Day 1 2015 RMHC SA Ride for Sick Kids (Day 22 for some!)

First instalment of year 4 of the RMHC SA Ride for Sick Kids

Saturday 14th Nov 2015

Prologue : A great day and night in Port Lincoln as Tony Baj and the Port Lincoln community got right behind the Ride for another year and the celebration night ended in adding another $30k to the total fundraising before we headed off, which brings the total to date at $187,000 nett to the RMHC in Adelaide.  Great job to all and a great start to what is sure to be another memorable if not fatiguing ride back to Adelaide.

Thank you to Bubba and the Port Lincoln community for a fantastic send off.

Early Muppet award went to Tyler for leaving two of the three pieces of equipment required to ride a bike at home!

Almost awarded to the Forget me not couple of Linda and Bade' (pronounced for the european community as bar day) for leaving behind a rather critical piece of equipment for the budding visual arts student, Linda, to ply her trade as the official photographer, that being of the camera!

Paramedic Pete the twerker, recently banned from the Christmas pageant for such a heinous display during the Christmas anthem, shamefully made his way over to Port Lincoln with big fluffy head bowed to join us.

And the normally shy and quiet Meggo from Broken Hillo, gave a brief description of her ability to dance better on the table than the dance floor!

As the crew from Bike society recovered from a night of swilling copious amounts of cheap red wine as delivered by the very accommodating videographer Geoff as he was unaware of what was to eventually happen to his beloved ride when given to a young Footballer from the Norwood Football club in the coming day.  

Nugget eventually made his way to the start line and dinner after complimenting the Australian flagship airline on Facebook after they offloaded all passengers and baggage except for one old bike, jamming up the cargo door of the plane.  (even the airline crew must have thought it was time for a new bike Nugget!)

We all settled in for a few hours sleep prior to the first day of this years ride.

Sunday 15th November 2015 

And another tour begins............................

Distance - 166.80 kms

Time in saddle - 6hrs 21 minutes 22 seconds approx (inclusive of the time that four riders decided to lie their bikes over from a standstill for a rest........with the rider still on board!)

Average Speed - 26.2 kmh (with the help of Tylers 4000 mechanical failures and a reid bike that fell apart after the first 40kmh!)

Mountainous stage with 621 metres gained

Average Temp 25.2 degrees

Calories used by very average rider 2,455 (Mr Lucas was the very average rider!)

A glorious Sunday morning in Port Lincoln for some quick photo shots and media commitments by the Daz & Dave the local team from Port Lincoln and the Norwood footy team arrived on what they described as bikes? Apparently they still make reid bikes?

After making it out of the Port Lincoln Hotel and 50 metres to the first round about, there was a small explosion from the rear of the peleton which surely was the Reid having someone on it and pedalling!?  And so the day of mechanicals began and we had a leisurely cruise out of Port Lincoln and only 166 kms to go! Piece of cake the footy boys said.............

The good fisherman weather forecasters among us had got the wind right but failed to know what direction the peleton would be heading, and so the promised tailwind we had heard so much about became a cross/tail sometimes headwind for those that decided that positioning in the peleton was not important.

Tumby Bay or as the the Footy boys thought that the road sign of TB 5ks stood for Tender Bottom, after 50 kms and the beep test was looking like a much better pre season training session than riding 160kms on a Sunday, was a first stop.  We eventually arrived after young Tyler had decided to wrap his chain so tight around his crank that the cranks required removing by Stifler (Cotter) to fix, then proceeded to the shoulder of gravel with both feet still clipped in and decided that lying the bike down would be a good idea! A sigh of relief fell over the peleton as the Muppet award had surely been locked away early in the day? Thanks Tyler.

An uneventful Pitstop and off for Lunch in Arno Bay.  The whippet from Broken Hill (Megan) had seen a running Hare and as a whippet does with scant regard for those behind her took off after said Hare at a rate that blew the peleton to pieces, not least of all were the handsome Norwood footy players, who were now lamenting their jovial commitment to the charity ride and now required a  change over from the Reid bike to videographers Geoff's beloved Specialized.

