RMHC Ride for Sick Kids SA - Day 1

RMHC Ride for Sick Kids SA - Day 1 

The Torture Begins!!

The Bus Trip begins from the House and those that don't have any precious Ailments were given their allocated seats in the Tour Bus driven by Lode and directed by Ailsa.

As the bus trip down to Mt Gambier is quite picturesque, it is none the less relatively boring and quickly a syndicate was formed to relieve the boredom and the days races were picked for the syndicate for our much awaited fortune! We were confident as in the syndicate we had secured Lucky Lewis and we're sure to rake in the dollars!

(Please remember to gamble responsibly)

A quick unscheduled stop for a nature break as many of the bus occupants were eagerly eyeing off the empty drink bottles around as good sample vessels for the inevitable drug screening for those elite athletes among us.

Demo and Lucky Lewis at the trough............

Lucky Lewis Lingas Longa as the deputy strides up to the trough and nonchalantly cramps Lucky's style, and the arid lands of the SA outback have not had their drought broken by the dry man!

We had attempted to get away quickly but appeared to be one rider short, when across the road, racing from the Foodworks came Constable Demo, galloping like a frightened Impala, loot in hand and yelling "Start the Bus"!!!!

The good Constable shared his prized food with the occupants of the Bus in an effort to ensure his anonymity would be kept! (one does believe the stolen goods were indeed paid for legitimately).

Syndicate gets into the swing of it as Lozz picks a horse that could possibly be a long shot as it appears to be carrying a slight injury......scratched was interpreted literally by Lozz so she then proceeded to the next best option of American genius as the bus was obviously void of any Australian geniuses!!

First race come and gone and the syndicate is poorer for it with both horses still running as the professional punters led the way.

On pondering the syndicates decision to not put Lucky Lewis first up starter to set the tone, we were informed of the now tarnished Lucky streak that had befallen the once mighty winner of all things to win.  On a recent training ride, the ever conscious and vigilant rider Lewis, gave quite clear directions on the importance of watching the white line, upon which all riders safely navigated the dangerous obstacle only to watch the Lewis Tarmac attempt to embed itself in said surface!! To a rapturous applaud the riding group realised that the spoils and fortunes of the ride may have a more even spread of winners than a one man band taking it all home!

Lucky Lewis Loses!

Lucky Lewis keeps his winning streak up with the only lucky plate in 1000 people cram packed room for his first win of the tour!

Strategically seated at the only winning table, it was clear that the Lucky Lewis winning streak was alive and kicking! He then went on to make it to the last five Heads and Tails competitors and then conveniently threw his opportunity to allow the last rider Sturmy the chance to take out first prize, unfortunately the Lucky streak is not transferable and without the prompting of Lucky, Sturmy failed to progress any further in the competition.  Well played Lucky!

An Early start from the Lakes resort and down to the Mt Gambier Maccas for coffee and a quick photo and then up to the Blue Lake for yet another photo, I could have down without the 3 metres of 9% gradient, however my dilemna paled into insignificance as the agile Algate was squealing in distress as her handlebars had indeed been put back together by Sturmy and Diesel rather loosely and as she grappled with the 90 degree angle of the bars, I believe I heard a slight snigger from the rider in front of me! Just happened to be Sturmy, and the Muppet award had surely been taken before 10k's had been completed.

Clearly prior to Nettie being a Cyclist she had been training with the Australian Gymnastic squad, as the budding photographer and GoPro videographer, scaled the fencing to get her shot, safety Bade` was not impressed and Nettie proceeded to take of the Tour Leaders role.

A flat day and a scheduled to keep to we headed out at TDF speed and one lamented the enormous amount of training that had been excluded from my regime. 

The pace continued onto lunch and the effervescence of Mohan riding next to me, did little to comfort my screaming quads!

I did take some comfort in the knowledge that my gooch would be in far better condition than that of Fabio's as I was perched upon the road absorbing Roubaix, whilst Fabio was upon the same Venge that destroyed me last year.  When asking Fabio how his backside was at lunch the ever smiling Fabio simply replied "Um Yeah". Enough said.

We continued on, appreciating the fact that without a monumental Faux Pax, Diesel and Sturmy had confidently taken out the muppet award.

Lucky Lewis attempted to turn the attention away from his winning ways by sabotaging his own bike to get a flat at around 120k's.

Not sure who had the most protein in the first six, but as the sound of thunder ricocheted down the peloton, there was a sheepish look upon Bade's face!

Lawrence of Arabia Made a strange appearance today in the peloton for a reason only he can explain!

Viktor Yumsing the very attractive man, decided by his own volition to completely disregard the Velo rules by wearing a cycling cap to dinner!

Muppet day 1 Tab the Masseuse for forgetting  her massaged table 

Yellow Jersey Lozz Murphy for outstanding contribution to the Charity

Muppet nomination to Megan for going to change and returning wearing the exact same outfit!!

Ol Man Geoff the magnificent continued to do as Cotter had asked and wait on Mr Lucas for the entire ride, whether in the bus or not!

As Mohan continued to harass he kind citizens and visitors at Beachport by bearing his white Gnashes like a snarling pit bull for any loose change of $50 notes that may be lying around in the unsuspecting visiting victims!

Organic Cola!! What is that Nugget!!

Yum sing for Viktor the very attractive man, on winning the Yellow jersey
Muppet as expected dual winners Diesel and Sturmy and an honorable mention for Legs Liam for amply applying no Hamilton Sunscreen and looking like a boiled Lobster! 

Just made the day home with sore legs and another ride to Robe, and now to make the short journey to Meningie for day 2 (200k's)

Thank you to all the wonderful support crew that make this ride possible, I look forward to joining you in the coming days.

Still plenty of stories to follow from the impromptu beer and CC fest at the Robetown apartments.

Until tomorrow, good night and see you all shortly.

Mr Lucas