Here is the Channel 7 wrap up from the ride

Tour de Cure Route: Bendigo to Melbourne
Distance: 156km
Ascent: 884m
Total Distance So Far: 1400km
Total Ascent so far 12200m

Wow, what a day.

Everybody had a feeling of excitement, like we were finally going to reach a dream. A dream that we have held close to us for a long time. A dream that we had to work long and hard to achieve. Something that we had to plan and strive for. Dollar by dollar, kilometre by kilometre finally it was all coming to fruition.

There was a little apprehension when we went to bed last night as it was raining. Not a little rain but heavy. It would be a shame after such a great run with the weather if the last day was a bit wet and uncomfortable but it would not stop us fulfilling our dream to raise a lot of money and ride like we have never ridden before.

Let’s face it the ride wasn’t just any ride. It was a ride that made us all nervous when we thought about it. It was a ride that you wouldn’t think of doing by yourself. Even our riding buddies thought we were a bit crazy and as for the general public, well they were just in awe that someone could do such a ride.

As we rode out of our motel in Bendigo it was a bit cold and it was spitting very lightly. It was 5.30am as we rode through the beautiful old streets built from the gold rush so long ago.. An eerie quite fell over the group as we all reflected on what the last nine days had meant to us and what was to come when we reached Melbourne.

Our luck was in and the rain was staying away and as we rode along the sun started to rise the normal chatter within the group had returned and you could tell that everybody was starting to think about getting to Melbourne.

We were on a tight schedule today so we were changing the lead often and setting a great pace.. The terrain was quite undulating, but the rolling hills create a great feeling of achievement as you use your momentum to get to the top.

I was riding second wheel for the first 30km or so and when the front boys wheeled off we gave them a bit of stick because they had left the front just as we were climbing up a few hills. The bonus of that was that after the hills there were some wonderful downhill rolling bits.

Nick and I smashed this bit out and I felt as good as I had for the whole ride so I was really excited (but stuffed) as I relinquished the front.

As we neared Woodend Wayne Banks, with much amusement and heckling from the peloton, set a new Tour record for the quickest roll off from the front of the peloton holding it for a stunning 23 seconds.

As we stopped at a Woodend for a quick refuel the spirits were high. We were only a few hours from our destination and the sun had started to peak through the clouds. What we didn’t know was that the next bit of riding was going to be as good as it gets on the open road.

As we left Woodened we snaked around for a bit and ended up on the Calder Highway. The tarmac was smooth and there was a great downhill run for about 30 km. The guys on the front were hitting it hard and that meant that we were reaching speeds up to 65km/h along the highway!

It’s a wonderful feeling sitting in a peloton in a little balloon rolling along shielded by the guys in front of you, not peddling very much to keep on the wheel in front of you but doing a great speed.

We crested a rise and saw the skyscrapers of the Melbourne CBD at the same time as we saw the sign that said “Welcome to Melbourne” The cheers and yelps of the excited riders began and lasted a good minute as we rolled on. Now we were really excited.

Our support crew were really working overtime to protect us from the traffic. Putting themselves in front of the traffic and stopping the cars, protecting us from harm.

When we exited the highway we took to the back streets and through the suburbs for the last 30km. negotiating the tram tracks was something that most of us were not used to and we took it really carefully when the call came back “TRAM TRACKS”

Soon we were within sight of the MCG and when we arrived a roar went up from the riders and support staff alike. Everybody spontaneously started giving each other high fives and I have never seen so many man hugs in one place in a while!

Finally after 1400 km, and 10 gruelling days of riding we had achieved what we had set out to do, we had achieved what we had been training for for months and months. We had reached Melbourne.

After a brief appearance in the MCG by Mark Beretta, Gary Bertwistle and Dougie Walters we were off to meet our family and friends. As we arrived at the park where our loved ones were waiting everybody spontaneously broke into applause. Our ride was done but the celebration had just begun. What a great feeling to meet our families and share our excitement and feelings about the ride. It had been 10 long days since we had spent time with them and we were so happy to see their smiling faces again.

