By Joel van der Veen
July 19, 2010

DAVIDSON - As she and the Tour du Canada crew biked southward down Highway 11 last Wednesday, Nan Dickie said, the weather couldn't have been better.

"It's not hot," she said, "and we have the wind at our back."

In these conditions, Dickie said, she usually moves at a speed of 36 kilometres per hour, while the male members of her group travel at roughly 42 km/h.

"Two days ago, it was a headwind, and that was very difficult to ride through," she said.

Dickie and her team are biking across Canada this summer. They left Vancouver on June 27 and plan to reach St. John's, N.L., on the Labour Day weekend in September.

Along the way the groups camp overnight. They are followed by a support vehicle that carries the necessary equipment. The team is divided into six galley crews who take turns preparing dinner.

Dickie said the dinners are often quite impressive. Recent meals included apricot chicken with noodles and onions, chili and linguine alfredo. Lunch is always the same: peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches.

The team consists of 41 members, 27 men and 14 women, with ages ranging between 19 and 66. They came through south-central Saskatchewan last week, stopping in Outlook on Tuesday. They planned to stop again in Craik and arrive in Regina on Thursday, where they would take a day of rest.

So far, Dickie said, there have been no accidents or injuries on the trip, although the riders had suffered many flat tires, as they had anticipated.

The tour bypasses Davidson, but Dickie, 64, a retired writer from Salmon Arm, B.C., stopped here on July 14 for a coffee break and to take pictures of the town's grain elevators.

"I love coming into small towns because I was raised in one," she said. "I like to get off the highway."

Tour du Canada has been holding annual cross-country bicycle tours since 1988. Over 700 cyclists have participated in the tour, which is 7,650 kilometres in length. The goal of the tour, as stated on the website, is simply "to ride across Canada."

The leaderonline is a division of The Davidson Leader, Davidson, Saskatchewan, Canada.