A Brief History of How I Got Involved With TDC

Baseline Cycling Experience

I learnt to ride at age 6 on a small side street outside my family’s apartment in Hong Kong. During weekends and holidays, my parents and I would sometimes get together with a big group of my cousins, aunties and uncles. Renting bikes for the day, we would go for rides along various cycle paths in Hong Kong, with the one from Sha Tin to Tai Po a firm family favourite.

When I was 12, my family moved back to New Zealand, a strange land where bicycle helmets are compulsory, unlike in Hong Kong. Being in a country that takes pride in its outdoors lifestyle, it was perhaps ironic that I cycled less in New Zealand than I did in Hong Kong, perhaps driven by the lack of cycle paths near our home, perhaps by a family preference for road trips and hikes over bike rides.

First Cycling Event

A few years ago, my mum and I signed up to Bike the Bridge - an annual event in New Zealand where you get to cycle over the Auckland Harbour Bridge, a novelty because (unlike in Sydney) there is no pedestrian or cycle path over the bridge.

We made no effort to train, and showed up on the day in bikes we had not ridden in years. It seemed the height of achievement at the time that we managed to get across the bridge without getting off and pushing our bikes. We boasted about it for days afterwards, even though we didn’t actually complete the full 22 km round trip - in hindsight a very modest distance - because we were so exhausted near the end.

First Bike in Sydney

A few months after moving to Sydney, I bought a $60 mountain bike - a Cyclops Lexicon 18-speed - from Facebook Marketplace. At the time I wasn’t planning on doing any long-distance or serious cycling. I just wanted something cheap and functional which would enable me to explore Sydney’s cycle paths.

Aside from pumping up the tires occasionally, I expended zero effort in looking after the bike, and have never done a single piece of maintenance or cleaning on it. It was the kind of bike I was comfortable leaving anywhere unlocked, because I felt confident no one would be foolish enough to steal it.

Having said that, this bike has served me well, allowing me to rediscover the joy of cycling, whether close to our apartment on the Cook’s River Cycleway, or down in the South Coast from Minnamurra to Kiama.

First Whispers of TDC

In November 2019, I interviewed for a new job at Westpac. Towards the end of my first interview with Blaine and Christine, there was a brief conversation about hobbies and how I like to spend my free time. As soon as I mentioned my occasional bike rides, Blaine enthusiastically told me about Tour de Cure, a charity which Westpac partners with annually to organise multi-day cycling tours, through which funds are raised - over $1.3 million in 2019 alone - for cancer research, support and prevention.

This was the first time I heard about TDC. An idea was seeded in my head, and though I didn’t know it at the time, almost exactly a year later I would sign up to join the 2021 tour myself.

First Involvement With TDC

• Visualising TDC Data: Soon after I joined Westpac, I had an opportunity to get involved with TDC - not as a rider, but as a data analyst processing, exploring, and visualising the Strava data associated with the Westpac Ride for a Cure tour. My teammates and I developed Tableau dashboards for each day of the tour, highlighting interesting statistics such as total moving time, average speeds, elevation gains, average heart rates and average cadences. The dashboards were presented to the riders during their team dinners. One of our charts showed the total number of Big Macs burned by each peloton during the tour, and this was a great source of amusement amongst the riders, I was later told.

• Welcoming 2020 Tour Riders: On the afternoon of 10 March 2020, my colleagues and I left our desks at work and lined up along Barangaroo Avenue. The air was thick with anticipation as we craned our necks in search of a first glimpse of the Westpac Ride for a Cure 2020 peloton. After an interminable wait, the riders began streaming down the avenue to loud cheers and jubilant greetings, marking the end of their tour from Bathurst to Sydney via the Blue Mountains. It was the last time I was in a big crowd before we all went into COVID lockdown, barely a week and a half later.

• Building a TDC Web App: Due to the ongoing COVID situation, the 2020 Signature Tour (TDC’s premier event, spanning ~900 km over 5-7 days) was postponed. To empower riders to stay engaged and motivated during this uncertain period, my team at Westpac worked with TDC to develop a web application for tracking individual and team performances against a live leader board. This involved integrating the app with athlete and activity data sourced through the Strava API, connecting Google Firebase’s NoSQL database to the front-end of the application, and applying best-practice UX/UI design principles to optimise for both desktop and mobile layouts. It was a challenging, fascinating, and extremely fun project - one of my top highlights of 2020.

Signing Up to Tour

Throughout 2020, I received frequent encouragements from my colleagues to sign up to Tour de Cure. I started going for some slightly longer rides on my mountain bike and ended up really enjoyed those trips. Gradually, the idea of joining the tour became less farfetched and more appealing.

At the same time, there were various considerations holding me back. The fundraising target seemed prohibitive, and purchasing a road bike plus all the required accessories would be a huge upfront investment.

While I was dithering in a sea of indecisiveness, my colleague Julie offered to introduce me to Jensen, a TDC veteran who has previously supported many new-to-tour riders. We had a 30 minute conversation which essentially sealed the deal for me. In the end, these are my personal drivers for signing up to the tour:

• Challenge and Adventure: I want to challenge myself, physically and mentally, and to go on a bit of an adventure. Especially in a year when none of us could travel, the tour and associated training rides are wonderful opportunities to experience parts of Sydney and NSW that I wouldn’t normally get to visit.

• Learning New Skills: One of the most attractive things about TDC is the welcoming community and comprehensive training program. I want to learn new bike skills in a safe and supported environment - skills such as riding in pelotons, riding with clipless pedals, and performing basic bike maintenance. I believe joining TDC will take me to that next level of riding, and serve me well for any future bike-related or other endurance events.