Stage 3 – 175km to Bordertown – flat hard day on backside and hands

The community dinner in Meningie was quite something else. The locals really went all out in decorating their school hall. Canapes were on offer with Western Draft, a SA beer I had never tried before but got used to, school kids serving and the local Vet, auctioneer, barber (you get the gist) came along. They even hired a band who drove all the way from Adelaide. The highlight was perhaps the auction where a plate of 14 creme puffs sold for $750, apparently $50 higher than the previous Catholic Church auction where they sold 40 for $700. The (Elders) auctioneer was in his element, knew all the locals intimately and virtually bid for them based on what he knew about them. Wholesome evening…with everyone getting quite weary around 10pm so the band certainly broke even on the night and I ended up ferrying team mates in the TDC Lexus to the camp site for the next hour or so…hence a little tired this morning.

Day 3 started at the Meningie golf course where we were welcomed with a huge breakfast – even my favourite porridge made an appearance. It was then down to the first tee at day break to watch Seb hit a hole in 1 on one of the par 3s.

We rolled out of Meningie in steady rain and wind…with the first 30km or so quite miserable as we avoided pot holes, water on the road and semi trailers. The rest of the day was hard, flat and my backside is feeling the effects of a saddle centred outing with little excuse to get out and pump the legs apart from when it was absolutely necessary to do so.

The highlight of day 3 for me is a lovely girl I met called Renae. Renae is a cancer survivor and has only been riding for 10 months. She has a cyclist boyfriend who is doing the full Tour with us and she joined us for the guest days over the weekend. Renae is a true inspiration to us all. I rode with her at her side for the entire 175km and with the help of the CBA crew and a good number of other TDC buddies, we got her safely into Bordertown with stoppages, some 7 odd hours in the saddle.

TDC for me so far has been an experiential Tour…every day is different depending on what it throws at you and today was just simply special. It wasn’t the riding, it was working as a team to help a determined young lady achieve what she set out to do (with her proud boyfriend in tow – who incidentally we had to move to the back of the peloton towards the end as we needed to dish out some tough love to get Renae home – he is a great guy too BTW).

Riding beside Renae all day, I went through all her highs and lows….the exuberance of the morning, the excitement of meeting her parents at coffee mid morning, a hearty lunch, the dark afternoon where she went within herself and I could see her really struggling, afternoon break inspiration and her sheer determination to get home when she realised she was only 40km from the finish.

Seb is right…we can do what we set our minds to achieve. Renae could have so easily packed it in and in fact came very close to do so, but with her steel trap focus and our team support….she was an inspiration to anyone that anything is possible.

Here we all are upon finishing in Bordertown at the motel. Renae has the “guts” jersey on…which she won the day before incidentally. She is standing between the two towers – Dave and Tim, flanked by Rachelle, Heidi and myself.