My Top 10 Highlights of the TDC Tour

The 2021 TDC Westpac Tour flew by in a blast. Here are my top 10 highlights from an absolutely spectacular three days.

Stay tuned for a future post where I go into more detail about the route and each of the three days!

10. Brownies and Sticky Date Pudding

On tour there was a dedicated catering truck which prepared breakfast and lunch for all riders and support crew. Over the years, the sticky date pudding had garnered an almost legendary status amongst the riders. I was certainly not disappointed when I tried it during lunch on Day 3. In fact, I was about to help myself to seconds when unfortunately the call came for my peloton to line up and prepare to roll.

The desserts on other days were equally divine - we had brownies on Day 1 and rocky road on Day 2. I’m sure the hunger made everything extra delicious.

9. New Tour Kit

Before we boarded the bus to travel from Sydney to Forster on Day 0, each rider received their brand-new tour kit. This consisted of a cycling cap (designed to fit snugly on the head underneath the helmet), a jersey, a pair of bib shorts, and a pair of socks. We wore the tour kit on Days 1 and 3 of tour, and our training kit (which we received when we first signed up to TDC) on Day 2.

I loved the new kit. Even more, I loved the sight of 130 riders wearing the same uniform, and the feeling of being a part of this amazing team.

In addition to the new tour kit, we received the following:

• Race tag: A named tag to attach to the seat post of our bikes. The big number on the tag also made it easier to identify our own bikes from the sea of bikes at the end of every breakfast and lunch break.

• Polo shirt: A team shirt to wear to dinner every night.

• Day bag: A bag to carry any items we might require access to during the day, but which are too big or bulky to carry in our jersey pockets. Examples include a rain jacket, a pair of casual shoes, a dry set of clothes, sunscreen, and a spare hanger. Our day bags went into the support cars, and the support crew always laid them all down on the ground during a lunch stop, so riders could change into a pair of casual shoes.

• Laundry bag: To wash our tour kit after Day 1 in preparation for wearing it again on Day 3.

• Sticker sheet: Printed name tags to attach to our helmet, luggage, day bag and water bottles. I appreciated TDC’s attention-to-detail of having both white-on-black and black-on-white helmet stickers - this enabled each rider to choose the option which best matched their helmet colour. I also found the helmet stickers a brilliant way of learning everyone’s names.

• Water bottles: Two 700 mL bottles, regularly refilled from water tanks in the support cars during morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea breaks.

8. Support Crew

Take a moment, and try to imagine the logistics involved in transporting 130 riders plus 130 bikes from Sydney to Forster, feeding 130 hungry riders on the road for three days, navigating six pelotons over 300 km back to Sydney, dealing with inevitable contingencies around weather, mechanicals and medical emergencies, while keeping everyone safe, informed, healthy, and happy.

It was a mammoth exercise, and the volunteer support crew were at the centre of making it all happen, smoothly and safely.

They prepared our meals, made our coffee, set up the breakfast and lunch buffet stations, refilled our water bottles, handed out muesli bars and fruit, assembled and disassembled the bike racks, collected and transported our luggage, picked up and distributed our laundry, snapped our photos, crewed the lead and rear support cars, protected us from dangerous drivers, radioed ride leaders with real-time situational reports, organised our accommodation, WhatsApped us detailed daily instructions, handled all other miscellaneous logistics, and on top of all that, acted as our biggest cheerleaders.

I heard so many riders comment that the whole operation was like a “well-oiled machine”. The support crew were top notch and made our experience truly enjoyable.

7. Fernleigh Track

Of the 300+ km that we rode from Forster to Sydney, my favourite section was the Fernleigh Track, a 15 km shared path built along a former railway line between Newcastle and Lake Macquarie. From the urban centre of Newcastle, we rode through quiet forest areas, past ancient sand dune systems, and finally into the wetland of Belmont. We went through a 181 metre restored rail tunnel and took in various heritage railway relics, including old sleepers, signage and former stations.

It was so peaceful, being able to ride away from traffic for a while. This 15 km section was also the only part along the whole route where we didn’t have the support of our lead and rear cars. Prior to entering the track, all pelotons stopped briefly so the ride leaders and on-bike mechanics could load up on spare tubes and CO₂ canisters from the support vehicles. If we had punctures or other mechanical issues on the track, we were on our own. What an adventure!

Back home, I read more about the fascinating history of the Fernleigh Track. I learnt that rail construction began in the late 1880’s, with the Adamstown to Belmont railway line opening in the 1890’s. It was predominantly used to transport coal from mines in Lake Macquarie to the port of Newcastle and Newcastle steel works, though there was also a passenger service. When coal transportation declined, so too did the service and maintenance of the line. In 1971, scheduled passenger services were terminated, and in 1991 the use of the line ceased completely. Happily, in 1994 the track began its next phase of life, slowly transforming from a former rail corridor to a treasured community asset, with the shared path completed in 2011.

