My time between the Century Ride and my next qualifier was spent training, up at daft o’clock on a Saturday accumulating the Ks and as much elevation as you can shake a crankshaft at – roughly translated, elevation means UPHILL. Anyway, we are fortunate here in Newy for being blessed with fantastic beaches, great cycle routes and plenty of elevation, so it’s fair to say I get to see some wild examples of nature in its natural surroundings. On several occasions, I have been known to shout at BBC film crews for putting Sir David Attenborough at risk of being ploughed down by the constipation (if you’re confused refer to It’s not all-about-craig.blog…but). I digress. I have been training since January, and it’s now August, and the annual Humpback migration is well underway where pods of whales can be clearly seen during our climb up King Edwards Park just off Newcastle Beach. Most rides we get the extraordinary sight of Humpbacks breaching, and if you look to the top right of my photo you can see a mother and its calf, wonderful sight – Oh please ignore the flexible young lady doing early morning yoga as its all about the Humpbacks alright!
SO cycling. The next time I saw the Fairy King was when he joined a group of riders needing another qualifier because their times for the Century Ride were a little slow. I was one of those riders and I remember asking myself why I am putting myself through this pain and why do I need to cycle to the Entrance and back without stopping for the traditional coffee and banana bread – WELL.
Editorial Censorship: Pulling the wings off of flies
From my perspective I was only 10 minutes outside the time and how can I be asked to do another qualifier by someone with the nickname of FATTY (the nickname does not represent the rider I can assure you). Well as I sit here today it now makes sense, the 1000ks 4 Kids leadership team and the Captains are pushing me so that I enjoy a 10 day cycle ride and they are spot on. I will be cycling with Legends. Half the constipation are newbies pushing themselves to their limit just to be on this ride as well as fundraising to make a difference to families living with Cancer. So if you want to get behind this life changing cause, log onto my page and contribute whatever you can as you will make a difference to a family doing it tough, a lot tougher than 10 days of cycling.
On reflection I think its only fair to point out, the Fairy King is the one in the yellow jersey at the front of the constipation in my picture on the header of my Blog, a TRUE LEADER! Also, tomorrow is the last qualifier, a two day ride to Dungog and back of about 200ks with all 62 riders, full support crew, doctors and mechanics – should be a great weekend!
To cap off another amusing (hopefully) blog, a word from another one of my sponsors, CoreProject Group. I have known the founders of this company since arriving in Oz, Tom looks a lot like Tom Cruise (in the right light mind you) and has been used as a stunt double on two occasions when filming for Mission Impossible 2 just off the harbour here in Newy but the most daring thing he does today is not wearing a vest to work on a Friday. The other is Jamie, who is Ross Kemp’s doubleganger (he is by the way) and while at Uni he did a couple of Extreme World’s when the situation got too dangerous to send Ross in – I think he did the Mexico one in 2011. Anyway if you need anything big building there your men – tell Tom or Jamie the Stevenson’s sent you!
Oh, I have recorded my Entrance Ride for you as well – ENJOY
Badger & Batbottom 