After their fantastic effort yesterday, some cyclists awoke this morning feeling excited about their trip into Hobart today, however others looked positively relieved that today was the last day of cycling. Our devotions this morning spoke about the nature of poverty and our responses to it. I was proud to be a part of a team that were so visibly doing something to relieve the condition of the poor and oppressed, the orphans and the widows.

The teams got off to a terrific start, knocking over the first fifty kilometers of the trip without too many problems. A flat tyre saw Team 20 catch Team 27 for the third consecutive year and the team leaders, drivers and navigators did a fantastic job of keeping the cyclists safe through busy traffic into Hobart.

Tassie Challenge photos available here!

Today the cyclists enjoyed a lovely incline out of town, knowing that the remainder of the day was fairly flat. As we were unable to enter the school at Wilmot until 3:15pm, the cyclists took it easy, enjoyed each others' company, the teams engaged in a bit of friendly rivalry.

This morning's devotional message centred around the combination of faith and works, and it was encouraging for me to reflect upon the combination that is so evident in the participants on this journey - they are doing something remarkable out of faith for those less fortunate then themselves.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to St Helens

Catch the Day 1 action! Hobart to Swansea.

http://vimeo.com/54209922

The photos from day one of the Challenge For Change, Tassie Challenge can now be seen on Facebook. Click here. If you see a photo of family or a friend, please leave a comment.

And now the fun begins.

A lot of first time riders have joined Challenge For Change this year. All were champing at the bit to be away and onto the road. Lots of stretching. Adjustments made to bikes. A few laps of the car park to warm up the muscles. And then they were off. Twenty nine riders hit the road and headed north leaving beautiful Hobart behind. Our riders are split between two teams. Our experienced riders are in Team Twenty Seven and will average 27kph. Team Twenty will average 20kph. Team Twenty Seven left first, eager to be on the road and were cheered on by the rest of the Challenge For Change crew. Ten minutes later Team Twenty were away, again with a big cheer.

Check out the pre-ride blog video here!

So, here we are, five days out from The Tassie Challenge. I spend the majority of my time at the moment fluctuating between excitement, sheer terror, panic and rationality. The latter, sadly, doesn’t get much of a look-in. 

There’s not much that I enjoy more than being out on my bike. After the ride in 2009 from Brisbane to Canberra, I would not have said that. I was ready to sell the bike, thankful for the life-changing, muscle-crunching, friendship-building adventure, but fairly sure I’d done the job. I was ready to commit to supporting Eagles Wings in a less outrageous way.

Okay, straight up, I am not a bike nerd. I really enjoy riding, but I know very little about bikes. I am embarrassed to say this. If you ride for long enough you will hear loads of bike jargon that seemingly everyone knows but you! Sometimes I try to bluff my way through while I think, “I have no idea what you are talking about.”  Second to this, most people that ride with me are really disturbed at my bike’s condition. I don’t clean it. At times it gets confiscated and cleaned for me. This is something I need to work on. But I think it is important that you understand this.

So, when it came to the question of the bike that I’ll be using for this record attempt, I had to hand it over to the experts to assist in making this decision, whilst I only conveyed my big picture concerns of the balance between speed and comfort. Originally, I thought I would be able to take three different bikes for different conditions (hills, flats, off-road/road works), until Guinness World Records team stipulated the use of only one commercially available bike, with no modifications for the whole journey. Hence, this was one of the biggest decisions about the journey for me to make. If the bike is fast, but extremely uncomfortable, I will fail. If it is extremely slow and comfortable, I will fail. Either way, it would do my head in.

CYCLING 400km PER DAY · 35 DAYS · 14,100km · FOR CHILDREN IN POVERTY

WE WERE ONLY SEVEN DAYS BACK FROM OUR 5500KM RIDE THROUGHOUT SOUTHERN AFRICA, BUT APPARENTLY SEVEN DAYS WAS ENOUGH TIME FOR ONE OF OUR CO-RIDERS (TIM) TO EMAIL ME THROUGH THE GUINNESS WORLD RECORD FOR RIDING AFRICA TOP TO BOTTOM FOR A 'SOLO UNASSISTED RIDE' (NO SUPPORT TEAMS OR VEHICLES) FROM CAIRO (EGYPT) TO CAPE TOWN (SOUTH AFRICA). HE WAS CURIOUS TO SEE HOW OUR RIDE COMPARED.

Today we drove from Hobart to Launceston via the Nile, Perth, Lewisham and Cleveland, which left Graham and I wondering where on earth we were! We stopped at a lovely coffee shop in Campbelltown. Apparently it's not en route for cyclists but Graham seems to think that it's not too far out of the way for the support crew.....

At 10am we met Pastor Jeff McKinnon and the folks at City Baptist Church, who are kindly putting during the ride's Launceston stopover. Great people, great place, and we've roped Nigel in for a day's cycling between Launceston and Wilmot. Plenty of extreme sleeping options for Big A.

When Challenge for Change started planning The Tassie Challenge ten months ago, we were running fairly blindly. I spent hours talking to strangers from churches I'd found on Google, or to people that others had referred me to. This morning, Graham and I started a planning trip to find out exactly what we had planned, and what 27 cyclists and 18 support crew members have signed up for.

The trip started well. Looking out the plane window, we could only see a few hills, none of which had roads on them. Too easy? After (mostly) successfully navigating Hobart's one-way streets, we checked out our Hobart accommodation (see Facebook for photos), gave out some brochures to strangers and visited our proposed finishing point. The trip has already proven to be worthwhile, as we discovered that the aforementioned finishing point was at the top of a whopping great hill.  Eager to keep the cyclists on side, we checked out alternative options. Cascade brewery, anyone?

The siren sounded. It was 7 minutes past 7am and around 70 cyclists began their epic challenge to see our far they could ride in 9 hours – to change the lives of Zambian children.

On the 11th of June Challenge for Change (CFC) kicked off their first official fundraiser for Eagles Wings, “The Solstice Challenge”. The CFC group had decided to hold an event that would challenge all participants, regardless of whether they were semi-professional speedsters or a part time cycling hack. The Holden Driving Centre was an ideal venue with a flat 1.6km circuit that allowed participants and supporters to view the competing cyclists. Cyclists had a choice to ride as individuals, pairs or teams of four.

Things are about to get exciting as Challenge for Change begins in 2012.

Challenge for Change is an initiative of Eagles Wings Australia and our Mission Statement sums up our purpose and hopes. But as with everything in life there is a starting point, an idea, a thought or a dream, a sudden light bulb moment. Or there is a challenge that is overcome that creates something beautiful, something inspirational. Sometimes something that brings hope starts out as a hopeless situation. So it is with Eagles Wings’ new initiative, Challenge for Change.