In March, Cyclist joined Richie Porte, Simon Gerrans and dozens of other riders for a stunning ride through northern Tasmania to help raise money to fight motor neurone disease
Words and Photography Nick Esser
There are many reasons to ride a bike.
It might be to get some exercise and fresh air, exorcise some competitive demons in a local crit, or simply catch up with friends on a coffee ride.
But not often do we ride our bike for someone else, for something bigger than us.
However, for a large bunch of cyclists – including two recently retired road cycling legends in Simon Gerrans and Richie Porte – that’s exactly what they did when they recently came together in northern Tasmania to raise money for research into motor neurone disease as part of the Pedal Cure 4 FightMND (PC4MND) charity ride.
From the get-go and both on and off the bike, there’s a sense of community among the pack – more like volunteering at the local footy club than fighting it out on Melbourne’s Beach Road.
Small bunches of riders join from mostly New South Wales and Victoria, topped up by a local Tasmanian contingent, and brought together by a connection to motor neurone disease (MND).
We’re not talking about elite cyclists either – well, apart from those two aforementioned former national champions.
It’s everyday cyclists of all ages, shapes, sizes and abilities, including a vision-impaired cyclist riding with his brother on a very fast tandem, that break into four groups to clock up between 70km and 120km a day for six days straight.
A cruel illness
Motor neurone disease is the name for a group of conditions that affect the nerves in the brain and spinal cord that control muscles.
In MND, these nerves gradually stop working properly, which leads to muscle weakness, twitching, and eventually, difficulty moving, speaking, swallowing and breathing.
Imagine your body is like a machine, and your nerves are the wires that tell different parts of the machine what to do.
In MND, these wires start to break down, so the messages from your brain to your muscles don’t get through properly.
As a result, your muscles don’t work as they should, and over time, they become weaker and smaller.
This can make everyday activities like walking, talking, eating and even breathing very challenging.
It’s also a progressive disease, which means it gets worse over time, and sadly, there’s currently no cure.
Nearly everyone taking part in this event has a story about MND.
For Launceston local Richie Porte it was team doctor at Team Sky / Ineos Richard Usher, who sadly passed away from the disease a couple of years ago.
Porte got involved in the ride when an old friend from Launceston, who was part of the group organising the ride, reached out.
‘The thing with MND is it’s just such a cruel illness,’ Porte says.
‘But it’s awesome to be able to come together and meet good people who are raising money to fight it. It’s a worthy cause.’
Founded in 2014, FightMND was established by former Essendon footballer Neale Daniher, who was diagnosed with MND in 2013, along with fellow MND sufferer Dr Ian Davis, and Pat Cunningham, whose wife Angie lost her battle with the disease in 2016.
The purpose of the foundation is to help find effective treatments and, ultimately, a cure.
The Australian charity is the largest independent funder of medical research for MND in the world and also provides material support for sufferers of the disease.
Excited to ride with his good mate Richie in Tasmania for the first time in many years, Gerrans’ involvement in the ride and connection to FightMND came through a fundraising initiative at his son’s primary school in inner Melbourne last year.
After meeting the team behind FightMND, Gerrans learned about PC4MND and jumped at the chance to take part in a good cause.
‘It was in June last year that I found out about this ride and committed to come down to Tassie and support it.
Plus, for as long as we’ve known each other, Richie has been telling me all about how great Tassie is – I think the last time I was here was all the way back in 2008 for a criterium in the centre of Launceston.
So I’ve really been looking forward to getting down here.’
For its part, PC4MND was started in 2018 by a handful of cyclists in Lockhart, a town of 818 people in the NSW Riverina that had been touched by a series of MND cases.
‘In the first ride we had around 25 riders and we rode from the home of Neale Daniher, which is Ungarie, to Windy Hill (the home ground of the Essendon Bombers), where Neale and his brothers played footy,’ says ride coorganiser Paul Breust Since then and prior to this year’s fundraising effort, the ride had blossomed through local cycling groups, footy clubs and community support networks to raise more than $830,000 over three rides.
But it’s more than just a fundraising exercise.
‘Great friendships have also been developed through riding bikes and supporting a great cause,’ adds ride co-organiser Paul Ansell.
Rolling through the hills
The Riverina is this ride’s heartland.
The Daniher family hails from the region and the three rides prior to this one – organised in 2018, 2020 and 2022 – had all featured the largely flat expanses west of the divide.
This year’s ride through northern Tasmania was the fourth overall and the first outside of New South Wales and Victoria.
