Argie Bargie tackles single track at the Mont 24 hour

A big win for the team yesterday with approval to perform a fund raising trick at the Mont 24 hour.

The Mont 24 hour is one of Australia's best known and best attended mountain bike events. There are about 4000 competitors plus their entourages - each and every one of them will have a gold coin to throw into our fund raising bucket!

The trick is this: ride, carry or - if push comes to shove - bend our 5m long bike around a lap of the narrow, twisty, heavily forested single track course...OK, so it will be a 'modified' lap, but it's still quite an undertaking.

Our lap will be pre-race, and be timed to end as all those soft people racing 'normal' bikes line up to begin.

Approval came from Alan Vogt who heads up Self Propelled Enterprises and has been organising the Mont 24 hour for a few years. Thanks Alan!

This all came about from a social dinner Hilary had with a bunch of Canberran mountain bikers, including Ben, the MC at the Mont. Be careful who you talk to...

The First Sausage Sizzle

NSW election day competition may have lost us a few customers at the fist fundraising sausage sizzle but the Batemans Bay team still managed to generate some interest by luring people into Bunnings with the 'red rocket' and some handy signage.

There was a lot of interest in the Gibb Challenge and a lot more laughter and amazement that anyone would contemplate taking on the Gibb River Road on a four person tandem!

Thanks to Bunnings Batemans Bay for providing the venue and gear for the BBQ.

Six weeks to go

A flurry of fundraising activities has left us little time to train for five consecutive days of 100km+ riding.

So while the south coast contingent were flipping snags at Batemans Bay Bunnings and rewarding themselves with a 'real' mountain bike race at Tathra, those in the nerve centre of Australia drank lattes and made plans to start training. Soon.

The Type A personalities then approached a popular bike shop in Lyneham for support - which was not forthcoming. Oh, for the support of the wonderful CIty Bike Depot in Sydney!

The dedicated Denise returned home to pursue sponsorship from a well known pharmaceutical company, and Helen was appalled to find that Eagle Boys Pizza haven't yet taken up the opportunity to sponsor the world's longest pizza delivery by four person bike...it seemed like such a good idea!

Where's Argie Bargie

With Argie Bargie undergoing some pre-event TLC his little brother 'the red rocket' makes a miraculous appearance on the coast.

What an inspiration - three days in the shed and voila! The coastal contingent have something to practice on.....

Photo shoot

Aaargh! A photo shoot in 2 hours and only 2 riders available! Thanks to the last minute ring-ins: John Gallant (seat 3) and Mr Craig (seat 4).

Blessed to have a photographer, Mathew Makeham, on the team.

Picking the charity

At least 500 emails have now flown through the ether.

Denise phones a shortlist of charities to suss them out. One stands out from the crowd: Cure Cancer Australia Foundation.

It fits: four of the team have lost parents to cancer; a small amount of money really makes a difference ($7500 funds a month of research); and we're over discussions, it's time for action!

So Cure Cancer will split the funds raised with WA Police Legacy, as required by the event organisers (WA Police).

Picking the team name

Waking up next morning, a little worse for wear, we all thought "What a very, very silly name we chose".

100 emails are exchanged with ideas.

Hilary starts to demonstrate her democratic organisational skills. "Let's put it to the vote!"

Argie Bargie and The Stokers won the vote. (Argie Bargie is the bike's name.)

We enter the team. We book flights. We're in. There's no turning back now.

Which is lucky, because Argie Bargie doesn't turn around very easily...

Picking the team

Send invitations to all likely prospects. Many keen, but no commitments.

"Ken and Hilary!" says Shane.

"Yes!" says Helen.

"Yes!" say Ken and Hilary.

Now we are five. Not enough to relay such long and arduous days on a 4 seated bike.

Drinking vin rose on Denise's deck, the five of us pick a name: Spider on a bike? Gibb River Limo? Ros-ay, Queen of the Dessert? "Yes!"

At that very, very silly moment, Mat & Kelly phone Hilary and say, "Yes!"

Now we are seven. Now we are complete.

The decision to enter

Shane and Helen get itchy feet to go overseas again. Let's find a bike race to enter instead, says Helen, but non-competitive as we don't race any more...Open Mountain Biking Australia. Find Gibb Challenge listed under Events. "Yes" said Shane.

Send email to Denise entitled "A very very silly idea". "Yes" she says. Game on!

Phone Sarge Rimmer who runs the event. Fully subscribed. Bugger.

"Let's do it on the 4 seated tandem, surely they'll have to give us an entry!"

And so it came to pass.