Day 6: Wangaratta to Eildon
Stage conquered. And what a day it was. Apologies for the late blog update but there was no reception in Eildon.
A couple of crosses to the Sunrise show before heading off in the pitch black at 6:30am. It felt like it took a couple of hours to get the blood into the legs and our first leg to morning tea was 50km away at Whitfield. Phil Anderson, Australia’s first ever (and non-European) Tour de France Yellow Jersey holder, got us underway and then he joined one of the later peletons – he will be with us until Launceston. We were more than halfway to Whitfield before the sun decided to show its face…with a red tinge to it which generally means rain is coming.
From there we needed to pick up the pace to Mansfield, home of one of Australias best cyclists, Simon Gerrens, for lunch 66km down the road where 3 schools were waiting for us to come and present to them. The peleton kept a solid pace and we arrived on schedule.
It was at Mansfield where we picked up around 15-20 guest riders, a few notables included Rick Kelly (V8 supercar driver), Belinda Goss (Aussie pro racing cyclist) and Rob Burns (Aussie track cyclist – placed 4th at Seoul Olympics). More on the guests later.
Willie is pretty pumped to give you all an account of todays proceedings so I’ll let him get on with it.
“I AM ALIVE! It’s a very (VERY) weary, but somewhat chuffed Willie Maykit here reporting live, well somewhat live, from Eildon……
……I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s quickly recap on the Wangaratta community dinner that feels like it was 28 nights ago. The dinner was great. Murray (Optus CFO and Tour rider) was our host for the evening. We all knew the next day was going to be huge so no one wanted a late evening. We all ate big meals to fuel the bodies for tomorrow and very few ales were consumed.
We did ensure our jerseys were presented:
- Attitude: Deb Russell
- Guts: Stuart Locke
- Doer: Ian Salmon
- Awareness: DK
- Focus: Dave Curran
- Inspiration: Craig Deane
The first 50km was dead flat – just beautiful. We cruised through it, warming the legs up but being careful to conserve our energy.
We stopped at Whitfield for a school visit and then the terrain changed…..yup, you guessed it, we started to climb again.
I surprised myself and climbed the 20km rise very well. I think the legs are getting stronger and this combined with great weather had me feeling ok. Many others were also doing far better than they expected but we already have 2 of our crew off bike with some gastro that is going round, so it is good to feel ok. The scenery really helps. This is a beautiful country and this route is one of TdC’s best ever.
We reached Mansfield after a huge descent and caught up with another bunch of school kids. One of the kids had spent Monday night riding around the neighbourhood and raised $225 for us – champion.
A new group of guest riders joined us in Mansfield and will ride with us to Melbourne. They are a welcome addition to the team and seem to be a super bunch of dedicated individuals who have all clearly trained hard.
The first 30k after lunch was fairly flat and this helped lunch settle. That soon changed when we turned onto the Eildon road. It went straight up towards the sky. I was hurting…..but the TdC support kicked in. People on the road side cheering us, music playing and Dave Duff dressed from head to toe in bright orange onesi running up the road. Fantastic. The distraction was great and I reached afternoon tea.
A quick feed and drink and we continued. Another 4km uphill and I was
certain I was riding with a flat tire! The k’s passed very slowly, but the final summit came. The roads were wet and greasy, and we were wet from more rain and it was getting dark and cold.
A huge thank you to all who are supporting this amazing team. We appreciate every single dollar!
Where’s my bed?
Willie Maykit”
Nice one Willie. 4 seasons in one day today…cold and fresh to start, warm for the mountain climbs and cold/wet for the major descent into Eildon. I could have written the weather script a little better but nothing a hot shower didn’t fix at the end.
As mentioned we had a school visit – a big one given it was 3 local primary schools combined into the one session. Kids just LOVE lining the road coming in to give us high fives as we come in. Note to self…beware the hand-grabbers! Nearly a few accidents due to overexcited children.
A couple of my ‘Tour’ cancer survivor buddies as we prepare to roll out of Mansfield.
It did indeed get steep not long after lunch but we knew this test was coming and as with most mountain climbs the pain is all worth it when you get to see the view from the top. I spent quite a bit of time riding alongside and chatting to Rob Burns (Australian Seoul Olympian track cyclist – placed 4th). He hung up his bike 21 years ago after losing his desire to ride anymore. No longer cycling he became quite sedentary in his ways and went from 72kg when he was racing to over 140kg. Last year he got exposed to the Tour de Cure and what it was all about. This combined with the fact he has had family and friends impacted by cancer he wanted to start to make a difference, starting with himself by getting fit again. He dusted off his bike late last year, signed up to be a guest rider and raise funds, and is well on his way to getting trim. Onya Rob! BUT almost an unhappy Rob today…as you can see from the photos below the weather looks great but not long after, just as we crested this mountain and started to drop down into Eildon, it started to rain, and that meant treacherous descending conditions. Rob certainly has top notch riding skills, which he had to use every ounce of when his rear wheel blew as he was cornering a bend belting downhill at 85km/hr. He told me he had no idea how he managed to hold on but elated he did…I’m not surprised.
We arrived in ‘downtown’ Eildon as it was getting dark and colder. My first experience of this place was a good one when a local resident walked straight up to me and gave me $5 to add to the fund raising efforts. It was very obvious this was a lot of money to her but it also meant a lot to her to be able to help. A special moment.
A quick shot of a few of us before heading to our respective accommodation to get ready for dinner.
And the final few items as always…
1. The daily stats
206km (running total = 1,043km),
2,490m of elevation climbed (running total = 12,495m) ,
8hrs 2mins of riding (running total 34 hrs 04mins),
and I had 0 punctures today…on a roll!
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
Day 6: https://www.tourdecure.com.au/pages/news/gallery/index/254
3. Fundraising progress
Overall, $1.39m has been raised by our tour team so far, up from $1.37m yesterday. My personal tally sits at $26,600. 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.
Farewell for now.
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