Soon the celebration had moved to the Crown Casino where David Lowe and Grant Evans presided over the festivities. With the humour that only Evo could get away with the night was a wonderful retrospective on the past 10 days and the history of the Tour de Cure.

Our board also awarded category jerseys for the entire Tour this year. They went to

Michael Hadj – Focus
Michael McAuliffe – Inspiraton
Reid Meldrum – Attitude
Grant Evans – Guts
Danny Moore / Dan Miles – Doer
Josh McBride –Thinker

Also awarded a special board award were Ian Salmon and Garrick Transell

Over the last 10 days I have told you about our ride, about our physical challenge. What I haven’t told you about is the emotional journey that the whole team has also taken.

I haven’t told you about how our collective hearts were broken when Michael McAuliffe told us about his son Conner and how cancer took him away from his family. How his daughter lifted our spirits when she gave an impromptu speech and urged us to “Never stop Tour de Cure”.I haven’t told you about our excitement when our dear support person Cora told us about how she had breast cancer and is beating it or how some of our riders were living with cancer and how others were overcoming it.

Our spirits were also lifted every day by a thousand other stories from the public. Stories about their bravery, their hopes and losses. They were stories about survival and loss, triumph and despair.

Some of these stories made our hearts break but most made our spirits soar.

Each of the riders and support staff has their own story about why they have completed this ride. As we have shared our stories with each other we have grown stronger and closer. Our sense of resolve has grown.

What is amazing is that a group of people have come together from all walks of life sharing a common purpose, sharing our stories and building a bond that can’t be broken. One of mateship, of working together on a common cause but also working with a sense hope that what we have done will mean less suffering and death and that what we have done will one day lead us to a cure for cancer.

Here is todays video

Here is todays Garmin readout. Its not quite all there as my battery run out !!

Route: Shepparton to Bendigo
Distance: 130km
Ascent: 316m
Total Distance So Far: 1244km
Total Ascent so far 11316m

This morning was shaping up as a great day. 120km of flat country, a Sunday morning coffee ride, a walk in the park for the Tour riders and guests that we had joining us today, but……. add the wind to that and it adds a little extra that wasn’t expected.

We had a relatively late start at 7.00am rollout and we travelled down to the local Shepparton Harvey Norman who has raised many thousands of dollars for the Tour this year.

The channel seven boys were on the job early and had setup for the one and only Saturday morning cross of the day.

The guest riders were milling around the breakfast table and you could tell that they were a bit excited at the prospect of riding with us on one of our final legs of 2011.

The day was looking like a great one, everybody was scrambling to put on some sun screen to make sure that we didn’t get sunburnt as there have been a few red patches on some people in the last week.

We rolled out in three pelotons today as we were joined by a number of guest riders some of whom had done an earlier guest rider day as well. As we left there was chatter around the group that perhaps we would get a nice tail wind today to make us smile.

We were privileged to have a special guest rider along with us today. It was the newly crowned keirin world champion Shane Perkins. He was kept very busy with questions and photos and all the riders were especially impressed by his huge thighs. Shane did let us know that riding 120km though was not on his training agenda and confessed that the longest that he had ridden was 80km in the lead up the world championships. This made us feel a lot less pressure and the guys were joking that he was only good for 800 meters anyway so we should be able to take him at the 100km mark!

The first stint was beautiful, a calm day, no wind to speak of and straight straight roads. We took it out gently to warm up and to get the guest riders into the grove of riding with us. The miles seemed to fall away and as we neared our first stop we pushed the speed up a bit to around 40km/h to get the blood running! Soon we were having come coffee and muffins at our first stop.

As we got going into the second section of the day the wind decided to have rare its ugly head!

Not only was it strong but it was coming directly into our side which meant that you had to really concentrate not to get blown sideways as we were travelling along. We changed to single file for a while to make sure that we were not being blown into each other.

