Day Five: Corryong to Wangaratta
Groundhog Day at the Tour de Cure today – 185 kilometres covered with over 1,800 metres of vertical climbing. Having entered Victoria yesterday on our way to Corryong, we spent the morning riding through some beautiful countryside along the Murray Valley Highway. Although perhaps not as spectacular as yesterday, the surrounding hills and fog certainly made for an amazing backdrop. After driving over the Mitta Mitta River and Lake Hume, a reasonably challenging climb took us out of the valley and we stopped at Tallangatta for a well earned break. We then rode on to a gorgeous little town called Yackandandah where we once again received a rousing reception from the children when delivering our “Be Fit, Be Healthy, Be Happy” message at the local primary school. Some more climbing then took us up to the beautiful old gold mining town of Beechworth, which, according to the driver of our lead support car, had no fewer than 44 pubs at the height of the rush. Our final climb for the day took us out of Beechworth and we then commenced a long descent down to our destination in Wangaratta.
Conducting a school visit at Yackandandah Primary School
As mentioned in yesterday’s blog, I had the pleasure of hosting Trish Shaw at the community dinner tonight in Wangaratta, a teacher from St. Bernard’s Primary School who I met during a school visit in last year’s Tour de Cure. Trish is a wonderful lady whose husband was diagnosed with cancer late last year, and he is fortunately making good progress. It was also great to see young Josh from St. Bernard’s Primary School there, wearing the pink jersey I sent to him after last year’s tour.
Tomorrow is our biggest day on tour yet, as we ride 204 kilometres from Wangaratta to Eildon. I haven’t bothered asking how much climbing is involved – I’ll just expect there will be a lot. We will also pick up some guest riders half way through the stage in Mansfield. Amongst them will be Nathan Jones, a teacher from my daughter’s school who is a stage 4 melanoma survivor. In many ways he is lucky to still be with us let alone be riding over 250 kilometres in two days, so it will be great to ride alongside him.
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