Day 5: Mt Gambier – Coonawarra – Mt Gambier (28th April)
Well, didn’t we have a little surprise in store for us today. Our organising committee must have known that we were going to be attacked by ferocious weather and had Day 5 as an easier day, with a shorter distance, so that we could make it to a winery for a late lunch and a glass of red. Pretty happy bunch of cyclists after hearing that.
Details on that shortly – Willie, what’s on your mind???
—————————————————————————————————————
Hellooooo everyone. Quick Day 4 recap on the end of day events and onto Day 5.
As we rode the last 45km leg into Mount Gambier we went and dropped in on some of our beloved corporates – Big W, Woolworths, CBA and Optus and were greeted with so many lovely locals in the community. It’s fantastic visiting our local communities, it puts a smile on our dial!
As we headed back to the hotels and then to the Commodore on the Park we were greeted with an overwhelming full house of people for dinner. Tonight the recipient of the $10,000 community donation was the Leukaemia Foundation of South Australia. We’re funding the Community Resource Centre which will assist in living away from home when treatment is required in major cities. What a great charity and support project this will assist.
Jensie treated us to a very funny on-bike story from our ‘tour’ which he witnessed. He is indeed a good story teller.
Tonight’s line-up of incredible category jerseys winners were as follows:
- Focus: (White) Ian Robinson
- Doer: (Orange) Paul Beretta
- Attitude: (Yellow) James Tobin
- Awareness: (Green) Justin Pratt
- Guts: (Blue) David Duff
- Inspiration (Pink) Lisa Healey
Now Day 5, the shortest day of the tour we rode a loop of the beautiful countryside of Mount Gambier and the Coonawarra. But there was still a busy day ahead, team time trials, and 3 school visits – where we shared so much excitement with these country schools about our Be Fit, Be Healthy, Be Happy Program in the morning.
The first great news for today was the weather – for the first time we were able to roll out in sunshine. It’s amazing the difference it makes to spirits in the peloton when there’s a little sun on your back!
So to the highly anticipated team time trial! Each year For the time trial we break from normal formation and ride as teams against the clock over an 8km rolling course. As you might expect, the event is taken very seriously and bragging rights for the winning team are highly valued. The teams formed up and secretively plotted their tactics for success – the results aren’t announced until later in the week, so each team rode flat out and have at least a couple of days to believe that they took out line honours! Once the post time trial banter had subsided the pelotons reformed and we rode on to the day’s first school presentation.
The kids at all the schools – Mary Mackillop Memorial, Kalangadoo and Reidy Park Primary gave the team a huge welcome, and after a few games of handball the team moved inside to present our cancer awareness message – that 1 in 3 cancer cases are preventable by making smart lifestyle choices and being Fit, Healthy and Happy. The kids were amazing. On the one hand it’s sobering to see just how many know someone with cancer, on the other their energy and enthusiasm kept us going as we got back on the road and headed back to Mount Gambier.
We were a little behind schedule so the pace stepped up on the return – averaging 32-33 kph into a headwind over 40kms was pretty punishing and made for some tired legs within the group. One of the heartwarming features of tour is to see and hear the recognition for Tour de Cure whilst we’re on the road. Each day we’re out there, more and more people are coming out to cheer us on and it’s great to hear the car and truck drivers greeting us with toots on their horns as they pass us on the road.
Once the morning events were done we were then picked up by big buses to go out for a visit to Rymill Estate for a late lunch and some downtime. What an extraordinary welcome, as the buses wound down the tree-lined driveway we arrived at the main entrance to boxes of beautiful local produce for lunch, apple juice and wines for tasting. It was a fabulous way to rest and relax before the 215km journey ahead tomorrow.
Today was a very special day, not just because we are giving another $10,000 to our amazing community project Camp Quality, but because this marks a very special day for Tour de Cure – It is our 200th funded project! Geoff surprised us all with a present to mark the occasion – a custom edition jersey for the entire team to wear tomorrow, as we ride 200+ km, for our 200th project. It is going to be a huge, special and memorable day…
The team had a relaxing pub meal at the Mt Gambier Hotel and went to bed to rest up before the biggest leg on tour this year. No jersey presentations tonight so stay tuned for Day 6 in Warrnambool.
Au revoir.
—————————————————————————————————————
Thanks Willie.
Readers, I think you’ll agree that Willie has done a great job in giving a summary of today. A few extra tidbits from me.
(Below) Each day we inevitably need to take a few comfort stops so this time it was somewhere out towards the Coonawarra region in a densely forested area. Turns out this is an area that is logged and although you cannot see it I can tell you that there was a very large machine just behind the treeline here felling trees. Not the sort of thing you want to hear and I though it was going to burst through at any moment.
(Below) It was a good fun time getting the kids involved in the presentation, and I really need to tell you a story about what happened here, so let me set the context. As part of the presentation our guy asked the kids what you could do to help someone with cancer feel a bit happier – the answer…tell them a joke. Fair enough, reasonable answer.
There was a knock knock joke from the back of the room then the little fella sitting next to me (see right hand side of photo below) also told us a knock knock joke. A third young kid (no older than about 5 or 6) put his hand up and said he had one. Well you should have seen the face of the teachers when he started with…”there was a white man who walked into a bar…PAUSE…um, there were 6 black men…”. Needless to say there was a pretty quick change of topic and we moved on. One thing is for sure – you can never guess what can come out of the mouths kids. Politically correct – no, funny – hell yes.
YOU NEED TO WATCH THIS – our quad copter legend has compiled this snippet for you. I hope you enjoy. More to come. (Copy and paste into your browser)
https://www.facebook.com/adpics/videos/10153323950763023/
Donation tally update:
Good news is that I have been able to raise over $28,500, up over $500 in the last 24 hours. Getting very close to the $30,100 target so I can beat my efforts from last year.
Some stats from today:
Distance ridden: 96km (694km running total)
Elevation climbed: 300m (2,470m running total)
Time ridden: 3 hrs 15 min (25 hrs 42 min running total)
Latte’s consumed by Willie: lost count
Leave a message for me:
If you want you can even spread the word and post it on facebook.
