Inaugural Police Legacy Ride a great success
Post date: May 06, 2015 5:41:17 AM
After riding more than 350 Km from Corryong to Canberra over 3 days, the 23 riders and 7 support staff have completed the inaugural Victorian Police Legacy "Ride to the Wall". The ride, organised by club president Boris Buick and committee members David Pawley and Dermot Avon has raised $1885 to date with more donations expected over the next few days.
Detective Inspector Roger Schranz (Chairman of Victoria Police Legacy) passed on the following message to the riders when they arrived at the memorial. "I would like to congratulate and thank all those riders, team supporters, sponsors and donors for undertaking this event. It is a wonderful opportunity for you to combine your passion for riding and fitness to raise funds and awareness for Police Legacies that provide services and support for Police families who have lost a loved one". Those who have not yet donated can do so via the Victorian Police Legacy site at www.policelegacyvic.org.au/.
While the hills were many and the inclines steep those who participated were still enthusiastic about the ride when they returned home on Sunday night and Monday morning. For some of the riders, this ride represented the furthest they had ever ridden. A fantastic achievement with congratulations due!!
Just some examples of feedback from the riders at the end of the ride:
"Thanks everyone for a cracker weekend....."
"Injuries were nil, mechanical problems were fixed without much ado... Roll on next year...."
"Fabulous weekend....looking forward to next year..."
While the ride was made up of riders of varying experience and fitness levels, all riders made it to the end. In the end the camaraderie of the riders at the back end forged them into "Team Charlie".
Being the first ride not all things went completely to plan with some kit malfunctions during the ride and some mechanical issues slowing down the trip home. All these things will go into the "lessons learned" bucket for next year.
If the feedback from the riders is anything to go by, next year should be bigger and better with more riders more support vehicles and improved kit on the list of things for the 2016 ride.
Read on below for a little detail of how the ride panned out.
Day 0
The first day was the initial pickup and transport day, commencing at the police academy at Glen Waverley on Thursday at 10:30AM with other pickups through the day around Melbourne and Benalla on route to Corryong.
Once arrived at Corryong the team established themselves in their accomodation and availed themselves of "Steak Night" at the Corryong Pub.
Having eaten early nights all round ready for the off the following morning.
Day 1 - Corryong to Tumut (135 KM)
Day 1 started at Corryong on route to Tumut. Riders commenced at 9:30 and were led off by the local police vehicle with the support vehicles still stationary at Corryong. By the time the support vehicles had caught up with the riders the group was in disarray with most riders taking the long route via Tintaldra and one rider ending up a dirt road. After a little while the riders re-grouped at Tooma and headed off up the first of hills which were a feature of the day. This was the point at which most riders discovered how their preparations prior to the ride had prepared them for the hills. As it turned out, some better than others.
Throughout the day the riders were challenged with many hills. Some coped better than others, but in the end all made it to Tumbarumba for lunch.
After lunch at Tumbarumba, the riding group was spread out over a long distance with the last group reaching Tumut at about 6PM as the light was fading. Support vehicles were in front and behind the riders all the way to be sure there were no stragglers left behind.
We were accommodated in Tumut in the CWA hall and supported by the local Lions club.
Day 2 - Tumut to Yass (135 KM)
Day 2 saw the majority of the route from Tumut travel via the Hume Highway. Some riders remarked that they thought that the Hume had been swept in preparation for the ride, it was so clean.
Our departure from Tumut was at 9AM and initially took the riders through mildly undulating country roads to Gundagai an then through onto the Hume Highway. Things went mostly to plan with the exception of one group of riders turning right at Gundagai instead of left. The detour took them through Gundagai and they were able to rejoin with the rest of the riders at the Dog at the Tucker box.
With a brief stop for morning tea the team proceeded along the Hume Highway shoulder to Bookham for lunch. While the Hume might seem mild from the front seat of a car, when you are on a bike it becomes clear that the hills are long and arduous. Team charlie were aquitting themselves well and stuck together as a group with great support from Carter and Dave Pawley.
The front group were motoring along with Dermot keeping control of the front runners so they didn't bust the pack and move ahead too quickly.
The last riders made it into Yass at about 5:30PM and were were accommodated at the YASS sports centre. Much larger by a factor of 10 than the CWA hall at Tumut so plenty of room to spread out. Hot showers for the early rides, cold showers for the hardy.
We were bussed down to the local RSL for dinner and hit the sack ready for day 3.
Day 3 - Yass to Canberra (60 KM)
Day 3 was only 60 Kms so the riders relaxed in the morning with coffees at the local cafe. The slower riders went off at 10:00am 30 minutes prior to the front runners. The gap being designed to give the faster riders their heads with both groups arriving together at the rendezvous point at Eagle Hawk. the timing worked out well with all riders arriving at Eagle hawk at about 1:00PM.
Shortly after our group arrived, the first of the 3 riding groups of the NSW police arrived. Even though for Victoria Police this is the first Legacy ride, the NSW and federal Police have a number of years experience and had approximately 100 riders. There were some good lessons for our team to learn from the way the NSW team was kitted out and supported. Something that Boris and the team will be taking back to Vic Pol for next year.
Once all the teams had arrived the combined teams set off to ride the 15 KMs to the Police Memorial next to Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra.
At the memorial, a short service was conducted and the team loaded up the bikes onto the trailer and were transported to the YHA to shower and change ready for the trip home.
In hindsight, the trip home on Sunday night was not the best idea with the night turning into the early morning. Along with some mechanical issues with the X-Trail towing the Bike trailer, the team didn't arrive back at the Police Academy at Glen Waverley until 4 AM the next morning. Another lesson learned for next year.
All in all everyone had a great time, raised money and awareness for legacy and set us up well to plan for 2016.
Thanks to Boris, David and Dermot along with the support crew, and of course..... thanks to the riders.
Your contributions of stories and photos will be appreciated. we can publish more as we receive them. More video will be available from Dave Pawley in the next day or so.
See below for a selection of photos or click here if you want to access the photos directly.