The chance to ride the Tour de Rock has been one Nanaimo Mountie’s dream since its inaugural run in 1996.
Const. Shane Coubrough, 41, is one of two riders representing Nanaimo – the other is auxiliary constable Trevor Nettleton – on the 2018 Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock team.
Coubrough was born in Duncan and has nine years’ service with the RCMP.
“I’m born and raised on the Island and the Tour de Rock has been a part of my life since it started,” he said. “I remember it starting and always thinking it was an amazing thing and when I joined the RCMP, you know, it was one of those things; it would be nice to come back home and take part in that.”
Coubrough applied for the Tour de North team the final year he was posted in Burns Lake, B.C., but wasn’t selected. In Nanaimo, Coubrough put his name in for the 2016 Tour de Rock 20th anniversary team, but again wasn’t selected.
“It wasn’t my year, but finally this year is it,” he said.
The 2018 Tour de Rock team was announced May 25 with a ceremony at which the riders were presented with their tour bikes and jerseys.
“It was pretty amazing to be [there] and be a part of the team and get the jersey,” he said.
Two life events have spurred his desire to ride the tour. His father, Gary Corbrough, died of cancer in 2016, plus his daughter, Isla, underwent heart surgery at B.C. Children’s Hospital.
“Open heart surgery on a two-year-old is something to wrap your brain around as a parent, but 24 hours after the surgery she’s in a playroom playing, dragging her IVs around and then two days after that she’s released and we spent a night in Ronald McDonald House … four days after she underwent open heart surgery we went home and she was perfect,” Coubrough said. “And yet there’s families who’ve been at Ronald McDonald House for months and months and months with children battling cancer and they’re not going to have that positive end result. So that was a big motivator and then I lost my dad to cancer and that was another big motivator.”
The team has been training since March and with several months of intense training and fundraising to go before the team departs for Port Alice, Sept. 22, to begin its two-week long, 1,100-kilometre journey across the Island to raise money to fight childhood cancer. Until then there will likely be plenty of opportunities for Coubrough and his teammates to rack up memories of good days as well as physically and emotionally challenging days on the road and he is already getting a sense of the passion and experiences Cops for Cancer supporters share in common.
Coubrough was in Ucluelet with other team members at Black Rock 2018, a Vancouver Island Region Porsche Club of America event, which features a Cops for Cancer fundraiser gala that this year raised $22,000.
“Everyone has someone that’s been affected by cancer,” Coubrough said. “When I was there and told my story at the dinner that night, half the room after that came up and they’re sharing stories about how it’s impacted them. One gentleman is going through treatment for cancer. He’s a patient now. Another man just lost his dad last year to cancer. It just has such a wide-ranging impact to everybody. No matter where you go or what you do, somebody else has experienced it.”
Every team member sets a fundraising goal when they start training in March and Coubrough has based his on a friendly rivalry with fellow constable Mihai Ilioi, who rode the tour in 2015.
“My goal? My goal is to beat Mihai, to be perfectly honest,” Coubrough said. “That’s what I wrote on my application form. I don’t know what Mihai’s number was, but that’s the goal.”
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