Woohooo Day 1 Tour de Cure done – we are on tour!
Well what an intro!! Up at 4:30am we chowed down a big bowl of porridge, donned the kit and rolled out from Kevin Russell’s place in St Leonards bound for Martin Place in the city centre.
We arrived to a mass gathering of lycra, Lexus’s (or is that Lexii?) and TdC banners. a second breakfast was dished out (burp!) and we began to orientated ourselves around the routine and people present. I managed to get my melon on the TV a couple times, much to the pleasure of my kids at home waving at the screen (Hi boys!!) My apologies to the rest of Australia for cracking their tv screens 🙂
My cousin Amy came to see me off which was great, good to have a familiar face to chat to and take some pics for the family.
Off we rolled to begin the 2014 Signature Tour, we had a slight sprinkling of rain from the city out to the highway and only got as far as two blocks before our first mechanical – a cleat coming loose on someones shoe. Stop start was the order of the first 10-15kms until we got free from the Sydney CBD area. The rain was light but enough to keep the roads wet and greasy. Everyone stayed rubber side down so that was a relief.
We re-grouped just before entering the M5 highway and I took a moment to reply to the sledging texts and FB comments after my ugly mug was spotted around the country. I put my phone back in my gilet pocket (or so I though) and off we rode. Coming down the on ramp to the freeway I felt something brush down my backside and turned to see my phone sliding beautifully across the road and under the oncoming traffic. yay one trashed SGS4!. That ended the livetracking for people following me on Garmin
I’ll probably receive a TdC fine for that one – anything occurring due to one persons careless actions resulting in delays, stoppages etc usually means a donation to the Tdc coffers. Dropping water bottles is a common one. Except in those cases the peleton will not stop and you are one bottle down for the ride.
We arrived at St Pauls school in Camden about 45mins late, after many mechanicals rendered us to mechanical speed (the peleton drops to18-20kmh until the bike is fixed and then the rider and mechanic jump onto their bikes and catchup to the back of the peleton. A great presentation was performed for the school, and the kids were some of the most vibrant and excited I have seen. a fun interaction.
Off to the next school in Colo Vale we got absolutely hosed, drenched in a downpour, but all behaved well and performed as expected. the speed again dropped to around 24kmh as we negotiated a few hills and the rain. We arrived at Colo Vale school late but the after school care kids were still there and shared some great stories with us of the front peleton (which arrived earlier due to an earlier departure from Camden) and their presentation.
This meant we did not arrive at our accommodation until around 6:15pm instead of the forecast 4:30pm. A quick shower and setup in some great accommodation at Quest for Life which is like a large B&B.
Dinner at the Bundanoon hall was catered by our fantastic crew and we had a guest speaker in John Rasko whom is probably the leading caner researcher worldwide and he detailed all of the equipment and breakthroughs they have acquired directly from the funds they received from TdC. A most excellent insight
I will try and get a new phone in Canberra tomorrow to continue the livetrack for everyone. It will mean reloading the phone so might take a day or two to get going again. Sorry Fans
Pete
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