As we were travelling along a really funny thing happened. The whole road was turning and turning as millions of tumble weeds were being blown across in front of us. It was interesting to see whole drifts of tumbleweed against the fences and to get attached by these soft rolling masses trying to shoot across in front of us.

With persistence and a little help from some of the stronger riders on the front we finally made it to Bendigo.

The turnout in Bendigo was great, not only was there lots of supporters and families but they had decorated the foot path with encouragement drawn with chalk.

I could not believe that day nine was over. That we were on the edge of completing a dream. Something that we had focused on and trained for had nearly finished. As we ate our lunch our thoughts were turning to tomorrow, about getting to the MCG and then finally to Federation Square.

But there is one day to go and as I type this the rain is pouring down.

But rain wont stop us.

Tour de Cure was founded on a dream to cure cancer and in 2011 we have ridden with that dream in our hearts. If there is rain tomorrow so be it. People with cancer don’t get a choice, people that have lost loved ones don’t get a choice and people with dreams press on in rain, hail or sleet until their dream is completed.

We are so looking forward to reaching Melbourne tomorrow and look forward to seeing all our loved ones there to support us.

We have rode with a dream of curing cancer and to do that we had a dream to ride from Sydney to Melbourne.
 
 
Here is todays video
 

 
 
Here is todays Garmin readout
 

Route: Albury to Shepparton
Distance: 190km
Ascent: 219m
Total Distance So Far: 1114km
Total Ascent so far 11000m

Today’s ride was huge any day of the week but backing up from a 235km ride with a 190km just didn’t seem fair.  The consolation though was that the profile showed that the route was absolutely flat. There were no hills in sight so that was a welcome tonic for some really tired legs.

The day started with Mark Berettas morning crosses but this morning the turnout in Albury was a great one. The crowd seemed especially excited when they appeared on each cross.

Perhaps the highlight of the day today was the schools that we visited. Our first school for the day was the Albury Public School. As we arrived the students were totally pumped up to see us.

They had been really busy making signs and decorating the school but the crowning glory was the bicycles that each class had decorated.

The principle had promised the winning class a special treat so the competition was fierce. There were various design themes all with various combinations of steamers and cutouts but the winning model sported full racing wheels and spoilers with many positive affirmations about how to prevent cancer.

When the team judged the best bike there was a collective roar from the class that was responsible for the decoration of that bike and a collective groan from the classes that had missed out on their treat.

As we left the every student in the school formed a guard of honour and each of the cyclists rode along high fiving the students as they jostled for position in the throng. I am sure that these students will have an enduring memory of the day that the Tour de Cure cyclists visited their school and of the messages we delivered on the three ways to help prevent cancer.

1/ Eat Healthily

2/ Be Sun safe

3/ Be happy

After a few small unscheduled detours courtesy of some very suspect navigation we started rolling towards our destination. The guys on the front were really enjoying letting lose and keep the pace up around 40km/h which was not to the liking of some of the riders who were still hurting a bit from yesterday. Soon there was a call from the rear and on the radios to slow the pace but we still sat on a respectable 35km/h for that session.

Our next school was the Mulwala Public School who was as excited as the Albury students.  As we rode in we saw that they too had been busy decorating bikes and our arrival triggered a spontaneous mount up of all students on their bikes and a frenzied  15 minutes of chicken as all the students raced around a seemingly too small concrete area.

All the students are much switched on to our message and today was no exception. You can tell from the questions that the students are thinking about cancer and how they can prevent it.

Questions like, can you catch cancer, do you die from cancer and how many different types of cancer are there show us that the kids are thinking about the message that we are trying to instil in them.

We were making good progress and it was only slowed slightly with a stop at Rutherglen where another school presentation was delivered and a morning tea was devoured. This session was particularly hot so everybody was keen to fill the water bottles and refuel.

As the day progressed we were blessed with some lovely scenery including views of the beautiful Lake Mulwala.

Our beautiful lunch was sitting beside the Lake at Mulwala.

