Cycling for medical cannabis research
Sports activities and good causes are a popular match. The most famous example is Alpe d'Huez in France, in which six amateur cyclists cycle up the infamous Alpencol Alpe d'Huez to raise money for cancer research. Suffering to ease the suffering of others. Two cannabis-loving cyclists came up with the bright idea of applying a similar concept to medical cannabis. This resulted in the first three-day Medical Cannabis Bike Tour, held in late April during the GrowMed cannabis fair in Spain. The birth of a glorious cycling tradition.
Sports activities and good causes are a popular match. The most famous example is Alpe d'Huez in France, in which six amateur cyclists cycle up the infamous Alpencol Alpe d'Huez to raise money for cancer research. Suffering to ease the suffering of others. Two cannabis-loving cyclists came up with the bright idea of applying a similar concept to medical cannabis. This resulted in the first three-day Medical Cannabis Bike Tour, held in late April during the GrowMed cannabis fair in Spain. The birth of a glorious cycling tradition.
Sports activities and good causes are a popular match. The most famous example is Alpe d'Huez in France, in which six amateur cyclists cycle up the infamous Alpencol Alpe d’Huez to raise money for cancer research. Suffering to ease the suffering of others. Two cannabis-loving cyclists came up with the bright idea of applying a similar concept to medical cannabis. This resulted in the first three-day Medical Cannabis Bike Tour, held in late April during the GrowMed cannabis fair in Spain. The birth of a glorious cycling tradition.
The pilot edition of the Medical Cannabis Bike Tour began very modestly, with only two participants, who also happened to be the only sponsors. Matej from the Slovenian rolling paper producer Snail played the role of leader, while Paradise Seeds frontman Luc was just happy to - even at a great distance - keep up. You might expect the director of a successful seed company to ride a flashy ultra-light carbon road bike, but you would have been in for a surprise. The Paradise frontman did not even ride a racing bicycle, but rather something that could best be described as a leisure bike. A decrepit Gazelle from the eighties, which he purchased for 50 Euros. “The saddle was more expensive than the whole bike!” Laughs Luc. As a relative beginner Luc hardly knew what he had gotten himself into. He claimed to have “trained a lot” at home. As it turned out, an hour of cycling a few times a week in the flat area around his home was not the ideal preparation for covering a distance of 400 km in three days. Certainly not in Spain, where it is often sweltering in April and where a flat surface is virtually impossible to find. To say that Luc struggled is an understatement: it was torture. Team-mate Matej was better prepared, and even added on a 170 km trek to Alicante the day after the tour. It was not the dreaded Spanish hillsides that almost wiped out the men, because there were few on the flat route along the coast. Luc: “We had a not inconsiderable amount of opposing wind for 400 km. It blew so hard that crests formed on the sea, we later heard that it had been force five. After 100 kilometres I wanted to get off, I was so exhausted.” But, as for the participants in Alpe d’Huez, giving up is not an option in the Medical Cannabis Bike Tour.
Cannabis shirt advertising
Despite the suffering, the adventure left them wanting more. Luc: “Next year we want to organise another tour, we are aiming for forty participants. Many people have already pledged that they want to participate, so there is clearly plenty of interest ...”
The purpose of the tour is to raise money for research into the efficacy of cannabis in the treatment of cancer. To find a suitable project for this, the IACM (International Association for Cannabinoid Medicines) was contacted. Nothing is yet fixed, but Luc’s imagination is already running at full speed. “One idea is the possibility of getting sponsors to pay per kilometre. The more riders participating, the higher the amount raised. Participants will wear shirt advertising with the names of the sponsors, and we may even put a cannabis leaf on our helmet. This way people can see that cannabis users are not just apathetic people sitting at home smoking a joint, but also stand for something."
It is incidentally not the intention of the Medical Cannabis Bike Tour to pin itself down to Spain. “As far as location is concerned all possibilities remain open. The intention is however for the tour to coincide with a cannabis fair somewhere in Europe.” The website that will soon go online will keep you informed of all options and plans.
Luc can already picture it. “In all the villages along the route there are people cheering by the roadside. There are motorcycle escorts and a helicopter, and of course the police will close off the roads for us.” Like a true cyclist, Luc declines to answer the inevitable question of whether doping will lead to a distortion of competition at this tour. “What do you think?” he asks with a sly grin.
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