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Speaker 1: Now local champion cyclist Matt King he has been selected

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Speaker 1: to represent Australia for the Elite mountain Bike World Championships,

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Speaker 1: happening in Switzerland on September six. Now, Matt's going to

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Speaker 1: be the first Elite NTI mountain bike rider to represent

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Speaker 1: Australia since Kadel Evans. It is an incredible achievement for

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Speaker 1: an incredible territory and I'm pleased to say that Matt

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Speaker 1: joins me in the studio. Good morning, Good morning Kadia,

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Speaker 1: my congratulations, Thank you for the intro. What an incredible

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Speaker 1: feat for a Territorian to be going away representing your

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Speaker 1: country wearing the green and gold in Switzerland for mountain biking.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's still very surreal. It's it's still sinking in.

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Speaker 2: It was not on the cards for this year at all.

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Speaker 2: It was something that we were planning and this year

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Speaker 2: for us was going to be let's build up, let's

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Speaker 2: go to these selection races, and then it started to snowball.

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Speaker 2: We started to get ahead of ourselves with all the

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Speaker 2: data that we were getting back and then winning the

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Speaker 2: Convict one hundred race, which was one of the two

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Speaker 2: big selection races back in May, kind of put us,

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Speaker 2: you know, on this path to being selected because it

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Speaker 2: is one of the biggest mountain bike marathon races in

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Speaker 2: Australia and it just blew us away and yeah, amazing.

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Speaker 1: Well that was what I was going to ask you, like, how,

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Speaker 1: you know, how do you qualify for something like this.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So it's a panel of three of Australia's top

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Speaker 2: coaches in mountain biking and they put out a brief

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Speaker 2: at the start of the finance year so last year,

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Speaker 2: and said, hey, look these two races the way odysseee

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Speaker 2: Convict one hundred. These are the two of Australia's premiere

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Speaker 2: mountain white races. They are what we look at. And

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Speaker 2: then they put all these other second year ones in.

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Speaker 2: So I got November last year. We're like, let's let's

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Speaker 2: do this, you know, let's let's go and see what

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Speaker 2: we can do. And we started with a first race

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Speaker 2: in January in Adelaide. It was a gravel race, so

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Speaker 2: that was we placed fourteenth there and that blew us

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Speaker 2: away again. We thought, okay, you know, we just finished behind.

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Speaker 2: I finished one place behind one of the guys that

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Speaker 2: was selected the previous year for the Mountain bik World

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Speaker 2: champions team. So we're like, okay, we're in the ballpark.

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Speaker 2: We're a lot closer than we expected to be. So

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Speaker 2: we just kept on traveling on and you know, get

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Speaker 2: in these red eye flights down south to these races,

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Speaker 2: and it was yeah, it's snowballed from that convict one

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Speaker 2: hundred win.

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Speaker 1: Mate, you're saying, we now, who's your team? Who do

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Speaker 1: you do all this week?

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Speaker 2: So it's my partner, Kate, my three kids, as you

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Speaker 2: know in you know, they come love.

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Speaker 1: I see you everywhere. I see you running with those

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Speaker 1: three kids, and it warms my heart every time I

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Speaker 1: see it, because you know, I think to myself, like,

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Speaker 1: you see me running with my daughter as well and

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Speaker 1: my son. I think it's beautiful to see you doing

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Speaker 1: all of that with your kids, and it must be

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Speaker 1: a juggle for you and your wife. But then when

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Speaker 1: I hear say we you know it's a team effort, right,

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Speaker 1: your little family.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yeah, we're a very tight family. My sister Kiir

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Speaker 2: and brother in law Kyle, my mum and dad. So

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Speaker 2: we're a very small type family biological. Then obviously there's

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Speaker 2: the family of Parker and Darwin Cycling Club and dun

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Speaker 2: Triathlon club. But yeah, they're they're the big you know,

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Speaker 2: reason that I do this. It's been like eighteen years

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Speaker 2: I think since I pulled on the Green and Gold last.

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Speaker 2: So it's it's just going to be phenomenal for them

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Speaker 2: to be able to see what I did before. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and again for the territory.

