Indian Pacific Wheel Race - IndyPac - IPWR

I feel so awful about this. Saw some of those champions come through, and just this morning said "stay safe" to one of the riders (think it was Rupert Guiness) after he rolled into Treadly and I departed to work. Really hits how poignant those words are now.

RIP Mike Hall

Terrible new, just saw it on the Guardian website and came here to pay my respects. Cycling has lost one of its greats.

Sleep well Mike

Someone posted this on twitter, from his round the world australian leg. Sounds like the roads are sketchy as fuck. Jump to 5 minutes.

https://youtu.be/_GRUZhBAPPk?t=4m58s

Kristoff just finished short and paid respects

https://mobile.twitter.com/AllegaertK/status/847753957006901248

Oof, that's chilling, those roads sound terrifying..

Great man till the end

Bugger. RIP Mike.

Watched the doco Inspired To Ride on Netflix last night, inspiring and terribly sad at the same time. Damn :(

I'm still sat here thinking about this. An inspiration to all. Never thought that following a dot on a screen would induce so much passion. I don't think I'm alone when I say following these races is more exciting than the TDF.

RIP once again.

That's really sad news. Can only agree with what he said in the video. Riding in Sydney is scary as fuck, let alone the highways outside. RIP.

Fuck.....😟

Nice words from @skinny on 5live just now.

Well done @skinny setting up the JG page. Didn't realise it was you.
20 of us riders in Sydney hanging out in someone's flat with a few cases of beer, swapping stories, talking about Mike and trying to make sense of it all. Kristof power napping in a chair, Jesse sorting out beers, Sarah talking about her ride, Donncha looking fwd to TABR, etc.
Good, mellow times, but under a fucking big black cloud.
Ride down to Opera House this mornig was good, about 1000 cyclist turned up, took over Sydney traffic, a little ceremony on the steps. A good, uplifting day.

About 100 or so in Adelaide this morning, I reckon. Talked to Lochie Kavanagh, the 18 year old kid who's only started cycling for this, and he's going to finish the ride through to Sydney he said.

That's what it's about frank.
Say hello to Kristof from me. Tell him I hope he's okay and I'm thinking of him.

Seen picture of the Melbourne ride out on instagram, looked like they had a big turn out as well

Melbourne turn our was epic. Picked by the news too.
Hopefully it will make some of these god awful drivers think twice. Dark times.

One person taking initiative and doing something useful is worth more than 100 people with fine words and good intnetions!

Lots of people stopped riding, and fair enough, I understnad that.

But lots kept riding, and I can really understand that.
The tracker is still working and they can be followed.

https://www.curvecycling.com.au/pages/indian-pacific-wheel-race

From a blog post Mike wrote:

"You still rode your bike across a continent, maybe you saw things and did things some people would never dream of, maybe it will stay with you for the rest of your life.

Maybe you'll have forgotten it all by next week. It is after all only a bike race."

I've written down a few thoughts about Mike, IPWR and cycling in Australia

https://cyclingthere.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/reflections-on-mike-hall-the-ipwr-and-cycling-in-australia/

Interesting read frank. The roads sound horrible. Australia isn't, and never really has been on my list of places to visit, and given that I love cycling, it now is definitely not.

I particularly liked this observation

The attitude contrasted with that typical in Britain, where doing something more energetic than riding to the pub is widely considered a form of madness.

Interesting first and second points of the race. Seem conflicting..

the status of cyclists on the road, the respect accorded to them and the understanding of their needs, is lower than elsewhere.

The Australian people. I’d always considered them to be warm, friendly and positive, but I didn’t know half of it.

Just like riding a bike through the centre of London:

the odd kangaroo crossing the road without looking, just in front of me

Good read - thanks for making the effort

Most Aussie drivers are shit and the ones that aren't shit are arseholes. I've been saying the same for years. Said the same to Frank and I even tweeted Mike about being careful in Melbourne where they tend to be actively malicious towards cyclists (https://twitter.com/firsthippy/status/845914767395082241).

The only reason it's not the same here is the traffic density and roads don't allow so much high speed stupidity.

You back in the UK, dude?

I was thinking yesterday I need to hit you up about what went down during your race. You've now done more of Oz than me :)