“I’m really good at bad ideas,” Rob Britton says. The Regina-born former road pro expands on that, saying it applies to a lot of his projects, not just the Big Ride Home, now documented in No Place Like Home. But Britton’s ride from Victoria, B.C. to Regina, Sask. over nine days is one of his better (or badder?) ideas.
Britton’s winding, mostly un-paved route from the west coast to the heart of Canada’s prairie provinces is now the subject of No Place Like Home. A scenic tour, at pace, Britton describes this as his “longest, and one of the hardest rides I’ve ever taken on.” From a man that’s played a vital role at road world championships and won gruelling gravel races like Unbound XL to describe a trip in those words, carries some weight.
Rob Britton’s (really) Big Ride Home
So do the numbers. 2,600km. A leg-shattering 26,000 metres of elevation gain. 84 hours in the saddle, solo, over just nine days. Those are the kind of stats that would crush a lesser human. Britton? He still had time to stop for ice cream.
Numbers aside, Britton also describes this as an incredibly meaninful ride. The sort of adventure that’s increasingly defining the second act of the Canadian racer’s career.
Rob Britton: No Place Like Home
What’s Rob Britton say about No Place Like Home?
“No Place Like Home is a short story of my 2400km- 9day journey from Vancouver Island across western Canada back home to where I grew up in Rergina Saskatchewan. This was the longest and one of the hardest rides I’ve ever taken on and one that meant so much more than any race.”