The second part of the day was a little less inspiring with flat roads and baron fields to look out at. By this time of the Tour everybody is starting to find sitting for long periods can be a bit of a problem and as we looked around the pack we could see everybody shifting in their seats and standing up to give the rear some welcome relief.

My butt was hurting like hell after today. I think I used a big tube of butt cream by myself today to try to get it back into condition for the last couple of days.

At our dinner tonight we were privileged to be joined by Shane Perkins, Australia’s newest world champion in the Kierin bicycle race. Shane won the World Championship only a week and a half ago but because of his family and friends brushes with cancer he has decided to ride in our guest day tomorrow.

Some of the boys are talking themselves up in an attempt to psyche him out but some of Shanes training stories have put them back in their place. Their only chance might be if they sit him out front for 100km and try to smash him with 20km from home!

At tonights dinner we presented a cheque to the National Breast Cancer Foundation for $5000 and this will go to training 6 support volunteers for the local community.

The jersey winners tonight were

Dean Coleman – Focus
Phil Gallant – Inspiraton
Stacey Williams – Attitude
Lisa Healey  – Guts
Grant Evans (EVO) – Doer
Sinclair Black –Thinker

Tomorrow we have the pleasure of sharing our ride with some guest riders. After meeting some of the riders today I can tell you that they are really excited to be riding with us.

Our route tomorrow takes us 120km from Shepparton to Bendigo.

Here is todays video

Here is todays Garmin readout

Route: Thredbo to Albury
Distance: 239km
Ascent: 3102m
Total Distance So Far: 924km
Total Ascent so far 10881m

If yesterdays ride was put down as one of the best in history then today’s ride was right up there again.

The day was going to be an epic one anyway if you looked at the stats. 237km with over 3500 meters climbing would challenge most riders.

It was a day of contrasts, from -3 degrees at Dead Horse Gap for breakfast this morning to 30 degrees as we travelled along this afternoon, from the mountains at Thredbo to the rolling pastures of the plains, from the mountain streams to the great Murray River and the huge Lake Hume, from the long ascents to the wonderful descents and from Sunrise to Sunset the whole day was magnificent.

The day started off at 5.00am when we exited our accommodation in the Thredbo Village. As we exited there was a collective gasp as the cold air hit our face and we felt our ears start to freeze!

Everybody was dressed for the conditions but even a combination of leg, arm and head warmers and big coats were no match for the freezing conditions.

To top things off there wasn’t the normal breakfast waiting for us when we rose. We had to do some work to get it this morning with a climb in the dark to the top of Dead Horse Gap.

This was the designated breakfast point today as it was the start of the decent down from the mountain. As we started the ride up the hill there were many groans and moans as the legs are a bit stiff in the morning and there was no chance to warm up before we were straight into the climb.

My legs were bloody killing me!! It was not the start to the day that I wanted but as I warmed up it wasnt so bad.

As we crested the hill we could see the welcome site of the Canadian Kitchen (our caterer) who had  a very welcome cooked breakfast for us.

As we stood around eating breakfast the cold was setting in and one of the Garmins (bike computers) read -3 degrees and you could feel the cold on every part of your body. We were fortunate that there was no wind and it was very still.

As the sun started to crest the mountains it seemed to get even colder and we found us all huddled together like penguins weathering a storm in the Antarctic.

When it was decided to start the decent we all moved into position and set off in ten rider pelotons for safety. When we started moving the chill was even worse and we could not feel our fingers and I am sure that I had frostbite on my nose!

The first decent seemed to go on forever and it was only briefly punctuated by a couple of rises that were welcomed if only to get some blood running again and warm up. It was 15km to the bottom of the hill and then it was on.

In our first session for the day we travelled 75 km and did 1500 meters climbing so you can imagine that given that we had already spent 6 days on the bike this was hard work. By this time some of the riders had already retired due to injury and fatigue but most of the pelotons were making great time.

