2011 Bottlemart Smiddy Challenge: Day 8 Journal, Charters Towers to Townsville

By Sue Stevenson

The Smiddy team assembled for rollout at the Charters Towers School of Distance Education, some of us after spending the night at the Country Road Motel and the boys in their swags on the lawns of the school after another night under the stars.  The members and volunteers from the Rotary Club of Charters Towers provided a hot breakfast to see us on our way.  Another great spread after the dinner provided the previous night. 

A spectacular sunrise greeted the riders as we went through the now familiar routine of preparing for the day’s ride but today there was a feeling of excitement, achievement and anticipation – we were nearly there!  Just 164 kms to Townsville and the profile card looked to be all downhill!!

With the riders lined up and ready to go there was a short delay as Kevy was missing.  He had to make a quick trip to the servo for some air in one of the tyres of the support vehicle.  Roll out was just before 7.00 am with the local police safely escorting us out of town.  On such a beautiful morning with the wind at our backs and the peloton rolling through the beautiful countryside I really felt we had the spirit of Adam Smiddy on our shoulder, bringing us home.

A couple of times we had galloping horses beside us in the adjacent paddocks excited by the noise of the peloton rolling by and probably spooked by the clown wigs worn by Kate and Wayne with clown faces drawn with pink and blue zinc sticks, not to be outdone by Jimmy who was proudly wearing his Braveheart face with the flag of Scotland in blue and white zinc cream – Scotland the Brave!!  Even Ranger Khoo’s mullet had an airing.

In no time we had covered 47 kms to our Morning Tea stop at Mingela which was the last one provided by our fabulous catering crew.  Again they did a great job. 

On the fast descent after morning tea I was overtaken by Katrina, now wearing one of the clown wigs and pink zinc face in the lowest descent profile of anyone in the group – Go Girl!! 

The group was flying along and I am glad my computer wasn’t working and I couldn’t see what speed we were going – I would have been horrified but at one stage Sharky was reported to have said just ease it back to 40 kph!  I was desperately trying to hold the wheel in front and needing lots of pushes to manage that.  It seemed like we had only just eaten when we were rolling into the CWA hall at Woodstock for our lunch.  I was told by past Smiddy riders in the group that this lunch was legendary and we were not disappointed.  These gorgeous ladies had prepared a feast of cold meats, chicken and salads – the pumpkin salad was the best I had ever had – we then had mini pavs for dessert.  How spoiled are we!  Rod Hughes was so relaxed he had time to stretch back and have a facial with cucumber rings on his eyes – you have to look your best at the finish!!

A quick farewell to our CWA ladies and we were on the road again on our last leg into Townsville, again at a fast pace soon to be slowed by the first traffic lights since leaving Brisbane.  Wayne Wetherall punctured and after a lightning quick repair put in a great effort to ride back on to the pack – no van time today!  Boydy also punctured and with Jimmy’s help was back on the bike in no time.  He repaid him by giving him the ride of his life to bring him back up to the group.  Rod was a little excited at one of the roundabouts and came down, but those titanium hips bounce well and he was straight back up and rolling.

We rolled on past Lavarack Barracks and up through the Northern suburbs of Townsville to The Bottlemart Avenues Hotel for our afternoon tea break – this time a little different with light beer, sandwiches and a selection of hot snacks provided by Greg Pelligrini owner of the hotel and Mark Fitzgerald, area manager of Bottlemart.  We were then very carefully back on our bikes for our last 13 km stretch to the finish.

Emotions were running high as we saw the finish ahead.  A quick regroup brought the 8 girls in the group to the front to have the honour of leading us into the finish to the fabulous welcome from our support crew and family and friends.  We had made it – 1600 kms in 8 days and all in safe and sound what a fabulous feeling.  We had our biggest Smiddy huddle ever and then Sharky called the support crew and riders together for a new Smiddy “cuddle” with David and Maria at the centre, hugged by the support crew and then surrounded by the riders in one huge hug.  We then moved up and down as a group chanting Smiddy Smiddy Smiddy  - what a great way to finish.

Katrina’s School of Hairdressing brought out the hair clippers for the traditional shave down while we all enjoyed some more food from the BBQ provided by the Rotary Club of Mundingburra.  We were then off to our accommodation at the Mercure Hotel but there was still more work to be done as bikes were wiped down and packed in boxes for the return trip to Brisbane and our support vehicles were unpacked.  More great teamwork made short work of this job. Thanks to Janet Curran for supplying the cleaning equipment and bike boxes.

My memories of this amazing challenge are TEAMWORK, TEAMWORK, TEAMWORK!!  I have had so many helping hands on my back along the way.  We have all fought our inner demons in the Hurt Locker (a cliché I know, but appropriate) and overcome them with the help of our friends.  I will always be able to picture Carol leaning out of the support vehicle as it overtook the group screaming out support and waving her streamers and Wybrand in the same position but with his camera continuously clicking to get those fabulous shots.  Coming into meal stops with the cheer squad there to welcome us always brought a smile to my face and a tear to my eye.  You guys are great.  There has been so much fun and love all around that will stay with me forever.

I have come out of this ride a better cyclist than I thought I could ever be and more importantly a better person than I thought I could ever be.  The challenge for us all now is to carry that forward into our everyday lives and keep the Smiddy spirit alive.

I will miss you all and look forward to a reunion soon.

Smiddy, Smiddy, Smiddy!

Sue  xxx

P.S. Smiling or Smiddy wishes to thank Telstra for helping us to get these daily journals out during our tour. We received support with Wi-Fi and phones on the Next G Network to help our team stay connected with loved ones back home.