Fund raising reaches $19,000

Today our fund raising hit $19,000 which is a fantastic effort with 3 months still to go before we head off on the Challenge.

Other milestones this week including Brad crashing through the $3,000 mark and Dammo busting through the $2,000 mark which is a great effort on both their behalfs.

Bunnings famous sausage sizzle this Sunday

This Sunday we have one of our major fund raising activities for the team. It will be one of those famous Bunnings sausage sizzles which will be held at the Cannon Hill store here in Brisbane.

These sausage sizzles are legendary and are a great fund raiser for charities and not-for-profits so we're looking forward to raising some serious money for the Mater Foundation and cancer research.

It all starts at 9am so if you've been thinking of visiting Bunnings why not drop by the Cannon Hill store and say g'day to the team grab a sausage or two and wash it down with an ice cold coke.

We'll also be selling tickets in our major raffle with prizes including $2,000 worth of bikes from Cyc'd for Bikes and a holiday at the Gold Coast courtesy of Ultra Apartments. We're getting some help with the tickets so come along and say g'day to the lovely ladies on the raffle table.

We'd like to thanks our supporters for the day being Coles and Coca Cola who have provided the sausages and drinks for the day....thanks guys!!!

NOOSA CYCLE

Last Sunday (22nd May) I rode 160 klm at the Noosa Century Cycle.  Arriving on Saturday afternoon the sun was shining but within 2 hrs of arriving the wet weather set in.  It rained most of the night but to my surprise the sun was out when I woke up at 5.00 am.  The cycle started at 6.00 am and the start saw us head from Noosa, north-west towards Pomona.  At the 90 klm aid station I had a short break for 10 min at Eumundi and then headed south to Yandina, Bli Bli and then East to Mudjimba and then North back to Noosa.

The weather was perfect and there was plenty of opportunities to ride with other cyclists to help you along the way.    There were quite a few hills between the 30 to 100 klm mark so arriving at Mudjimba at approx 120 klms was enjoyable riding along the coast road with the assitance of a slight tail wind.

After the ride I settled in to a popular cafe at Noosaville and enjoyed a well earned BLT and coffee.  Looking forward to the next challenge.................

Big weekend of riding

Well the weekend was good for the team with over 600km covered by the four us. Dammo probably deserves special mention for his 5 hour training ride up to Mt Glorious a well known leg killer here in Brisbane....well done mate. The rest of us did a nice ride of around 50ks on Saturday and backed that up with a very solid 100k hit out on Sunday.

A week of tragedy and triumph

The past week for me has been one of tragedy for some friends of mine mixed with the triumph of seeing the Midi Smiddy riders successfully complete their 560km ride to raise money for cancer research.

Last Thursday I was in Sydney at a conference and caught up with some work collegues. One of them seemed very upset and told me that just the night before she had been told by her Dad that her Mum had just been told that she had a stage 4 melanoma and would be having surgery the next day. It all came as such a shock to my friend and reminded me just how important the research work that is being done by the Mater Medical Research Institute is and how important it is for us to find ways to raise funds to support this effort.

As I was preparing to write this post I received an email advising of the death of a former work collegue who I spent time in the Army. He died yesterday at the age of 48 from Kidney cancer. It again reminded me just how widespread this terrible disease is and many lives are touched by it.

As I thought about these two sad events I was strengthened by the knowledge that 50 cyclists plus support crew had just finished the Midi Smiddy ride and raised around $100,000 for cancer research!! A truly wonderful effort by all of them.

So a week of tragedy and triumph which is for me a reminder of why I am doing the Smiddy Challenge and riding 1600ks in 8 days in September this year.

For those of you following this blog I hope you feel inspired to support our fund raising efforts and donate through our fund raising page at http://www.smiddyfundraising.com.au/cycd_for_bikes

Thanks

Total kilometres ridden in training

I thought I'd add a new statistic to our blog showing how many kilometers in total the four of us have covered in training for the Smiling for Smiddy Challenge.

Since 1 January this year our team has covered 13,106 kilometres which is about the distance from Brisbane to Los Angeles!!

Follow the Midi Smiddy Riders

This morning the 50 Midi Smiddy riders departed Brisbane for their three day 560k adventure. Today's stage takes them to Toowoomba where after 200ks they take on the climb up the range.

