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Day Eleven : Madura to Eucla 181km

Wow. What a day. We did 181 km in 6 hours, and what a difference a tail wind makes!

We had to rug up in the morning with four layers of clothes, leg warmers and winter gloves, gradually peeling them off during the day. A 25km tail wind made the chill factor huge, especially when we stopped for morning tea.

It was such a buzz to ride with a tail wind and unlike training day, I didn’t have to turn around and ride back into the wind. The ride was a gradual downhill and it was the fastest any of us have ridden that distance. I think we averaged 34km an hour for the whole day and got in two hours early which gave us a bit more time off.

We had a really nice lunch at a roadhouse in the middle of nowhere. I can’t even remember the name of the place but it was really nice and good to be able to sit down under cover for lunch, much more in keeping with my training of pulling into a café when I was hungry.

We got to Eucla at about 2.00pm and checked into a really nice hotel. My room looked out over the Great Australian Bight. There is nothing at Eucla apart from the Hotel and a caravan park. It would be horrible here in summer with the temperatures in the very high ‘40s for months.

A few days ago, Richard brought in a prize of Eddie the Eagle for someone who had done something extraordinary, kind or considerate. The current custodian of Eddie is Glen who is the elite cyclist of the group. Glen for some reason selected me as the winner of Eddie today, I am not sure why, something to do with changing my life and not letting age be a barrier to doing the things that I want to do. Tomorrow is a rest day so Eddie had to go everywhere with me and I couldn’t lose him, I don’t know why they really highlighted that when they gave it to me.

Looking forward to a rest day tomorrow.