The school that we visited at today only had 16 students with one teacher. Khancoban was once a thriving Snowy River Scheme town and the school had up to 120 students in its time but it was now reduced to a shadow of its former self. Pat Carpenter enjoyed a game of Aussi

e Rules with some of the students who took great pleasure in running around with him

After our visit we set off again. Our day was to be littered with lots of climbs of various lengths but all taking their toll on our bodies. The climbs were taken at a quite slow pace so as to allow all the rides to get up to the top in a comfortable way. Some of the steeper climbs were designated as “Climb at your own pace” so the peloton was spread out over a couple of hundred meters and regrouped up the top for the decent.

As we headed for lunch it was a welcome change that most of the terrain had changed to descending and we had a wonderful session of fast downhill running. This is Snowy River country and we were travelling along the river that feeds the iconic generators that pump out the power for millions of people.

When we arrived at lunch we were greeted by a wonderful couple who allowed us to use their front lawn for our lunch break.

These two were excited to have us as visitors and they were keen to let us know that they had been married for 61 years and lived in the same house for all that time.

As we finished our lunch all were contemplating that there was still a lot of miles to travel so we set off at a good pace. I am not sure what it is about this year’s tour but as often as we have had lunches we seem to be climbing right away after lunch. With full stomaches and cold legs it seems to be the worst time for a hill but we always seem to conquer them.

The  next part of the journey was one of the best for the day. As we headed for Albury we crossed the Murray River and for a few kilometres we would be in the state of Victoria. Once we were into Victoria we met up with the huge Hume Dam and travelled along the edge of the dam for good 20 or so kilometres.

The conditions on the lake were like glass and it was a welcome distraction from the tired legs to have such a majestic lake to ride with. The lake was full to the brim and one of the Victorians said that if we were a couple of months earlier it was down to just 7 percent capacity which would have been a sight in itself.

At the first opportunity we crossed over the top of the dam and headed back into NSW and on to Albury. As we were racing to get to our destination the sun was setting and it just beat us as we rolled in to the thunderous applause of our team mates who had finished the same gruelling journey just a few short minutes before.

Today’s ride was an epic journey, one that was sent to test our resolve and our strength but we rose above the pain and make one more step in our journey to our finale in Melbourne in a few days time.

At tonights dinner the following people were awarded catagory jerseys

Blair Martin – Focus

Garrick Transell – Inspiraton

Simon McCarroll – Attitude

Rebecca Snell – Guts

Kim Cummins – Doer

Owen Barnett –Thinker

Tomorrow we head south to Shepparton a journey of about 180km. Although this is a long way I think that our legs will be thankful that there is not much climbing to do!

Here is the days video
 
 

 
 
Here is todays Garmin readout  
 

Today was a magnificent day, in fact a veteran of 5 tours, David Lowe described today as one the best ever days on Tour!

The weather was magnificent, the scenery was brilliant and the riding was outstanding. Read on and I will go into more details.

This morning was quite chilly but as we exited the accommodation today you could tell the weather was going to be kind to us as the sky’s were clear and blue.

We had a short journey down to the local Cooma North Primary School where Mark Beretta did his morning routine much to the excitement of the local children whose families were most likely watching at home.

As we took off from the primary school every bodies minds turned to a special part of the tour that lets us off the hook and challenges us to “Just go fast”, the team time trial.

We traversed out about 20 kilometres to the starting point of our team time trial. The pace was quite slow as now that we are into day 5 the legs are starting to feel like lead the first thing in the morning! We were soon at the Cooma Airport where we formed up into our teams and set off individually for a 15km dash to the finish.

As each of the teams formed up there was a bit of nervous excitement. Was I going to keep up? Were we going to beat the other teams, I hope I don’t hold the big boys back!

As my team formed up we had a good mix of riders. As we got going we quickly formed into a tight line so that everyone could get the best draft as we went along. Soon we were into our rhythm and shooting along the road at over 40km an hour.  As the front rider bears the brunt of the wind we made sure that we changed the front rider as often as needed to maintain our momentum. Rebecca Snell the only female rider in our team was tucked nicely into the centre of the bunch to help to shield her and as we pushed to the finish everybody was really happy with our teams performance.

