TDC Day 3 Canberra – Adaminaby
Inspiration.
Hello again everyone and welcome back to my blog. Foggy and chilly start this morning as we rolled from our hotel around 6 to breakfast at one of our corporate partners ( Woolworths) new super stores. Quite a bit of TV time with James Tobin this am. Those boys work hard. Early starts and then riding the full tour…just a superhuman effort.
CBA were in Peleton 3 this morning so we rolled out around 8.45 and headed south to Cooma and then on here to Adaminaby. This is the man from Snowy River country. A really lovely ride this am to our first rest stop in Michelago, where the support crew had made sure there were plenty of lamingtons left for the riders.Nice.
We then headed further south and had a quick pit stop in Bredbo ( no I have spelled that right..not Thredbo). As luck would have it where we stopped some very nice ladies were setting up a massage clinic, and promptly came out to us, eased a few sore shoulders and put on some wonderful natural deep heat cream. My shoulders were feeling amazing for hours after. That really set the tone for the day…I mean what are the chances???
The roll into Cooma was pretty flat, and I managed to sit with James Tobin (JT) for pretty much the whole way ( Mary I passed on your regards and told him you were Beauty and The Geeks number one fan!! He was delighted). Lunch stop in Cooma and then another 70 kms here to Adaminaby which presented our first real challenging hill climbing of the Tour so far. 178kms on my garmin and about 1900 metres of climbing. Tomorrow sounds like it will present a tougher climbing challenge.
Dinner tonight was at the local pub. Jan the publican is a 10 year survivor from stomach cancer , and cheques were presented to Cooma Hospital who will use our gift to purchase vital medical equipment for patients in the region. The highlight tonight however was Darren. Darren is one of the Tour riders this year and I had the honour of sharing some time with him at the front today. Tonight he told his story. I will do my best to share it with you.
In 2001 Darren accepted a role in Singapore and prior to boarding the plane undertook a routine medical. A small lump was found on one of his testicles. Blood tests followed and he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. An operation and chemotherpay followed. He was cancer free. Routine check ups every six months.
In 2011 after returning to Australia years prior he again looked to move to Singapore. And this time xrays showed spots on his lungs…a complicated biopsy procedure fortunately revealed no cancer but benign growths.
in 2012 a visit to the dentist revealed a lump on the roof of his mouth. This time he had cancer in his adenoids. Again complicated surgery (including reconstructive surgery) and radiotherapy resulted. He is fortunately now cancer free.
Darren is my age, and has two children younger than our girls. He got a standing ovation for sharing his story. He is riding the full Tour. He is an inspiration.
Thanks so much for following me and all your support. Bring on tomorrow. For now though…sleep.
All my best. df
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