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2010 Zoo2Zoo Report
The ride started with almost 100 cyclists and 15 support crew gathering at Taronga Zoo, Sydney, at 5am on Friday 15th October 2010 with the aim of riding the 425km to Dubbo’s Taronga Western Plains Zoo in three days. After the customary safety brief and distribution of jerseys, the riders were underway, again raising awareness and funds for the Black Dog Institute www.blackdoginstitute.org.au
At the same time, 20 riders and two support crew were taking off from Canberra’s National Zoo, also with the aim of riding to Dubbo in 3 days.
At Taronga Zoo all the riders were registered, picked up their ride jerseys and were allocated to riding groups of about 16 riders each. After a group photo the riders set off at 6am.
All riders negotiated the city traffic well, with a few riders from the country experiencing city riding for the first time. Each riding group had two experienced Zoo2Zoo riders, ensuring all riders knew which route to take.
We followed the M4 to Penrith, continuing up the highway to a food and regrouping stop at Glenbrook. The hill up to Glenbrook (Lapstone hill) was challenging and most people remarked it was the hardest climb on day 1. Coming a close second was the climb up to Wentworth Falls later in the morning.
The “Supplies” Support crew picked up about 20 kg of potato salad and rice salad, along with 20 loaves of bread, ham, cakes, bananas etc and headed to Glenbrook in the Blue Mountains to meet the riders for their first stop at 9am.
After refueling and a 30 minute break, the riders set off again, having conquered 75km of the 135km to be ridden on day 1. The weather was still slightly overcast, but riding conditions were still ideal.
The road works being done on the Great Western Highway were handled well, with all designated detours being taken by the riders.
The ride from Glenbrook to Wentworth Falls is challenging but achievable. A support car followed each group with an orange flashing light on the roof and a "cyclists ahead" sign signaling to motorists the presence of riders on the road. We had to detour around the road works at Lawson which was followed by a bit of a battle up the hill to Wentworth Falls to our lunch stop.
The next stop was Wentworth Falls, signaling the 100km mark of the day. At this point the weather had started to turn, which meant the last 35km was ridden in rain, with the temperature dropping. Leura, Katoomba, Medlow Bath and Blackheath were all passed through before all riders arrived safely at Mount Victoria at 4pm.
The Canberra riders experienced shocking weather on their way to Young. Of the 20 riders, only 5 could ride the whole 145km, with the rest being transported by the awesome support crew of Jennifer O’Reilly and Cindy Carroll. Once they arrived in Young, they had a group dinner and well earned early night.
Back at Mount Victoria, the local hotel went from serving three locals at 5pm, to three locals and 50 thirsty bike riders. After a couple of hours, we met for dinner at the Manor House, after getting a weather forecast for Saturday......
Everyone met, as planned, at 6am for breakfast and ready to ride. Unfortunately the Mount Victoria weather did not come to the party. The current weather readings were 4C with wind chill of -8C, winds from the west at 45km/h with gusts up to 98km/h and snow across to Bathurst and Orange. Not ideal cycling conditions.
At breakfast the organisers announced that they felt that the combination of strong winds, likelihood of ice on the roads and deteriorating conditions meant it was too dangerous to commence the ride to Molong, 175km west of Mt Victoria. So instead of a very challenging day's riding, the organisers were faced with the challenge of getting 95 riders and bikes the 140km to Orange. Most people took the XPT to Orange, but unfortunately only 5 bikes are allowed on it, so 90 bikes had to be packed into the support cars and trailers.
We were fortunate to get a phone call from Mark Dalton who did the Zoo2Zoo in 2009 from the Canobolas Hotel in Orange, saying “Make the Hotel Canobolas your base – stew and rice for all the riders are on the house”
The train trip had given us opportunity to observe the extent of the bad weather. We passed many snowy white hills, towns with a layer of snow covering lawns and vehicles and much horizontal snow and rain.
After lunch at Orange, riders were re-united with their bikes and were able to ride the 35 km ride to Molong for our Saturday night stay. This ride started off with a couple of nasty but short hills before the group settled into a sustainable pace and we turned onto a quiet back road for a very enjoyable afternoon ride. There was still a brisk wind but nothing to deter a bunch of cyclists who had spent most of the day not cycling. The worst of the weather had passed and despite a small amount of sleety snow leaving Orange we had fine weather through to Molong. Day 2 total of only 35 km taking 1hr 30mins riding time.
