Today was the first day of the tour and it started early, we rode from our hotel at 5.00am to breakfast and then onto the Channel 7 studios to feature on the Sunrise program.

Todays ride was really great over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and onto Terrigal for the night.

Have a look at this video of the day.

Day 1 Tour de Cure from Paul Egan on Vimeo.

Here is a photo with a couple of the girls at the channel 7 launch

Well its the night before I start the biggest challenge of  my life. If you had told me last year that I would be riding 1400km in 10 days I would have said that you were crazy !!

But when you set a goal you need to go for it !!

My goal of riding the tour is about to come to fruition. My goal to raise $10,000 has well and truly come to fruition thanks to you and the tour has nearly raised the majic $1 million dollars.

But tomorrow sees a new challenge in my goal. Tomorrow we will see if the training will pay off and we will start the epic journey back to the sunshine coast.

I have to admit to being a bit nervous and a bit excited.

I will keep you posted on how I go.

Paul

Here is a photo of the kids farewelling me .

Well here I am, one more sleep and tomorrow I am flying to Sydney to join the other riders for the Tour de Cure. Then the next day (Friday). The big ride begins. Dont forget to watch us on Channel 7 on the Sunrise show to see us set off.

I have to say that I am a little bit excited and a little bit apprehensive!

I know its going to hurt but not as much as suffering cancer.

I will keep everybody posted on my progress via the blog. Make sure you keep checking and send me some encouragement !!

Paul

This weekend I feel like I am cramming for an exam, or on the Biggest Loser “Last chance training” where you go as hard as you can to get that last little bit of training before the big weigh in !

This weekend I have done 440km on the bike. (Thats nearly 15 hours on the bike)

Saturday I did a river loop (80km round trip from home )
Sunday we did O’Reillys return (210km round trip)
Monday we went from Brisbane to Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast (150km return)

Sitting here I can tell you that every part of my body hurts !
My bum hurts
My Back aches
and my legs are very second hand !!

Thats the last of the full on training though as now we are officially in Taper mode. That means that the longest ride from now on in is about 40 – 60 Km.

Im getting a bit excited and a bit nervous as well. Excited as its just over a week away until we start and nervous thinking of the big big ride I am about to do.

Here is the data from my computer from the O’Reillys Ride. The climb up to O’Reillys is about 30km. Check out the heart rate while I am climbing up the hill.

A big thank you to the Lions Club of Sunnybank for donating $1000 to the Tour de Cure appeal.  I attended the opening of their fund raiser “The best little art show” last Friday to accept the donation.

Have a look at the video below of the art and my acceptance speech.

With only a bit over three weeks to go the pressure is on to get with the bike riders look.

That means

WAX or SHAVE your legs !!

I dont think I’m up for that but let me know what I should do ??

Send me an email at paul@mytourdecure.com.au and let me know.

WOW its less than 4 weeks to go till we are on the road in the 2010 Tour. I have nearly reached my target of $10,000 raised so I am looking forward to getting to that milestone.

The training is going well. This week I did 650km which is my biggest yet.

Yesterday a group of Tour de Cure guys did a 240 km ride from Brisbane to the border and back. It was a great ride but very hot !!

Here is the video.

Have a look at this video.

Its of a very foggy ride up Mt Nebo.

This week has been a big one. I have reached a couple of milestones in my training.

This week has been the biggest training week that I have had, covering a total of 561 km from Monday to Sunday.

If you had told me just a few short months ago that I would be training over 500 km a week on a bicycle I would have said that you were crazy.

The other milestone was that I did my biggest ever ride covering 220km from Brisbane city to Mt Lamington National park and O’Reilly’s Guesthouse (220km including a 30km climb into the mountains!)

Have a look at the video.

This mornings ride was supposed to be a two hour ride up Mt Nebo and back.

Have a look at the video and see why things dont always go to plan