Bay in a Day - Post finish

In the end I have a few observations:

1) Considering the conditions we did a damn good job – it was apparently up to 36 degrees and incredibly humid with hot northerly winds on the way back.

2) Dan, Andrew and Mark were so strong, it was great to see how they handled the whole ride easily and, it seemed to me, completely effortlessly. They were fantastic to ride with.

3) It was probably the hardest thing I’ve done. The marathon was tough, but this was so much longer and much more gruelling for me at least. I had some ups and downs in the marathon, but they were very minor downs, whereas these were pretty painful downs and lots and lots of them.

4) I was happy with the way I dealt with the downs, I never felt like I wouldn’t finish and I never felt upset or angry with myself. I was confused as to why I was hurting so much and the other guys weren’t, but I was philosophical and figured I’d just spin it out til the end so I was never really bummed. That’s positive!

5) We had a very lucky ride. Considering we had over 800km of riding between us, there was not one single flat tyre (and believe me, we saw hundreds of people changing flats, no exaggeration), no crashes, no falls, only one real mechanical problem with Dan's wheel which was quickly remedied.

6) The whole thing is incredibly well organised. For 14,000 people and bikes to get through that day so smoothly like it was nothing and with no real waiting at any point (for food, toilets, ferry etc) was an incredible achievement by the organisers and volunteers.

After some stretching and a beer at the finish we went back to the hotel room to clean up and for the other guys to pack their bikes as they had to leave in an hour’s time to catch their plane back to Sydney.

The venting on the back of Dan's cycling jersey offered a surprising souvenir of the ride


We thought we'd share our joy at finishing with the lovely Chloe, having the most delicious beer of our lives and a plate of fries before the lads bid farewell to Melbourne and I reluctantly got back on my bike to pedal back to Geoff and Barb’s house in Parksville to catch up with them and their stories from Dunk Island, as well as Lisa and Brett, before crashing out like a light at 9.30. Mission complete.



Andrew and I looking pretty damn happy to be drinking a beer instead of riding a bike at this point. Dan grabbing a quick power nap.