Donations from the community are getting two cyclists who had their bikes stolen in downtown Winnipeg on Friday morning back on the road.
Val Duquenne, 24, and Thomas Clark, 23, stopped in for an interview at CBC Manitoba’s Portage Avenue studio.
When they left, their bikes were gone. The U-lock securing the bikes to a rack on the back of their car, parked on Young Street just off Portage, had been cut off.
“We were in there maybe 30, 40 minutes max,” Clark said after returning to CBC from making a police report. “My jaw dropped, and I started running towards the car, looking around. It’s disappointing.”
Later in the day, they got a call from one of the owners of a Canadian Tire in Winnipeg, saying other local Canadian Tire stores were coming together to donate $9,000 to them.
“We also had the guy named Radar Rodney that donated us another $5,000 to get us back on the road,” Duquenne said of Rodney Bolianaz, who runs a traffic ticket-fighting service.
“We’re ecstatic,” Clark said.
They say the money will go toward buying new bicycles if their stolen ones aren’t recovered over the weekend.
“It’s gonna go towards helping us make it across this journey because we have been running low on funds to get all the way to Victoria,” Duquenne said.
The friends, from New Brunswick, started their Men Don’t Ride Alone trek in North Sydney, N.S., on June 22, with the goal of reaching Victoria in September. They’ve raised $6,500 for Movember Canada so far, with a goal of raising $250,000.
“We’ve been working really hard for this. It’s been non-stop since we started planning this two months ago,” Duquenne said.
The men say donations started coming in after they posted about Friday’s incident on social media.
Duquenne says the bikes were worth around $15,000 total and that having them stolen is “definitely a big hit to take.”
“Those bikes were given to us by the community. Mine was given to me by a veteran … so, it’s definitely hard,” he said.
The duo said in an Instagram post that they did not have issues in any of the cities they had been through before Winnipeg.
“You can’t let one bad person spoil your opinion on everyone in this city,” Clark said.
“Our impression of Winnipeg coming in was great …. And then something bad happened, and the entire city came together to lift us back up and get us to where we need to be.”
The men say they will get to their destination somehow.
“If we have to run it, we’ll run it. We’re making it happen,” Duquenne said.
“We will finish this and keep the cause going, for sure,” Clark added.
Cross-country rides halted by thefts
Over the past decade, at least five cyclists crossing the country have had their rides cut short in Winnipeg due to their bikes being stolen.
“Unfortunately bike theft continues to be a property crime of opportunity that challenges our community and law enforcement,” Winnipeg police said in an email statement to CBC News, urging people to use Project 529 to register bikes.
“We were really sorry to hear about the bicycle theft,” Jane Tran, CBC Manitoba’s senior communications manager, said in a statement.
“Any time a theft occurs at one of our workplaces, we collaborate with authorities in accordance with privacy regulations.”
Duquenne’s bike is a Trek SL 5 with a blue and black frame, and the brand name in white along the down tube.
Clark’s bike is a Cannondale Synapse, all black, with “Cannondale” in white lettering on the top frame.
Anyone with information about the theft is asked to call the property crime unit 204-986-2426. Anonymous tips can be called in to 204-786-8477 or submitted online.
The impetus behind the ride was Duquenne’s struggles with mental health and substance abuse, which led to him admitting himself to hospital in Moncton, N.B., last September.
“When I got out and I got help, I wanted to make a difference in the world and I thought of this way, and Thomas was right along with me the whole time,” he said during Friday morning’s interview with CBC Manitoba’s Information Radio.
“It was really good to get help. And that’s the big point of our mission, is to let people know that they can seek help and that life does get better at the end of the day.”
The men have been taking turns doing the ride. While one pedals, the other follows along in a car.
The car is clearly marked with the cause the men are promoting, which makes Friday’s theft that much more sad, said Clark.
“Whoever did take them … just didn’t care.”
Other than Friday’s disheartening incident, the experience has been rewarding, Clark said.
“It’s been an incredible journey so far. It really has. It’s really cool being able to see the country at about 20 km/h. We’ve seen a lot of cool things and met a lot of cool people.”
Clark was diagnosed with ADHD when he was a young boy and says there are a lot of mental struggles that come with having a condition that makes it hard to pay attention and sit still.
“So when [Duquenne] came to me with this [idea], I thought, hey, this connects right with what I believe in,” Clark said.
Along with rides, rests and interviews, the men have also been documenting the journey on social media.
“[It’s] only us two doing everything. So, it’s been really hard to keep up with,” Duquenne said.
The men say the plan for Saturday is to check out some new bikes after a local shop offered them employee discounts on new ones.
Whether their stolen bikes get found or they end up buying new ones, they’ll be keeping them close.
“They’re not leaving our sight ever again,” Duquenne said.
“Yeah, we’re getting a bigger lock, that’s for sure,” Clark said.
Read the full article here