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Speaker 1: It's awesome. It's absolutely incredible for the territory. And you know,

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Speaker 1: I think to myself, like I'm the mum of an

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Speaker 1: almost teenage son who loves going mountain biking, you know,

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Speaker 1: and you go, wow, how incredible that a Territorian can

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Speaker 1: do this from Darwin.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's been I think, especially over the last

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Speaker 2: ten years with technology increase in We've got a lot

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Speaker 2: of virtual writing that I do a lot of my

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Speaker 2: training on. So we can hit these numbers on programs

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Speaker 2: lug Swift. I can do it indoors, especially during the

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Speaker 2: wet season when you know I can't get out until

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Speaker 2: after eight o'clock and then you know I'm trying to

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Speaker 2: jam all my work into one day and that at home.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, I think that is helping us a lot. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: that territory tough mentality that we will have is is

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Speaker 2: no joke. You know, anyone that's done a Red Eye

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Speaker 2: with kids and that going to test you. So we

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Speaker 2: know what it's like to be the underdogs. Most people

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Speaker 2: don't even know, you know, the territory. So that was

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Speaker 2: just I think that's a big part of it. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, Hey, tell me a little bit more about, you know,

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Speaker 1: the kind of rides, the kind of trials. I guess

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Speaker 1: it's going to be when you get over to Switzerland,

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Speaker 1: Like how far do you have to ride? And what

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Speaker 1: are these trails?

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Speaker 2: Like? Yeah, so the course this is mountain bike marathon,

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Speaker 2: so it can be anywhere between eighty and one hundred

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Speaker 2: and sixty kilometers. Wow, thankfully this one's one hundred and

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Speaker 2: twenty five kilometers and you look at that and go,

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Speaker 2: that's not too bad. It's similar to what Convict one

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Speaker 2: hundred was. One hundred k's way o to see hundred K's.

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Speaker 2: Where this gets really interesting for most people is one

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Speaker 2: it's at altitude, so we're at fifteen hundred meters above

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Speaker 2: sea level where we start in verbier Ais do altitude

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Speaker 2: training at eighteen hundred meters, so it's only three hundred

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Speaker 2: meters below that. It tops and goes over peaks of

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Speaker 2: twenty seven hundred meters with a total elevation gain of

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Speaker 2: five thousand meters. Wow, so that's you know, I don't know,

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Speaker 2: a thousand times up duh on high hill. You know

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Speaker 2: for elevation game, the first ten k the race is

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Speaker 2: straight up, it's and then you've got two major climbs

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Speaker 2: after that that's not another fifteen k climb and another

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Speaker 2: twenty k climeb So then throwing a bit of cold

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Speaker 2: weather and unpredictability of the pot it's going to be

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Speaker 2: super challenging. But you know, your territory tough, Yeah, exactly

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Speaker 2: from the territory.

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Speaker 1: Territory toughs just thinking about it. But then do you physically, like,

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Speaker 1: how do you go in terms of competing at that altitude?

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Speaker 1: Does it make you feel crop or do you sort

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Speaker 1: of you're okay.

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Speaker 2: It can yeah, very much. We're going to see, Like

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Speaker 2: I think the data that we get after the race

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Speaker 2: will show that you show the elevated heart rate, it'll

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Speaker 2: show maybe I'm not being able to push as much power.

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Speaker 2: It's still an unknown. It's still a like when we

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Speaker 2: do al To training, we don't do much riding for

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Speaker 2: about a week or so, so before at altitude because

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Speaker 2: of how elevated your heart rate is, and then that

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Speaker 2: the flow on effect that has so getting into Switzerland,

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Speaker 2: you know, a week before, just like unfortunately we couldn't

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Speaker 2: do it any earlier with time constraints. But look, it's

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Speaker 2: it's just I'm going to shut off to that. I'm

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Speaker 2: just gonna go push as hard as I can do

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Speaker 2: what I do best, and just let's see how hard

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Speaker 2: and far.

