Riding with greatness
EXCLUSIVE COLUMN: You can find inspiration close to home
HELLO to everyone, I trust you’ve all had a wonderful festive season with family and friends.
Can you believe it, we’re about to hit 2018 and it’s only a matter of a few weeks until the fourth edition of the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
In the years since our inaugural event in 2015 we’ve seen some truly great performances, the kind of which make elite World Tour cycling so exciting to watch.
The effort of Nikias Arndt of Team Sunweb to dig so deep and secure an astonishing win after he was seemingly dropped from the race on the final Geelong lap was resilience and belief at its best. It was an effort that seemed to inspire the entire Sunweb team on to greatness for the rest of the 2017 season, highlighted by a remarkable victory in the Giro d’ Italia.
Annemiek van Vleuten’s inspirational victory in the Deakin University Elite Women’s Race came just five months after a terrible crash in the Rio Olympics women’s road race that saw her spend three days in intensive care.
Similarly to Team Sunweb, the victory catapulted Annemiek onto an amazing season in which she was clearly the world’s best women’s rider. Greatness.
And while the best of the best display greatness on the world stage for us all to see, I have to admit I find the greatness possessed and exhibited by everyday people within our communities to be the most inspirational.
You see I truly believe we all possess our own greatness within and it’s displayed in so many ways daily.
I see courage and honesty within the person putting their hand up and saying I need to change, and make changes, to regain my health and feel the best version of me.
Hardworking parents who have always put their families first before their own needs, pinching some time to exercise to stay healthy for the benefit of their family.
I see greatness in that. And people who may not possess the physical traits, abilities or time of others, just trying to be their personal best. I see these people on my rides regularly and I draw inspiration from them, more than they could ever imagine. These people to me are great.
And then we come across people like Michelle Clarkson of Forest Hill.
Michelle missed the first edition in 2015 of the Swisse People’s Ride, having just undergone surgery for breast cancer.
Even though she didn’t own a bike, Michelle’s sister Amanda made a promise to her she would ride with her the following year — and has done every year since!
In Michelle’s own words: “The Swisse People’s Ride has become an annual pilgrimage for me after missing the first edition due to having breast cancer.
“It’s a reminder of the promise I made to myself to be as fit and healthy as I can for as long as I can and a nice way to (hopefully — as it also coincides with my annual checks) tick off another year of being cancer-free.”
Michelle and Amanda have now recruited five other girlfriends and mums from school to ride with them in the 2018 Swisse People’s Ride and I for one cannot wait to join them.
You see, it is me who is ‘riding with greatness’ when we hit the start line of the Swisse People’s Ride.