The final ride - Around the Bay in A Day!

The final ride! I can’t quite believe it, after 22 days of riding, it is now time to complete the final Around the Bay!

Got to bed about midnight after we got everything ready for the morning and helped another rider get his fixed wheel ready for the big day. My only game plan about Sunday was to “Ride Safe” and “enjoy the day” something I have had as a frequent message from some of you! Just stay out trouble, the hard work has been done and I could savour the final day of riding!

So up at 4.00 and at the start by 5.00, saw Fei and Andrew for a quick photo – it was really great to catch up with friends. Andrew, more generally, thanks for the sms messages of encouragement u have sent throughout my ride! Minas was there for the photos, but was frustrated as the street lights were out, so it was not easy to get a decent shot of the crowds.

The day was fairly uneventful … it was really nice to do the ride with no pressure. Colin and Minas appeared at various points along the way clapping and taking snaps as evidence that I did do the final kms.

After the ferry, I met Fei and Andrew for a coffee in Dromana,

I have never stopped like that on the ATB before; it was great! After that it was about 90km to the finish, an enjoyable ride with Andrew and Fei plus some other Break the Cycle jerseys along the way.

The end was magical, I still don’t know if it was fluke or design, but as we turned in to the finish the road to the arch was empty (other than a flock of seagulls organised by the local Magpie chapter I suspect) and I crossed the line with tears in my eyes at the screams of the Learning for Life kids ….. but one voice was prominent over all the others …. Belinda shouting “Go Gazza”.

It was then that I went in to a daze, so many people to congratulate me, Immy, Alison, Colin, Cathrine, Minas, Waqas, Elaine, Belinda, lots of Smith family kids, Marcus, Mark and Siw (sorry if I left anyone out!).

Then the kids made a very special presentation to me and I finally got to meet the girls that did the wonderful painting of me.

So that’s it says Belinda except we need you to do one last thing ….. What an idiot I was …. Next thing covered in Champagne, F1 style, ha ha! So now smell like a sweaty drunk ha ha.

High – finally realising I had completed my objective

Low – absent special friends that I wanted to share this day with

Magpies – the kids gave me a soft toy magpie and I bit it, ha ha!

Music – quite apt I rode across the finish to “Let Go” by Paul Van Dyk. Probably at least three meanings in there !!

OK - that’s it for Sunday – it was a self-indulgent day for me – thanks to everyone who made it special (see next post for Thank yous)

Stats:

250km (Total 5,300km 195 hours)