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Tour de Gong
Nearly thirty bright-eyed and bushy tailed representatives of Randwick
Botany Cycling Club entered the 21st annual Gong Ride for the
MS Society. Thanks to the ongoing bushfires the day was a smoky and hot
affair with an eerie haze over the entire coast, south of Sydney. But we
were not to be fazed by the heat and after numerous photos for the fans
at the start line the Randwick Botany train head off for one of those
action packed adventures. |
With numerous participants riding mountain bikes the Randwick Botany team
felt out of sorts with our streamline racing bikes. Soon we got into the
groove and felt like a normal Sunday morning training ride, but the real
action was only about to begin. After a pit stop Michael Schumacher would be
proud of at Waterfall the team began the crazy decent through the National
Park. But what goes down must come up (cycling science) and the climb
through the National Park was lead by the gun riders, including Dale Rockell,
Scotty Rice, Tony Caruana, Ben Still, and Mark Murdoch who was out shining
his sons, Tom & Mick, up the first real mountain of the ride. Meanwhile we
had David Jenkins-Flint have his chain come off at the start of the hill and
in true Randwick-Botany spirit Michael Murdoch & Joe Sorby held up for the
young star before watching David accelerate (Lance style) and leaving the
two ‘domestiques’ for dead. A rest was then in order at the top of the
National Park at the coffee shop with Ron Sproule and Tony Caruana finding a
table immediately and enjoyed a well earned coffee.
But before we got too comfortable cries came from ‘El Presidente’, John
Buckton, that the show must go on as lunch is calling down at the gong. The
pace began to really pick up with Ben Still, Tony Caruana, and Tony Horneman
on the front and left the rest of the team to suffer out the back. A
puncture by Dave Jackson meant that the team was able to regroup 10 km
outside of Wollongong, with Marika Kahle & Leane Koh bringing up the rear
and have a merry old time just cruising along. But it was back to business
with Thomas Murdoch chatting up as many ladies in the last 10km and the rest
of the bunch grinning ear-to-ear with the finish line in sight. A momentous
roar erupted when the Red & Blue train crossed the finish line with a
respectable time of 3 hours 30 minutes being achieved by the team. After the
victory speeches from Nick Cater & John Buckton, fish and chips and a
Gatorade (provided by Joanne Buckton – she does good work) was enjoyed by
the gang. With most arranging transportation home it appeared that Tony
Caruana, Dave Jackson, Mick Murdoch, and Joe Sorby spent all their money on
lunch and had to ride all the way back to Sydney, talk about suffering.
In the end it was a tip top day enjoyed by all, with a special thanks going
to those from the club who organised the day – particularly Mark Robertson
(Father of the Year). And we are all looking forward to next year when it
should be even bigger and better with many more thrills and spills.
Joe Sorby.
Photos coming if they ever send them -webmaster
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