north east regional extra | June 9 - 15, 2021
nemedia.com.au
1.
June 9 - 15, 2021
◆ CYCLING ODYSSEY: Sharon and Justin Scholz are riding around the country on their tandem bike.
Two people, two wheels, 16,000km By NATHAN DE VRIES MOST people would think an around-the-country odyssey sounds like a fun time, but not many would attempt the journey on a tandem bicycle. That’s exactly what Wangaratta fitness fanatics Justin and Sharon Scholz are undertak-
ing, riding around the country on their bright yellow tandem bike, Happy. Justin said the idea sounded like fun. “We usually travel overseas each year, but with COVID it was clear we weren’t likely to be leaving Australia in 2021,” he said.
“We have friends who attempted a circumnavigation by bicycle last year but couldn’t get into WA so they came down through Alice Springs to SA before heading home to Terrigal, north of Sydney. “We figured we might as well do something similar as it looked like fun.
“I have to be in Adelaide for a six day walking event that I’ve entered by mid-September; everything is on schedule.” The duo started out from Wangaratta in the early hours of Tuesday, April 27, and they haven’t looked back. “Day one was a 197km trip
up and over Mount Hotham to Omeo, with 2700m of climbing and a total weight of just over 190kg; it was tough,” Justin said. “By the time we reached Sydney in the first seven days, we’d completed 1050km with more than 13,000 metres of climbing.
“The first week was always expected to be the hardest, and intentionally designed that way to prove to us that we could manage the rest.” The decision to ride tandem was an easy one for the couple, being no strangers to the experience.
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