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Freedom rides

BEN DALTON HAD NEVER been much of a cyclist. But when the 58-year-old Newfoundlander retired from his job as a junior high school teacher and guidance counsellor three years ago, he decided to haul his old bike out of the storage shed and put it on a plane to Victoria. From there, he set out on a 66-day cross-Canada bike tour back to St. John’s. During the epic pedal, he actually gained five pounds and spent a grand total of 10 cents on gasoline “to put on a rag to clean some tar off the bike.”

“I had no idea where I was going,” says Dalton. “I just started biking. When you’re on a bike, you’re free.”

That’s the feeling we’ve tried to capture in our Great Bike Trips cover package. We sent our writers and photographers on a cross-country tour of their own, from British Columbia’s Kettle Valley, where cyclists can tool around the grand wooden trestle bridges of a decomissioned railway, to the wine country of Niagara, Ont., for a sipping-and-cycling tour, and the South Shore of Nova Scotia, to sample history and culture at cycle speed.

Plus, in our GearUp and CoolTools sections, you’ll find a range of touring bikes and accessories to get you cycling in style, and in our back-page list of 10 best bike routes, we offer a host of other great trips to keep you pedalling.

If you’re inspired, perhaps you’ll take a page from Dalton, who, after completing his excursion from Victoria to St. John’s, just kept going. He’s now cycled internationally and is thinking about crossing Canada once again.

“What better way is there,” he asks, “to see the country?”

By Patricia D’Souza