Helping Type 1 Diabetics Go All Day and Night. An associated community network group of Diabetes Australia - Victoria

The Ride to Cure Diabetes 2006 started well enough, although we arrived in
Adelaide to find that the air-conditioning in Adelaide airport wasn't
working.  It was to be an omen for the entire weekend, although we were
only slowly becoming aware of this at the time!

We got to Jacobs Creek, and to the Jacobs Creek Novotel, to find that
Bernie's Cycles were already set up and assembling bikes at what appeared
to us - wilting in the heat as we were, having just got off a rather
comfortable bus on which the air-conditioning was working - to be a furious
pace.  They got everything sorted before they fried, though, and the vast
majority of tomorrow's riders were ensconced in their rooms learning how to
make the hotel's air-conditioners work, or else watering themselves for
revival in the pool, by the time they finished.

The ride briefing at dinner that night, "dinner" being an understatement
for a pasta carbohydrate feast the likes (and size) of which few diabetics
ever treat themselves to, was a an unusual affair, with repeated warnings
about hydration and relief stops being widely apprehended with scepticism
by a crowd that still couldn't really believe that the heat was going to be
that much of a problem the next day.   The start time for the 80km ride -
which most riders were opting to do - had been brought forward, and there
was some grumbling about the need to rise that much earlier!

The ride day dawned clear and bright, and the dire predictions of impending
heat collapse seemed a little more plausible, given that it was hot, and
still only about 6:00 when most of us got to the dining room for breakfast.
For the most part, though, we were still gung-ho about it, and all still
thought that the heat would be bearable for the majority of the ride.
Breakfast was a rather jovial affair, and again the temptation to eat to
much was easily rationalised away.  We all rode to the start of the ride,
down the (rather large) hill on which the Novotel sits above the Jacobs
Creek vineyards to the Jacobs Creek Visitors Centre, already noticing the
heat, in spite of the early start - and one "lucky" rider scored a flat
tyre between the hotel and the Visitors Centre.  When we got to the Centre,
we were already sweating, and even once we started moving, at 7:30 for the
160km crowd, it was still warm.

The route was familiar to a lot of us, but that didn't stop a fair number
(about 20) taking a wrong turn at the first roundabout, just before
Angaston.  The resulting 20 minute handicap to our ride time, however, was
later to be celebrated by all, as it meant that we missed the main group,
who set out for the second lap of the 80km circular route just before we
got back to the Visitors Centre.  Breaks at drink stops became longer and
longer, and by Williamstown (the last major stop on the clockwise first lap
of the course) most who I had been travelling in much the same sorts of
time as had decided that they would not set out on the second lap, unless
encouraged to do so by the organisers!  The decision was, thankfully, taken
out of our hands by the time we got there, though, as JDRF had declared the
course closed to anyone who set out for a second lap after 12:00.

The ride was generally good, apart from the heat, although the majority of
cyclists spent a long time becoming slower and slower as their bodies
compelled them to take it easy.  The hills, although not large to start
with, became steadily larger and larger to a lot of tired riders!  The road
surface was generally smooth and well-worn, although every bump was still
being felt in the prevailing conditions.  St. Johns ambulance were busy for
a lot of the day - especially after about 11:30, when the heat seemed to go
up by about five degrees on top of what it already was - with heat
exhaustion cases.  One notable case was "sprung" by the ambos as he rested
under a tree - just short of the first 80km lap - and was deposited in the
Visitors Centre feeling rather silly, if somewhat relieved!  When I arrived
back at the Visitors Centre, a large group of the super-keen roadies had
set out in pursuit of the 80km riders, being marshalled along the way by
Steve Hodge, who was trying to ensure that most were actually able to
finish.  The last of the riders from both the 80km and the 160km groups
finished in the heat of the day at about 16:00, and a large number of these
were treated for heat exposure by St. Johns.  When they finally made it
back up the hill to the hotel, it was to find the pool very crowded with a
whole lot of really tired people.

At dinner that night after the day's fun and games were over, we learned
that it had been reported as being around 44 degrees temperature on the
radio, and that some cyclists had measured 50 degree temperatures out on
the road.  It stayed hot for the rest of the day and all that night - the
air-conditioning in the dinner venue completely unable to cope.  Although
the tiled floor of the Jacobs Creek Visitors Centre had been turned into a
de facto triage unit for heat exhaustion cases during the day, and 300kg of
ice had been gone through for treating them, nobody had had to be
hospitalised - which was a huge tribute to the planning of JDRF and the
execution of St. Johns.  All were still glad that we had done the ride,
even if we had not finished all of what we set out to do.  As the
organisers noted, it was a great relief that nobody had been obsessive
about it, and had hurt themselves in a misguidedly competitive attempt to
achieve something particular. Nearly 170 riders had participated, and over
$600000 had been raised.

It was widely regarded as an unusual year.  Even in spite of all the
problems, nobody wants not to do it again!

Andrew Elston

'HypoActive rider Gavin Wright prepares himself for the task of riding the 80km JDRF Ride for the Cure challenge in extreme heat conditions'