I have been a little quiet the last few weeks and to be
honest I haven’t know whether I am Arthur or Martha. It has involved a road trip to Sydney with my
wife and 4 kids (longest road trip in my life, as those that are friends with
my wife on Facebook will attest to), a
flight to and from Perth which included the red eye flight home and then an
open house this weekend at our place housing 5 members of my Vision Crusaders
team who made it down from Queensland.
So this also included 600+ kms of cycling, 3 nights of very little sleep in
small 2 man tents, many cold beers and a truckload of laughs. All sounds like a load of fun, but we also
had a number of solemn moments in there as well. With this in mind, it is not possible to go
into detail about each ride, simply because far too much happened each weekend,
but I will endeavour to share as much of the amazing three weeks as I can with
you in this blog.
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| Bec & I in Sydney Day 1 start |
The first weekend started with the Road Trip to Sydney. I was fortunate enough to have my wife and
children come to see us off and cheer us home, but even better, they made their
way out to the campsite to visit us on the Saturday night. The Sydney ride was one that was a tough ride
for us with Klaus our team captain being diagnosed with leukemia on the Tuesday
beforehand. We made sure we had his
ambassador jersey and we each took it in turns riding with it over the 2 days
so he was with us. This has been carried
on in both the Perth and Melbourne. We
started the ride from Olympic Park, which for me was amazing. Being a huge sporting nut, being there in a
palce that hold such a sporting significance in Australia was awesome. The ride out was brilliant as we were placed
at the front and allowed to be the first group of riders to go. Everyone knew who we were as the CEO told
them about what we were doing. They
would have known by the end of the weekend anyway with our outfits. What other group of grown men wear Black Milk
leggings whilst cycling? Yeah we stood
out. As you all know, I am not one to
hide in the corner from a bit of notoriety.
I am becoming quite fond of my leggings actually.
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| Prior to the Start in Sydney |
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| Enjoying Pit Stop #1 in Sydney |
The weather was warm on the Saturday hitting 32 degrees, but it was nothing
compared to the Sunday. We had 35
degrees on the Sunday and a northerly wind blowing 20-30kms/ph. To top it off, it was a bitch of a head wind
for 30kms. Not happy Jan!!!!! We finished the ride as a group, had my wife
and kids there roasting their backsides off, but it was awesome to see Callum
standing there with a Vision Crusaders jersey on smiling at me when we got
there. I love that my kids are excited
to see what we are doing (whilst the youngest don’t quite understand, the older
2 do) and learning that health and fitness is important. Thanks to Julie for encouraging this over the
last 12-15 months.
The drive home Monday was interesting and tiring, but that was the least of my
worries. I had to attend 3 days of a 5
day conference for work, which meant long days and little chance to rest
properly. Add to that I had to pull my
bike apart, pack it and get the rest of my gear all pack for Friday’s flight to
Perth. Perth is a city I have only been
to twice before for very short visits, but I really want to check it out more,
it is just so far and expensive to get there.
But now I was going to see more of it than I had before on a bike as
well. Friday allowed us to all catch up
at bike drop off and even allowed for 4 of the team to get onto the Project
briefly as they crossed from Melbourne to Perth for the city Round up. Woo Hoo us Vision Crusaders are everywhere!
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| On the Project. |
Friday night the 12 of us doing the ride, 11 of which had made it across from
the East Coast, caught up with Matt from Kauri Sports. This guy sponsored us and provided all of our
cool gear. Check out his website if
looking for custom made sporting gear (he also does the Vic Crew shirts/hoodies
for 12WBT) here. It was a great pre ride meal with the usual
VC laughs and frivolity. Early to bed
for an early rise and ride.
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| Prior to the Start in Perth |
Day 1 in Perth was probably my least favourite so far. I had been informed ony days bfore that one
of my reasons for riding (Annette) had been admitted to a hospice and not
expected to be with us for much longer.
I rode this weekend with a photo of her and myself in my back
pocket. I even shed a little tear at the
start line as the ceremonies went on.
Add to this, not only was it cold (worse than Melbourne), we had to ride
for approx. 90kms into a bloody headwind.
Not the best when you are a bigger frame guy. To add to this, the scenery was mind
numbingly boring. We were out in the
country side for most of it just looking at paddocks on long straight sections
of road. Add to that, only 40 minutes
after we arrived at camp it started to rain and did so until 4am in the
morning. Day 2 had us take a very
different route thankfully but it was still cold and threatening rain. We did however get to see some of the beauty
of the WA coast line prior to Fremantle and took in the sights of Penguin
Island, Fremantle and the Swan River.
This part at least left me with a fantastic memory and impression of
Perth.
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| Last Pit Stop - Day 1 in Perth |
Back to the hotel, pull the bike
apart, get packed and changed and off to the airport for the red-eye flight
home. Thank god my teammate Chris had
access to the QANTAS Business Club Lounge so we could have a few quiet
ales/scotch and soda and a feed. Jumped
on the plane and died. Only waking as we touched down in Melbourne.
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| Julie & I at the Start of Day 1 |
So we move forward to this weekend. With so many of the team coming in from interstate
and accommodation costs being one that
we all want to minimise, Julie and I opened our place up to the crew for them
to crash. Over the course of Thursday –Sunday
we had 5 members staying with us at different stages. We also had a team dinner on the Friday
night, which is our usual thing pre-ride now.
This ride was a little different for me as it combined my home team
(which I had recruited riders from our weekend training group)as well as my VC
team. Add to that it was Julie’s first
ride with the VC and this is special for us as we are doing this ride for her
dad and to say thanks to Peter Mac. We
took off on the Saturday morning down beach road and it was beautiful, although
a bit chilly. We continued down to
Frankston and then headed out into the countryside. It was cold and windy. Not what the soft Queenslanders in our team
wanted to see. That was the least of
their worries though. We got to camp in Hastings
and found it to be basically a swamp. It
was a beautiful spot, but the rain during the week and made large parts of the
area just a bog heap. Oh well, could be
worse.
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| The crew at the End of the Melbourne Ride |
During the night, enjoying a few drinks with the team I received a text message
telling me my friend was not expected to make it through the night. She wanted to thank myself and the team for
what we were doing. Must admit, that
whilst I was trying to read the message out to the team I broke down in
tears. It just hit me and to see members
of my team sitting there, some whom have battled this shitty disease
themselves, others lost family members or have some currently going through,
all bonded by this horrible cause. They
understood, they got it. To think we
never knew each other prior to august, now we share this bond and ARE making a
difference to people is an amazing thing.
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| Add caption |
Yesterday saw the weather start out crappy but once we hit the burbs the sun
came out perfectly for us to ride up Beach Rd and show of our beautiful city to
the Queenslanders. We made sure we stuck
together and enjoyed this day as it has been a
tough 3 weeks. We even stopped for a photo opportunity to get
a team shot (see below) in Bon Beach at a local residents nature strip with
this couch being thrown out. See it isn’t
all about riding bikes.
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| Just Chillin watching the Box |
We rode into Albert Park, crossed the finish line, had the usual hugs and
cheers and then people packed up bikes, headed for home or the airport all to
do it again in 3 weeks. This time we
head to Auckland. I can’t believe that I
am going to do a bike ride in a differen country. If you had asked me 2 years ago if I would do
any event in a different country I would have laughed at you. Funny how times change.
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| 4 Rides Down - 2 To Go |
I also want to make a big shout out to 2 very special ladies. The amazing Sarah McGee and the equally
amazing Catherine Hawkins. These ladies
gave up their time to come down to the finish line to cheer us in, which meant
the world to Julie and myself. It was
awesome to have Sarah give up time out of her birthday weekend with her sister
(she flew from Queensland for this) and Catherine, whom I had not met yet, come
to see us. Amazing ladies and thank you
very much from the bootm of our hearts.
I will finish off with a final note to say that thankfully Annette is still with us, she is heavily
sedated and I am sure it won’t be long now.
She will pass leaving her 8 year old triplets and a husband behind at
the age of 39 which in anyone’s language is far too young. If this is not reason enough to try and find
a cure for this god damn shitty disease I don’t know what is.
I am back on the bike in 3 weeks and then 2 after that, but I
am still raising money for next year in Brisbane already. If you are interested in helping myself or
Julie please let me know.
