Day 4: Adaminaby to Corryong
Hi everyone. Another day down and this one easily the toughest. Not the longest yet but more hills to climb up than you could poke a stick at. We are now in the heart of the Snowy Mountains. Over to Willie for his quick recap before I share a couple more things.
Hi, it’s Willie again and welcome to day 4, the first of our 3 really big days. Today sat heavily on our minds and tired bodies last night. It was mapped to have significant climbing and day 3 had drained many riders’ legs. However, whilst I reflect on last night, a quick update on the Adaminaby community dinner….
Daren and David were our hosts in Adaminaby’s Snow Goose pub. We were certainly back in the country…..rustic pub, cramped spaces and heaps of good food. David and Daren are both cancer survivors and they shared their stories with us.
$5000 was donated to the Cooma Hospital to assist them with one of their key cancer projects.
We awarded our jerseys as follows:
- Focus: David Collins
- Orange: Dave Duff
- Yellow: Gareth Williams and his amazing mum Marg
- Awareness: Justin Pratt
- Pink: Victor De Souza
- Guts: our host David Halliwell
So, to breakfast and the Sunrise cross out the front of the Big Trout in the middle of town. It was cold and misty, but obviously going to be a sunny day – finally. With steep climbs and descents ahead, a clear day was a blessing.
As we head towards Cabramurra, the highest town in Australia, the climbing really kicked up. Regular long pulls at over 10% and things were warming up. It is during stages like this that the TdC team really comes together.
At Cabramurra, we had a big morning tea and fuelled up for the biggest climb of the day. Within minutes of leaving town, we descended 700 odd metres to the dam over the Tumut Pond Reservoir. This was a hoot, but……we had to go straight back up the other side. 6km at 12% gradient was tough, really tough. We dropped to our lowest gear, found our cadence and simply dug. It was hot, long and oh, did I mention, steep. Half way up, a bunch of the team were there to cheer us on and give us support. Dave Curran was dressed as Bob Marley and this was so out of place I forgot about the hill for a nano-second……but then reality hit again.
From the top, there are still some climbs to go, but the descents are mind blowing. Fast, empty roads and we cut loose. A quick lunch stop and we pushed for Corryong. We made it and I can’t believe we have navigated the 3,000m of Snowy Mountain climbing.
Tomorrow is 180km and the next over 200km. Daunting, but tomorrow’s problems.
Rolling.
Willie Maykit”
Good update Willie, thanks for that. The air was indeed pretty thin at Cabramurra and we were not only greeted by the friendly community but hundreds of what I believe were European wasps…they were out to steal our morning tea.
The countryside is fabulous and the roads in very good condition, which helps when you are hooting down a mountain at 70+ km/hr and having to navigate around big piles of horse manure – I suppose it is horse country up here, Man From Snowy River country in fact and ‘The Man’ from this classic Australian movie lived to his last day in Corryong.
And the final few items…
1. The daily stats
142km (running total = 653km),
2715m of elevation climbed (running total = 8090m) ,
6hrs 10mins of riding (running total 19 hrs 08mins),
and I had 0 punctures today.
2. Photo gallery
The photo gallery grows with more great action snaps…Day 3 added
Day 1: https://www.tourdecure.com.au/pages/news/gallery/index/248
Day 2: https://www.tourdecure.com.au/pages/news/gallery/index/249
Day 3: https://www.tourdecure.com.au/pages/news/gallery/index/251
Day 4: https://www.tourdecure.com.au/pages/news/gallery/index/252
3. Fundraising progress
Overall, $1.37m has been raised by our tour team so far. My personal tally is a whopping $26,300 and I’ve reset my target to $30,000 so if you think you know of someone who may be interested in helping please feel free to forward the blog link to them – it has the donate link included.
Time to get a little sleep before the alarm goes at 5:25am.
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