Quote of the day : Lunch decorum was being enforced by the Brick with eyes, Demo the coppa from the Hill, to the young partially disrobed Footy boys, that they were not to take their shirts off during lunch as they were making us all look bad, to which the reply from the young footballer was "Why, you've been making us look bad for 120kms!"

The support team had set up a beautiful lunch stop for us and we now only had 46kms to get to Cowell and dinner and bed.

As we were mounting ready to leave from Arno Bay for the last leg of the day, Barday was giving a last minute safety briefing on fatigue setting in and how inattention can result in the occasional accident, only to be interrupted not once but three times by a domino like procession of people falling over whilst standing still? Firstly Tyler wrapped up back to back muppet awards after failing to remain upright for a second time of the day, swiftly followed by Matt from the Norwood Footy club hitting the pavement only to make a decent effort in covering this faux pax by proceeding to perform the intended push ups as he made his way to his feet and required Stacey the Paramedic to apply the first first aid of the tour for what was apparently a career ending injury to his hand, which required a band aid....just!  Caught in the jocular moment, YoYo MoMo Mohan somehow fell over the kerb he was standing on with only one foot clipped in??

Safety briefing over, we were on our way.

As the Hurt locker had been opened for the four boys from Norwood, to their credit they dug deep, and huge amount of admiration to these guys for not only joining us on this ride but gritting it out when they are not punching out huge training kilometres like some of us following the Nuggets training plan, but were there for the charity and understand that there are families out there that are much dealing with much worse situations and all four finished triumphantly into Cowell.

Credit where credit is due boys.  It was great that you could join us on day 1 and we look forward to you rejoining us on the last day as we make our way into Adelaide and the house.  A start of a great relationship between the House and the Norwood Football Club.  Thank you.

Also to Darren from Port Lincoln as a 1 day rider in the Malliot Jaune on Tony's bike with a ladies saddle that was about 3 foot too low, outstanding effort mate, and did most the work on the outside in the wind.  You did yourself and the Port Lincoln community proud.

The riders settled into their rooms at the Cowell cabin park with Glenn handing out ice cold flannels upon our arrival and air conditioners on in rooms (it is customary to turn on an aircontioner to cool a room by turing it to cool and not just turning the fan on, for future reference!)

Two support crew made there way the 100kms up the road to collect the missing defib machine from Whyalla.  In doing so nearly t boned a Police vehicle and as the officer exited his car and Chloe squirrelled her mobile phone away for fear of being in trouble for using a mobile device as a passenger, was confronted with  a flustered officer looking for an individual that had presumably either escaped custody or stolen his lunch. The girls were asked to report any sightings of the unknown man to the authority if the came across him in their search in the Metropolis of Whyalla for the misplaced or lost McDonald's store for the now required portable defib!

the extent the support crew will go to for the riders well being........Thank you.

A few pre dinner drinks at the franklin hotel as an alliance was being formed by paramedic Wayno and crew that initially included the whippet, but was quickly excommunicated by the alliance for talking to support crd lead driver and 2 day fill in rider Steve Sturmy Sturm.

A quick walk down the the Cowell  Commercial pub for dinner and the night was soon to be over for most.  Great food and service at this pub, thank you to the town of Cowell.

Tomorrow's short trip to Whyalla looks like a kinder wind with a SSE, although for some reason we are doing a 10km individual time trial, that in the event Mr Lucas wins on the Venge, Bike society will be selling multiple new bikes to the peleton.  Wont be happening as I'm still sandbagging until we are with Stuart O'Grady for the ride home!

Thats it for now, and I will add some photos tomorrow hopefully.  Thank you to all those that have given their support and to all the families that are back at home making it possible for the riders and support crew to complete this ride.

Love to my family, Katherine, jackson, Tayla and Spencer, see myou soon as we make our way to Port Pirie on Wednesday.

Chow