Jason Roth (Brampton, Ontario, Canada)

To start at the beginning, you have to go back 12 years, to when I wasn’t a cyclist and when my father was diagnosed with prostate cancer (he’s fine, now, thankfully). Out of shape, sitting on a couch, feeling sad for my dad, I saw a commercial on TV for a fundraising event for the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, a local cancer research hospital. They were introducing a new event called the “Ride to Conquer Cancer” - 200+km over 2 days to raise money and awareness for cancer research. I signed up - and it changed my life. 

In the 12 years since, I’ve helped raise more than $100,000 personally and contributed to the over $213million that the ride has raised since it started. I’m one of only about 100 riders who have ridden in all 12 of these events, and I take my fundraising commitment seriously - every rider has to raise a minimum of $3,000 to be eligible to ride in the event.

Back to bib shorts - in those 12 years I’ve tried dozens of brands, and I classify my bibs by the comfortable distance I can ride in them. Some are “40km bibs” - after 40km the chamois starts to weaken or the seams start to dig in. Some are 80km or 100km bibs. I discovered RedWhite bibs 4 years ago. RedWhite bibs are “unlimited bibs” - I’ve never ridden far enough to find the point that they aren’t keeping me comfortable

Last winter when brainstorming ideas to increase my fundraising for the 2019 Ride to Conquer Cancer, I decided to advertise an “indoor ride” - I’ll bring my bike and my Zwift gear into my office and tell everyone that for every $500 that’s raised, I’ll ride an hour. I figured 3 or 4 hours isn’t that bad - 90 or 100km - not a big deal.

When the fundraising went past $3,000 I started getting nervous. Then one person donated $1,000 and I got even more nervous - I was up to $4,000 raised, and I was going to have to ride for 8 hours! Yeah. It didn’t stop there…

The night before my ride, a colleague from out of town texted me, and asked “what’s the longest you’ve ever ridden before, and how much do I have to donate to make you go further?” I said - I’m already there, you don’t have to donate anything. I’ve never ridden for 8 hours before. I was truly scared of what I had gotten myself into. When I got up (early start), I saw that he had donated an odd number, but it brought my fundraising to $5,000 for this event. So I got to the office, got on my bike, and started riding. 

And riding. And riding. And riding.

Every 3 hours or so, I got off the bike for a few minutes, loosened my shoes, had a bit of solid food and rested for 10 or 15 minutes - but not so long as to lose my rhythm. 10 Hours. 272km on Zwift. One pair of bib shorts still going strong. $5,000 raised for the ride to conquer cancer. An Epic Indoor Ride.

And yes, I’m signed up for the 2020 ride to conquer cancer - it will be my 13th time, my son’s 9th time, and I’m hoping to raise $20,000 for 2020.