Passion brings cyclist back to Brandon

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/08/2022 (1292 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At the age of 66, Jim Falvo didn’t think twice about jumping on his bike and travelling more than 1,500 kilometres to visit some family members in Manitoba.

The Nelson, B.C., resident already completed a cross-country cycling tour in 1989, stopping in Brandon on his way to St. John’s, N.L.

While Falvo is only planning to go as far as Winnipeg this time around, he told the Sun Tuesday that his latest adventure across the Prairies is a vast improvement over the journey he undertook more than three decades ago.

“Because the last time I was on the Trans-Canada and went straight across,” Falvo said from his sister’s residence at Westman Lions Manor. “And this time, I took southern routes, like Highway 13, Highway 18 in Saskatchewan. So I went through small towns and very remote places.”

Falvo departed from his home in B.C. on July 22, with the goal of reaching Winnipeg by mid-August to visit friends and family.

Falvo said his extended bike ride has been a pleasant experience so far, even though he has been riding solo and mostly roughing it outdoors for the last couple of weeks.

“I slept in a tent with my equipment … mostly in campgrounds,” he said.

“Sometimes I camped in rest areas, just out of the way. And twice I stayed in a motel.”

However, Falvo admits he did encounter some dicey moments around the August long weekend, when many stores in southern Saskatchewan were closed, depriving him of the opportunity to replenish his supplies.

As a result, the retired custodian travelled for about a day and a half with just a couple of bananas, an orange, a few peanuts and some water to keep him going.

Thankfully, Falvo got a lucky break after his concerned sister called the local RCMP, asking them to conduct a wellness check.

“They sent an officer out from the Assiniboia detachment, found me on this remote highway and the officer gave me a little bag of goodies, like energy bars and Gatorade,” he said.

“So that was a treat to be served up in this remote area, where the RCMP is delivering food to me.”

In terms of conditioning, Falvo told the Sun that biking around 115 kilometres a day is not a big deal, since he has been relying on this specific mode of transportation almost exclusively for the last four decades.

“I don’t have a car,” he said. “My one and only car was in 1980, that was the last time I had it, and I just thought it was too much trouble to purchase another. I thought it was too expensive. And I just got used to living without one.”

Cathy McCullum even said she couldn’t help but notice her brother’s lack of fatigue when he arrived in Brandon on Sunday.

“I couldn’t believe it. He looked so fresh,” she said. “He didn’t even look like he had a drop of sweat on him.”

While the siblings are planning to spend the rest of the week together in Brandon, Falvo is hoping to head back on the road by Saturday and cross off those remaining 200 kilometres to reach Winnipeg.

And even though the Trans-Canada Highway is a notoriously busy traffic artery, Falvo isn’t too concerned about his safety throughout the final stretch. Compared to drivers in his home province, he finds that Manitoba and Saskatchewan motorists are far more likely to take the safety of cyclists into account.

“They would move completely over into the other lane, if it was safe enough to do so, and give me lots of space and actually slow down,” he said. “So they’re actually very aware of me. Whereas in B.C., I would be lucky if they gave me three feet before they zoomed by.”

Overall, Falvo feels good about retracing his tire treads 33 years later and remains thankful that his trip down memory lane hasn’t been hampered by bad weather or other unforeseen circumstances so far.

“I surprised myself that I could do it without a major incident,“ he said. “My bike handled it. I didn’t have a flat tire once. So I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the whole 17 days.”

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson