Last day, was a nice distance of 120 km into Cunnamulla. It was a cold start at Barringun, and none of us really felt like setting any speed records. It’s funny, when you ride lots of kilometres like this, some sessions you feel good and riding is easy, and then for no particular reason some sessions feel ordinary. In the first session today I felt like everything was a bit painful; achilles tendons, knees, bum…but then the second session felt fine. Lewis and Jonah seemed to be going fine, so perhaps it was just the extra years. Morning tea was welcome at 60 km, and then we were into the last leg. It is hard not to look forward to bacon and egg sandwiches at morning tea…that’s a routine I will miss :). Here’s a video of the action at morning tea for you….
https://youtu.be/bAnU9-_FATs (Day 8 Morning Tea)
The last 60km into Cunnamulla we were just cruising along, and then with about 15km to go we were met by 3 cyclists from Cunnamulla who had ridden out to come into town with us. That was really cool to have them with us, and they took a real interest in the riding, the bikes and what we were doing. To Rodney, Joe & John; thank you very much. It’s always nice to get to the finish of something that has been hard and taken a lot of effort to achieve, and it was lovely to get off the bikes at the Cunnamulla Fella statue and know we had finished. There was a few people coming around to ask us what was happening, and the information centre put on some afternoon tea for us. It was cool. Here’s the video of us coming in….
https://youtube.com/shorts/PzDmkhDRmRE?feature=share (Into Cunnamulla)
In the midst of people, one of the local characters came up to me and gave me $10 for MADCOW saying he had been homeless and he wanted to help others. It was really cool, and summed up people’s attitude to us as we have highlighted what MADCOW is doing to help homeless people in Bendigo. We feel like we have been doing what we can to help the cause, and it’s encouraging as others do what they can as well.
While the cyclists get the attention, I want to say the biggest thank you I can to others who have made this MADRIDE possible. Our support crew has been tremendous. Graham Norman driving behind us all the way at cycling speed, then supplying us with sweets etc when we need a little break has been wonderful. The ride doesn’t happen safely without that vehicle, and Graham has been so good. Rod Symes came as our bike mechanic, and rode 50km a day with us. His knowledge of bikes, thoroughness and organisation was such an asset; the bikes were running smoothly all ride and he was happy to make whatever changes we asked for. Then we had Tabitha Fatchen, Jan Gillett and Bob Gillett doing the food for us and they provided it all with a smile and lots of support all the way through. They were all a tremendous support team, and we thank them very much. On top of this, a number of different people/organisations loaned us bikes and other equipment for the ride and we appreciated it all very much. Then, we had a number of bakeries donating food for us (thank you Strathfieldsaye Bakery, MAX’s bakery, Bendigo Original Pie Shop, George’s Bakehouse, Eaglehawk Bakery), and Chris Naunton of Living it Live helping us with the website. Finally, thank you to all of you who have taken an interest in the MADRIDE and supported us and joined in with supporting MADCOW. It helps make it all worthwhile.
And what about future MADRIDE’S? Well, Lewis and I have now ridden about at third of the way around Australia together for MADCOW with 2 different bunches of riders and we would love to keep having a go at doing more with others who may want to join us. So we hope we can get the next section organised and give it a go….we will let you know when it’s happening.
Recent Comments