Pedal Cure 4 FightMND – 2020
14th March, 2020
It was a dark and stormy night. No, not the beginning of a trashy B-grade novel. It really was a stormy night. Very high winds and plenty of rain. Much of the rain had pretty much cleared by the time I left for the pub to meet up with Hannah. But it was still very cold. Cycling along the main road, out of town, there was a very strong headwind. I took much of the lead, to provide some cover for Hannah. To make matters worse, there was also a very noticeable ascent. So, double whammy. But we pressed on, battling the wind and the climb. It was bloody cold.
As we passed through Romsey, we encountered some road works. Suffice to say, there were drivers behind us which were not very patient. At one point, my frustration with a driver got the better of me and made the point known. Not one of my better moments. 🙂 As we passed Clarkefield, one of our support drivers stopped by and gave us shelter from the freezing cold. Our fingers were just getting too numb to control our bikes properly. After seeking shelter from the elements for a while, we decided to press on. We didn’t get too much further. Just down the road, we turned off and went down into a small valley. Hannah then lost a little control and couldn’t unclip from her pedals. She promptly fell off. We both decided to call it quits, as it was just too dangerous to control our bikes, with almost zero feeling to our fingers. We retreated to one of the support vehicles. We all met up at Strathmore, where we descended upon a cafe. We kept the owners busy for a while.
It was time for us to cycle the final couple of kilometres to Windy Hill. We mounted our bikes for the last time, as a group, and made our way down to the home of the Essendon Football Club. A week after having left Ungarie, which now seemed so long ago, we’d made it to the finish line. After arriving, we all posed for a group photo.
After the group photos, we all went down to the Windy Hill change rooms, and took a shower, so we could be ready for lunch. After eating, drinking, chatting and some presentations (and a photo with a couple of footy legends!), it was time to go our separate ways.
Most of us had stated that we’d all do it again in two years time. I wasn’t overly sure that I would be able to, as I’d be planning to go off on my own travels around the world by bicycle for FightMND. I grabbed my bags and loaded up my bike. It was just a short ride to the motel I’d be staying at for the evening. I had planned on cycling onward to the Melbourne Cricket Ground tomorrow, but decided I’d had enough cycling. It was time to rest and recover.
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