Day 5: Corryong to Wangaratta
Today saw us reach the halfway point in the tour and also saw us complete 2 out of the 3 biggest and most challenging days. The biggest is tomorrow!
We left Corryong in the dark this morning but not nearly as cold as Adaminaby the day before. I could at least feel my fingers and toes. Still plenty of fog around but this burnt off after about 50km of riding and the day ended up being hot for the remaining 130+ km into Wangaratta. Over to WIllie now for his update before I finish off and sign out.
“Hi all, Willie Maykit here. When last we chatted, I was struggling to recover from yesterday’s really tough day and reflecting on these amazing people with whom I am sharing the road.
Well let me tell you, we had a great pick me up last night – the community dinner at Corryong. I would guess 250 people came to dinner, the band was playing and the atmosphere was buzzing.
In every town we present a cheque for $5,000 to a local charity or support group. Last night we presented it to the Upper Murray Community Health Services and this will go a long way to helping them complete one of their cancer projects.
Well, stop the press, the local community then topped us! They presented us cheques for $1,500 (Lions), $1,000 (Rotary) and $200 (CWA).
Wow, how good is this. By now the room was rocking…..so what do you do next, you auction a batch of 20 freshly baked scones and a sponge cake made by a local cake guru for $1,300!! This was followed up by a fruit cake going for a cool $1,000. What’s all this about cake?!?! But it’s all for a great cause and in super spirit.
We presented our jerseys again, and in this note I’d like to especially mention the Green jersey for Awareness. This jersey is only a couple of tours old and was created in memory of Conor McAuliffe. His amazing grandparents are supporting us on this tour and his parents Sally and Michael are truly part of the TdC family. Conor sadly died of a very rare (1 in a million) liver cancer aged 3. After his treatment, when struggling for energy and riding his bike, his catch phrase was “go little legs, go!” The green jersey is in Conor’s memory and serendipitously we climbed Connors Hill yesterday. Go TdC legs, go!
- Guts: Tim Brown
- Doer: Chris Brown – Tim’s brother and one of our legendary mechanics
- Focus: Andrew Feneley
- Inspiration: Heidi Bramberger
- Attitude: Lyn and Dick Atkinson (Conor’s grandparents)
- Awareness: Tony Corelli
184km today….I was worried about making it, but I was not on my own.
After the Channel 7 Sunrise crosses, we rolled out and enjoyed a long flattish start to the day. My legs appreciated this and after 20 minutes, my bum thankfully turned numb! We hit our first climb of the day, but after yesterday’s monsters, this was very manageable and my legs responded well. I am so happy I did all the training before tour. The body is an amazing machine, especially when cared for…..major note to self for post tour!
It got hot today. 30+ degrees without shade is sapping and by lunch, the combination of ‘lumpy’ terrain and lost sweat was taking its toll. Hooray for lunch. The engine loves fuel and the world looked better after a good feed. That said, the 10kms of post-lunch climbing to Beechworth used much of this fuel, which had consisted mostly of icecream, rocky road and chocolate sauce.
Then we hit Beechworth and blow me over, the road sloped down hill for the 35km to Wangaratta. Woohoo, we cranked it up and pounded for home. After my fears of the morning, the elation of making it was brilliant.
Tomorrow is our biggest day. 205km and significant climbing. Watch this space, I can’t wait to write my next blog as this will mean I’ve made it!!
Thanks for all your support
Willie”
Overall the day was fabulous. Amazing countryside again. There’s nothing like belting down country roads at 40 km/hr with incredible scenery all around you (I’m only saying it’s 40 because if I said it was actually 60+ then the speed might concern my wife and I don’t want to do that! That’s me on left in the 1st pic below).
You don’t really know how each day will go until you get on your carbon pony and ride for about an hour. So today was a concern as I not only had my knee strapped from the day before BUT also the day before a fellow rider was not paying attention and rode into me, knocking me off my bike (fortunately going very very slow). A grazed and swollen hip and bruised tailbone required me to take some painkillers – they worked.
An important part of each day is for us to visit local schools and help spread awareness about cancer. Today a few of the team and I presented to the Yackandandah Primary School kids, parents and teachers. I couldn’t believe my eyes when we were greeted by a number of the school kids zooming around on unicycles as we rolled in, weaving in and out around our bikes…like a circus.
As mentioned earlier, tomorrow is the biggest day. It is like the “Queens Stage” in the Tour de France. There will be plenty of time to think about a lot of stuff on the long hard hills (a couple are 10-15km long)…and I’ll spend some of that time thinking about our very first family pet pooch who unexpectedly passed away 2 nights ago. There are a lot of great memories and she will be very much missed, so tomorrow is for her. Ironically, almost certainly it was cancer.
And the final few items as always…
1. The daily stats
184km (running total = 837km),
1,915m of elevation climbed (running total = 10,005m) ,
6hrs 54mins of riding (running total 26 hrs 02mins),
and I had 0 punctures today…again!
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
Day 5: https://www.tourdecure.com.au/pages/news/gallery/index/253
3. Fundraising progress
Overall, $1.39m has been raised by our tour team so far, up from $1.37m yesterday. My personal tally has increased due to more kind people and sits at $26,600 (up $300 today). 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.
I’m in the early peleton leaving Wangaratta so that means a 5am wake up. Good night.
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