{"id":64681,"date":"2026-08-04T05:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T05:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/64681\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T05:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T05:44:09","slug":"charity-cyclist-bob-montgomery-82-dies-one-day-after-last-heroic-ride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/64681\/","title":{"rendered":"Charity cyclist Bob Montgomery, 82, dies one day after last heroic ride"},"content":{"rendered":"

The celebration of a grandfather’s mammoth charity bike ride across Australia for motor neurone disease (MND) has taken a tragic turn.<\/p>\n

Bob Montgomery has died a day after completing what he called “One Last Ride”, a six-week journey that covered almost 5,300 kilometres from Broome in Western Australia to his home town of Bowral in the NSW Southern Highlands.<\/p>\n

The 82-year-old and his 18-year-old grandson, Tom Malcolm, were welcomed home on Sunday by dozens of family, friends and wellwishers.<\/p>\n

MND NSW chief executive Liam O’Meara said Mr Montgomery experienced a medical episode on his way home from a function at Sydney’s Rose Bay on Monday.<\/p>\n

“Tom, Bob’s grandson, decided to push the extra 150-odd kilometres from Bowral to Sydney yesterday and we all got together to greet him,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It was a lovely afternoon. We had [former South Sydney Rabbitohs player and MND sufferer] Jai Arrow in attendance \u2026 Bob was just elated.<\/p>\n

“I received a text last night at 9 o’clock to say he has passed away, which was shocking.”<\/p>\n

\"Cyclists<\/p>\n

The pair’s cross-country effort was an idea pitched by Bob Montgomery (left) and timed to coincide with grandson Tom Malcolm’s (right) university break. (ABC Illawarra: Brooke Chandler)<\/p>\n

Mr Montgomery’s wife of 59 years, Jen, said in a statement his death was unexpected but peaceful.<\/p>\n

“He was surrounded by his friends and family and got all of the credit that he absolutely deserved over the past 48 hours,” she said.<\/p>\n

“So we’re really, really pleased his last few days on earth were some of the best,” Mr O’Meara added.<\/p>\n

The family said in a statement Mr Montgomery was a “beautiful soul” and was overwhelmed by the “kindness, love and messages of support”.<\/p>\n

Speaking to ABC Illawarra Drive on Monday morning, Mr Montgomery said he was still processing his achievement and the support shown by the community at the finish line.<\/p>\n

“It was just an amazing afternoon [on Sunday],” he said.<\/p>\n

“They put on a fantastic feed and the speeches were wonderful.<\/p>\n

“It was very memorable, for sure.”<\/p>\n

\"Elderly<\/p>\n

Bob Montgomery’s family shed tears of joy from the finish line on Sunday. (ABC Illawarra: Brooke Chandler)<\/p>\n

Massive stalwart, MND advocate<\/p>\n

Mr Montgomery clocked up five charity bike rides for MND awareness and research since the death of his cousin from the condition 12 years ago.<\/p>\n

He raised more than $300,000 for the cause, including a growing $90,000 from his latest venture.<\/p>\n

“It can’t be understated what he has achieved for many years, not just on this ride,” Mr O’Meara said.<\/p>\n

“He’s been a massive advocate and stalwart for the MND community.<\/p>\n

“He didn’t have to do any of this. He chose to do it. And I think that’s just the mark of the man.”<\/p>\n

MND NSW is now looking to award Mr Montgomery a posthumous accolade and establish a memorial ride in his honour.<\/p>\n

“He absolutely deserves it and we want to honour his memory,” Mr O’Meara said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The celebration of a grandfather’s mammoth charity bike ride across Australia for motor neurone disease (MND) has taken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,7334,79325,7988,9114,9113,79326],"class_list":["post-64681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-bike-ride","tag-bob-montgomery","tag-charity","tag-mnd","tag-motor-neurone-disease","tag-tom-malcolm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}