And so it begins
It is Tour de Cure eve, and the enormity of what we have committed to dawned on us at the pre tour briefing this afternoon. There are several statistics that give cyclists an indication of how challenging a ride will be. One is distance, and as most of you know, we will be covering a total of 1,580 kilometres over the next ten days. Another is total vertical metres climbed, and during our journey from Sydney to Hobart, we will be climbing circa 19,000 metres. To put that into some sort of perspective, that is equivalent to riding up Mt. Kosciusko approximately 8.5 times. For someone like me who weighs just shy of 100 kilograms, this amount of climbing is going to present its fair share of challenges.
At our community dinner in Sydney tonight, Callum Eade, a Tour de Cure rider, spoke emotionally about his cancer story. He was an extraordinarily fit young man who started feeling rundown and immunocompromised. Like most young men, he lived in denial and thought he could fight through it, but went to see his GP after his wife pleaded him to do so. During the assessment he also told his GP about a swollen testicle, and she sent him to have a precautionary scan. He was subsequently diagnosed with testicular cancer, but fortunately for Callum it was detected at an early stage and he is now in full remission. The moral of the story for me was simple – whenever you are presenting with symptoms, no matter how mild, consult with your doctor. Early detection is a big part of the cure.
Day one tomorrow sees us ride from Sydney to Mossvale, a quiet 145 kilometres that will see us chip away at some of the 19,000 metres of climbing. For those of you in Sydney, we will be rolling out of Martin Place at 8.40 a.m. – it would be great to see you there.
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