Molong was a great stop. We were welcomed by the Mayor with a speech at a local park where some local high school students sold us some very nice home cooked cakes, caramel slice and tea and coffee. They are raising money for a trip to Vietnam next year where they will do community work assisting to build some houses. Our large group booked out all the Molong accommodation and still needed some generous locals to billet 45 of us overnight. Everyone was very appreciative of the local community’s generosity and hospitality.
Special thanks goes to Rozzie Smith, Glenn Mickle and Jock Haynes for helping out so much in Molong.
The Canberra riders had slightly better weather than Friday, but still had a tough 175km ride from Young to Molong.
Once everyone had found their accommodation and had a freshen up, we all met at the RSL Club for dinner.
The highlight of the dinner was a speech by a representative of the Black Dog Institute, David Spindler, an ambassador for the institute and also a long term patient. While his explanation of the purpose and role of the institute was interesting his account of his own story was very powerful. He suffers from bipolar type 2, which is the worst variety, and sincerely stated that the money raised by the Zoo2Zoo, money donated by you and me, is saving lives - his included. He honestly believes he would not be alive now without the treatment from Black Dog Institute made possible by financial support from people like us. It really put the whole ride into focus.
After David’s speech, we were in for the 2010 installment of the “Kangaroo Court" where people are fined for different activities during the first two days of the ride. It is a fund raising event where the fines are a gold coin each. Examples of fines are "everyone who has had a flat tyre in the first two days is fined", then "everyone who hasn't had a flat tyre is fined", "whoever wore those horrible superman blue tights ... you're fined", "stand up anyone with a bell on their bike" that got two more. It wasn't until next day that a couple of riders with triple chain rings were noticed – they will be fined in 2011. The kangaroo court raised another $1,100 dollars for the Black Dog Institute.
It was actually Rachel Kearin’s birthday (one of the riders), and as a result the Molong residents made her a Zoo2Zoo birthday cake.
Sunday's ride to Dubbo was a 115 km blast along quiet backroads from Molong to Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo. The weather was near perfect - cool, clear, with relatively light wind. We left Molong at 6am to ride 22 km to Cumnock where Christine Weston, Jean Gavin and other locals were cooking up bacon and egg rolls for our breakfast along with tea, coffee, juice and fruit.
Breakfast stop at Cumnock.
Leaving Cumnock after breakfast, we passed through Yeoval and Wambangalang (a coffee & cake stop at the school). For the first half of the ride to Dubbo we experienced “Animals on Bikes” - bicycle themed sculptures along the road. Many of the sculptures were made using scrap metal or old farm machinery and portrayed scenes such as a kangaroo riding a bike, a metal drum pig pushing a tricycle and even a scene where the only the back half of a cyclist is visible after rear-ending a cow! The country is beautiful and green, lots of crops growing and the riding was lots of fun. There were a few groups of six and rode two abreast taking turns to push through the wind at the front. Plenty of conversation. This is the sort of riding that makes cycling such a great activity. We finally gathered at the entrance to Western Plains Zoo for group photos before riding the last 5 km into Dubbo for a BBQ lunch put on by the local Rotaract group and welcome by Dawn Fardell, State Member for Dubbo and mother of fellow rider, Veronica. Day 3, 115km, just over 4 hrs riding time.
All in all a great weekend for all concerned under trying conditions. Special mention goes to the 2010 Management Committee of James O’Reilly, Grant Hittmann, Andrew Back, Jim Scollon and Andrew McKay.
2010 Sydney Riders and Support:
Aldworth, Elise
Evans, Ben
Lobsey, Stuart
Scrivener, Adam
Archey, Melissa
Evans, David
Lovejoy, Chris
Scrivener, Jeremy
Askie, David
Fardell, Veronica
May, Greg
Simington, Alister
Back, Andrew
Spindler, David
McDonald, Nadine
Simington, Rory
Berrell, Clive
Figg, Gareth
McDonald, Paul
Simmons, Brad
Bowler, Simon
Fisher, Martin
McGregor, Tom
Slavensky, Vic
Bradshaw, Neil
Flint, Scott
McKay, Andrew
Spooner, Darren
Brady, Gerrad
Ford, Greg
McKay, Ritchie
Stanley, Paul
Byrnes, Simon
