Day 6 - Welcome to the Hills

We awoke to a beautiful clear morning from the Comfort Inn at Merimbula. Overnight, National 9 News anchor Mark Ferguson drove four hours to arrive at 1am to join us for 2 days of the Tour as one of Camp Quality’s patrons.

Over our usual hearty breakfast one of our riders Brad shared a story of a friend who passed away overnight from skin cancer and Brad asked us to dedicate the ride to him - Gary. This yet again brought home the reason for why we're all doing the ride and motivated us to complete days like today ............

Geoff sent us off with the promise of a ‘few hills’ for the majority of the day and he didnt disappoint ....200 metres into the start we saw our first climb that had the blood pumping and the legs and arm warmers coming off as we ascended 3kms - straight up into the beautiful Merimbula forest.

The following 80kms along the coast was nothing short of breathtaking as we rolled through beaches and inlets with crystal clear blue waters and true blue Australian camping grounds and a sense that everyone was on holiday. Unfortunately in between all the breathtaking views was hill ... after hill ... after hill ...

The group broke in to two again - with the natural hill climbers taking the lead. Team O'Sullivan Pullini once again dominated in many of the hill sprints and Garren led the pack whilst enduring a head cold. Alex and Rick from King of the Mountain set a nice steady pace for the the second group took leading us through the rolling hills and some of the steep never ending climbs.

The day heated up and numerous bottles of Powerade were drunk by every rider and those that collected the daily statistics counted over 78 GU's and 50 Kelloggs Bars consumed during the ride. And those at the back of the pack were kept amused with the dancing and singing antics of Cromo.

The last 15km's into Moruya (for lunch) felt like 60km's and hunger complaints were heard drifting through both packs of riders. The girls from Canadian Kitchen didn't disappoint with a fantastic Mexican feast which lasted about 5minutes - with riders pushing each other out of the way..... followed by Pavlova. It's not until days like today on the bike when you realise how important a good meal is to keep you going. We are indebted to the girls for keeping us well fed with nutritious meals at every stop.

Lunch finished way too soon with all of us knowing that there were 30kms left to 'climb' as we had been warned about the upcoming 'killers' ... and they weren't exaggerating. We finally rolled in to Batemans Bay and many of us were stoked to see friends and family waiting for us and who also stayed on for dinner and the Category Jersey presentations

Category Jersey Winners tonight were ....

Pink - Breast Cancer Foundation - For Support - The Canadian Kitchen Girls - Leisa and Mel
Blue - Prostate Cancer Foundation - For Guts - Garren Cronin (and his bee sting)
Polka Dot - Focus - Rick Horvat (who is sitting here helping me write this now ... still focused)
Yellow - Camp Quality - For Attitude - Mark Ferguson ( Channel 9 News Anchor)


As we sit here typing this feeling worn and weary I know that each rider had to put in a big effort to get through today but we feel it was the most rewarding day of the tour and nothing compared to what many cancer patients have to go through every day. We hope this small effort increases awareness in the community and makes the road to finding a cure that much closer.

Signing out Team O'Sullivan Pullini