Day 4 sees us leaving Tarcutta at 9am, as this is only a 70km day we don't need to leave to early. So today I leave twinnie in the capable hands of Jen (thanks for letting me ride today Jen) as I swap jeans and jiggers for Lycra and bike shoes! I wake at 6am wi butterflies, excitement and nerves I think, riding the Hume hwy with this great bunch is a bid deal to me! Once we r all brekky'd upand bikes are good to go we have our morning debrief from the days captains, Barb and Jamie :) not much to be said to the group, mainly me as I need to be familiar with the hand signals and what not, a quick welcome to the group and we were off!
A nice comfortable pace was established, these guys are out for fun not to kill themselves which I welcomed wih open arms. A lot of road kill, some stinky some not, some covering the whole break down lane even!!!! Eeewwwwww, and the. We hit our first climb, guess who was at the front of the pack, ME! There was a quick "Clair u move back when we hit the base" from Glenn (always watching out for me) and a huuuuuge "phew" from me! Lol, we all got up that baby very well stayed in close, any closer and I as kissing butt I tell ya, but I wasnt dropping that wheel (can't even remember who's it was) , then some nice downhill b4 the next climb. Our last climb before morning tea was a doozy, an ouchy 2km climb, thank god for the cakes, chocolate and coke waiting at the top! Sounds healthy doesn't it! Lol.it was this climb that Glenn won the kind of sand wedge mountain (called this as at the truck stop jamie found a sand wedge moulds into the bitumen), poppy smithy and Pete took off and Glenn took chase, and got em!
Jen was all set up and weren't we happy to see her :) Zoe from top notch joined us here (she is along to massage, and is currently working away massaging the riders) , and thankfully the second leg was pretty much flat or downhill, yippeeeeeee. The comfortable pace and constant change of leaders enabled us all to chat and have a laugh, mostly at Smithys infamous stories, they're getting that bad that when someone tells a truthful one we don't know whether to believe them or not! Lol, ahhhh poppy Smithy and his stories (yep that's the name I've fondly given him). The constant beeps from truckies and cars was great, if only i was like the other riders and had the confidence to let go and wave, lol. We headed into Holbrook to a very warm welcome from Luke, Jess and Sam Carter, as well as the mackinley family, louises brother Gordon and 2 kids Hannah and Charlie , thanks for cheering us on guys!
A photo in front of the famous Holbrook submarine was in order as well as passing the money tin around the crowd that was at the park, a huge thanks to all that donated :)
We jumped back on our bikes and rode down to our caravan park, showers lunch and bike washing was the order of the Arvo for most, and then massages from Zoe, thanks Zoe, only hearing great reports from those who have had one so far!
Dinner tonight is at the Holbrook RSL then an early night as the riders prepare for a 7am rollout and a 160km day to wangaratta
On a personal note I had a great day, those 3 hill climbs were an accomplishment for me, and personal bests (so far as hill climbs go) . All the riders made me feel very welcome and looked out for me at all times, thanks guys you are all wonderful people. Stay safe and tomorrow I'll feed you up real good!;)
Doin it for the kids
Clair :)
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