Sunday 2 October 2016

2016 / 4 DAY SMIDDY CHALLENGE - DAY 3 - STANTHORPE TO JONDARYN WOOLSHED

Stats for the day by Brett Goebel
69 windmills, 50 white horses - Windmills won!
Distance: 203.7 kms
Ride Time: 7 hours 30 min
Ave Speed: 19.9 km/h
Max Speed: 83 km/h
Climbing: 1234 metres
Min Temp: 8 degrees
Max Temp: 28 degrees

Guest Bloggers
Thank you to the Richardson Brothers and Alex for writing tonight's blog.

Road Kill by Eric StayKov and Roger
1 black crow, kangaroo, magpie, ufo, fox, lizard, fish in a tree, shag bird, 2 wallabies, echidna, ufo, 4-5 other kangaroos.

Guest Speaker
Tonight Lance Chamberlaine spoke of his journey to Smiddy from being overweight at 120 kg. The loss of close friends who lost their children to cancer, both under the age of 10.

Jersey Recipients
Lance was also awarded the category jersey tonight for stepping up within the peloton the past couple of days and helping out those riders that were struggling. His spirit, mateship and caring personality has been appreciated by riders and road crew alike.

Tonight a second jersey was handed out and this time it went to Ashleigh Muir, who is experiencing road crew duties for the very first time thanks to her mum Wendy. Ashleigh has been a real quiet achiever, just gets in and gets the job done with no fanfare, just like her Mum, and is a real role model for young girls out there looking to do something for any charity.

First of all, we all have our own battles that get us up those hills, but a big Thanks to lance, and the others who have spoken above about their tough times.

Day 3 started early once again with an amazing breakfast prepared by the road crew as all riders efficiently packed their bags, rolled their swags and stashed their goodies before tucking into the freshly cooked bacon and eggs. Everyone was prepared for the perfect 6 a.m. rollout until Double Dee realized she was missing her heart-rate monitor. In a tizz, she remembers she put it safely in the bottom of her swag, which was now safely packed in the bottom of the truck. Without even batting an eyelid, the amazing road crew went to work, located the swag, retrieved the heart rate strap, and Dee was ready to once again resume her position in the peloton.

We rolled out late thanks to Dee, but into an absolutely cracking day, albeit with negative temperatures that Stanthorpe is so famous for. There was no sign of the 30% climbs, 200m of dirt roads with moguls , or the 2000 km per hour winds as we climbed to 'The Summit', the highest railway station and postcode in Queensland, and maybe the world.

A special mention must go out to Bretty and Krista for their sparkling clean chains that blinded the road crew as they cruised passed the peloton smarting with their freshly ground coffee in hand. After a quick water stop, we commenced the remainder of our day descending from the top of the earth down another filthy dirt road. We were cruising along, wind in our hair, bunny hopping pot holes and throwing away any excess equipment (like saddle bags and drink bottles) hunting for that elusive dirt road strava segment when Selina tried her hardest to hit a kangaroo just to increase the road kill count. Despite her best efforts, it was Lance, the Yowie Wilddog who suffered on the dirt with a flat tire. This didn't phase our king of the mountain, as he seems to have made an instant recovery after his sojourn to find out "If a bear s&^*s in the woods". Yowie is now also claiming the title of time trial champion after his solo pursuit back onto the pack, however rumors has it that he may be consuming some 'peptides and other substances' that have previously been banned thanks to Lance Armstrong and a AFL football club that won't be mentioned.

It was under picturesque clear blue skies that we rolled the remainder of the 77km into and out of morning tea without a care in the world. Our perfect world came crashing down when we stopped for a water refill next to swap known by locals to breed blood thirsty dinner plate sized Mosquito’s. After some very very quick nature breaks it was the first and only time that riders were on their bikes and actually riding away before we were asked to just to escape these flesh eating monsters.

It should also be put on record that Geevse out of nowhere found his cycling kit, manhandled serge to steal his bike,, and was off at the front of the peloton to lead the group joyfully towards lunch.

On a day that Killer promised would to be all downhill, we ran into a few lumps with nasty crosswinds on our way to lunch, that felt like we were riding up the back of Coot-tha, with flat tires, on a city cycle bike. Such was the pain caused from all the torture inflicted by mother nature over the last 2 days, the sighting of the road crew at lunch after just 28 km since the mosquito infested water stop let out the creative vocabulary of a smiddy rider (who will remain unnamed) let rip with "Thank f$%& we are here". It was with 148 km under our legs at an average of 28 km per hour we all tucked into the hearty lunch prepared by the road crew.

After lunch, we were once again late to rollout because the resident skater boys (Serge and Liam) where doing tailflips and pulling 3 feet of air in the halfpipe across the road. Needless to say this was the least of our concerns, as we turned right and rode kilometers through Pittsworth before Siri realized that Geeves took a wrong turn despite his state of the art navigation system loaned from NASA.

Once we were back on track with at least 10 more superfluous kilometers on our saddle sores, we were again on our way downhill towards afternoon tea.

A further glorious 27 km downhill between lunch and afternoon tea were covered, with just enough time to refresh Eric's arms to allow him to notch up his 1000 push-ups for the day, because everyone knows that Sunday is beach muscle day at the gym right Eric?

The seesaw, swing and playground at the park got a bigger workout than everyone’s chamois cream for the next 10 mins as everyone’s inner child was on display. Before we knew it, we back on our bikes and counting down the last 30 km as we cruised to our final destination, Jondaryan Woolshed.

In total, we averaged 27 km per hour over 203 km on an absolute ripsnorter of a day, a stark contrast to the ridiculous 2 days that we previously rode. A huge congratulation goes out to all riders and road crew for an epic day, but especially to those who have just completed their longest rides ever. Sweet dreams Smiddy riders, one day to go.

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