Last Leg - Team Vittoria

......from the road Team Vittoria.

The last couple of days have been incredible for the whole Tour de
Cure pelaton. Our 2nd last day on the road saw us moving from
Newcastle to Gosford. it was a pretty cruisy day on the road for the
team following what was a massive day of riding from Taree into
Newcastle. The relatively calm 100kms from Newcastle to Gosford was
tame in comparison. The team went along at a comfortable 30 - 32km/hr
for most of the day through the flat sections of the course. There
were a couple of slight inclines which put the pressure on the back
end of the pelaton, however there was enough support from everyone to
keep the team moving forward. Team Vittoria upheld its
responsibilities to the team and lead the pelaton to Westfield
Shopping Town in Newcastle to drop off a limited edition plaque to
the coffee store inside Westfield.

The team settled down for espresso's before firing up a massive hill
to start our journey to Gosford. Thankfully the weather held off and
we had a brisk and beautiful morning to start our ride. On entering
Gosford, a number of camera crews were strategically positioned along
our path to capture the team in flight. One of these crews included
the tv network from NBN who filmed an interview with cougar, patches
and some of the Tour de Cure pelaton. This aired that night on the
NBN nightly news at 6pm. Its actually been incredible how much media
this tour has generated. That night at dinner in Gosford our chief
talker Dani Lombard, bought along our tear sheet book which contained
only the newspaper clippings from the last few months of the tour. It
weighed as much as the Encyclopedia Brittanica and would have been at
least 4 inches in depth. It is incredible how much interest this
event has generated with newspapers, tv stations and radio stations.
There wasn't a day that went by where we weren't speaking with some
of the local or national news teams regarding the event, our progress
or the amount of money that had been raised.

We got to Gosford mid afternoon and everybody had some free time to
be able to dedicate to a hospital visit. The community events have
been at the core of the Tour de Cure's activities throughout the trip
down the coast. Whether it was bbq's, cocktail parties or dinners
with the community each afternoon and evening, the Tour de Cure team
have been out and about meeting the locals, the charity support
groups, and raising more money to put towards the tour.

Once the visit to hospital was done, everyone had some brief time off
before congregating for a terrific dinner at the hotel. The Quality
Inn at the Willows gave us their conference facility where Drew
McAllister set the room alight with a live performance of along for
the ride. After a few speeches and presentations the team settled
down together to dance, sing and relax before the final stage into
Sydney. This also included what can only be said was a pretty average
rendition by the entire Tour de Cure team, of Drew's song. There was
no doubt there were mixed emotions in the room as people contemplated
the end of what's been an incredible experience for everyone.