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Indian Pacific Wheel Race
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Posted on March 18, 2017 at 21:27:34 | ||
Posts: 19671
Location: Sydney Joined: June 26, 2000 |
Some of you might be familiar with RAAM - The Race Across America - a 3,000 mile unsupported cycle race from Oceanside CA to Annapolis MD. Well, our first equivalent event started yesterday morning in Fremantle, Western Australia. They race from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in Sydney. 5,500kms - The winner, if you can believe it is expected to cross the line in around 12 days. It started yesterday morning at 9am WA time, and after about 27 hours, the front runners have already covered ~750km. Fark! It's going to be great following this. I've ridden through the Victorian Alps, and these lunatics, after already racking up 4,500km in the previous 8 or 10 days, have to ride up a couple of the most merciless mountain climbs Australia has to offer, and with several kilos of camping gear and supplies! There is a great tracking page on the website if anyone wants to follow it live. Trying to hide from entropy John K |
RE: Indian Pacific Wheel Race, posted on March 19, 2017 at 14:04:45 | |
Posts: 19671
Location: Sydney Joined: June 26, 2000 |
Uh. Yes, The Trans Am Bike Race is the self-supported one! The IPWR is the Aussie equivalent I guess. Self-supported in the case of IPWR means that you can't organise anything for yourself that the rest of the competitors can't access also - So McDonalds or gas stations or restaurants are OK, but having your own team following in a van and feeding you and sleeping you is not OK. And yes, the climbing in the IPWR starts after 4,500km! Not as high or as much climbimg as the Rockys, but it will hurt. The whole race will be a lot more desolate / isolated with a lot of the time, the nearest towns more than 200 or 300kms away. They are freaks. 48 hours into the race and the leaders are 1,100kms into it. There are 8 women in the race. This is one sport where a woman could easily win it. I think an Alaskan woman won the Trans Am last year. Trying to hide from entropy John K |
Limited water .... Maybe a little more isolated than a lot of competitors are used to , posted on March 19, 2017 at 22:47:32 | |
Posts: 19671
Location: Sydney Joined: June 26, 2000 |
Norseman to Ceduna - That's a distance of 1,180kms. Trying to hide from entropy John K |
RE: Indian Pacific Wheel Race, posted on March 19, 2017 at 19:18:09 | |
Posts: 19671
Location: Sydney Joined: June 26, 2000 |
The front riders are onto the Nullabor Plain now - At the worst spot there is just one water source about 200km into a 450km stretch! It's pancake flat though, so they will load up! Trying to hide from entropy John K |
RE: Indian Pacific Wheel Race, posted on March 20, 2017 at 14:37:29 | |
Posts: 19671
Location: Sydney Joined: June 26, 2000 |
It's autumn now here and the temps down there have been friendly - mid 20s. You couldn't do it there in summer. It would be deadly! And salt depletion can hospitalise you despite being hydrated. Nasty stuff. On big rides I always mix sugar/salt powders in my bottles - every other bottle. They seem to be going OK - timing their night rides to rack up a hundred or two kms and hit a roadhouse at dawn for breakfast. The race strategy is pure evil. Whoever has the ironest constitution to avoid sleeping and just ride at the front puts so much pressure on everybody to behind to get even less sleep to stay in touch. You can't make up 100km by riding faster - only by sleeping less .............
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