Day 3: Grafton to Glen Innes
As usual, over to Willie first for a summary of the last 24 hours. Note I am publishing these blogs a day in arrears as this gives me enough time to view and select the best photos of the day once they’ve been uploaded.
Recap – Day 2:
Hi – Willie here again. Last nights dinner was hosted at the Grafton District Service Club by Daren Armstrong and Peter Braine – 2 cancer survivors with their own stories to tell.
Lots of community members came to show their support and none was more inspiring than young Sam. At 11 years old Sam is the bravest, ‘raddest’ dude I’ve ever met. After undergoing a brutal 12 months of chemo Sam was finally able to ‘ring the bell’. This bell hangs in the cancer ward and is only ever rung when a patient makes it into remission. I’m sure tomorrow, when the hills loom large, the thought of Sam ringing the rope off that bell will help give us the kick we need to make it to the top.
Sam was followed by Counsellor Jason Kingsley, who accepted the $10,000 donation on behalf of Grafton Base Hospital Oncology. Jason reflected emotionally on the impact that TdC has had on Grafton. ‘Without TdC, stories like Sam’s wouldn’t be possible.’ Cue tissues.
On such a big day, category jerseys are even more hotly contested. Everyone is putting in so much effort to help each other get through the day. The respective winners for Day 2 were:
Green ‘Awareness’ – Tony Brooks
Orange ‘Doer’ – Ben Boyd
White ‘Focus’ – Scott Thomson
Blue ‘Guts/Grit’ – Craig Janssen
Pink ‘Inspiring Others’ – Danny Moore
Yellow ‘Attitude’ – Linda Ross
Day 3:
Ahead, the Gibraltar range loomed large. The longest day on Tour would be followed by the steepest, a true test of our resilience.
As the gradient increased, so did the enthusiasm of the support crew. Dotted along the 18km long climb were flag waiving, pompom toting bundles of energy. Right around each of the steepest corners we found the boost we needed.
Cruising over the top, ahead of time, we were greeted by a pretty flash lunch, and then we were off again.
The afternoon was tough. Our tired legs were met with a cold front, carrying heavy rain and gusty winds. We battled for 65 long, slow kms. The morale in the peloton was high, but in all honesty, I struggled. Keeping me going was something I was told by a tour veteran last night – ‘your hardest day on the bike is better than any day of chemo.’
Until tomorrow,
I’m Willie Maykit
Nice work Willie – a mostly accurate account I have to say. Now a couple of extra comments to round out the summary. It was indeed true that this rain hit, but just before it did the temperature dropped about 10 degrees in 30 seconds making it absolutely freezing. People were starting to get hypothermic and unable to feel their feet and hands – useful things to have in proper working order I might add when riding a bike.
I may have forgotten to mention, but we do have a couple of sporting celebs riding all the way with us this year. Once again Jens Voigt (ex-professional cycling superstar), and for the first time Drew Ginn (multi Olympic gold medallist as part of the Oarsome Foursome, or you may better remember him from the Goulburn Valley fruit ads on TV…go google). Great to have them in the bunch.
We left Grafton under a shroud of incredible thick fog. So thick it was literally like rain just hanging in the air, making everything wet. It was a pretty unique riding experience going through this pea soup.
Now you have to see this. I busted a fellow rider when we stopped briefly enroute to Glen Innes. I do know that it gets pretty uncomfortable to be sitting on a bike seat for such long periods of time but I was quite amused to see this ‘lambsie’ solution being adopted.
We arrived in Glen Innes (a sleepy little town with about 5,000 population), very very wet and very very cold from the storm front we hit. Standing around in the arrival area I got talking to a local. Turned out to be the gentleman in charge of tourism for the area. After a few minutes of chatting whilst I chugged down a hot coffee to thaw out I discovered that his name is Peter Teschner. And for those of you who know about bikes this is the guy who started Teschner bikes and owns the company – cycling royalty if you will. Funny thing is, he doesn’t even ride a bike. Never has. A very nice chap.
Stats update…
Donation tally update:
Thanks to you all I have been able to raise approx $16,200. Several hundred $$$ more than yesterday – fantastic!
Some stats from today:
Distance ridden: 160km (515km in total)
Elevation climbed: 2,650m (4,150m in total)
Time ridden: 7 hrs 12 min (20 hrs 01 min in total)
(1 puncture for me today… ? ? 🙁 )
Ciao for now.
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