On Friday the 26th of March the Cytotoxic Cycling Team met at the Gasworks Park in South Melbourne and proceeded to load bikes, wheels, bags and supplies into two busses and three support vehicles.
We set off on our journey to Echuca at around 6pm to start our M2M 2010 campaign. We arrived in Echuca around 9pm and checked into our hotel before heading off to the pool for a BBQ and team briefing before retiring for the night.
On Saturday morning we left the hotel at around 9am and rode across the town to the start of the ride. As the teams had staggered start times we watched the teams enthusiastically sprint out the gate on their way to 24hrs of hard riding. I decided to join the first team out so I could get a head start. I leap frogged between multiple teams for the first 5hrs or so until I met up with our team bus at the 170km mark.
Due to circumstances outside of my control, I landed up riding for the last 3hrs with no water and landed up dehydrating really badly. I was really sick at that point and had to recover on the bus while eating and drinking to try and get my body back from hypoglycemia due to the dehydration. I unfortunately had to spend a few hours on the bus while we followed some of the other riders to St Arnaud where we had an early pasta dinner.
We then started riding again into the night which was sensational. The rolling hills with the sun setting was just gorgeous and really got the spirits going for a long night of riding. The temperature started dropping and the wind picked up significantly but the team stuck together and peddled our way to Hamilton in a relay fashion stopping every 30km or so to change groups.
We arrived in Hamilton at around 12:30am at which point the bus was in dead silence due to all riders being completely exhausted. We arrived at the sheep shed where all our sleeping bags and stretchers were waiting for us. I went on a quest to find a warm shower which seemed to be the same idea 100 other riders had so after waiting my turn I got to stand under a boiling hot shower for a few minutes which felt like heaven.
So after lying down at 1:30am it felt like minutes when I was woken by Rodney and his megaphone at 5:30am telling me to wake up and head over for some breakfast as we still had to pack the busses and head off to the start line by 6:45am.
We left Hamilton at 6:50am in the pitch dark in the direction of Port Fairy. Sunday seemed to almost be a race to the finish. We averaged about 34-36km/h for the last 90km taking it up to speeds of 58km/h at times.
We rode in different bunches but stopped 5km out of Port Fairy to regroup and finish the ride as a team. We all put on our red helmet covers and booties and proceeded to ride into the town where we were greeted by the shouting and clapping of the crowds. The energy of the crowds made the ride worthwhile especially since my beautiful wife and kids had made the trip from Melbourne to be at the finish to cheer us on.
I only landed up riding 332km in total but next year is another year and hopefully I will get the opportunity to ride the whole distance then. I was on the bike for 11 hours and 14 minutes at an average speed of just under 30km/h.
What an awesome weekend of riding, it was just so motivating knowing that for every km I rode that the Royal Children's Hospital would benefit from the sponsorship I received.
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