Andrew Tong | Triathlon coaching

It is complete and mission accomplished! My goal was to race $5,000 for the Salvos and ride my bike from Sydney to Melbourne over 10 days with a distance of 1,400. With the moto “Hope where it is needed most” but it is not mission accomplished my thoughts have changed and my goals have changed. I wasn’t riding for Hope I was riding to be educated and awakened to the needs of our society. I have also realised that I am not raising money for the Salvos, but raising money for the marginalised in our communities, the Salvos are the distributors of this hope and funds to where it is needed. I don’t know how to say it succinctly but the people who are helped by the Salvos need more than a token donation they need a heartfelt donation. It has me thinking the power social media what if we could find another 100 people to donate $100. That would equate to $10,000 but it is only the start. This is also a tax deduction so people on the top or second tier tax rates could donate $181 or $159 respectively and this would be a $100 before tax donation (ie you would get a tax deduction). This is your chance to make a significant donation to the Red Shield Appeal. Help me exceed my goals and make a difference to others.

If you are not convinced look at this ad. View this ad and see the need?

These are the video links to our ride
Summary Video
Days 1 – 3,
Days 4 – 10.

For me seeing the works in actions was the most effective awakening to the needs of the community. One of the most moving experiences was a fellow rider who had been helped by the Salvos as a child and saying how much each food voucher meant to their family growing up and they are now trying to give back to the Salvos. This was a raw, open and honest account of what the help meant to a child growing up.

The needs of our community are wide and far reaching, these are our fellow Australians please do what you can. Please Please Please donate to The Red Shield Appeal. Get your friends and colleagues on board and give a heartfelt donation!

As for me people ask how was it? I will tell you it is not about the money or the distance it is about the education. Would I do it again? Absolutely. My legs and fitness were fine although tired at the end of each day. This was a great personal challenge and achievement. Met lots of great people along the way both cyclists and support crew and am now much wiser to the needs of my fellow Australians. Thanks for reading
#RedShieldAppeal #RedShieldRide

Day 10 started wet, cold and windy although we were all keen to finish what we started. How many people do you know that have ridden from Sydney to Melbourne? I now know 24 of them! My stats for the day were 110k with 518m of climbing. This would normally sound easy but not so easy when riding into the cold rain and a solid head wind. Total stats for the 10 days was 1,436k, 15,821m of climbing and total ride time of 55 hours 47 minutes. Big thanks to all the fellow riders and all the support team who helped get me around.

The day started with breakfast at a local cafe and we were meant to go to a local park to launch the local Red Shield Appeal but due to the weather this was done at the cafe. We then made our final departure for Melbourne, along the way we detoured fire Packenham Salvos for a coffee and warm place for a few minutes and then lunch at Mordialloc in a local cafe, again our outdoor lunch was cancelled due to the weather conditions. We left Mordialloc for the MCG and despite still being cold and windy the rain had finally stopped. We all arrived at the MCG happy to finish our ride from Sydney to Melbourne. Hard to believe that it is over but glad to say I have done it.

As a group we have raised over $220k for The Red Shield Appeal but I am sure we can get more so please keep donating to my fundraising. Tonight we have a celebration dinner and tomorrow morning we go to the National launch of The Red Shield Appeal. Thanks all for you support it has been a great experience and please remember to give generously.

Some may think we have done it tough for the last 10 days, yes it was tough and challenging but we enjoyed the challenge and this is what we signed up for. We were fed (over fed?) multiple times a day, given hot and cold drinks, had a warm safe bed to sleep in and clean clothes. Many Australians are genuinely doing it tough and battling to survive. This is not something that they signed up for so please remember them. The Salvos try to help and look after these peoples needs and the only way they can do this is through the support and generosity of Australians so they need your Donation, not someone else’s but YOUR donation.

Today was the day that had put dread in most of our minds since signing onto the tour. We had an optional ride to Mt Baw Baw. Not that anything is optional when you are there and it may be your only chance to attempt this brutal climb you have to try. Total distance for the day was 170k with 3,562m of climbing. This was a brutal as promised with a tough 6.8k on very steep gradients to the summit. I am pleased that I attempted and completed this climb although I was absolutely spent after this effort and still had to ride some 70k to Warragul.

Apart from being tough it was a beautiful place to ride in the forest and an absolute pleasure to be there. There are many tired people on tour all looking forward to our final roll to Melbourne and finishing at the MCG. The forecast is for a wet day and we hope this forecast does not eventuate.

I will post a final update tomorrow and wrap up. Please keep donating to the Salvos and thanks for all the support. One of the photos below is the elevation graph of todays ride.

#RedShieldRide #RedShieldAppeal

Today was meant to be an easy roll after 3 big days in the saddle. A later start than normal had us rolling to the Sale Salvation Army to see their work first hand. I did have a chance here to tell the Sale Salvos as to why we are riding and what motivates us to help them. I tried to say it is a team and we admire and want to support the front line workers with funds to be able to help those in need. After our visit we started our roll to Sale. Keep donating to the Salvos where the money goes to the help the people that need it most.

The forecast was for us to be riding into strong headwind all day and unfortunately this was correct. We took constant rolling turns to share the load (unlike group B drafting behind their support car!) and were spread out across the lane trying to shelter from the wind when not on front. Needless to say the ride was not fast as it was extremely tough when on front. Total distance 102.4k and 517m of climbing. We did throw in a few extra K’s as we felt that anything under 100k was too short.

I am still working on my coffee skills and help out on the coffee machine at the breaks.

Tomorrow is a big day so I will spend the rest of today preparing physically and mentally for the penultimate stage and our biggest stage of the tour. #RedShieldAppeal #RedShieldRide