Since writing this article I have had a couple of reports back indicating that they think it biased.  I have discarded these comments as they are are obviously from individuals who are jealous and/or have a tainted recollection of the facts. The majority of you obviously agree with everything written as I have had no other negative comments. From the outset, I did warn that the following report is largely centered around me.  As everyone knows, it is not in my nature to talk about myself, unless absolutely unavoidable.  Seriously though, I can only tell stories about my immediate group and surroundings.  I hardly saw Tony Horneman on a ride for example because he was in another group or either started early or left later.  So if Tony, Mark, Richard or any of the A Team have stories feel free to send them into me and I will fill in the gaps.  From memory (and assisted by the photo), the following brave souls lined up for Stage 1: (Click on image below for larger view)

Matt Lucas, Chris White, Marek Prachar, Kevin Huang, John Buckton, Scott Callum, Greg Smart, Nicholas Hall, Mark Murdoch, Richard Jenkins, Thomas Murdoch, David Jackson, David Jenkins-Flint, Robbie Cater, Chris Jenkins, Andrew Young, Michael Murdoch, Patrick Naughton, Tanya Newton and Pat Jones.

Stage 1.  Jindabyne to Charlottes Pass and return.

About 20 of us donned the warm gear and after some big smiles for the photographers, we headed up the mountain.

The pace picked up with Robbie, Spongie, Paddy, Matty Lucas and Scotty Callum at the front eager to tear each other’s legs off.  Mick “Big Bird” Murdoch had a fantastic first climb and managed to stay with the big boys in spite of their efforts to drop him.  It wasn’t long before the peleton had split into small groups up the mountain.  I was working nicely with Dave “Jacko” Jackson and “Sneaky” Pete Lynch when all of a sudden, Pete’s 200km per month base training schedule got the better of him and he disappeared off the back.  About 1 kilometre later up he comes again and this time ups the pace and he and Jacko drop me.  What the hell was in your drink bottle, Sneaky ??  All the time, I could see Greg Smart about 100 metres up the mountain and two riders working together about 100 metres behind me.  I tried everything to get across to Smarty but although I got close a couple of times on the flatter sections he would kick away again on the steeper sections.  Not long after that Whitey, who had been one of the two riders behind me droped his mate (poor little Andrew Young) and managed to bridge over to me.  Whitey and I then worked together for a long while up the mountain before being joined by our old mate the “Slapper” who was working up past the various groups. After a while the Slapper upped the pace and poor old Whitey (poor old buggar) found the going a bit tough and drifted off the back.  Slapper finally got me within striking range of Smarty and then the sneaky little buggar turned up the wick to drop me.  Oh well I just went easy for a while and waited for my old mate Whitey to rejoin me again and we then worked together to the summit.  When we got up there, the weather turned atrocious.  Joanne was up there with Gatorades and munchies for everyone but the biggest attraction was my spare jackets which went like hotcakes.  We wanted to wait for the other riders coming up but we were starting to resemble icicles.  So off we went.  No sooner had we gone 50 metres then it started to rain.  The rain must have been as cold as it gets before turning to snow.  It was bloody freezing with huge gusts of wind blowing everyone about !!  Anyway whist decending we saw the tail gunners, Mark Murdock, Ritchie Jenkins and there was Tony Horneman who managed a salute, a wave and a smile in spite of the terrible conditions on his first ascent of the mountain.  After we got half way down the mountain, the rain stopped and the weather improved significantly.  Unfortunately, we had let Paddy Jones, Mattey Lucas, Robby and Scotty Callum put a gap on us on one of the climbs which equated to a huge gap over the next downhill.  They were away and we couldn’t catch them.  Sneaky Pete and I did some big turns together and managed to bring back the Slapper and Spongie.  The four of us then worked together to the bottom of the mountain.  In fact the weather improved so much that we went flying past Robbie who had stopped to strip off some of the layers of clothing that he was rugged up in.

Last updated: Tuesday, 05 December 2006

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