Canadian World Cup cross country racer Léandre Bouchard is ending his season with a ride for change. The 2021 XCO national champ is setting out on a 5,200-km ride across Canada to raise awareness for suicide prevention.
Bouchard starts his ride Tuesday, September 13. He’ll set out solo from Vancouver, B.C. and ride back to his home in Alma, Que. The trip is expected to take between four and five weeks, averaging 200 km a day. That puts him in Alma mid-October right before, hopefully, winter snows start falling.
“It’s going to be a lot of long days in the saddle back to back,” Bouchard admits. The Foresco Holding’s Pro Co RL rider has a strategy, though. “I hope that I can go a bit longer on the flat days to get some cushion for when it gets hilly again.”
The former national champ is riding to raise awareness, and funds, for the Center for the Prevention of Suicide 02 – Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean Chibougamau-Chapais region. The center’s mission is to prevent suicide and resuce the associated risk factors in the region.
“It’s a big project I’ve wanted to do and, since the season ended a bit earlier this year, I finally had the chance,” Bouchard said of his decision to take on the ride. “I didn’t want to do it just as a ride, I wanted to do some good at the same time. Because it is important to me, I decided to go with the prevention of suicide.”
Bouchard has his own connections to the cause and decided the ride could serve an easier way to start more conversations about a sometimes taboo topic.
“I just want to share the message that there doesn’t have to be a stigma around suicide. We can help each other if we talk about it. Just talking about it can save lives,” the Canadian says. “As a cyclist, I will probably mostly reach other cyclists,” Bouchard says, adding “but that’s important because sometimes, in high performace sport, we don’t talk abou this sort of thing enough.”
There are a couple of ways you can join in and contribute to Bouchard’s cause. First, you can donate to the Center for Prevention of Suicide 02. But you can also contribute by starting your own conversation about the topic.
“Everyone can be part of this ride, just by talking about the prevention of suicide. Talking about the ride can be a way to open the conversation about preventing suicide, as an easier way to start talking,” says Bouchard. “Even for me, it’s a bit hard to talk about it. This ride is a reason for me to…
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