We had a fantastic ride from Clermont to Blackwater
today. The evening before we were
entertained by the Clermont community at the Clermont Golf Club, with a fabulous Community Dinner kindly supported by Glencore's Clermont Open Cut. We were favoured with music from local group
“The Ring Ins”. Fortunately for all, the
Captain stayed away from the microphone.
Congratulations to Lu Taylor on being presented with her
Spirit jersey for day three. Lu wore it
today with much panache.
The only curio from Stinky’s stats from day three was that
he had cajoled his billets’ children into saying that “Stinky is the best”. The
jury is still out on that one.
We were all up bright and early this morning, pleased to be
aware that the Clermont Bakery opened at 4 am.
The Captain was ecstatic to have a coffee and pie for breakfast. “How good is this?”
Roll out was at 6 am and Clermont local Barb Tuttle was
asked by sergeant major Kevvie to ring the Smiddy bell. And we were off, under moonlight skies and
light breezes.
As the day was mostly uneventful, we have been given the
opportunity to embellish what occurred.
On the way to Capella, we were warned of some vicious dogs
on the left hand side of the ride. The
dogs did not come out, but it reminded us of an incident on this year’s
Rathdowney Rumble – a Smiddy fundraiser organised by Vaughan Klippers and Roger
“Diesel” Hawley. The Captain’s wife –
Smiddy rider Ali Hill - was attacked and bitten on the leg by a dog at the
bottom of one of the long descents.
We stopped for morning tea at Tieri, where our fabulous
fluro fairies put on a great spread. We
were rewarded with a police escort from Tieri towards Blackwater.
At an unplanned water stop at the entrance to the Oaky Creek
mine, we caught up with none other than Smiddy rider Mick Farragio, who had
been trying to catch up with the riders during the day. Covered in coal dust he was barely
recognisable.
Lunch was held at Mckenzie River Capella Road and again we
were well served and cared for by the road crew. Subject to verification, we believe that the
Captain is the first rider to achieve an EBP on the Smiddy Reverse
Challenge. Congratulations are in
order. He has erected a small memorial
in its honour.
With temperatures increasing after lunch, we hunkered down
for the long haul into Blackwater.
Dutchy Holland joined the dusty club at a drink stop along the way,
joining a growing list of dusty riders.
Fortunately, they have all joined this illustrious club at slow
speeds. Joel Stait and I almost joined
the club after lunch, but we just managed to stay upright. It is pleasing to note that John “Locky”
Locke avoided a hat trick of dusty encounters today.
We rolled into the Blackwater PCYC, with just over 202 kms ridden.
A large Smiddy huddle formed in the hall and
Jenny Fraser and Andy Loney led the cheers for the riders and road crew.
On a closing note, we were one Smiddy rider short today,
with Scott Carpenter leaving the peloton last night – after three days of
riding - to travel to Brisbane to be by his daughter’s side for surgery. Scott plans to re-join the peloton in a
couple of days’ time.
Our thoughts are
with Scott and his family.
Nat and Phil
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