Indian Pacific Wheel Ride 2024

[morbihan]

Not technically a race...but a race.
Looks like a slim entry this year.
Live tracking here
https://ipwr24.maprogress.com

Mikes old live track is up as in the Tour Divide.
A  top echelon rider Omar Di Fellice at the front with Lloyd not far behind.
I remember Lloyd coming over the finish line of TCRno8 in good time and looking incredibly fresh.
He is very striking looking with loads of dreads and athletic physique. I think he was an ex pro AFU player. He rode fast and grabbed a hotel for good rest every night.
Gianluca another 2 x TCR vet is in the mix too. Very cool guy. A long time engineer for Greenpeace now retired. We met in a village bar on the Austrian/Czech border on TCRno6, then again at the finish. He never uses aero bars. :-0
Reports of heat and flies. No thanks!
Fancy another go Frank?

[Frank9755]

No, I won't be going back.  I thought it was the scariest place I'd ever ridden, and it was at the time.  Much worse than TCR in 2016 and 2019.  However TCR in 2022, with its extensive exposure to the main roads of Eastern Europe, and Romania in particular, ran it fairly close.  And I haven't ridden in the US, which is probably similar, if not worse. 

Having the three closest passes I'd ever had - before I went to Romania - within an hour on a not very busy bit of road dampened my ardour for it all.  And, of course, Mike's death about three days later cast a heavy shadow across it. 

Having said that, riding across the desert was an amazing experience, and an enormous mental challenge.  That, with a bit of jet lag and tactical night-riding gave me the most vivid hallucinations that I have ever had.  Like the pig the size of the Soviet Union, the lattice cage covering the sky and the white lines being used for advertising space.  And it was great to meet lots of lovely people.  But I won't be going back!

[Frank9755]

There's just been a post on facebook to say that another rider has been killed, with yet another seriously injured.

It's also in the news:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-21/eyre-highway-cyclist-fatal-dies-nullarbor/103617094

"A cyclist has died and another been rushed to hospital with serious injuries after being struck by vehicles in separate crashes on Western Australia's remote Eyre Highway.

A WA Police spokesperson said the first crash occurred near Madura, about 190km west of the WA-SA border, between 5:30-6:00am on Thursday.

The 62-year-old rider died at the scene.

Police are trying to confirm details of the other vehicle involved, which was also travelling east.


The second cyclist was hit near Fraser Range, 100km east of Norseman, just after 8am.

The male cyclist, aged in his 50s, was taken to Norseman Hospital by St John Ambulance, and has since been flown to Royal Perth Hospital due to the severity of his injuries.

He remained in a stable condition as of Thursday evening.

Police believe the vehicle may have been a truck travelling east along the highway.

Both crashes are under investigation, and anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers.

The Eyre Highway remains closed between Norseman and Mundrabilla.

The incident comes three years after a 21-year-old Adelaide man was killed while cycling across the Nullarbor.

He was hit by a drug-affected truck driver near Caiguna, with the driver eventually jailed for four years in 2022."

[Lightning Phil]

Sad, rest in peace

[morbihan]

Just horrible.
Gianni has pulled out, as I imagine will many others.

[psyclist]

I've heard that the railway is down due to the recent flooding. As a result a large additional number of truck permits have been issued, especially for road trains over 70m. Most of these will be empty in the eastbound direction, which makes them difficult to control, and they whip around.

Sad news to hear.

[mrcharly-YHT]

That is awful.

If someone wants to race long distance in australia, the Race to the Rock seems to have a very good safety record. Probably due to route selection taking riders on roads with little traffic.

The trans-state routes in Australia get very large multitrailer lorries, plus tired people driving at speed on winding roads. No verge space for cyclists.

Disaster waiting to happen, IMO.

[morbihan]

I lost the appetite for ultras on busier roads a couple of years back. Maybe the pandemic years, my partners cancer treatments, or advancing years, who knows.
The risk/reward scales have tipped decidedly towards beauty, journey and adventure as before, but much more orientated towards the quieter back roads.
Avoiding inhaling cubic meters of carbon monoxide and diesel fumes is more of a factor these days too.

A trans America and a LEGJOG are now off the bucket list.
I don't think Im alone in the  changing priorities.

[Frank9755]

I've heard that the railway is down due to the recent flooding. As a result a large additional number of truck permits have been issued, especially for road trains over 70m. Most of these will be empty in the eastbound direction, which makes them difficult to control, and they whip around.

Sad news to hear.

This has been reported in the press.  But the road is pretty quiet so doubling the number of trucks wouldn't make it busy by any normal standards, and a driver should be able to handle any legal load. 

A guy who drives a truck in Austraila and has cycled on the Eyre Highway told one of my ultra friends that he thought it was a red herring.  The issue is not number of trucks but how they are driven as it only takes one to kill you! He (the truck driver) thought that what most likely happened was the driver was not paying attention and only saw Chris at the last minute.  Then if you swerve  to the right, the back trailer swings to the left, with lethal effect.  He also said that a driver would always know if he had hit someone with his trailer.

[Frank9755]

That is awful.

If someone wants to race long distance in australia, the Race to the Rock seems to have a very good safety record. Probably due to route selection taking riders on roads with little traffic.

The trans-state routes in Australia get very large multitrailer lorries, plus tired people driving at speed on winding roads. No verge space for cyclists.

Disaster waiting to happen, IMO.

On the Eyre Highway, where Indypac goes, it's not so much winding roads as hour-long straights with never-changing scenery where it must be harder to stay alert.

I agree about Race to the Rock, that's the only thing that I would do in Australia.  But even on the dirt roads people get killed by motor vehicles - can be dangerous when one vehicle has put dust up and another assumes the dust cloud is empty...