Take Off That Hat!

This is the year that the RONA MS Bike Tour from Grand Bend to London could be the largest in all of Canada! And if it is, Lori Anne McNulty can finally take off the cowboy hat that she’s been wearing at every bike tour since 2006. But wait! You haven’t heard the story of Lori Anne and her Western headwear? Let me tell you!

The RONA MS Bike Tour from Leduc to Camrose had 1,906 riders on June 11 and 12 and the Grand Bend to London tour is nearing 1,800 and growing. Register your friends! Register your neighbors! Grow your team so Lori Anne will take off that hat!

The RONA MS Bike Tour from Leduc to Camrose in Alberta, the largest bike tour in Canada, used to double and triple the number of participants that the Grand Bend to London tour registered. That is until 2005 when our tour gave the Albertan tour a run for their money. These two mega-tours have been competing ever since!

It was around this time that the hat made its first appearance.

In 2006, Lori Anne McNulty, the Senior Manager and National Advisor at the MS Society, put on a cowboy hat, a symbolic reference to the Albertan cowboys that were beating our tour (which also conveniently shaded her eyes). The promise? The year that the Grand Bend to London tour surpassed the Leduc to Camrose tour, she would take off that hat!

The Grand Bend to London tour has continued to trail the Leduc to Camrose tour, but each year it gets closer and closer and in 2009, it was only 75 participants away from surpassing the Albertan tour!

Could this be the year?