Bike teams take on the challenge

“It’s not a race, it’s a challenge,” insists Simon Rimmer, police officer and organiser extraordinaire of the annual Gibb River Road Bike Challenge.

The five-day, 740km relay bike ride takes place along the famous patch of Kimberley dirt and rubble known as the Gibb River Road, stretching from Derby to El Questro. More than 140 teams from around Australia entered the ballot for 65 precious team slots.

Then, for a lucky 400 participants, riders, support crews, time keepers, catering staff and other volunteers who left Derby at dawn on Sunday, May 27, the challenges were many and varied.

For some it was a first attempt at a solo ride, putting bodies, minds and bikes to the test.

For others it was bunking down with new “besties”’ and teammates for five long days.

But for everyone, the “festival” of bikes and dirt in the glorious Kimberley landscape was a feast for the senses.

New major sponsor Pindan Labour Solutions had teams exercising creativity across two-way radio to create a new jingle.

The winners, the Juvenile Pricks (riding for youth diabetes), took out the gravel Grammies with their rawhide-themed rendition.

Pindan manager Michael Barlow did not have any sophisticated marketing “return on investment” aspirations for the sponsorship.

“We just did it because it was a good cause and helping a lot of local charities; it is a satisfaction thing, not a commercial decision,” he said.

Another brilliant partnership was with the Royal Australian Navy, whose submariner (and chef) Leading Seaman Darren Smith mustered up $60,000 worth of food for the hungry hordes, and it was served on time “in two orderly lines” each day.

But for the 45 new teams and the 20 “old hands”, the heart of the Gibb Challenge is its function as a community charity fundraising event.

Top money raisers included locals Team Flametree with $85,000; the Rawring Forties $100,000 and the Ambos $35,000.

The main beneficiary this year was the Ryan Marron Foundation.

In March 2011, while based in Halls Creek, police officer Ryan Marron, 30, was struck down with Murray Valley encephalitis, a rare mosquito-borne virus, which affected the motor area of his brain, leaving him paralysed.

Ryan’s family did the challenge – as Team Marron – to help their son and brother, and to get some relief from the daily grind.

Getting to know Ryan’s family personalised the “challenge” for participants. For his parents, especially his mother, Sandra, who previously travelled the Gibb River Road with Ryan and his future wife Toni, elements of the trip were a sad reminder of better times.

But for Ryan’s brother Brad, a Perth-based police officer, it proved a “humbling surprise” of warmth, compassion and overwhelming support from the Kimberley community for his brother.

“I think I was a cynical policeman and was just not expecting that level of support for an officer from outside the police force,” he said.

More than $110,000 was collected for the Ryan Marron Foundation to help with medical costs for Ryan, who is being treated in a Chicago medical facility.

There were no losers in this challenge, and if it is not a race, can there be winners?

Not according to Rimmer, who has the final word: “How can you compare the efforts of a team of six to that of the soloist,” he said.

But there were timekeepers, and top-placed teams in order were: Rawring Forties (also biggest fundraisers), Team Hard R’s, Broome Riders, Rock Knockers and Blue Edge (NAVY).