Joined for the day by guest rider Disco Stu, we rolled out at 9am from beautiful Port Macquarie faced with another day in paradise. Families and friends that had joined us for the weekend gave us a huge send-off, partly making up for being in the bar when we arrived on the Friday afternoon.
The first few hours took in some gorgeous scenery but the road was narrow and tough and morning tea was welcomed by all.
Muffins and coffee were served in a picturesque park in Laurieton and from there we made our way back towards the Pacific Hwy. Good communication ensured the group made it through a tough patch of road before the hwy opened up to duel carriageway and the pace was wound up to more than 35kmh for the last 25km. Team Decorub's Tricky Ricky took the sprint over Adam Pounani with Old Man Cougar (Geoff Coombes) well off the pace. Apart from King of the Mountain pair DC and Wonderboy Alex, who decided they'd ride the last 60km in top gear only, the whole peloton was riding strongly and the 95km ride passed in a flash.
We were greeted by the local Prostate Cancer, Breast Cancer and Camp Quality representatives in Taree and enjoyed a nice lunch on the river. The afternoon was taken up with a visit to the local hospital, where we handed out a few gifts, lifted some spirits and hotfooted it home to avoid the rapidly approaching storm.
A couple of the lads devoured a 21-piece box of KFC (uuurghhh) and watched the footy before sprucing up for dinner at the Manning River Hotel. We were once again joined by some wonderful people from the three cancer foundations we're supporting, and were supposed to follow it up with a game of poker. Loey was looking forward to fleecing everyone but 8pm has become standard bedtime and the only person left to fleece was DC, slowly making his way to the bottom of his 5th bottle of red for the weekend (he's still carving the rest of us up but Wonderboy Alex leads their one-on-one sprint challenge 9-7 – DC informs us he's 'taught the kid too much' but we reckon if he got off the drink it'd make a bit of a difference).
A huge day awaits us into Newcastle tomorrow. Based on the program so far, the 174km stage as indicated on the website should be somewhere between 20 and 300km. We're all flying though and itching to knock another challenge over. Come and see us at Noah's if you're in the area.
The Intelligent Investor Polka Dot jersey was awarded to Marsha for his focus during the ride.
The Pratt Foundation Blue Jersey was awarded to Mark Star for his gutsy performance over a number of days. He was all strength today after a couple of tough ones earlier in the week.
Lear Jet Mal Heath was the undisputed winner of the The New Idea Pink Jersey for his support within the peloton and because he'll look funny in hot pink.
Finally, Max Walker won the Myer Yellow Jersey for his positive attitude on the ride. He certainly showed a positive attitude towards Brooke, who added a 'special touch' to tonight's prize.
Yours forever, Stevie J and Tricky Ricky for the Decorub Team.
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