6. Most-Improved Rider Award

It is a TDC tradition that a number of “red suitcase awards” are handed out prior to every tour. The name is a bit of a misnomer, because the award is neither a suitcase nor red in colour. Instead, each of these highly coveted awards comprises of the following:

• A limited-edition Stormtech luggage bag
• A VIP cap
• Single room accommodation for each night on tour (everyone else has to share rooms)
• VIP daily bike service
• “Jump the coffee queue” privilege
• Personal chair during all breaks

For the Westpac tour this year there were five red suitcase awards up for grabs, for the two highest rider fundraisers, the highest support crew fundraiser, the most improved rider, and a raffle winner.

The winners were announced at an all-team meeting four days before the tour. To my utter amazement, I was declared the most improved rider and a winner of one of the five red suitcases. Without question, this award ranks as one of my proudest achievements. It meant so much to me, especially when I reflect on how much I’ve learnt in the past few months. From not knowing how to clip in to my pedals, and reliably falling at least once during every ride, to getting comfortable with riding in pelotons and averaging over 200 km every week, it has been a truly incredible journey, made possible by the amazing TDC ride leaders and the training program they put on.

On tour I was truly spoiled. On Day 2, while everyone else had to get into rather cramped vans for an uplift to the day’s start point, I was living it up in the front of a Lexus support car, which had heated seats complete with massage functions. Every afternoon, while others were fighting with their room mates over who would have the first shower (and believe me, after 100+ km rides, we were all dying for showers), I could simply leisurely stroll to my own bathroom with not a worry in the world. And while others complained about snoring room mates, I slept like a baby every single night.

5. Orange Category Jersey

A highlight at dinner every night was the presentation of six Category Jerseys, each awarded to a rider or support crew member who most exemplified a certain value or attribute during or prior to tour.

The categories were:

• Pink | Inspiration: “Through actions or words, inspires others to help cure cancer”
• Green | Raising Awareness: “Uses every opportunity to share a cancer prevention message”
• Yellow | Attitude: “Exemplifies the right attitude to help others achieve their goals”
• White | Focus: “Recognises what needs to be done to achieve the goal”
• Orange | Doer: “Through actions, doesn’t hesitate to help in any way they can”
• Purple | Safety: “Exemplifies the right attitude to promote safety for the entire team”

I enjoyed the presentations because they were incredibly uplifting and a great opportunity to recognise the team members who went above and beyond. Secretly, I also enjoyed the presentations because I knew my name would never be called. I put my all into the tour, sure, but as a beginner rider my focus was mostly on ensuring my own survival, and my efforts paled in comparison to others who truly empowered their fellow riders. So there was no pressure or chance of disappointment for me - I could just sit back and enjoy the show.

It was therefore an utterly bewildering, stupefying surprise to be announced as a joint-winner of the Orange Jersey on Night 3, along with Blaine, Dat and Ben. I honestly thought there had been some kind of mistake, until I realised we were nominated and awarded for our work in developing the TDC Hub web application and associated Power BI dashboards.

As mentioned in a previous post, last year I was involved in coding up a web application for TDC riders and creating data visualisations for tour statistics. This year we took it up a notch, and I designed a new suite of dashboards to showcase the collective achievements of 130 riders during both training and the actual tour. These dashboards (complete with mobile-optimised versions) were integrated into our app, allowing everyone to view interesting stats at the end of each day’s riding. In fact I had brought my laptop with me to dinner that night, as I was still busy refreshing our latest Strava data and debugging a pesky memory error in Power BI.

Being awarded the Orange Jersey was incredibly humbling, and truth be told, I felt there were other equally, if not even more, deserving nominees. The next day, wearing my brand-new orange jersey, I seemingly got the VIP-on-top-of-VIP treatment, receiving congratulations from everyone and being pushed to the front of every photo. Perhaps the very best part of the award was being given the opportunity to lead P2 into Barangaroo Avenue, our final destination, amidst a euphoric cacophony of whoops and cheers. It’s a memory that will stay with me forever.

4. Dr Matt Dun’s Presentation

Another highlight of dinner every night was the presentations by cancer researchers whose work has been funded by Tour de Cure. On Night 2, Dr Matt Dun, an Associate Professor at The University of Newcastle’s School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, completely transfixed the audience. By the end of his presentation, there was hardly a dry eye in the room.

In February 2018, shortly after dropping his daughter Josie off at daycare, Matt received a call from Josie’s educator, saying she was uncharacteristically clumsy. Matt picked Josie up, and in the days that followed, she would refuse to sleep, engage in conversation, or even walk. An emergency MRI scan led to a diagnosis of Grade IV diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), an inoperable cancer of the brain stem that is uniformly fatal and completely untreatable aside from palliative radiotherapy. The average prognosis is nine months from diagnosis to death. In Australia, around 100 children die from cancer each year, with a staggering 20 of them from DIPG.

