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Day Four : Southern cross to Kalgoorlie 225km

The longest ride of the trip, we left at dawn and arrived in fading light just after sunset.

It was high pressure day as time was of the essence to make it on time, we had 3 drink stops, morning tea and lunch and stop was quickly have a drink or a muesli bar or scoff your lunch down and keep going or we wouldn’t make it.

Out of the 11 hours on the bike we would have stopped for a total of 45 mins for the whole day. A vast difference to my training when I would call into a café and sit down and read the paper and have a cappuccino for 45 mins.

It is the constant pedalling that you can’t train for, in the city you always have to stop at traffic lights or dodge pedestrians on a bike track, which gives you a break that don’t really think about at the time.

We also lost some time when we had to stop and get off the road to allow a massive wide load to go past (see the photo’s). Also at the 200 km mark we had to stop for roadworks, it is at this point where I became separated from the group and had to ride the last 30 km on my own. In my head all I could hear was Richard saying we will not let anyone ride in the dark and you will have to get in the support wagon if it was getting too dark. I was not going to let that happen. With the sun setting on my left I rode the last 30 km on my own at an average speed of 35 km an hour. That is easy to do in the first hour not so easy after 200km of cycling.

I made to the traffic lights around the corner of the hotel when Lou tooted her from the support vehicle and waived. I shook may head rode into the hotel with just enough light.

We had another really good dinner but not a lot of conversation, everyone is really tired. I thought it would be a good idea to go to bed early, but I tossed and turned for 3 hours as I couldn’t get comfortable, everything hurt.

I manage to sleep until 4.00am and then my daughter sent me a very important text message with the updated injury list for Port Adelaide at 4.30am. I was already but it made me laugh, it is wonderful connection we have with the football. She is really worried about me missing the Collingwood match on the weekend.

It is incredible the affect the wind has. On Sunday we rode 167 km but it took just as long as it did to ride 225km today. Sunday was a very tough day and I have no doubt it has taken a big toll on all of us.

Looking forward to a rest day tomorrow.