 In its ninth year, the Hartley Life Care Abilities Cycle Challenge saw more than 300 cyclists participate in the bicycle ride from Canberra to Mount Kosciuszko and back. Clocking up 460 kilometres, Lauren Brand and Julia Dalbo completed the round trip to raise money for people with disabilities. A bike was raffled off in the lead-up to the ride with tickets being a sell-out success. DIAC staff have been so generous and so supportive of this. It's absolutely tremendous. More than 250 riders participated in the 2008 challenge, the ride taking three days to complete. It's horrible going up the hills, absolutely disgusting. Coming down, it's tremendous. Our top speed on a tandem was 82 kilometres an hour, coming down a hill. Over the three days, the team battled through extreme heat, heavy rain and strong winds, with the second day proving the toughest. It was so much hard work and on a tandem, we're pushing so hard and riding so slow. At one stage, we were pushing up that hill Julia and I at four and a half kilometres an hour. That is slower than walking. Hartley Live Care's Ability Cycle Challenge will celebrate its 10-year anniversary in 2009, with Julia keen to take part in the ride after the success of this year's ride. It takes a while to get to know who you're riding with and you do have your little mishap, but yeah, you just got to get back on the bike and keep, keep riding.