19 FEBRUARY 2020 | ISSUE 443 | FREE
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HANLEY TAKES A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE The Jayco Herald Sun Tour has become a regular feature on the event calendar in Nagambie, but this year we were treated to a trip down memory lane when cyclist Jim Hanley rolled into Mitchelton Winery to see the start of the 67th edition of the race. Jim Hanley was one of Seymour’s most successful cyclists and the only Seymour born cyclist ever to ride in the Sun Tour. He grew up in Seymour, with a love for cycling. This year marks 55 years since Jim at the age of 24 lined up with 6 teams, each of 4 cyclists to tackle the SUN TOUR. Over 9 days, in a jersey of yellow, Jim would ride a total distance of 1781 kilometres throughout Victoria in elevated temperatures, escorted by one police car, no road closures, 2 team cars and no mobile phones. From the 16th to the 24th of October 1965, Jim pedalled through the Victorian countryside, obeying the road rules, sticking to the left hand side of the road, knowing full well that if you crossed the white line for more than 100 meters, you would be fined $50.
Jim reflects on what interested him in cycling to begin with, “I wasn’t a natural rider, and I wasn’t any good at other sports. They tried to talk me out of cycling insisting I wouldn’t get anything out of bikes, try golf or tennis they would say. I wasn’t interested in tennis and I couldn't play golf so I chose bikes. I found that I had to train hard to become any sort of reasonable biker. We would ride to Yea and back after work to get fit. We had a dynamo set for lights and if it was moonlight we’d turn the lights off. We might have seen two cars between Seymour and Yea and back again. These days you’d see two cars in the first 100 yards.” “Today the teams have mechanics, trainers, nutritionists, doctors, physios, they have it all. I had my father who would rub my legs down every now and then when the aches were bad and my wife Pat who followed behind in our Volkswagen for support,” said Jim. “You didn’t have the benefit of a back up crew coming behind you to change your tyres, or to keep you hydrated, you did it all yourself. The sport has changed so much, it was very different back then,” Jim added.
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