Early check out for us all and Dave has made the news again...hes in the national newspaper on page three... they did however cover up all his bits!! and then its over to Burwood.

And he's off...... after being piped across the start line by young Angus, Dave finally gets TMP onto the road after months of training and planning.

Starting from the Burwwod Spinal unit, with the sun high in the sky, the big man sets off in the company of Tree and Rob. Rob is a fellow hand cyclist who lost a leg in a RTA 25 years ago and who (I am informed by Lynn and Gill) has the biggest pectoral muscles in the world!!!... it seems like every one in NZ is built like a brick s***t house.

The pace set by the bikes is fantastic so Lynn, Gill and Eric give up after 200m!!! .... its back to the cars to get ahead with supplies if needed. 2hrs and 17 miles later the lads pull into Tai Tapu for a well earned rest and are clapped into the car park by the staff and guests of the cafe..... all of them had seen Dave the night before on the news and couldnt believe he was stopping by.

Dave is feeling strong and with the wind behind sets off again toward Leestown by which time he has completed a fantastic 28 miles in an incredable 5 hours...legend.

Only blip for the full day was Nick forgetting he had Rob's leg in the back of his car when he decided to go visit a bike shop 40kms away......'' anyone got my leg''says Rob.....''its back in Christchurch'' Eric replies...... you couldn't make this up!!!

We are now checked into the Bella Vista Motel in Ashburton which will be our base for the next 3 days and are already being well looked after by our hosts Evan and Heather.

A big thank you to James (Jimmy) from the Metropolitan Motel in Christchurch for going out of his way to make sure we had everything we could possibly need and more in the first few days.