Weather beats cyclist

By Paul Pickering
DAMIAN Richmond’s two-wheeled philanthropic juggernaut across Australia ended in a mixture of tears and triumph recently, as the Ferntree Gully resident aborted his brave tilt at the trans-Australia cycling record.
Mr Richmond, 39, set off from Perth on 17 November aiming to arrive in Sydney by the Sunday (25 November) to eclipse the current record mark of eight days, 10 hours and 57 minutes.
The Race Across Australia event was conceived as a fundraising vehicle for Ferntree Gully-based humanitarian aid group HopeBuilders International, with sponsorships received in support of African children orphaned by AIDS and genocide.
Agonisingly, Mr Richmond’s journey came to an end just 400km shy of Sydney – in the town of Junee.
Thwarted by five days of strong headwinds, Mr Richmond and his team of support riders agreed to abort the attempt at 10pm on the Sunday night after they decided an electrical storm was making it too difficult to continue.
Having been 200km ahead of the record on the fourth night, the weather conditions ultimately conspired against Mr Richmond to make the next four days a physical and mental battle against the elements.
Still, his spirits were high as he spoke to the Mail upon arriving home last week.
“It was just the most amazing thing to have done and the most spectacular way to see the country,” he said.
“We threw everything at it, but we have a very vast country and you can’t wait for the perfect storm to say: ‘now I’ll break the record’.
“The team had the perfect preparation, the timing was right because the forecast told us we’d have four days of westerly winds but it didn’t happen that way.”
Despite being hoarse, blistered and saddle-sore, Mr Richmond said the most frustrating aspect of the ride was that he felt like he was getting stronger with every day.
In a diary entry on Mr Richmond’s blogspot website, his wife Debbie noted her astonishment at her husband’s will to push through the pain.
“What I found so amazing about the whole thing was that we were nine people on the support crew and yet we struggled to keep up with Damian as he rode, and rode and rode,” Ms Richmond wrote.
“At one stage we were swapping drivers quite rapidly to be able to keep driving because this machine just did not want to rest.”
Mr Richmond described one of his most vivid memories from the ride last week, describing how a kangaroo had jumped between him and his support rider as they descended a hill at around 60km per hour in almost complete darkness.
While he has not ruled out another attempt at the record, Mr Richmond’s next task is to collect the remainder of an anticipated $50,000 worth of sponsorship pledges.
Among the generous sponsorships received by the team was a $300 donation from a tiny Aboriginal community church in the West Australian country town of Coolgardie.
Mr Richmond said that a member of the HopeBuilders team left for Uganda last week in search of a block of land to purchase for the construction of an orphanage.
Building is expected to begin in March next year.
Donations can still be made to the project by visiting www.raceacrossaustralia.com or www.hopebuilders.org.au.
Alternatively, HopeBuilders International can be reached on 9758 3896.