Simon Perreault won't be able to defend his title at the Caledonia Loppet at the Otway Nordic Centre on Sunday.
The newcomer to Prince George made a splash on the outdoor sporting scene in 2011 when he won the 30-kilometre overall event, edging out a pair of teenagers, before taking the top spot in the P.G. Cycling Club competition. But his good fortune took a wrong turn in October as he was starting to train for the cross-country ski season.
"It was really unexpected," said Perreault from Vancouver where he's a patient at the Canadian Cancer Society's Jean C. Barber Lodge. "When I went to the hospital I just expected to get some antibiotics and they ended up telling me I had leukemia."
The 40 year old was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia, which is a type of cancer that starts in the cells that form red blood cells. He's awaiting a stem-cell transplant in mid-March from his brother.
Perreault, who finished last year's loppet in one hour, 40 minutes and 29 seconds, has undergone chemotherapy this winter and the only outdoor training his doctors allow him to do is go for three- or -four-hour walks when it's not raining in Vancouver.
"Not being able to train, that's the hardest part," said the recreational athlete, who settled in Prince George after completing a cross-Canada bike trip from Quebec City. "In the evening normally I don't have a problem figuring out what to do, but with cancer they told me, well you cannot do anything - even when I feel good I'm still not allowed to train; they say it'll be a very bad idea. It makes for a very long evening."
He said after the tough competition he received from teenagers Will Andal and Arthur Roots, second and third overall at the 2011 Caledonia Loppet, he expects with another year of training under their belts they'll be tough to beat.
The Caledonia Loppet is also the second stage in the ultimate endurance athlete, which includes completion of the solo Prince George Iceman, the loppet, the Prince George triathlon, the Otway Challenge and the Mad Moose Marathon. Ryan McMaster won the inaugural endurance athlete title in 2011 with the lowest-accumulative overall times.
Perreault said though he's made friends at the lodge it's nice when his cycling friends like Matt Thomson from Prince George can get down to Vancouver.
"There's no other athletes here but I've still kind of made some friends, but there's nobody here that can understand how I feel about the whole thing," he said. "It's nice to get visitors."
Perreault said right now it appears he'll be discharged in late June and he cannot wait to get back to Prince George to reunite with friends and, hopefully, train for the cross-country ski season next year.
"I don't think they will allow me to do any intense training or racing for a little while," he said. "I'm still hoping that I could race on cross-country skis next winter, but I don't think I'll be able to race on bikes unfortunately.
"It's never been a chore for me to train, it's something I've always done because I liked it," said Perreault. "I plan to keep on training until I die."