There was the usual sledging at the other teams form and disappointing results as they crossed the line and we will have to wait a couple of days till the drug tests come back to see who the real winners were.

With the distraction of the team time trial over for the day it was back to the task of the next 30km’s to Jindabyne.

As we all formed up into our pelotons again we didn’t really know what was ahead of us but we soon found a few hills that seemed to go on forever. After as much riding as we have done over the last few days some of these hills hurt big time but with the encouragement of all around us everybody got to the top.

This part of the ride for me was the most spectacular part of the whole Tour so far and as we crested a rise and saw Lake Jindabyne in the distance framed by the majestic mountains in the background my breath was taken away. The experience was completed when we stopped for morning tea right on the lake shore.

When morning tea was complete we went to a nearby primary school and our Cancer prevention message was expertly delivered by Danny Moore. The kids at all the schools that we have been to have been really excited to see us and it is great to impart a positive message to the eager students.

With only 30km to go the spirits in the group were high and it seemed to fly past. When we got to Thredbo we were greeted by a magnificent spread for lunch at the base of the snowfields.

As we were sitting eating we were privileged to be welcomed to Thredbo by Stuart Diver a name that was etched into Thredbo history on July 30, 1997 when his ski lodge fell down the mountain.

Stuart invited all the riders to go for a ride to the top of the mountain on the ski lift so everybody eagerly jumped on and went to the top. When we got there we were greeted by an absolutely brilliant view over the majestic mountains and valley that contains Thredbo.

At tonights dinner we were privileged to donate $5000 to the Cure the Future organisation

Jeff Coombes – Focus

Off Roadies – Inspiraton

Cora Zillich – Attitude

Leigh Hubner – Guts

Pat Carpenter – Doer

Ian Salmon –Thinker

Tomorrow we face the biggest day of the Tour this year. We are riding a massive 235 km between Thredbo and Albury with a huge 3102m of ascending so think of us at 5.00am when we roll out on the start of our journey rugged up the the hilt but ready for the challenge.
 
 
Here is my Video for the day

Here is my Garmin readout

Route: Canberra to Cooma
Distance: 115km
Ascent: 1112m
Total Distance So Far: 585km
Total Ascent so far 6328m

It was a 6.30am start today and we rolled out to the south of Canberra. As we were rolling along you could defiantly feel a bit of a chill in the air.

The guys were prepared though as most had rugged up with arm and leg warmers as well as jackets.

As we rolled along the imposing view of parliament house came into view and that is where we stopped for breakfast.

Having breakfast on the lawn in front of parliament house is one of those things that you might not ever do unless you were part of this wonderful ride so we all soaked up the atmosphere.

As breakfast drew to a close we joined a group of the local school children to do a couple of laps. We coined this ride – The ride of Nations which was led by Australian rowing team.

Today we were also joined by 15 guest riders one of which was of special note. Michael Milton joined us for our ride today. Michael is an exceptional athlete having won many medals at Olympic level and holds the current record for the fastest Australian speed skiing record at 213 km/h

What made Michaels task a lot harder today was that he lost a leg to bone cancer when he was nine years old. This meant that he rode the whole journey with one leg! Tomorrow in the morning when the guys are complaining about their legs we can remind them that at least they have two legs to complain about.

When Mark Beretta had finished his morning Channel 7 commitments we all started the trek to Cooma.

Unfortunately today even though it was a nice sunny day (with a little nip in the air) the elements were against us. When we got out of Canberra we were faced with an ugly head wind. The first part of the day was spent with the front riders with their head down and punching into it. The first 30 or so kilometres we could only manage an average just over 20km/h, which is particularly slow when you consider some of the other days we will manage another 10km/h on top of that!

I spent a bit of time on the front on this leg and I have to say that it was bloody hard work but as the day wore on I felt better within myself that I had enough training under my belt. This I think will give me more confidence for the rest of the tour.

