Chain Reaction Day 2.....or the first full day. Yesterday it was the Prologue, a 70km loop of Hobart. A warm up. A day to shake off the nerves. Today we are riding south to Bruny Island. The peloton were eager. Hydrated. Fresh legs. Ready to roll.....
But first a bit about last night's presentation. We are fortunate to have founder and chairman of Chain Reaction, Berrick Wilson, on the first two days of this tour and last night he shared with us his very personal story of how Chain Reaction began. Holding back tears, Berrick told of his first child's battle with a brain hemmorage just after birth and that he promised if she made it through, he would do whatever he could to continue to make a difference for the other families with sick children. Chain Reaction is that promise. It was a very powerful story and really puts into perspective what it is we're doing here, looking ahead at another 750kms and several metres of climbing as we traverse Tasmania.
The first round of competition jerseys were presented as well last night.
- Navy "Spirit of Chain Reaction" sponsored by LSH Auto Australia went to Jesse Spatt, the captain of Saba Organics team
- Orange leader's jersey, sponsored by Pure Storage went to Paul Tasker of the PwC team, who to date has raise more than $60,000
- Polka dot, Buildsafe jersey went to Matt Donoghue of the Lendlease/Slattery team
- Green "Sprinter's jersey", sponsored by Domain went to Tom Dean also from Lendlease/Slattery
- Black, Mercedes-Benz Melbourne jersey went to John Hunt of the Saba Organics team
Congratulations to you all on an outstanding fundraising and leadership effort!
The Ride
We rolled out of Hobart with much anticipation of what lay ahead. Much has been said of Bruny Island, the ferry crossing, the remoteness, the food, the beaches, the beauty. We were going there to explore it on our bikes. But first we had to get there.
To celebrate International Women’s Day Belinda Drew and Ellen Jones led us out of the city and towards the days first challenge. Hobart is surrounded by hills and we were presented with a 3km climb straight out of town. The peloton successfully conquered the first hill of day and were treated with a slick 20km decent through the town of Snug, past the white picket fenced cricket oval of Kettering towards the Bruny Island ferry.
The peloton was presented with a short sharp climb as soon as we rolled off the Bruny Island ferry. Having dealt with that, the group enjoyed 20km’s of smooth and relatively flat roads to “The Neck”, the islands narrowest point connecting north and south. Here we stopped to freshen up the legs and enjoy the spectacular views from the sightseeing lookout.
Today we felt lucky. The weather conditions were still, little wind, and while only 12 degrees, there was no rain. Good for riding our bikes and warm enough to enjoy the scenery.
From The Neck we had 15kms to get to our lunch (and turnaround) point at Adventure Bay. This section was a real highlight of the day with the peloton enjoying the rolling hills along the coast overlooking Adventure Bay (tip for our readers: pack your bathers and a surfboard and come back here for a holiday).
After lunch, the Peloton were grouped into their teams for the return journey challenge back to the ferry. Marshall White took line honours having chased down Saba Organics who were leading the challenge for over 15 kilometres.
We were welcomed at the ferry by Nicole Frais from the KordaMentha National Road Cycling Team who led us on our way home. With just 30kms left to ride and one last hill before Hobart, the Peloton road together and were able to reflect on a great day of riding.
The final rewards for a long day in the saddle were the rapid decent down into Hobart with riders clocking over 70km/h and the cold beer at Salamanca market.
Fresh legs? Not anymore!
