Day 4: Robe to Mt Gambier (27th April)
Another day conquered and I am pretty happy to make it as my right achilles has started to play up. This is seeming to be a common issue among the group because of the extended riding on flat roads where your position on the bike doesn’t change. Off to the paramedic for some advice I think.
Willie – please provide us your summary of the Day 3 Robe evening dinner with the community, and Day 4.
————————————————————————————————————-
Hello all, Willie here.
Just a quick recap on the end of Day 3 for you. It was nice to roll into Robe and for the riders to get warm after again being rained on and blown around. It was a long day.
Robe is renowned for its blue waters and incredible beaches – and this would have been a sight for sore eyes if it wasn’t almost dark when the riders arrived. After a quick hot shower we headed to the community dinner at The Robe Hotel. This was just fantastic, the food was totally to write home about – pub grub to refuel the hungry riders after the longest day yet.
The Robe Volunteer Ambulance Services provides a very special service to the community, and they received the $10,000 community cheque tonight. They are specially trained in pain management, cancer and palliative care. The money will be put straight into education and training of medical staff from Robe, Kingston and Beachport. The hospital staff at Robe and Kingston have a significant impact on the region.
Tonight’s line up of incredible category jersey winners were as follows:
- Focus: (White) Chester Wong
- Doer: (Orange) Lynne Mann
- Attitude: (Yellow) Demi Vandenheuvel
- Awareness: (Green) Shona Russell
- Guts: (Blue) Brendan Beckett
- Inspiration (Pink) Simon McCaroll
Now onto Day 4 – Robe to Mt Gambier.
Recharged and ready to start a very special day ahead. The support team work endlessly to make sure we have everything we need, they are the first up in the morning and the last to go to bed. From the guys at Canadian Catering up at 4am each morning preparing our breakfasts, Brittnay and Tom cranking out the coffees all day, to the awesome work of Orange Sky that do the team’s laundry on a daily basis to make sure we are clean and fresh, plus the luggage guys that pick up and drop off our bags to make sure we have all our stuff at the right time and the right hotel. The logistics and engine room of moving 180 people at any one time is a massive job and you cannot give any higher praise to the awesomeness of Victor and Richard for managing all this. There is no way that we could do this event and ride without the impressive and constant effort of this team.
As we head down to the beach for the first sunrise cross with Mark Beretta, we were excited for the day ahead as there were school visits. Beachport Primary (72 kids) and Tantanoola Primary (only 12 kids in the whole school) were eager to see us and lined the streets as the pelotons came through cheering and shouting for the riders. They listened to the teams talk about Being Fit. Be Healthy. Be Happy! A huge thank you to the schools as they handed us their own donations which was fantastic. We enjoyed some hoops on the basketball court and some hand ball, before hitting the road.
————————————————————————————————————–
Thank you Willie. Now a couple of updates from me before signing off.
The whole team of riders is split into several sub teams named after the major sponsors of the tour including CBA, Woolworths, Big W, Optus, Vittoria, Lexus, Huawei, Sunrise and Bisley. This is many purposes including who does chores each night, who needs to go where for corporate visits on arrival into each of the towns etc. I am part of team CBA and we did the daily video blog the morning we departed Robe.
https://vimeo.com/126094975 (copy and paste into your browser)
(Below) Early morning start in Robe.
The ride today was pretty hard and that does seem to be a common theme. What is also common is the timing of the rain. Just prior to arriving in Victor Harbour, Meningie, Robe and Mt Gambier the weather has opened up and we have been drenched. So you arrive wet AND cold. The ride into Mt Gambier being particularly unpleasant due to how heavy the rain was, the wind, and the 36 wheeler road trains flying by which forced us to ride single file on the shoulder of the road where it was bumpy and uneven.
(Below) About 10kms out from Mt Gambier. About to be dumped on.
(Below) Jensie in solitary confinement. Not sure what the misdemeanour was.
That’s all from me. More information on the night in Mt Gambier, the jersey presentations and Day 5 tomorrow. Ciao.
Donation tally update:
Thanks to you all I have been able to raise nearly $28,000, up another $2,000 in the last 24 hours which is incredible. I have some amazing support and generous family and friends.
Some stats from today:
Distance ridden: 154km (598km running total)
Elevation climbed: 295m (2,170m running total)
Time ridden: 5 hrs 19 min (22 hrs 27 min running total)
Latte’s consumed by Willie: 57
Leave a message for me:
If you want you can even spread the word and post it on facebook.
