October 26, 2009 – Imagine you are not an experienced mountain bike racer, now imagine going for a training ride with the UofT Mountain Bike Team… blindfolded, on a tandem bike. In fact, a group of blind cyclists did just that this past weekend after they met with student athletes from the UofT mountain bike team. A group of elite UofT Mountain Bike Team riders, led by Jason Zhu, Chris Wedeles, Sarah Figley, Ramlogan Sowamber and Tomek Bartczak recently met up with a group of sight impaired “stokers” at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and headed out for a 34km bike ride along the Don Valley trails, down to Lake Ontario.

They used tandem bikes. Head Coach David Wright was impressed with both the student athletes and members of the “Trailblazers” cycling group. “As part of the student experience, we encourage these types of community activities, and not just racing… I was proud to see Jason Zhu take the lead, and with the group that showed up to help. We had a great time and appreciated being involved with these impressive sight-impaired riders, they are amazing”.

The trip along the Don Valley trails was especially rewarding as the UofT team has a long history of working with the City of Toronto on trail clean-ups, and helping build environmentally sustainable multi-use trails in the area.

For more information visit the Trailblazers Tandem Cycling Club at www.torontotrailblazers.org (looking for volunteers) and the UofT Varsity Mountain Bike Team here.