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Its another early start for the crew as Eric heads off to bag a dozen local papers from the petrol station as the big man once again makes the news..this time the Ashburton Gazette... 8am and its onto the road again for Dave.
Starting just outside Rakaia, Dave heads North West along the Mount Somers trail on another beauitful NZ autumn morning.... its going to be a busy day as Dave hopes to crack another 25ms before heading up to Christchurch as a guest of the Crusaders at the Waratahs match.
Tree, Dave and Becks (Trees partner) set a great early pace but are soon brought down a peg or two as Gill, Eric and Big Al join the party..... quite quickly however Dave is left in peace again as Al thinks he might have spotted a McDonalds back in Rakaia!!!!
Lynn and Greg, friends of Dave, Lynn and Nick, join the convoy which now has five vehicles in tow until Nick manages to jam on the horn on Trees massive 4x4 which puts the entire region into nuclear attack mode for 10 minutes!!!
By this time Dave is going so fast to get away from the imminent missile attack that he manages to overtake a motorised vehicle at the 10 mile mark... it happens to be a quad bike spraying weeds at the side of the road... but they all count and it is a first on TMP!!!
By 3.30pm the big fellow has bagged another 27 miles... allowing him a shorter day (on Sunday) to get the remaining 21 miles to Geraldine.... he's managed to get 4 miles ahead of the pace which is fantastic.
After a quick turn around in Ashburton its back up to Christchurch for the match...., thanks to Tree and the Crusaders for the 11 free tickets...by this time Mike Sinclair (SSPE class mate) has flown in from Melbourne to lend his support for the next week...its like a class reunion down here!!!.
Lancaster Park (AMI Stadium) is fantastic as the Crusaders beat the Waratahs 20-13 with the highlight of the night being Dave's live interview on the park at half time in front of 30,000 fans...... Dave gets a well earned round of applause for his challange and indeed the fans donate a few $s as we leave the stadium.
Dave and the crew would like to extend a massive thank you to Tree for his fanatastic efforts in making sure the first stages of TMP went to plan.... not only did he cycle every one of the first 79 miles but he organised routes, press, interviews, sponsorship and food (thanks Becks)...and on top of that he is a bloody brilliant guy and friend who will be missed by us all...... only concern is that he's organising the finishing party back in Christchurch which will probably make the news again.. most likely for all the wrong reasons!!! Eric
- comments
mary and adrian we are not too good on the skite(adrians word) but the blogs are brilliant!! Thank you and glad all is going well.
vick, Dot, Jerry, Clare, Callum and the wee people Hi All, Great to hear things are going so well. Dave well done with the miles tally, sounds like you're cruising. should we be concerned that the big man with the red hair in your support crew manages to make a spectacle of himself on most days?! You just can't get the staff these days!!! Keep up the good work. Lots of love from us all. xxx
Dawn Jones So .......Nick strikes again! Mmmmmmmmmmmm. Keep up the great work the rest of you - it's fantastic! love from us all in WA
Becks What a great day spent on Saturday with some awesome people :-) thanks guys, look forward to catching up with you when you get back to Christchurch xxx