With hard work and some persistence at the front we made it to our first stop at Michelago Primary School where the students were again excited to see us.

Our next stop was at Bredbo Primary School where the 19 students (yes 19 students in the whole school!!) enjoyed an inspirational presentation from Reid Meldrum one of our Optus riders.

The last 30 km of the day the wind had died down so it was the most pleasurable part of the day. Most of the bunch were really pleased to be cruising along at 30 or so km/h

Here are the Jersey category winners for today.

Simon Martin – Focus

Mal Heath – Inspiraton

Shani Vander-Young – Attitude

Pam Savage – Guts

Byron Smith – Doer

Canadian Crew (our caterers) –Thinker

Tomorrow we will be riding from Cooma to Thredbo only 100km but looking at the profile and the predicted 1500m climbing it will be no walk in the park.

Here is todays video

Here is todays Garmin readout

Here is the Channel 7 coverage

Route: Batemans Bay – Canberra
Distance: 152km
Climbing: 2000m
Total Tour distance so far: 475km

Today started with a short ride out to the Batemans Bay Primary School where we were greeted by some very excited children who had been working on their really bright and colourful signs in anticipation of 10 minutes of fame on the Channel 7 Sunrise program. They were not to be disappointed as each cross this morning featured all their smiling faces and signs

All the Tour de Cure family were equally excited because it was official that we had passed the 1.5 million dollar mark for our fundraising efforts.

The boys were challenged by the students to a game of hand ball but they were not counting on the competitive nature of both Daniel Chalhoub and Geoff Coombes who seemed to take great pleasure in beating all comers.

As the morning schedule drew to a close you could sense a lot of nervous energy in the air. Most of the riders were a little apprehensive about the day that was looming as we were on our way to one of the biggest challenges on our journey, the climb up the Clyde Range on the Kings Highway.

The Clyde range is the steepest ascent on the tour schedule, this 11 km climb was an average of 8% gradient with pitches of up to 15%. We all knew that we had done the training but had we done enough – We were soon to find out.

There was only 25 or so kilometres to the base of the climb and we took it pretty easy so that we could conserve our legs.

We were soon into the climb and everybody was climbing  at their own pace. The groups soon strung out as the stronger riders powered up while everybody else did what they could to keep going.

About half way up there was a welcome break from the pain when we were stopped for road works. Everybody took the opportunity to have a little rest and recuperate from the climb so far.

After the break we pressed on and found that the steepest parts of the climb were ahead.

I was pretty happy with my climbing today as I reached the top of the climb with a small group of about 5 riders who had broken away from the main group and crested the hill all together.

The jubilation at the top was evidenced by the guys and girls cheering and giving high fives to each other and the mood changed to one of euphoria as we headed down the other side and to a well earned break.

The next 20 km was full of chatter and everybody exaggerating about how great it was and how good they did the climb.

Morning Tea was at Bravewood Public School. As we arrived we were given the rockstar treatment with as many screams and cheering that I have witnessed.

Gary  Bertwistle and Victor De Sousa  gave a great presentation about helping to prevent cancer using the Stickman Rules book that Gary had written and the students were extremely attentive and receptive to the message .

Soon it was off on the rest of the journey to Canberra and to our lunch stop at Bungadore where we rode past a very excited Bungadore primary school.

After a quick lunch it was on the road again.

The guys got a  little surprise when after about 2 km there was a nasty little hill. With a full stomach and cold legs this was less than pleasant but we toughed it out and continued along.

The remainder of the journey to Canberra was very undulating with rolling hills being the order of the afternoon. Whist this presents lovely scenery it means that every few kilometres you are faced with a bit of a climb to do. That seems to make the legs just a little more tired.

After 150km we eventually made it to Canberra were we were greeted with a lovely surprise.  One of our support ladies Cora Zillich had arranged for a group of masseuses to give all the riders a massage.

I have never seen a group of men so appreciative before for a simple pleasure of getting a massage. Tired legs, shoulders and backs will be all the better tomorrow for this.

