Shim's Weekend: We Grilled. We Raced. We Raised.
BBQ Friday. Grand Prix Saturday. Here's what happened.
Thanks for Showing Up
Shim's weekend happened in Vancouver. If you were there, you know how it went. If you weren't, this is the catch-up.
Underneath the smoke and the spandex, the weekend exists for one reason. Every dollar goes to Praxis Spinal Cord Institute. That part doesn't get a joke. Everything else does.
FRIDAY: THE BBQ
No ceremony. No ribbon cutting. A parking lot, some grills that had seen a season or two, and a crowd that showed up before the smoke did.
People stood around in kit they hadn't washed since the last group ride. Someone's dog wore a bandana. The line for food was long enough that you had time to talk to the person next to you, which might be the whole point of a pre-race BBQ.
What Friday Actually Delivered:
- Food that didn't taste like "event" catering, someone was actually working the grill.
- A crowd that skewed more here for the vibe than here to carb-load.
- Zero pressure, all the pre-race chatter you'd want.
By the time people started drifting home, the mood was set for the next day. Nobody left early.
SATURDAY: GRAND PRIX + M2M ROAD MILE
Race day. The criterium ran through its usual four corners; the M2M Road Mile ran alongside it. Jonathan Rogers Park spent the day doing double duty, race course and block party.
Bells on the final lap. People leaning over the barriers yelling names. Kids on the grass losing their minds every time the pack came through. Smiles everywhere, including on riders who'd just gotten shelled off the back of their group.
Two Bici Squadra riders on the men's podium. We're not going to pretend we're not proud of it.
Beyond the sheet: the fields were deep, the racing was aggressive from the gun, and the crowd noise on the final corner did what crowd noise on a final corner is supposed to do.
M2M Road Mile results and the full breakdown across every category are below.
The Reason We Do This
Here's where we stop joking for a second.
The event is named after a person. Mathew Szymanowski, Shim, raced at the national level before switching to bikes and working the floor at Oak Bay Bikes. In August 2019, he was hit by a vehicle while riding and sustained a C5 spinal cord injury.
His friends rode 520 km from Port Hardy to Victoria and raised $85,000, money that funded the epidural stimulation therapy he still uses daily.
Shim's Ride has run every year since. It now raises money for Praxis Spinal Cord Institute, the organization behind that same kind of research.
If you couldn't make it this weekend and still want in, the donation page doesn't close when the race does.
Still Got Kit.
SHIMSMART
The SHIMSMART kit drop is still live. If you want a piece of the weekend that isn't just a memory, it's still there.
