What started as just a few mates going for a ride to Casino more than 50 years ago has gone full circle in a legacy started by one of Beaudesert’s best.
Ken Ardrey, Jo Perry and Zac Cunningham rode 160km from Beaudesert to Casino on May 5, flanked for much of the journey by fellow cyclists Phil and Kym Hyam and Aaron Collis.
Supporters Mark and Tony Hodgson, Robyn Ardrey, Stacey Collis, Susie and Rosie Cunningham saw them off and John Mitchell drove their support vehicle.
They celebrated with a quiet dinner at the end, joined by long-time Beaudesert local Sharyn Thorley.
Sharyn’s husband Philip ‘Pip’ Thorley first completed the ride with his mate, David Reid, as a 15 year old in 1969.
Sharyn said Pip and David, who were schoolmates at Beaudesert High, first did it for a bit of fun because it was about 100 miles.
Pip’s uncle lived in Casino, so they would stay the night and get the train back to Beaudesert the next day.
Pip planned to join in on the first Casino community ride in 1988 but was admitted to hospital one week before the ride for his second kidney transplant operation.
The first ride was a success regardless and Pip managed to ride in 1989, the year after his transplant, cheered over the finish line in darkness by his family and friends.
The Beaudesert BUGS (Bicycle User Group) continued to do the ride annually and when Pip tragically died in a motor vehicle accident in 2007, they did the ride in his honour.
The Casino ride became a local institution and at its biggest, up to 80 riders would set out from Beaudesert in three groups with a support crew for each group.
After 11 years of it being called the Pip Thorley Memorial Ride, the ride evolved to also remember other riders who supported what the Casino ride represented and had passed away during that time.
These days it is once again simply known as the Casino ride, a few mates getting together for a long pedal on the bike and enjoying time with their friends.
