_Every year around 50 hardy souls ride from Albany to Perth completing the "Ride For Youth" - which raises money for Youth Focus who help kids at risk of suicide or self harm. In the ten years that the ride has been going, more than $4.6M has been raised. For the 2012 10th anniversary ride, double the number of riders are participating and aim to raise $1.25M. You can help raise funds by ordering cycling socks with all profits going to Ride For Youth (rider Sharon McBride). Download the order form above and follow the instructions to get your socks on!

More About Ride For Youth
The Ride For Youth takes place in March across 5 days with riders covering over 700kms on their way from Albany to Perth.  In 2012 the two pelotons will take two separate routes travelling through the towns of Denmark, Walpole, Pemberton, Busselton, Bunbury, Frankland River, Bridgetown and Collie before meeting in Mandurah to ride the final leg to Perth together.

The 88 Riders all participate in a strenuous six month training program, under the guidance of renowned coach Peter Trench, during which they will complete around 8,000 kms in preparation for the event.

On their journey the riders stop at high schools to engage the students in the issues of youth suicide, depression and self harm and the services that Youth Focus provides. The riders also share their personal stories and experiences as many have been touched in some way by these very personal issues.  In 2012 its estimated that the riders will encourage around 3,000 students to take better care of their own mental health.

The prime objectives of the Hawaiian Ride for Youth are:

• to raise funds for Youth Focus
• to raise awareness of the issues concerning youth suicide, depression and self-harm
• to raise awareness of the services provided by Youth Focus

Although the Ride provides opportunity for personal growth and achievement, particularly for persons who do not come from a cycling background, the main objective of the Ride is always a charitable one.

The Hawaiian Ride for Youth is Youth Focus’ largest fundraising event. Since its inception in 2003 the Ride has raised over $4.5 million for Youth Focus. In 2009 the Ride for Youth won the Special Events’ category of the Fundraising Institute of Australia’s (FIA) National Awards for Excellence in Fundraising.

Around half way through this years tour how much do we really know about who might win? With all the crashes in the first week we certainly know who wont win. Vino, Wiggins, and half of Radioshack hit the floor along with Gesink  and a bunch of others...including Contador several times. The Russian mullet Vladamir "Axminster" Carpets assisted one of Contadors offs into the barriers. Its hard to assess Contador's form as his string of bingles have no doubt sapped some of his usual zip - but he did look dodgy on last nights climb to Luz Ardiden. Can he recover over the next few days and attack to gain some time back? My assessment is no - the crashes and fatigue of the Giro (and all the booing and meat jibes from the crowd) are taking their toll. So that leaves us with only a few obvious contenders for the GC by the time they get to Paris. The Shlecks, "our" Cadel, Basso and although 4 minutes back Sammy Sanchez. I discount Cunego as he usually has at least one day where he blows big and loses lots of time.

Of this lot, the Shleck's and their team Le-O-pard Trek look the strongest. Having the one, two combination of Andy and Frank is a big asset and even Cadels aerodynamic chin cant compete with their double act. Basso also looked good last night and cant be discounted but I am not sure his team are strong enough to give him the support required for the full three weeks.

So who will win? I will bet on a Shleck - but Cadel has a very good show provided he stays upright. He time trials better than the Shlecks and provided he is not too far behind for the stage 20 time trial in Grenoble he may get up. His challenge in the mountains is to be able to pull back the riders who can put in vicious attacks - he is more of a big diesel engine and can't change pace as quickly on the climbs as some others. So if he can claw back and limit his losses in the big mountains we may yet get an aussie winner.

In other TDF news Cavendish continues to dominate in the sprints winning another 3 stages so far but is only just ahead in the green jersey comp - that will remain interesting until Paris I suspect with Rojas and Gilbert on his tail and Gilbert likely to chase more stage wins on intermediate mountain stages.

Johnny Hoogerlands arse had a good showing in stage 9 after his dance with the barbed wire fence. UCI and tour officials need to have a good hard look at themselves. I am surprised it doesn't happen more often given the speed and number of vehicles on the road. And this after they got all excited about saddle angles on the stage 2 team time trial. Priorities.

Two stages still to come that stand out as rippers are stage 14 to Plateau de Beille and stage 19 to Alp d Huez so put some sleep in the bank for those two. Another ripper is tonight's stage for the descent from Col d' Aubisque and Col du Soulor. Geraint Thomas wont want to be missing any corners on that descent or they will be searching for body parts for the next week.

A couple of things I recommend to supplement your TDF enjoyment. First is Tour Tracker on the SBS site, second Ozcycling's Youtube channel for interviews and last is steephill.TV for coverage, summaries and good pics.

I will leave you with my spin on the France TV car fiasco....... see video here

OK, OK i may have been guilty of yelling at drivers who cut me off, giving them the finger or trying to catch up to them to hurl some abuse.....but.....its really all a waste of time and counter productive to staying safe on the road.
Being safe as a rider means being respectful of other road users and remembering the rule of mass - cars have more mass and will do more damage if they hit you.

Mostly our Ride from Youth group is safe and respectful but occasionally common sense goes out the window. On Saturday we approached a truck roll over on Lemnos street near the tip. There were police and tow trucks on site and witches hats on the road. Now common sense would say you wouldn't ride through the middle of the crash....but that's exactly what happened. A police officer went off his nut and pointed out it wasn't such a clever move. I am guessing that next time a bike rider complains about a driver cutting him off, that particular officer wont be too sympathetic!

It all ended happily this time but its not something that will endear cyclist to other road users. Sometimes it all ends in tears - here are a few things we can all do to make the road safer for all cyclists. Tips for safer cycling