Point Cook’s Darren Smith will join more than 20 serving members and veterans of the Australian military, in this month’s RACV Great Victorian Bike Ride.
Mr Smith will participate as part of a group from VetRide, an organisation that helps boost the health and wellbeing of Australian Defence Forces service and ex-service men and women through cycling.
Mr Smith, who enlisted in the ADF as a logistician in 1989, has been posted across the country. He has also been deployed to Bougainville, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates.
He said many of the former defence personnel taking part in the Great Victorian Bike Ride were Vietnam veterans.
“Even across the generations, we have shared experiences and can talk about things,” he said.
This will be Mr Smith’s first Great Victorian Bike Ride.
He signed up to take part in the ride last year, but a last-minute deployment to Middle East prevented him from participating.
Mr Smith said he was looking forward to the ride, which will see participants pedal a whopping 540 kilometres from Wilsons Promontory to Gippsland, starting on November 25 and finishing on December 3.
He says neither distance nor the prospect of bad weather will put him off – he regularly cycles to work in Laverton, come rain, hail or shine.
“The shortest route I can take is four kilometres,” he said.
“But sometimes I go out of my way to find a longer route, usually of between 14 kilometres to 20 kilometres.”
Details: www.greatvic.com.au
