DAY 1
From: Federation Square, Melbourne
To: Sunny Cranbourne
Distance: 76km
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After what seems like years of riding & preparation by all TDC riders, family and friends the TDC 2008 finally kicked off today.
With a flurry of first day jitters, last minute bike checks and mobile phone alarms the TDC Team descended upon the hotel restaurant for the Day 1 breakfast and briefing.
Alan from Recovery Sports Medicine gave a run down on nutrition, hydration and carb loading to make sure that we consumer refuel the energy that we burn throughout the tour. Evo has taken to carb loading beautifully, knocking back gallons of Powerade and giving muffins/sandwiches/biscuits a fair old nudge throughout the day. If only he was a rider and not part of the support crew!
A quick thank-you to the Quality Hotel Batmans staff and we were finally out of the hotel and onto the bike for a quick dash to Melbourne’s Federation Square for the Launch Event and Official Kick Off.
We arrived at Fed Square to receive a warm welcome from friends and family – it was just as well being a very fresh 8 degrees!
Upon arrival the first sprint (to the masseuse) was won by the seasoned veterans Loey & Denver – even though they’d only ridden all of a block & a half.
Kudos to Pup who managed to extract a mobile number from one of the Ella Bache Massage ladies & land himself an additional $100 TDC donation from Garren & Crommo (here’s hoping it’s the first of many!)
The Launch event was a blast for all with the Boost Mobile Bike Mechanic Championships (Won by our own Alex from KOM!)
Dipper helped with crosses to Channel 9 News and Kerri-Ann. Bernard and Stephen Curry hosted the event & were great value keeping the audience entertaining & laughing along.
A quick good bye to a familiy & friends and final cross to Kerri-Ann for the official start and before we knew it we were off heading down St Kilda Rd.
Lexus have been brilliant partners for TDC and have donated a couple of support vehicles so first stop was Lexus of Brighton for a thank-you, photo, and much needed coffee. Another quick stop at Recovery Sports and we were heading out of Melbourne’s suburbs and onto the open road.
We must have been blessed on day one as the weather did us a big favour and we avoided the rain beautifully. With a tail wind at our backs and some of Victoria’s best road surfaces, we had a cruisy run down to Mordiallic and finally Cranbourne.
At our lunch break at Mordiallic a gorgeous little girl called Kyria came up to us and donated $3 (from her mums purse) for her school friend Kate who came down with Luekemia last year. Thanks Kyria and we hope Kate gets well soon!
But the day was not yet over. We all headed down to Cranbourne’s Bowland for some ten pin bowling from the kids from Camp Quality.This was great fun and everyone had a ball…bowl !!! Funny feeling with a bowling ball in hand, in your lycra and wearing a pair of bowling shoes.
A big thanks to Sarah and Barrie from CSC who joined us for day 1. Sarah joined us on a bike which sould have been left in the 70's and did an incredible job keeping the back of the pack filled with conversation. It would be nice to think that Sarah and Barrie might train up and join us for the entire tour in 09.
Dinner at the hotel was great..........Lots of laughs, some funnies stories from the day and certainly the beginning of some jousting between Evo and Sam! The Category jersey winners for day 1 were
PINK JERSEY - James (Lead Car Driver) for his outstanding support and manouvering leading us through some tricky sections and getting us from A to B safely
YELLOW JERESY - Vaughnie (Team CSC) for helping secure the support of the Currie brothers and other Media support for the Tour de Cure
POLKA DOT JERSEY - Crommo (Team Travel Force) for his focus and determination to continiously lead from the front both on the road and via his fundraising
BLUE JERSEY _ Maxie (Team Choice Hotels). This jersey is awarded for 'GUTS' but in this instance was awarded for lack there off...........Maxie lost a whopping 9kgs over the last 3 months getting him lean and mean for this tour and his 40th year! he doesn't look a day over 39
And so day one came to an end…..the anticipation of tomorrow on everyone’s minds, it was lights out at 9.30pm and everyone was sound asleep.
1 comment:
I just want to say a big thankyou for the opportunity to be part of such a brilliant team and amazing charity event even if I did have to wear lycra!
I must say I felt quite anxious about keeping up with the pack (especially on my 70's style bike!! ) and being able to get over the hills (not my speciality) but that's when the true colours of the tour de cure team came out for me. Geoff the organiser came back and stuck with me over some of the larger inclines (ok they weren't really hills) as I was struggling to keep up with the packs pace. I managed to keep with the pack the whole time (yes and keep talking) with only the occasional added support of two young whippets at the rear who actually had their hands on my back....... Fantastic team spirit. Well I am certainly up for the challenge and would luv to be a part of the action again next year - on my yet to be purchased new bike.
P.S. The team looked awesome riding through Rosedale, all the best on the road between Lakes and Mallacoota - Go Team....
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