Day 3: Cobden to Mortlake, 59km. Conditions: rain in the morning, gusty crosswinds after lunch.
Prior to setting out, practically everyone I spoke to gave me advice. Wear sunscreen. Do some training. Drink plenty of water.
But most words of wisdom related to sitting on a seat the size of a pocket handkerchief hour after hour, kilometre after kilometre, day after day.
Some wag suggested a lounge cushion attached to the bike seat with duct tape.
Someone else recommended adult nappies for incontinence. They called it the perfect padding. (As if …)
A third said nappy rash ointment.
But a fourth looked at me with steely eyes and said one word. Vaseline.
Vaseline?
Yep. Guaranteed 100%. No blisters. No worries.
So that’s what I did this morning. I opened a family-sized jar of Vaseline and went to work.
I really got into it. I started off in the seat area but then thought, hell, if it reduces pain then maybe it will work everywhere else too.
By the time I emerged into the cold of a Cobden morning, I felt like a 178cm tall suppository.
Even 12-year GVBR veterans called yesterday a mongrel. So today I saddled up glistening, slicked and ready for another 59km.
I even chucked some on the bike’s more intimate bits – the crankages, the sprockets, the grease nipples.
And when it started raining heavily about an hour after setting off, I didn’t care. I was wearing enough Vaseline to swim the English Channel.
So my day was considerably easier than that Erin Willmott.
Erin, 28, grew up in Mt Clear before moving to Brisbane, where she now works as a litigation lawyer.
Son Samuel, 14-months, is officially this year’s youngest GVBR participant.
The plan was to complete the event with husband Bruce, with Samuel riding behind dad in a nifty little bike trailer.
But that was until yesterday.
The killer winds and the extra weight of Sam in the kiddy carrier (about 15kg) was too much for Dad’s knee.
So while Bruce recuperated today, game Erin decided to press on with Samuel on her own.
“It’s very tough,” she said, stopping to give Samuel a drink on the side of the road. “It’s just the two of us today.
“I hope Bruce is back on the bike tomorrow but with his injury, it might be up to me to carry Samuel through to the end.”
Erin said she was worried about the 106 km Lake Bolac-to-Beaufort leg on day eight.
“Dad used to have a farm. We’ll be riding past where that farm was. My nan lives in Beaufort and I have other grandparents in Waubra. I know what that road is like.”
Erin said she and Bruce had trained through the Brisbane storms before commencing the GVBR, until there was too much wind and rain.
And how was young Samuel bearing up yesterday?
“He’s been riding in the trailer since he was nine-months-old,” Erin said.
“He’s a good baby. He hardly every complains. I just have to watch that he doesn’t get too hot or too cold.”
Erin is raising money for Diabetes Australia-Vic via her website at www.everydayhero.com.au
Tomo rrow is another big day for all riders: Mortlake to Dunkeld, 80km.
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