You can follow their progress at:

http://www.smiddy.org.au/livetracking.aspx

Smiling for Smiddy - How did it start?

I thought it might be worthwhile posting some background on how Smiling for Smiddy came to be.

Smiling for Smiddy was created to commemorate the life of Adam Smiddy - a young physiotherapist who passed away in August 2006 after a short battle against an aggressive cancer. Adam was just 26 years of age and in the prime of his life.

Mark 'Sharky' Smoothy, a triathlon coach at the University of Queensland, was a great mate of Smiddy. Mark and Adam loved to ride and the two of them often talked about doing a credit card ride - riding for a few days in one direction with nothing other than a credit card in their pockets then catching a bus back to Brisbane. That dream was never realised, hence the idea for the Smiddy Challenge - a 1600 kilometre, 8 day ride ride from Brisbane to Townsville. Mark's aim is to keep the name of Adam Smiddy alive, and to raise much-needed funds for ongoing cancer research.

Since 2006 Smiling for Smiddy has achieved outstanding fundraising success:

• 2006 saw three riders raise $24,000
• 2007 saw 21 riders raise $193,000
• 2008 saw 50 riders raise $419,000
• 2009 saw 50 riders raise $540,000
• 2010 saw $570,000 raised across various events

Smiling for Smiddy has now raised more than $1.9 million since its initial journey to honour a mate lost to cancer.

Midi-Smiddy this weekend

This Friday 50 riders will depart Brisbane for the Midi-Smiddy a three day 560km ride around south east Queensland raising money for the Mater Foundation and cancer research. We wish them all a safe ride. Here is a short video of last year's Midi-Smiddy.

Rider profile - Brad "Drifter" Scriven

Our second rider profile is of Brad "Drifter" Scriven.

·         Age = 47

·         Family  = Fleur (Best wife in the world), Remy, Patrick & Bridget

·         Occupation = Group Business Manager

·         Company/Employer = Coca-Cola Amatil (Aust) Pty Ltd

·         How long have you been cycling = 18 months

·         Bike type = GIANT TCR Advanced SL

·         Weekly kms = Currently 250k’s avg. Ramping that up now though

·         Favourite ride = Any ride that I am not on my own. Most Memorable = Mt Lofty Adelaide

·         How did you get involved with the Smiddy Challenge = Kent told us that we had to do it as he felt he couldn’t do it on his own.

·         What are you most looking forward to = Starting the Challenge

·         What are you least looking forward to = The last 30k’s in Townsville. Apparently it is the longest 30k’s of your life

·         Have you, a family member or friend been impacted by cancer = I have witnessed good people and families affected by cancer. Can’t say enough how frustrated it makes me feel

·         Anything else you want to say = The more I get involved with raising funds for cancer, the more this makes sense. There are some great people involved in this event and I look forward to coming away from the training rides and the 8 day challenge with some wonderful relationships and memories. The support we are getting from our sponsors and donations is overwhelming and keeps us motivated to continue the preparation for the challenge.



Happy birthday Dammo!!

With today being Dammo's birthday we let him select the route for the Friday ride. He chose a riverloop instead of one of our regular Friday hill work outs....must be feeling everyone of those 39 years!!!
It was great to have Gav back on the bike after suffering badly from the man flu for the past two weeks. We even let him lead most of the ride just to make sure he hadn't forgotten the way which he appreciated greatly.

Rider profile Damien Windle

Our first rider profile is of Damien Windle

·         Age  39

·         Family  Wife Hayley, Children Harrison and Benjamin

·         Occupation   Finance Broker

·         Company/Employer  PCS Finance

·         How long have you been cycling  14 yrs

·         Bike type   Trek

·         Weekly kms  starting at 200 approx and increase to about 400 over the next 3 months

·         Favourite ride  Mt Nebo & Mt Glorious

·         How did you get involved with the Smiddy Challenge  introduced by a mate but also new about it from the media

·         What are you most looking forward to   drinking a cold beer after each day and making new friends along the way

·         What are you least looking forward to   Kent, Brad & Gav on my back wheel the whole way!!!!!!

·         Have you, a family member or friend been impacted by cancer   Yes, I was diagnosed with Leukaemia in 2006. All good now, fighting fit and looking forward to the challenge.    