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Speaker 1: I can go. Give it a red hot mate, I

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Speaker 1: reckon it'll be absolutely awesome. Now. The you know, the

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Speaker 1: sporting community is so behind you. I think the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory community more generally, as they hear you know, like

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Speaker 1: what defeat this is, I think they're certainly going to

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Speaker 1: be behind you. I know that the the club has

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Speaker 1: kicked off a bit of a fundraiser because this is

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Speaker 1: something that you know, you pay for off your own back. Yes,

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Speaker 1: it's not a situation where you know you're sponsored to

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Speaker 1: get over there. So the Darwin Cycling Club have kicked

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Speaker 1: off a bit of a fundraiser, which I reckon is

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Speaker 1: excellent because I reckon there'll be people listening this morning going,

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Speaker 1: do you know what I want to see this territory

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Speaker 1: and have a red hot go and compete at this level.

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Speaker 1: People can where can they head to if they are

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Speaker 1: keen to find out a little bit more and support you.

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Speaker 1: It's go fund me, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah exactly. The Cycling Club came to me

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Speaker 2: and said, hey, we know this is off your back. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: even though it is elite, it's not an Olympic sport,

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Speaker 2: so there's not as much funding there. And yeah they said,

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Speaker 2: you know, we want to do this for you, which

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Speaker 2: I thanked them absolutely so much for. As it is, yeah,

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Speaker 2: fully funded. You can go to their Facebook page, no

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Speaker 2: doubt you will have the link.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll be able to share it exactly.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, like people are just chucking down, you know,

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Speaker 2: enough for a coffee or whatever it is. It's just like, yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's just phenomenal that, you know, the guys from Park Run,

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Speaker 2: the Dawn Try Club, all these guys getting behind it.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's not necessarily cyclists, it's just they understand it.

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Speaker 2: It's about the territory.

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Speaker 1: And isn't that the great thing about the NT Like,

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Speaker 1: particularly when you look at sports and you look at

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Speaker 1: you know, the different activities and different things that people

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Speaker 1: are involved in. And you know, people like they want

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Speaker 1: to really hold up those that are doing well and

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Speaker 1: really make sure that you know that they're supporting people

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Speaker 1: that are doing well. And I love that because sometimes

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Speaker 1: across Australia you see the tall poppy syndrome. I don't

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Speaker 1: think we've got it so much here, which I think

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Speaker 1: is wonderful.

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Speaker 2: It is one of the most beautiful things about the

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Speaker 2: territory how much we get behind each other. You know,

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Speaker 2: how much the you know, the park run like four

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Speaker 2: or five hundred p down on a Saturday morning, Like

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Speaker 2: as a population that's massive, it is. It's just it's

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Speaker 2: something different up here. It's it's something special that we

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Speaker 2: have as territories. Everyone out there is out to just

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Speaker 2: you know, take the territory to the national and international level.

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Speaker 1: It is incredible. Well Matt King, mate, we are pumped

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Speaker 1: for you. We can't wait to see how you go.

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Speaker 1: And I'll tell you what, your your wife and your

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Speaker 1: children will be so proud, as I'm sure your whole

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Speaker 1: family will be. But yeah, you can't really dinky your

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Speaker 1: kids when you've got three of them, can you? When

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Speaker 1: you go for a ride, how do you manage that

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Speaker 1: they're probably already writing.

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Speaker 2: Are they luckily two of them are. Yeah, they love

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Speaker 2: their writing. And Lily, our youngest, is on like a

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Speaker 2: little shotgun in the middle. Good and she's up there

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Speaker 2: loving life so awesome. Yeah, it's phenomenal. Good.

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Speaker 1: Well, mate, it's so good to speak with you this morning.

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Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time. All the best, and we

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Speaker 1: may talk to you before then or we'll be certainly

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Speaker 1: keen to hear how it all goes.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, I'll look forward to filling you in there. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's going to be yeah, a few tears as we

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Speaker 2: cross the line with all the team there.

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Speaker 1: I bet mate, I bet it's well. It sounds like

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Speaker 1: it's going to be grueling. It might be a few

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Speaker 1: tears for your legs.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, my quads will definitely be crying, that's for sure.

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Speaker 1: They will be good on you, Matt, Thanks so much anytime,