Club founder on the road at 85
Roy Conway tries to get on his bike every day of the riding season
WATERLOO — Racing cyclist Roy Conway has had some terrible spills, earning him the nickname “Crash Conway.”
He has broken an arm and fingers, mangled his knees and once suffered road burn to 80 per cent of his body.
But there’s a reason why the 85-year-old continues to cycle at least 40 kilometres a day — his sport may have saved his life.
In 2013, he suffered a ruptured aorta, unconnected to cycling. He had seven-hour emergency heart surgery.
“The doctors gave me a 10 per cent chance,” he said Saturday at his Waterloo home. “When I did survive, they said it’s because you’re so healthy. Being healthy saved my life.”
Today, Conway looks superfit without an ounce of fat.
Although not one to focus on crashes, his memories remain vivid. One five years ago stands out.
“It was just beyond St. Agatha, and I was in a race and there was three of us riding together and a big group coming up behind,” Conway said. “The big group caught us.
“One of the guys in the big group swerved over, hit the guy in front of me. Both of them crashed. I hit his bike, the guy that caused the crash went over the top and landed on my face. I was really mashed up. It was a mess.” He also broke two fingers and a thumb. His wife, Mary Lou Conway, remembers it well.
The doctors gave me a 10 per cent chance. When I did survive, they said it’s because you’re so healthy. Being healthy saved my life. ROY CONWAY, 85-YEAR-OLD CYCLIST
“When I came up to see him in emergency, covered in blood, the first thing he said to me was, ‘I could have won that race.’”
There was another bad crash in 1993 in Quebec.
“I was doing maybe 65 km/h downhill. There was a pothole in the road, an unmarked pothole. I just went over the top and landed on the gravel shoulder and I was ripped head to toe. Smashed my knee, broke my thumb and broke my arm, but it wasn’t that bad.”
Then there was the one in Woodstock in 1987. He “bit through his tongue” and couldn’t eat or talk for two weeks, Mary Lou said.
“Ya, biting through my tongue was quite painful. I remember the circumstances. Final lap and one of the guys jumped to the sprint with two corners to go. I went with him and on the last corner, he slid out and I just hit him and went over the top, landed on my head and bit through my tongue.”
His tongue looked “like chopped black liver,” Mary Lou said.
“Crashing is part of the sport,” Conway said. “I don’t know any cyclist that’s competing that hasn’t had a crash or two or three or four.
“I don’t think I’m crash-prone. I ride carefully. And most of the crashes have not been my fault. It’s been somebody else or road conditions, nothing to do with anything I’ve done. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Conway is asked about motorists.
“I don’t like to discuss that because a lot of guys have a lot more trouble than I do,” he said. “Maybe they’re a little more careless, I don’t know, but some guys on Facebook, they’re reporting incidents almost every day with vehicles. I have had very few incidents with vehicles.”
A car made contact with him a few years ago.
“I think the guy was on his cellphone and I was in the bike lane. He crossed into the bike lane and hit my elbow with his side mirror. I got a big bruise on my elbow, but I didn’t fall and he stopped and he called police. I think he was charged.”
Many motorists get too close to cyclists in bike lanes, he said. They are supposed to get no closer than one metre.
“Half a metre is OK,” Conway said. “Anything less than that you can almost feel them brushing the hair on your arms.”
Another pet peeve? Bike lanes are not connected.
“Beautiful bike lane all the way down Fischer-Hallman, but make a right turn to come up Erb Street, no bike lane. There’s nothing until you get up to the Wilmot Line.”
Conway began competitive cycling at age 17 when he lived in England. He took a 14-year break while raising his family in Canada but got right back into in 1967. That same year, he founded the Waterloo Cycling Club. The club marked its 50th anniversary this year and named a trophy after Conway.
He also helped found the Ontario Masters Cycling Association. He raced with the Ontario Cycling Association for many years and often reached the podium in provincial championships.
Earlier this month he rode in the Cambridge Tour de Grand, doing the 60-km loop.
He figures he has cycled close to 300,000 kilometres, the equivalent of more than seven times around the planet.
Conway, an engineer at Raytheon Canada in Waterloo before retiring at age 62, cycles most days during spring, summer and fall.
“If something else is a top priority, I give it a rest,” Conway said.
“There isn’t anything else that is top priority,” Mary Lou said. “When it rains, he’s like a little kid with his nose against the window: ‘I can’t go out and ride my bike.’”
Conway still enjoys “pushing the limit.” “I ride with a Garmin, which is a GPS, and I come home and I analyze my performance during the day. It’s like competing against yourself. ‘I had a good ride yesterday — let’s see what I can do today.’” His average speed is 26 km/h. “Yesterday I was out and I averaged 57 km/h, but downhill with the wind. I wasn’t really pushing it. ”
He owns two bikes, a carbon Merckx and an aluminum Masi. They’re not cheap.
“The average road bike that the guys here are riding probably go for 6,000 or 7,000 bucks, but you can go up to $25,000, $30,000.” His wife does not cycle. “I’m a gym girl,” she said. “I’m too afraid of traffic.”
What does she say about her husband?
“He is a really amazing guy. He’s my bulletproof Superman.”