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Canberra Today 25°/27° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

36 hours to cycle to Melbourne for cancer research?

cyclist

MARCO Bottari is planning to cycle from Canberra to Melbourne in 36 hours to raise money for cancer research.

Ever since Marco Bottari was a little boy, he has always been a keen cyclist. In the past few years he has participated in multiple solo 24 hour non-stop mountain bike rides, he has ridden his mountain bike from Canberra to Sydney (in 14 hours) to visit his sister, and he didn’t bother to get his driver’s license until he was 24, because he could always ride his bike instead.

2 years ago, Marco’s life was shaken by the untimely death of his Dad (60 years old). Shortly after his father death, his best friend Taylor also died (26 years old).

As Marco struggled with the grief, he threw himself more aggressively than ever into cycling. He has now set himself a momentous challenge, which he hopes to achieve in order to honour the lives of his Dad and best friend. He also hopes to use the experience to raise funds for the Cancer Council to assist in funding future cancer research.

He plans to ride from Canberra to Melbourne (around 700kms) in one go non-stop on his mountain bike. It is likely to take him around 30 hours with no breaks.

The preparation for this ride has been intense, with weekly rides of hundreds of kilometres and a carefully planned diet. The sheer strain of such intense training has meant that Marco has battled with numbness in both hands from nerve compression, blisters on his backside, and average weight loss of more than half a kilo a week. Some days he considers drinking olive oil to increase his daily caloric intake.

With his intense training, Marco has to constantly snack, and he struggles to go more than 1 hour without eating something, he says that “it can be awkward trying to unwrap a muesli bar or crunch into an apple during a meeting at work, but everyone understands.”

This epic challenge will be one that tests Marco to the limits of his fitness, pain levels and endurance.

Lots of people are getting behind Marco on his journey, and he hopes that he can gain the support of the whole community, to raise more funds for the Cancer Council.

Marco’s planning his wild ride for August 21. If you’d like to help he has a page on Everyday Hero.

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Ian Meikle, editor

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