But the surprises were not over. Cora had also arranged two ICE BATHS! With guarantees of better legs tomorrow some of the boys jumped in to the baths that were set to a icy temperature of 13 deg celcius ! We will have to wait and see how they are feeling in the morning to see if the pained faces, shivering and complaining of the cold was worth it.

Perhaps the highlight of the day was a candid talk Scott Brennan an Olympic Double Skulls Rowing Champion gave at our dinner. Scott recounted three experiences where he had come into contact with people that had cancer and how those people had inspired him to achieve great goals in his own personal life.

Here are the Jersey category winners for today.

Danny Moore – Focus

Paul Ainsworth – Inspiraton

Daniel Chalhoub – Attitude

Marg Baily – Guts

Peter Richie – Doer

Aiden Liegman –Thinker

Tomorrow we are being joined by 15 guest riders as we continue our journey to Cooma.

Here is my video of the day

 
 
Here is part 2
 
 

Here is my Garmin readout (interesting stuff)
 

 
Day 4 Channel 7 Roundup

Route: Huskisson to Batemans Bay
Distance: 109km
Ascent: 968m

The start of day three saw us back down to the Husky pub for Mark Beretta’s Channel 7 Morning show cross and we could tell by the early signs that today was going to be a great ride.

The waves were rolling in and the sky’s were mostly clear so today the weather would be on our side.

As we rolled out you could feel that a few of the boys has some pent up energy from the day before so we quickly settled in to a quicker pace than yesterday.

We were not disappointed with the weather, it was a wonderful day for a ride. There was enough sun on your back to keep you warm but just enough chill in the air to keep you cool.

As we got further along there were some rolling hills and a nice little climb for us to do before we rolled into Ulladulla for lunch. As you will see from the photos our lunch location was very special. Sitting on the lawn overlooking the ocean with a muffin and drink was nothing short of breathtaking. Unfortunately although a lot of us could have spent all day sitting there our time was limited and everybody was keen to get going so that we could get to the finish and have an early day.

The next 50 km seemed to go pretty quickly and soon we were sitting at our accommodation with a wonderful view overlooking the inlet at Batemans Bay.

It was great to have the afternoon today to relax but as we were sitting around there was a quiet contemplation and soon the conversation quickly came back to our task tomorrow of climbing up the Clyde Range, something that not everybody is looking forward to.

At the dinner tonight we awarded the category jerseys to

Steve Gobby – Focus

Dougie Walters – Inspiraton

Grant Evans (Evo) – Attitude

Murry King – Guts

Wayne Banks – Doer

Angie Thorpe –Thinker

After three days of relatively short days at 100km each, its day 4 that is going to give us a gauge of how fit we are. Check back tomorrow and I will let you know how we went.

I would like to finish tonights blog with a few messages that a local radio station (Mix 106.3 FM) got from listeners when promoting that Tour de Cure would be coming to town. I hope that you will be as motivated as me by the thoughts of the listeners.

• The world is round, and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning – Jeanette, Pearce
• Thanks for riding all that way it makes me feel happy – Jed age 7 Kaleen
• I just wanted to say thanks for all your efforts it means a lot – Jessica in remission for 2 years
• You’re an absolute inspiration! Mason, Cook
• Feel the burn – Richard Chan, Watson
• What you’re doing makes me feel like I get through anything! If you can do it why can’t I! Robert, Gungahlin
• Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start now and make a brand new ending – Anon
• Whenever you see darkness, there is extraordinary opportunity for the light to burn brighter – Bruce (borrowed from Bono)
• I want to be like you when I grow up – Dennis age 10
• On the road to life there are many paths… some twist, some turn, some dip, some curve. As long as you keep your focus, your destination is obtainable – Donna, Richardson
• Push through the hard times!! Karina, Lyneham
• Just remember it’ll be worth it in the end! Gabi, Gordon

Here is the day three video

 

Here is the day three Garmin readout