Riding high on the world’s steepest street
Burnaby firefighter conquers New Zealand challenge on amazing journey inspired by cancer diagnosis
On the subject of struggle, “the hill” has always served as a most reliable metaphor. “Tough hill to climb” and all that. Rudy Pospisil knows struggle. It was 10 years ago that he received a cancer diagnosis. Prostate cancer. Since that time, Rudy has been on the most amazing journey — a trek around the world on the seat of a bicycle.
He’s not doing this as Rick Hansen travelled the globe, one long adventure from country to country, continent to continent. Instead, Rudy, a full-time Burnaby firefighter, accumulates holidays, banks time, etc., then takes off with his bike for some destination on the planet. He pedals around for a couple months raising money for cancer research, then heads home.
To date, his bike tires have rolled through 18 countries. He’s closing in on 20,000 kilometres.
He phoned me Friday from outside Auckland, New Zealand, to talk about Baldwin Street in that country’s harbour city of Dunedin. Baldwin, you see, has a claim to fame. It’s in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s steepest street. Rudy thought it would be a bit of a cracker to give it a go — to cycle the 2,400-foot street that ascends 1,200 feet.
“As it turned out, that hill became a most significant event in my life,” he told me.
But I’m getting ahead of the story. Let’s go back a number of months.
Rudy was home in Burnaby earlier this year, planning his New Zealand trip, when he came across the legend of Baldwin. There appeared no official record for ascending the street on a bike, so he contacted Guinness, as well as Dunedin officials, to propose the notion of establishing a standard for the climb. Everyone was keen. “The closest thing we have to Baldwin in the Lower Mainland is Springer Street in Burnaby,” he told me. “I practised a lot climbing Springer. But when I got to Baldwin, I looked up and said: ‘Whoa, this is no Springer.’ ”
In fact, the only thing that prevents Baldwin from qualifying as a cliff is that cars are allowed to park on it.
“They had to pave it with concrete because the asphalt would just run down the road,” he said.
On the day of his climb, he got up at 6 a.m. to give it a go without all the attendant fanfare expected later in the day when city officials, local firefighters, tourists and the good people of Dunedin planned to celebrate his accomplishment.
“It was so steep, during my practice runs, the front wheel kept popping in the air whenever I sat back on my seat.”
When the time came for the official attempt, about 150 people showed up to witness the ride.
“Going up the hill, I knew I would start to feel the lactic acid burn,” he said.
“It really started getting to me three-quarters of the way up. But that’s not what stopped me. My front wheel came off the ground again, and my foot touched the ground. I thought to myself, ‘Well, that’s it,” and everyone who was there was going, ‘Aw, jeez.’
“There was a lot of pressure. Now I kind of know how professional athletes feel when they’re playing in front of a crowd of supporters.”
Rudy walked with his bike to the top of Baldwin, then thought to himself: “Hold on a second.” He cycled back to the bottom. Going down Baldwin on a bike, I can only imagine, is what puts the “weeeeee” in Kiwi.
“I got myself together, then told the officials I wanted to try again. All the bike people I consulted ... said, ‘Rudy, you can’t make it straight up. You have to zigzag. It’s too steep to go straight up.’ But I didn’t want to zigzag. I wanted a fast time.”
At that point, the Burnaby firefighter called upon his inner Joe Strummer and declared to himself that “Rudy Can’t Fail.”
“I stood up on my bike and started giving it everything I had. The local firefighters put their sirens on knowing it would encourage me. The crowd started yelling, ‘Rudy, Rudy, Rudy.’ Just like in that movie. I had to make it. Fifty metres left. Forty metres left. I made it over the crest and the guys (firefighters) just caught me as I collapsed.”
The world record was set: three minutes and 49.25 seconds.
“Wayne, it was probably the happiest moment of my life.”
Happy moments are needed in Rudy’s life today. Recently, a blood test in New Zealand indicated cancer of some kind has likely returned. The story of Rudy Pospisil starts to bear an eerie resemblance to the story of Terry Fox, his hero.
“I’m going to finish the ride — New Zealand tip to tip — then come home for some more tests,” he said.
“The hill” has always served as a most reliable metaphor. Rudy has a new one to climb. I wish him well.