Day 1 Adelaide to Victor Harbour 100km
The start in Adelaide. All 65 riders and 25 support staff gathered on Thursday night in Adelaide. Whilst to the outsider it may sometime seem that this is all about riding bikes a long way, what becomes clear when the group comes together is that the bike riding is absolutely secondary and this is all about firstly raising as much money as possible and secondly making sure that every penny raised and every hour donated is put to the best possible use in combating the impact of cancer on people’s lives. This means that the days ahead will be spent as much visiting schools, supporting awareness opportunities in all available media, and supporting local charities and communities as they will be spent on a bike.
Thursday night was spent with Dale Elliott talking us through his life changing journey from Adelaide to Darwin. Having lost the use of his legs and confined to a wheelchair Dale and a friend, also in a wheelchair, thought it would be interesting to try to cycle from Adelaide to Darwin…….by hand!!! 5400km. It took them 4.5 months over some of the most inhospitable and desperate countryside anywhere in the world. Listening to the ups and downs and more downs and final ups of Dale’s heroic journey was humbling and puts in perspective what the human spirit can achieve.
An 8 o’clock start on the tour actually means 5:30 out of bed and down to the Channel 7 cross for 6 o’clock. Mark Berretta the sport host on channel 7’s sunrise has ridden the last 4 tours and the publicity he and channel 7 give the tour is a massive help in fund raising. So we had 3 live crosses to channel 7 and a couple of hours of a chilly Adelaide morning before the gun went to start us off.
With clear skies, an excited peloton, cheering well wishers and a police escort it was an exhilarating start through the streets of Adelaide. Anna Meares joined us to Glenelg, multiple Olympic gold medallist in the velodrome most notably ahead of GB’s favourite daughter Victoria Pendleton at the London games
So other memories from the first days riding. Car horns, car horns and more car horns all blasting encouragement. Cycling through beautiful wine country without stopping for a tasting. South Australia’s stunning coast line. Cycling with Sebastian Terry (100 things.com check it for some amazing stories). An 80 km distance which turned out to actually be 100km. This was the warm up day on tour and it flowed superbly, with a KOM up Willunga hill. Results were miscalculated & not important though it was good to give the hill a bit of a nudge for it’s 6kms.
Getting in to Victor Harbour at 2 pm and community contribution started. The tour and Optus hosted a day out for the Camp Quality by the beach. Camp Quality is a charity which arranges great days out for children under treatment for cancer, generally leukaemia. We put on face painting, bouncy castles, farmyard petting areas, balloon artists etc. The weather was perfect and the Optus team and the other riders spent over 2 hours playing with the kids and explaining what the tour is about to members of the community. A simply amazing afternoon for some very sick children sporting at least for a few hours some fabulous grins.
Day one closed with a community dinner and a cheque presentation to Camp Quality and Sebastian Terry giving one of the most inspiring and challenging speeches a lot of us have ever heard. Oh yes and the total ticks over to A$ 1.84million.
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