Mid Battye, Jeremy Lott and Peter Lott.
If you would like to donate, use the QR code or head to the PedalCure 4 FightMND 2024 website.
Coota’s Peter and Jeremy Lott and Coota’s Mid Battye have got their cycling gear on for MND, joining many others in the PedalCure4MND Tas24 which is a cycling fundraiser for MND research and assistance. Riders will travel around Tasmania on their bikes with the first day happening yesterday. So far, the ride has raised over $850k with that number growing even higher when this year’s event finishes up. Organisers hope to hit one million this year. Riders will start at Devonport and ride to Penguin and back to Devonport the first day.
The second day they head to Launceston, the next day they head through the Tamar Valley Loop and back to Launceston. On day 4 they ride off to Bridport, day 5 St Helens and the final day finishes up at Swansea. Richie Porte, one of Australia’s greatest cyclists, will join the party on the ride and fellow cycling great Simon Gerrans will join for selected legs. Peter Lott is thrilled to be able to contribute to such an important cause and is likely still pedalling away as you read this article. He is joined by his brother Jeremy.
“There’s about 120 of us riding. We’re in Devonport now [at the time of writing]. It’s 630 kms that we are riding over the six days and there are 7 and a half thousand metres of climbing since there are a lot of hills in Tasmania. There’s a bit of anxiety and trepidation with all that,” he said. “It’s not a race, we are here to raise MND’s profile and achieve something. We’re climbing these hills and doing the distance, but this is nothing that compares to someone dealing with MND.” Mid Battye is a cousin of Neale Daniher, Essendon AFL legend, and has taken on the ride to support her family.
“I started working in Coota in 1987, I married a local and all my kids are local. I’m riding with my sister and my cousins and a number of other family members.” Peter Lott has been in Cootamundra since 1991. He said, “It’s a bit of planes, trains and automobiles to get here. Jeremy and I actually flew here. When we came in on the plane, there were four bikes on the plane that were all bundled up. All sorts of people have come here. The highest number of riders have actually come from New South Wales and then Victoria and then Tasmania. There’s a few from other states.
“This is the fourth ride they’ve actually done. They’ve got bigger and better with each one that they’ve done and raised more money. That money goes for MND research, and it’s actually come out in the last couple of weeks that they’ve actually found a protein, which actually interrupts the development of MND. It is super exciting in terms of potentially, coming up with a block or a treatment or halting agent for MND. It’s actually pretty exciting.
“We have QR Codes that people can donate to us as individual riders or to the actual overall fund.” Cheer on our Coota riders as they fight to change the world. We will keep readers of the Coota Times posted when our team get a chance to relax when they disembark from their saddles each day. The saddles on a road bike aren’t quite as comfortable as that of a horses.
