One Drayton man completing the 40 km ride during the DV100 will be doing things a bit differently than everyone else.
Nicholas Arnold is wheelchair basketball player who has spastic diaplegic cerebral palsy. Essentially, Arnold’s brain cannot communicate with his legs. His legs can hold his weight, but they do not move.
“My messages [from my brain] just don’t get received,” says Arnold.
For the bike race, Arnold says he had to get creative. “I had a bunch of people devote their time and help me get to where I am,” he says.
In the DV100, Arnold will be using a hand cycle to get through the race. This is a bike that’s designed to be propelled using the strength of the arms rather than the legs. “It’s exactly what it sounds like it is. It’s a bike, but it’s controlled by your hands, not your feet,” he says.
The design is a bit different. There are three wheels instead of two, and it’s lower to the ground. Arnold says this makes it a bit more aero-dynamic.
The bike itself is quite expensive, says Arnold. He’s grateful for the help he was able to receive from the Drayton Valley Community Foundation.
“It’s a bike that does retail for around $10,000,” says Arnold.
Arnold is no rookie when it comes to sports. Before the pandemic he played basketball, but during the lockdowns and restrictions when he couldn’t play ball, he decided he wanted to try something new.
“I just decided to contact the DV100 and throw myself face and eyes into it,” he says.
The thing that makes Arnold’s training different from the other athletes participating in the race is the recovery time he has to take between workouts.
He says that an able-bodied person’s legs are used to carrying their weight around all day just with day-to-day tasks. But his arms aren’t designed to move his weight around.
“For me, when I’m pushing a wheelchair or pushing the bike, it’s very strenuous on the traps and the shoulders,” he says.
“I spend two to three hours a night just on recovery. If I don’t recover, my arms just aren’t going to be able to take it,” he says.
His recovery includes stretching, resting, and hot and cold treatment. For his hot and cold, he says he purchases ice at the grocery store and fills his tub half way with it. Then he sits in the cold water for about twenty minutes before having a hot shower. “It contracts my muscles and then expands them so they’re loose,” says Arnold.
He says this kind of recovery really helps his back muscles and hamstrings as well, as they tend to get tight after a workout.
Arnold says he’s done a 40 km ride already, and plans to do one more before the race.
Normally, Arnold has a team of people to help him train. He says Chris Walsh and Mike Ferrey have been huge supporters for him. “I’ve had countless people spend countless hours to help me out,” says Arnold.
“There’s a crew of about six people that help me train,” he says. “It’s awesome to see. It’s amazing to see the community working so hard to help someone like myself out.”
Arnold says he’s going to try to participate in the DV100 again next year, but it depends on the schedule for his basketball team. Right after the race he has Team Alberta Selection Camp, which is the team that will go to the Canada Games in PEI in 2023.
