Parkway training ride to Mount Washington Skiing Alpine Resort demands riders climb more than 1,000 metres up steep grades over the parkway’s 18-kilometre length, which George tackled with this year’s team July 13 when he estimated the temperature at about 29 C at the start of the ride.
“I had never ridden Mount Washington, I’d driven it a couple times, and that first part is a real eye-opener,” George said.
The decision to ride this year’s Tour de Rock came about because a coworker knew George was a cyclist and reassured him he would not be putting in the hours of fundraising he’d experienced in 2017.
“[He said] we have the most amazing fundraising committee. Wear your uniform, show up to events, smile and just ride,” George said. “It was just a huge relief to hear that and I had to do it because [as] the largest detachment on the Island, I’d feel really horrible if we didn’t have somebody and we had this really amazing fundraising committee and no rider.”
Prior to joining the RCMP, George designed, manufactured and distributed a line of jewelry.
“It was very bicycle-specific,” he said. “It’s bicycle chains … and I would disassemble the bike chain and I would make it into bracelets. I would have it nickel plated, gold plated, chrome plated, so it looked quite polished.”
He would sell the bracelets to riders.
George retired from making the jewelry when he became a police officer, but he’s revived his art for this year’s Tour de Rock with help from Dave Ward, project manager with the Powder Coaters in Cedar where the bracelet components are powder-coated in yellow, the colour of the daffodil in the logo of the Canadian Cancer Society.
George is selling the bracelets for $25 each. To purchase a bracelet, contact ian.george@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.
The Tour de Rock will be held Sept. 21-Oct. 4.
