Hmmm, 2,000 vertical metres of climbing in 140 kilometre day; it’s not epic, but it’s a ‘solid day at the office’ for sure!

6:30 am rollout from the city, 7 km’s across town to the Norton Summit turnoff and the start of the first climb, for 7 kms. Pretty spec’y views of the city on the way up, then up hill and down dale to Strathalbyn, then turn back toward the city for lunch at 100 kms up a lazy 12 km climb!

I spoke briefly yesterday about the work the Mater team are doing in cancer research…then decided I needed better information. I had a yarn with Prof. Brian Gabrielli, one of the lead researchers and asked him that question…his reply;

“Geevesy, good to be riding with you again. The research we are doing is about killing cancers selectively so that the toxic side effects of conventional chemo are avoided. This is not just good news for patients but also means their immune system is not being smashed. Recruiting the patient’s immune system to combat their tumour is where the real benefit will be seen”.

“The new treatment we are working on does this, selectively kills tumour, we are currently focused on melanoma and ovarian cancer, and recruits the patient’s immune system. The current research is into making the immune response better and longer lasting. We have some ideas of how we can achieve this and are testing these now”.

I guess for me, the greatest question isn’t necessarily about ‘finding the cure’; what I’ve seen in all the years of ‘riding bicycles for cancer research’, is that the treatments have progressed enormously. People that’d passed away 20+ years ago, would very likely still be alive today, with today’s knowledge and of course, medical treatments.

Anyway, back on the road tomorrow, another 150 kms, another 2000 metres+ of vertical elevation.

I’ll leave you with the greatest case of ‘helmet hair’ ever recorded! Priceless.

If you see this, please think about passing the link on to others…and ‘spot me a tenner’ for the journey.