The suggestion from Josie’s pediatric neurologist was to “go home and make memories”. Instead, Matt turned to the scientific literature, and was immediately struck by the dearth of research and stark absence of treatments for DIPG. He was previously doing similar work with acute myeloid leukemia, and pivoted almost overnight to DIPG, in the hope of understanding why DIPG tumors become resistant to treatments, so he and his team can identify effective drug combinations to slow the progression of tumor cells.

Working with overseas research groups and ongoing clinical trials, Matt identified multiple experimental treatments which helped prolong Josie’s life until December 2019, when she passed away, 22 months after she was diagnosed.

With the support of funding from TDC, Matt and his research group continues their work on DIPG. His story left an indelible impression on many of us, and was a reminder of why we put all that effort into our training, riding and fundraising.

3. Ride Leaders

The photo above shows P2 on Day 1 before we set off on our ride from Forster. The photo below was taken 280 km later, near Palm Beach on Day 3, when we were roughly 50 km away from the grand finale at central Sydney.

None of this would have been possible without the phenomenal ride leaders. Each of the six pelotons included the following on-bike personnel: a peloton manager, a second-in-charge, a mechanic, and two ride leaders. They were all equipped with radios and in constant communication with the support crew in the lead and rear cars. The peloton manager always stays at the very back of the group, ensuring the safety of riders in front and providing motivation and support to anyone who might be struggling. The second-in-charge rides at the very front, leading the group and calling out any hazards. The mechanic and two ride leaders are spread throughout the peloton, ensuring an equal distribution of support to all riders.

The ride leaders motivated us up every hill, reminded us to watch our gaps and keep our focus, gave inspiring pep talks during breaks, and sent out nightly WhatsApp group messages walking us through the day ahead. They did a fantastic job leading us safely from Forster to Sydney.

2. Torrential Downpours on Day 1

Who would have thought a torrential downpour could be so much fun?

On the day before we left for Forster, everyone furiously checked the weather forecasts for the three days ahead, and we were all dismayed by what we read: consistent and heavy rain. Some riders made a last-minute dash to the bike shops to buy waterproof shoe covers. Some stocked up on old newspaper, the stuffing of which inside wet cycling shoes is apparently an age-old trick of drying them overnight. Others watched this hectic activity with quiet amusement, and professed they had already accepted their fate of being utterly soaked.

Rolling from Forster at 7:45 am on Day 1, everyone knew that the forecasts said it would start raining from 8 am. Miraculously, the sky was still holding up 65 km later, when we arrived at Bulahdelah for lunch. Literally seconds after we rolled from our lunch spot, however, it started pouring - wild, heavy, and absolutely unrelenting.

When we arrived at Bombah Point, we had to board a ferry to take us the 70 m across Myall Lake. This was when the rain started pouring with even more force and fury. Pushing our bikes onto the ferry in our soaked, bright red Westpac gear, the ferry operator looked at us as if we were mad. It was the kind of weather one would hesitate to drive in, let alone ride. As luck would have it, we made the last ferry across the lake before the services were suspended. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) for P1 (who were the only peloton behind our group), that meant they were done for the day and had to get an uplift in the support cars all the way to our destination at Hawks Nest.

Meanwhile, we in P2 still had 30 km of riding left to go. And what a ride it was. The sheer ridiculousness and exhilaration of cycling in that downpour is something I will never forget. I didn’t have to take a single sip from my water bottles - I could just open my mouth and rain water would pour in, keeping me hydrated. My TDC-supplied rain jacket made absolutely no difference, and I was soaked to the bone. As a group bonding exercise, that afternoon’s ride was second to none. After the shared experience of conquering that rain, we all became the P2 family.

Afterwards we poured into a local pub, where we swapped stories from the day, left puddles of water everywhere, and apparently drank the place dry of gin. Veteran ride leaders later commented it was the wettest TDC day ever. It was certainly quite the introduction to tour!

1. TDC Bubble

No, not the COVID bubble, though we had that too. (Pairs of pelotons were grouped into pods and separated for travel, meals and accommodation.)

Instead, I’m referring to the TDC Tour Bubble. Tour veterans always say you exist in a bubble during the three days on tour, that it’s impossible for outsiders to truly understand the profundity of the experience until they experience it for themselves.

For three days, we were in this bubble of 130 riders and 31 support crew, insulated from the chaos of the outside world, immersed in an environment where everything - food, water, shelter, equipment, logistics - was taken care of for us, and all we had to do was ride.

I loved putting all our training into practice. I loved seeing the smooth lines of the peloton, how we so seamlessly morphed into single file and back into doubles again. I loved hearing the honks and cheers from passing cars, the claps from pedestrians stopping by to watch. I loved zooming along Nelson Bay Road near Newcastle and seeing a TDC support van slowly pass alongside to film our peloton. I loved witnessing the dedication, passion and determination of everyone on tour. I loved the sense of camaraderie, the collective drive to achieve a common goal, the encouragement and support we all gave one another.

I am eternally grateful to my colleagues who, late last year, cajoled me into signing up to TDC. I had the time of my life, and I can’t wait to do it all again.