Day 10: Jindabyne to Canberra
Today we rode the last leg of our journey – 180km from Jindabyne to Canberra. After the addrenalin and elation of the previous day’s ascent of Dead Horse Gap, today we had a pretty solid ride to an emotional journey’s end with family and friends in Canberra. The previous evening I had been honored to be selected to wear the White jersey (for ‘Focus’) for the final stage of this year’s Tour, whilst the rest of the peloton wore the special pink jerseys to mark the raising of $10m by TDC.
We awoke early to find that it can get very cold indeed in these Snowie Mountains. For the first time in Aus I saw ice being scrapped off vehicle windscreens, and as we put on every item of warm clothing we were very relieved to be able to breakfast indoors for once! Setting off in the dark it was cold, but soon became very cold and pretty uncomfortable as we traversed the undulating terrain on the way to morning tea in Cooma. At one stage the temperature reached -7 degrees … cold by anyone’s standards but especially when you’re wearing lycra and riding a pushie! Fingers were numb, feet were frozen and speech was limited as it became hard to speak coherently. Fortunately we had just enough short breaks to enable us to huddle together for warmth and avoid anyone getting into real difficulty. We pushed through to Cooma for a very welcome break, to warm up and to replenish energy levels.
One of the amazing things about this country is that even on days like this, it generally doesn’t take long for the sun to come though and for the day to be transformed. This was the case today; before long we were stopping to shed layers of clothing and spray on sunscreen as the temperature rose and we defrosted. The riding was pretty uneventful; the rolling terrain much less of a challenge than the mountains of the previous two days.
The last day of Tour is always an emotional experience. On the one hand you don’t want to exit the Tour ‘bubble’ and return to real life, but on the other the body make’s it pretty clear that it’s time for a break from riding. There’s also the reality that this group of riders and support crew will never be together again, and for many the anticipation of being welcomed into Canberra by family and friends. All in all it makes for a reflective atmosphere in the peloton, and I spent a lot of the ride thinking about the reasons why I ride and of Sarah in particular.
By early afternoon we entered the outskirts of Canberra and formed up into a single peloton for the final few kilometers to the finish. It’s quite a buzz to all be riding together, with the peloton organized with the most experienced Tour veterans at the front. We rode to Parliament House for a quick photo shoot and to enable Sunrise to capture some footage, then it was on to the finish and for many an emotional reunion with family and friends. Suddenly Tour was complete; amidst all the emotion, the hugs and congratulations there was a real sense of achievement and of having completed something that will make a real difference to many people. Along the way we have presented TDC’s cancer awareness message to over 4,000 school kids, have presented $50k to local cancer charities and have raised in excess of $2.3m for cancer research, support and prevention. It will take days for the enormity of what we’ve accomplished to sink in, however now it’s time to rest, celebrate and return to the real world outside the TDC tour ‘bubble.
Leave a message for me:
If you want you can even spread the word and post it on facebook.
