Day 3: Meningie to Robe (26th April)
Hello all – another day in the bank but at times it has certainly felt like there have been more withdrawals than deposits as the demands on the energy and mental fortitude get tested again. A quick recap from Willie on the Day 2 evening in Meningie and then what went down on Day 3.
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The conditions continued to be challenging with the winds and rain making the journey a tough one, but as the pelotons ride into Meningie you can feel the excitement rise.
Who doesn’t love a country bowling club and Meningie’s club did not disappoint – with hot tea and ANZAC biscuits made that morning by the local ladies they were the perfect treat as we thawed out and prepare for one of the largest community dinners we have. Meningie is a special community to us as they always throw a huge welcome party and event, raise enormous amounts of money and last night’s dinner did not disappoint.
The evening kicked off with auctions, and lots of local love for the entire team. Our special guest speaker and on her first tour, Shelli Whitehurst, shared her Stage 4 Breast Cancer journey with the entire community, the collaborative project that we are working on with her called Kit for Cancer and how without the efforts of research and groundbreaking drugs she would not be standing with us today.
Our community presentation of $10,000 was to the local hospital Meningie & District Health Services for a Bariatric bed and pressure relieving mattress for cancer patients. This will make so much difference to the level of care that palliative patients will receive. Given the Tour de Cure’s love for this little town at the end of the night the TdC management decided to tip in another $5,000 to the community just before we said goodnight. A great way to finish up before bed.
As we move onto the category jerseys:
- Focus: (White) Wade Budden
- Doer: (Orange) Zac Morris
- Attitude: (Yellow) Rory Slabbert
- Awareness: (Green) Ariarna Bartulovic
- Guts: (blue) Ian Lipplegoes
- Inspiration (Pink) Luke Baker
Now to Day 3 and the ride from Meningie to Robe. A veritable sleep in this morning with a bag drop at 5:45 am and then off to breakfast at the Lions Jubilee Park where we were greeted by so many locals again turning out to say hello and to send us on our way. JT was in fine form with his Sunrise morning crosses keeping the crowds entertained, and we were very excited to see some clear blue sky with a bit of wind as we cheered off the pelotons.
You can see the first snippets of all the action that the Channel 7 crew have put together (watch past the 30sec add and JT’s weather udpate – some really cool footage). NOTE – copy and paste this URL into your browser.
https://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/watch/27357051/weekend-sunrise-weather-update-april-26/
And off the teams went to Robe with a smile because the sun was on our faces, despite the wind being in our faces (but it was only 20-30km/hr today – what do those riders have to complain about ?!?). This smile seemed to turn upside down a few km’s down the road when the sun went on strike and the rain set in. By this stage of the tour this came as no surprise. South Australia was intent on making sure we were well washed and exfoliated using mother nature’s tools.
More on the night in Robe, the cheque presentation and jersey awards in the Day 4 summary.
I need to go get another latte.
Willie
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Very good Willie. Appreciate you taking a moment to recognise that there is wind and rain going on outside your lovely Lexus cocoon. Just to be clear, that was 20-30 km/hr wind INTO our faces for the entire day – 188km.
(Below) Anyway, at the Meningie auction I saw this and thought, what the…!!!?!?! Well, I clearly have no appreciation for current cream puff valuation index as these puppies sold for $1,000! All money raised on the night going to the TdC.
(Below) I stole a what I thought was a quiet moment by myself standing out by the water eating my coco pops before the ride started but obviously the photographer snuck up on me. A very serene spot regardless.
(Below) Aaron is a legend on Tour. He is our photographer and quadcopter pilot. He’s the guy who has captured the aerial footage you see in the Sunrise TV snippet above. Awesome stuff.
Donation tally update:
Thanks to you all I have been able to raise nearly $26,000, up $1,000 in the last 24 hours. My goal now is to beat my fundraising total from last year which was a massive $30,100.
Some stats from today:
Distance ridden: 188km (444km running total)
Elevation climbed: 255m (1,875m running total)
Time ridden: 6 hrs 51 min (17 hrs 08 min running total)
Now time for some sleep.
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