It was also the first to include significant elevation gain, which formed the basis of much nervous chatter over the opening days in the saddle.
For cyclists without the palmarès of Porte or Gerrans, the route is a real challenge – and it’s not just the hills asking questions. ‘Tasmania is so special, but it’s unrelenting too,’ Porte says.
‘You have to fight for every kilometre down here, and there always seems to be a prevailing headwind.’
Burning legs aside, it’s truly spectacular country and the roads are quiet, a big part of what makes Tasmania such an attractive place to ride.
The 2024 PC4MND route picked out some of the best riding in northern Tassie, covering off the coastline around Devonport and the spectacular Tamar Valley before heading through Scottsdale to St Helens and finishing up in Swansea on the east coast of the island.
The route isn’t mountainous as such, but as soon as it veers away from the coast it is consistently lumpy – that beautiful green, rolling countryside for which Tasmania is renowned.
In total, the ride equated to 646km and nearly 8,000m elevation across six days.
Richie Porte, Georgia Baker, Nathan Earle, Cam Wurf, Will Clarke – it’s easy to understand why so many Tasmanians have made their name on the WorldTour.
A community project
The connection to AFL is ever-present, and not just through FightMND and the extended Daniher family, many of whom have ridden and supported the ride since inception.
It’s often said that footy clubs are the lifeblood of country communities, and they’re also the lifeblood of this ride.
Over the course of the six days, volunteers enthusiastically served up countless meals to all involved with the ride, and the football grounds provided riders with shelter as they laid out swags in grandstands and slept in change rooms from Devonport to St Helens.
The whole experience is warmly humbling and brings strangers, riders, volunteer supporters and local communities together in a way not often experienced on two wheels.
‘We’ve got 130 riders on the ride and the support crew is about 20 people,’ says Launceston local and ride co-organiser Richard Wells.
‘There is a real sense of a community project.’
Through a mix of rider-led fundraising and some corporate sponsorship, the 2024 ride has, at time of print, raised over $760,000 to support FightMND’s efforts to cure the disease – more than doubling the initial target of $350,000 and almost matching what the three rides prior had raised combined.
Over four editions to date, more than $1.5 million has now been raised.
It’s an impressive figure for any charitable event, but perhaps even more impressive is the sense of community formed along the way – riders, volunteers and supporters alike.
It’s always rewarding to ride a bike, but to do so with good people in a beautiful part of the world while supporting a good cause is something truly special.
Gerrans on…
…his new business ventures
‘I split my time a number of ways. Running The Service Course, we have our sort of flagship store in Girona. We also have a store in Nice. We have a licensee in Mexico City and another one in Abu Dhabi. So, the business has really grown globally. We still have retail partners spread throughout North America, and South East Asia. I do some commentary as well for SBS, which is based in Melbourne, with a trip to France each year for the tour. And then I’ve recently bought another couple of bike shops in Victoria called Hendry Cycles – there’s one in Geelong and one in Ocean Grove, which is taking up a lot of my time at the moment.’
…riding for leisure
‘I still try and get out on a bike. Not as much as I’d like, but I think that’s probably the same case for everybody. I’ve never stopped since I started racing, though. I’ve always continued riding – with completely different reasons now to when I was doing it for a living, but I still love getting out on my bike.’
Porte on…
…retiring from pro cycling
‘I mean, I can’t say a miss professional cycling because I haven’t for a second – I was ready to stop. But I look back on it as a privilege, and some of the experiences I had from riding my bike were pretty awesome.’
…his passion for riding
‘You see a lot of guys retire and they’ve lost the passion, but I still like getting out on my bike and staying active. I also enjoy not being tied to a bike brand. I’ve got a garage full of bikes and I just enjoy being able to do what I want.’
…cycling in Tasmania
‘Tasmania is so quiet in comparison to other places in the world that I’ve ridden. It’s a joy to ride here, especially when the weather is as good as it is at the moment.’
Join PedalCure4MND in 2026
Organisers of this biennial event are already in the early stages of planning for 2026, with Adelaide or elsewhere in South Australia in their crosshairs for the next destination (though nothing is set in stone at this stage).
The format will be similar to previous iterations – a five- to six-day ride of 500+ kilometres through spectacular scenery with on-site camping at local footy clubs along the way. Cyclists of all abilities are warmly welcomed to participate in this great ride for a worthy cause. Click the here to visit the PC4MND website and keep an eye out for details as they’re released. You can also follow them at facebook.com/pedalcure4mnd