·         Anything else you want to say  This is something that I have always wanted to do and raising money for a cancer makes it even better.  When you are eating your bacon & eggs on a Sunday morning between now and September, think of us, as we are probably half way through a 200 klm training ride.  Are we crazy or what!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fund raising tops $18,000

Fund raising continues to go well and today we hit the $18,000 mark but we're not stopping there so stay tuned for more fund raising initiatives from the team.

Training ride Wednesday 18 May

Just a quick up date on how training has been going since the the big ride last Sunday.

Brad managed to get out yesterday for a riverloop with a few other guys to test the legs after all the hill climbing on Sunday and reported all good on that front although he did enter into a little road rage with a very unfriendly motorist who was left in no doubts as to why he should give cyclists a little bit of room on the road.

Today Brad, Damien and I (Kent) got back amongst the hills with 3 reps up Mt Gravatt a nice 2k climb which got the legs working again. The fourth member of the team, Gavin, has been laid up with the man flu for the past 10 days but is looking forward to hitting the road this Friday which is great news.

In other news Damien will be doing the Noosa 100 mile ride this Sunday so we wish him luck with that.

Major raffle to raise money for cancer research

The Cyc'd for Smiddy team is very pleased to announce its major raffle to raise funds for the Mater Foundation and cancer research. We have some awesome prizes thanks to our great supporters. The prizes are:

Prize list

1^st prize - $2,000 worth of GIANT bikes from Cyc’d for Bikes

2^nd prize – 3 nights accommodation at ULTRA Apartments Broadbeach in a 2 bedroom executive apartment

3^rd prize - $100 voucher from Officeworks

4^th prize - $50 voucher from Bunnings

5^th prize - $50 voucher from Bunnings

The raffle will be drawn on 31 July 2011 so if you would like a ticket or two please contact one of the team.

Thanks to our raffle sponsors

Check out this for a profile!!

This is the elevation map from the Sunday training ride.....a little bit of climbing and some great descending!!

Photo from training ride

Two of the Cyc'd for Smiddy team (Kent and Brad) at the training ride on Sunday

200k training ride report

Well the much anticipated training has been completed. It was an early and chilly start out at Fernvale which saw about 60 riders head off on the 200k ride at about 6.15am.

The ride included some pretty big climbs with over 2300m of climbing completed by the time we finished the ride late in the day. The highlight was the 20km section heading back to Esk which included a 5k decent. Sharky let the peleton loose which was appreciated by all riders. Our group averaged 55kph for a 5k section which shows just how fast the decent was.

All up a great day!!

You can check out some of the stats for the day at Brad's link to his garmin data at

http://connect.garmin.com/page/activity/activity.faces;jsessionid=7DC1F5A4A929FE7C3D6FD594D243E8CB?activityId=85706689&actionMethod=page%2Factivity%2Factivity.xhtml%3AuserSwitcher.switchSystem&cid=622376

200k training ride this Sunday

The boys are all looking forward to the 200k Smiddy training ride this Sunday. Should be a good opportunity to catch up with some old friends and to meet some of the team we will be riding with later in the year.

It's the final training ride for the Midi-Smiddy crew so expecting to see some pretty fit and excited midi-Smiddy riders on Sunday.

Check out our route for the ride here http://www.bikely.com/blogthismap/routeid/513111

Great effort this week

Thanks to some great fund raising this week by Brad and Dammo we have passed $17,500!!

Smiling for Smiddy video

Hey check out this short video of the 2010 Smiling for Smiddy Challenge

Over $17,000 raised so far for cancer research

The Cyc'd for Bikes team has raised over $17,000 for cancer research and is well on its way to achieving its target of $25,000.

Meet the team

The Cyc'd for Bikes Smiddy team and a link to their fund raising pages are as follows:

Kent Beasley http://www.smiddyfundraising.com.au/kent_beasley_0

Brad Scriven http://www.smiddyfundraising.com.au/brad_scriven

Gavin Bryce http://www.smiddyfundraising.com.au/gavin_bryce

Damien Windle http://www.smiddyfundraising.com.au/damien_windle

Check out our team fund raising page at http://www.smiddyfundraising.com.au/cycd_for_bikes