Sarah Maddock to recreate her trailblazing namesake’s ride from Sydney to Melbourne
Sarah Maddock will depart on an epic ride from Sydney to Melbourne tomorrow morning, in tribute to the act of a trailblazer for women’s cycling — also known as Sarah Maddock.
Central Sydney
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Sarah Maddock wrote her name down in history in 1894 as the first woman to complete the gruelling 1000km ride from Sydney to Melbourne.
The feat came at the height of a new craze of cycling among women in the Harbour City, helped in no small part by Mrs Maddock establishing the Sydney Ladies Bicycle Club to fight discrimination in the sport.
Now 125 years on, her epic journey will be recreated tomorrow when another Sarah Maddock departs from Narellan bound for the Victorian capital in homage to her trailblazing namesake.
Adelaide resident Ms Maddock, 39, who has been inspired by the life of her 19th century double, discovered the uncanny connection via a Google search of her name in 2003.
“I remember thinking it would be amazing to do that one day myself. I got back into riding to work, while also looking into the history of Sarah’s fascinating past,” she said.
It might have taken her 16 years to find the time, but the cyclist was always determined to “pay tribute” to a heroic woman even if her friends think she’s crazy.
“She’s always been in the back of my mind, then two years ago I thought I was ready to take on an adventure,” Ms Maddock said, having rode up to 200km a week in training since April.
Despite great advances in technology, the modern Ms Maddock will take longer than the 19th century version to complete the achievement.
The nine-person strong team from Mulga Bicycle Tours will take 14 days to reach Melbourne, a distance the late Mrs Maddock — who wore a corset, dress and brought with her a bottle of water and spare set of clothes — and husband Ernest mowed down in only 10 days.
That was despite bicycles only just starting to be made with two wheels of the same size, moving away from the unwieldy penny farthings.
Mrs Maddock took to the roads of the Hume Highway for her husband, who had been told by a doctor he needed to make a “complete change” in order to improve his health.
“The more I train, the more I realise how tough she was,” Ms Maddock said.
Amazingly, Ms Maddock’s research has brought together several of her namesake’s relatives, who had never met each other before.
“Tough” is how the late great-grandchildren of Mrs Maddock describe the woman known as Mams before she passed away aged 94 in 1955.
“Personally I’m thrilled (about the ride) because she didn’t get the recognition she deserved in life,” Gillian Appleton said of her great-grandmother.
Ms Appleton, who lived with Mrs Maddock in Double Bay, said she never knew about her cycling exploits until contacted by the modern Sarah: “It’s wonderful the other Sarah is drawing attention to this journey. It’s shedding light on a lost part of history.”
Lord Mayor Clover Moore is patron of this year’s ride, just as Mayoress Sarah Less was the patron of the first women’s cycling group set up by the original Sarah Maddock.
“This surprising tale celebrates one of the most significant bike riding champions in Sydney’s history,” Cr Moore said.
The cyclists are expected to roll into Melbourne CBD on September 10.
