The 2026 Navy Bike Ride will be a special one for Craig Ross of Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia, for several reasons.
This will be Craig’s second Navy Bike Ride, and he has signed up for three separate events this June as a personal challenge to help mark a significant anniversary in his Navy career and to honour his shipmates.
Craig says he had been aware of the Navy Bike Ride for some time, but 2025 was the first year he participated, following encouragement from a friend and fellow Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) Veteran.
“As an endurance cyclist and a Navy Veteran, it felt like the right intersection of my career and sport,” he said.
This year, Craig is “leaning in” to the Navy Bike Ride because of the personal significance of 2026 as the 25th anniversary of his two deployments with HMCS Charlottetown in 2001 – Operation AUGMENTATION from January to July 2001, which was Canada’s participation in the coalition fleet enforcing United Nations sanctions against Iraq in the Persian Gulf, and Operation APOLLO from October 2001 to March 2002, in support of the U.S.-led Campaign Against Terrorism in South-West Asia following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
“I’m riding to honour the shipmates who I sailed with on those two deployments, the sailors and aircrew who did the work quietly, without fanfare, through some very uncertain months,” says Craig. “The person who stands out the most to me is my late friend, Kirk Noel. Kirk and I were NCIOPs [Naval Combat Information Operators] on the same watch during Op APOLLO, and he went on to become a SAR Tech [Search and Rescue Technician]. He was killed in the crash of Tusker 914 off Canso in July 2006. Kirk was a good friend and an incredible person.”
This June, Craig will be doing the in-person 37K Ride in Halifax “for the camaraderie,” a 120-kilometre solo ride to Chester, Nova Scotia, and back for the virtual Admiral’s Ride “to reflect the mental and physical challenge of a deployment,” and the 520K Protecteur cumulative distance challenge virtually “to represent the resilience required for a long career in the Canadian Armed Forces.”
Craig says he came up with the idea to complete his Navy Bike Ride “Triple Crown” because he prefers “Type 2 fun,” and “a single ride felt insufficient when marking such a pivotal anniversary.”
Craig spent the first 12 years of his career in the RCN.
He joined the Naval Reserve as an NCIOP in 1995. After a few years of sailing on Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels, he decided to make a career out of the Navy, so he component-transferred to the Regular Force in 1999.
“By 2007, I realized the path I wanted my career to take required a different direction, leading to a transition that eventually saw me medically retire as a CBRN [Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear] Operator in 2019 after 24 years of total service,” he said.
Service is a family tradition for Craig, whose uncle served in the RCN in the 1970s.
“When a Naval Reserve unit recommissioned in my hometown in the mid-90s just as I was finishing high school, joining with a group of friends felt like the right move,” he said.
As he looks ahead to June, Craig says he is thinking a lot about logistics, pacing and pain management.
“In endurance riding, if you’re getting emotional or over-excited, you’re burning energy you’ll need later,” he said. “I focus on the things I can control – like food and water intake and how hard I’m turning the pedals. Allowing negative thoughts and self-doubt into the headspace can quickly derail an endurance effort. I find staying present within the immediate effort is the mental key to success.”
Living on the Atlantic coast, Craig says winter is always a big factor when it comes to planning training. Ice and snow forces most of his riding onto the indoor trainer by early January.
“My indoor rides are a mixture of intervals and endurance rides, mixed with stretching and strength training,” he said. “I’ve got some injuries from my career that have necessitated adaptations to my training.”
Craig is currently transitioning back to outdoor riding. He will be racing a 24-hour mountain bike relay on a team with other Veterans at the end of June as well, and that is his current training focus.
“My training will be a mix of high-intensity mountain bike rides and spending my weekends seeking out the wettest, most brutal gravel riding Nova Scotia has to offer,” he said. “I’ll also be including regular strength and flexibility sessions to maintain durability.”
For this year’s Navy Bike Ride, Craig is not only pushing himself physically, but also making the effort to raise money for the Navalis Foundation, Support Our Troops and Soldier On.
“I’ve seen the great work that Support our Troops and the Navalis Foundation do, and I’ve experienced firsthand the benefits of participating in Soldier On events,” he said. “These organizations do great work, and fundraising helps them do that work.”
We are so grateful Craig chose to ride and fundraise with us, and we can’t wait to cheer him on in June!
