Crossy | Portland – Lavers Hill | 222.3 km – 1450 m

Jacob | Marulan – Sydney Opera House | 262.24 km – 2649 m

Today was going to momentous for both Jacob and I, he was going to reach Sydney and I was meant to have a great day on the bike! After being plagued with mechanical issues and bad weather for days, I was due a good day – surely!

I left the Portland refuge headed for Apollo Bay and after about 80km into the ride the front lever faulted and I was unable to change into the big ring. I detoured into Royal Bikes in Warrnambool and they were at a bike race but came to my rescue and opened up the bike shop on a Sunday. Legend blokes got me going again and back out on the road.

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I live for the Dot Watchers encouraging me, so if you’re out there give me a cheer. It really does make my day! A few were waiting as I cam through Killarney.

Little did I know though that my mechanical issues were not over and 60km from Apollo Bay I broke a spoke in my rear wheel. My frustrations at not getting a good go at riding a full day were pretty high at this stage. After consulting the dot watchers page for advice on what to do, I recalculated my destination for the night to Lavers Hill where an extremely generous dot watcher Annabel Tellis offered me her Lavers Hill Airbnb house for the night. There I was able to do a bit of bush mechanics to allow me to at least get back on the road tomorrow for another day until I could sort at another bike shop.

I will post about Jacob’s day in a seperate post as I think it deserves a whole page!