SMILING FOR SMIDDY
BOTTLEMART CHALLENGE
Brisbane to Townsville 1600
kilometres
Day 4 Biloela to Blackwater Author – Paul Mason
Day 4 Biloela to Blackwater Author – Paul Mason
Stats for the day – By
David Colahan
Distance: 236.5km
Average speed: 27.5
Metres climbed: 1600m
Temperature min: 8
Temperature max: 38
Wind direction: Head-wind
Distance: 236.5km
Average speed: 27.5
Metres climbed: 1600m
Temperature min: 8
Temperature max: 38
Wind direction: Head-wind
Schindler’s List (road
kill count) – 2 cockatoos, 1 fox, 1 black cat, 1 echidna, 6 kangaroo, 4
really bad spells(1 of which Nathan), 7 unidentified , 4 hawks, 2 rabbits, 1
smiddy killed rainbow laurrie
Matthew 11:28-3028 “Come to
me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take
my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and
you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my
burden is light.”
Why would I start my blog on
today’s ride with this quote out of the bible? Well I’m Catholic to start with
and when I read this passage it was so Smiddy I had to use it. Why is it
Smiddy? Well let me clear up something immediately – I don’t think Sharky is a
God! In fact, just to divert for a second or 2... have you ever actually wondered
where his nick name “Sharky” comes from? I knew Sharky early in his triathlon
career in Mackay and I can assure you the name did not come from his swimming
ability! He will tell you it’s because of his big nose. So for that to be true
he would have to swim on his back – his nose would be the sharks dorsal fin so
what part of his anatomy would then be the tail fin??
Anyway back to why I opened
up day four with this quote? How aptly does it describe all of us on our ride
to Townsville? We are into the 4th day of our 1600km epic and I know
I am certainly weary! But to have ridden this far with the yoke shared between
all us has certainly made the ride lighter easier and more possible than if we
were by ourselves. Furthermore, but not surprisingly, everyone I have spoken to
on this ride is carrying some form of cancer burden - some of us directly and
all of us with family or friends - some surviving the disease and in a lot
of cases ... not. My own father died from cancer 5 months after he was
diagnosed with it. I was very angry about this but when I rode this ride last
year I shared my burden with my fellow riders and the “road” - my burden of
this anger was gone. I believe for all us the sharing of our burdens with our
fellow cycling Smiddy community will lighten all of our loads! We have had some
of our rider’s share their stories so, tomorrow, ease someone’s burden and ask
them why they are here! The other essence of our trip that keeps our weary
bodies going day after day is our phenomenal road crew – they keep us safe on
the road, amazingly well fed, always there to greet us with a bountiful smile
and after some genuine Chinese torture release the tightness in muscles we
didn’t know existed – they are indeed humble of heart and find us rest every
night!
Anyway, today’s section was
Biloela to Blackwater. After leaving Bileola
(20 minutes late) we rolled gently in Jambin where Ross's seat post decided to
pack it in. Now it’s gospel in Smiddy folklore that if Jimmy can’t fix it can’t
be fixed! Now my initial reaction to this was pretty disappointing - the whole message
of the Smiddy Challenge is the 'Smiddy Spirit'! Where was Ross's Spirit - what
did he need the saddle for? Why didn’t he just ride without it? But Ross has
endeared with the Smiddy Spirit - with greater commitment that riding his bike
without its seat he actually ended up riding Geeves 'antiquated'
Canondale. Now I’ve seen Geeves's riding and I can tell you Ross rode that
bike with more ability, style and speed than it has ever been ridden before.
Now we normally ride in 2 lines
on the road but with a police escort, we form up in lines of 3 on the
Capricorn Highway to shorten our profile on the highway. Now if you are
selected you get to ride in the middle line of 3 – in business class -
as we call it. You don’t rotate off the lead and you get sucked
along without much effort – perfect. But even in lines of 3 this
afternoon's session from Weswood to Dululu was genuinely a really tough gig! We
forced our way to Blackwater into a raging cross-wind and head-wind the true
test of our spirit and fortitude! A really really tough day in the office!
Following afternoon tea the
horrendous head winds from the morning session had changed direction to over
our left shoulder and decreased in intensity. Today is one of our longest days
combined with the heat makes for a long tough soul searching day. Everybody’s
legs were still carrying the residual but the climbs of the last 3
days were hopefully a distant memory! A short water stop in
Bluff was now finished with the now traditional cry of “let’s
get this done” and the call for the 3 'amigos’ was put out
and the whole Smiddy group drove the peloton into Blackwater at about 35k
an hour – yeehaa it doesn’t get much better than that. One of those Smiddy
moments that stays with the riders forever.
Now a real paradox of this ride is
that the two of the keepers’ of Schindler’s List are POMS! (Nathan and Michael).
I mean the keeping of Schindlers list is now a Smiddy tradition requires the
counting and identification of dead Australian Wildlife killed on the roads we
ride over! And we have entrusted this sacred duty to 2 bloody Englishman! You
have to wonder!
Further to this and confirming my
genuine concerns - another tradition in the Smiddy peloton is the spotting of
white horses and windmills. It is a lot of fun and has the real benefit of
making riders look up and outside of the group to enjoy the spectacular country
we are riding through and not just becoming fixated on the black tyre in front
of you. Now John Leyshon is the guru of this ‘game’ and Nathan a big
activist also. My concerns over Nathan’s counting and identification abilities
are highlighted by his questionable record in this game – with much
enthusiasm and passion Nathan’s cry of ‘white horse’ was heard across the whole
peloton and support vehicles! His smile was a cockney as Cavandish winning
another Tour De France sprint. Painful. However, on closer inspection the
‘white horse’ was big... slab-sided, grey, had horns...and a big hump
between its shoulders ...namely one Brahman bull! And Michael today called
possum and rang the bell. Upon closer look the possum had small snout strong
short clawed feet and long orange black spines on it'd back. Possum? Hmmmm
possibly echidna might be it I think. And they have authority over Schindler’s
List..... But we love him and I’m sure doing the list proud!
Anyway that is day 4 and
this is smiddy 2013
Thank you to everyone following this inspirational journey of 54 riders and 12 road crew. If you wish to help out by donating towards your favourite rider’s fundraising page please go to http://www.smiddyfundraising.com.au/event/smiddychallenge2013 or visit the Smiddy website at www.smiddy.org.au
Thank you to everyone following this inspirational journey of 54 riders and 12 road crew. If you wish to help out by donating towards your favourite rider’s fundraising page please go to http://www.smiddyfundraising.com.au/event/smiddychallenge2013 or visit the Smiddy website at www.smiddy.org.au
Sharky’s OZ 7in7
Two days after the Smiddy Challenge Mark ‘Sharky’ Smoothy continues his 7 year journey to ride around Australia in 7 stages. If keen to follow Sharky and ten other Smiddy riders as they ride the 2400 km sixth edition of the Shark’s OZ 7in7 from Adelaide to Melbourne and a lap of Tassie, you need to visit or sign up for automatic updates at Sharky’s Blog marksharkysmoothy.blogspot.com.au/
Two days after the Smiddy Challenge Mark ‘Sharky’ Smoothy continues his 7 year journey to ride around Australia in 7 stages. If keen to follow Sharky and ten other Smiddy riders as they ride the 2400 km sixth edition of the Shark’s OZ 7in7 from Adelaide to Melbourne and a lap of Tassie, you need to visit or sign up for automatic updates at Sharky’s Blog marksharkysmoothy.blogspot.com.au/
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