Cycle 4 Change Day 7

It was another early start at St Brigid's Convent in Bridgetown. It was reminiscent of last year's ride as the dark rain clouds hovering over the small town of Bridgetown. Breakfast was consumed and bags were packed, and before long, the peloton set out for a short warm up through Bridgetown. The warm up was more like a cool down as the rain bucketed on the riders. Mr Davis found an excuse to back the Pajero out of the drive way to avoid the warm up and decided to meet us at the start of the hills. He later suffered severely requiring Nurofen and Voltaren for pain relief after the first 20kms. 

In the opening hour the competition for the King of the Mountain commenced with five courageous (or foolish) riders battling for first position as the rest struggled up the category four climb. Pedal Dancer Henry Pennell was declared KOM - he insists on being called Lord of the Alps but a more fitting title would be Prince of the Ant Hill. The riders then struggled with headwinds, rain and undulating terrain before they hit their second climb for the day. This climb continued for kilometre after kilometre after kilometre (6kms in total). As predicted we thought it would take about an hour to finish this section of the ride, the last rider made it to the top in one hour one minute and twenty six seconds. At this point the smarter riders in the group, namely Austin, Nathan and Uncle Gazza got on their deadly treadlies to join the wet peloton. 

The descent into Nannup allowed the spirited riders to test their skills, quickly approaching the speed limit while the faint hearted sat on the brakes for the majority of the hill. The reward in Nannup was hot chocolates, cake and coffee as we tried to defrost and people changed out of their squelching socks. A quick rip around the shops in Nannup asking for donations brought the cash total to over $700 before we headed up into the hills once again. 

The Doctor of Pain set a cracking pace and attempted to see how many riders he could break in the process. Austin was the first to go but the group had a brief reprieve as we had our first on road puncture, Henry's bike had a quick tyre change which allowed the rest of us to recover. The doctor didn't let up and as we ascended the next hill all we could hear from the front was "we're nearly half way there", while we traveled at 28km/h up hill. By this point, conversation in the peloton had reduced to monosyllabic grunts. 

Ah.......... Finally lunch at Busselton. It was a welcomed sight to a tired and hungry bunch of riders. As the food was consumed, conversation started to flow. The sun came out and we started to thaw and dry ready for the last stint through to Eaton, our accommodation for the evening.

When we arrived we were met by a nice surprise, Mr Lewis had organised a massage therapist to work on our tired bodies. We had a delicious last dinner together (Pam's Special Curry), before we had a final meeting handing out awards for service, courage and consistency. Uncle Gazza gave us a talk about the great work being done in Cambodia and how many people the money will benefit. He focussed on the need to look past yourself and take a global perspective, using your skills and talents to add value to others, not just yourself.

A quick game of Mafia with the Dallinator and it was off to bed, resting up for the final stage of the trip.