On his bike: Bell Post Hill’s Jack Griffin is a picture of health as he notches up epic journeys covering thousands of kilometres around Australia.
Andrew Mathieson
SPECTATORS that cheered home champion Cadel Evans powering around Geelong’s streets in recent world cycling championships should spare a thought for Jack Griffin’s tired, old legs.
The ageless 86-year-old from Bell Post Hill has just pedalled 2500 kilometres in blistering heat amid deathly silence where younger men have died trying.
“I’m getting a little bit wary, maybe because of this weather,” he tells the Independent while riding into Mataranka approaching the Top End.
Temperatures have topped the high 30s for most of the past 28 days. By 7:30am and after a couple of hours on the bike already, the humidity starts to kick in for Jack.
It’s so bad he sips on water every two to three minutes.
“It drains all the energy out of you,” Jack swears of the conditions, “your clothes are wringing wet and you just perspire all day.”
When Barwon Heads’ Evans was bringing thousands in awe, Jack had barely changed gears on the longer journey from Townsville to Darwin.
There were no prized medals on offer, nor flying media packs eyeing every twist and turn.
“I’m friends with Cadel Evans,” Jack chimed in.
“He once said to me ‘I’d love to be riding the bike when I’m as old as you’.
“Well, that’s about the only thing I’ve got on him.”
But Jack could possibly challenge his famous mate for number of kilometres travelled.
Three times Jack has cycled around Australia, so the roads on his latest challenge are familiar.
Looking out into the distance on the flat, arid plains, the veteran cyclist holds onto his first RACV strip map from 1985 when, at 61, he mapped out his first big ride.
“All these little towns when you come through, there’s hardly a change in the population,” he remarks.
Only last year Jack rode 1700km in 17 days from Brisbane to Cairns.
“That was quite easy, actually. I didn’t have any problem there,” he boasts.
“I just did a 100km a day but I could have ridden 120km if I wanted to.”
A year older, this time Jack has cut down to 90km a day to acclimatise.
But the distance was a struggle at first for our super octogenarian. It took a diet of creamed rice and tinned fruit to get his legs pumping.
“When I left Townsville I was very crook because I had a touch of diahorrea and had sunstroke,” he says.
“For the next day or two I was bringing up everything and couldn’t eat. After about the fifth day I came good.”
Still, Jack beats his chest about good health after being admitted only twice to hospital in his life – and the first time was as a four-year-old to have his tonsils removed.
Never exceeding 63kg since joining the air force, Jack admits at least one onlooker had thought the Townsville-Darwin ride was weighing him down.
“How do you ride a bike with all that weight?” the spectator asked.
“What weight? I don’t carry any on my bike,” Jack responded.
“From all those rocks you’ve got in your head,” the man cheekily clarified.
Jack started riding bikes in 1932 when every Melbourne suburb had a cycling club and few cars were on the road.
“The time trials men were doing back then, well, the women are absolutely thrashing those times now,” he observes.
The first bicycle he owned was a Two-star Malvern Star that he rode from Wangaratta to Melbourne in nine hours, 55 minutes to visit an aunty.
Now paying $11,000 for a carbon-fibre replica of Lance Armstrong’s bike has only accelerated Jack’s enthusiasm for riding on the road.
“I always say that whatever it is you enjoy keep doing it until it kills you or you can’t do it any longer.
“Nobody is promised a tomorrow. You can’t do it when you’re dead, so why not enjoy it while you’re here?
“Every day I wake up I wonder where I can go to today.”
