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hippy-
Livin' in an Iced Coffee paradise...
I was more successful in managing to avoid caffeine than meat. Only one iced coffee when there was no chocolate milk, which set me up for an all-nighter. Part of the motivation for the all-nighter was to get up the field so that there would still be chocolate milk at the next roadhouse!
frank9755
Great that you are doing it on fixed!
I think it would be much harder without flip-flop, for two reasons:
Firstly it's like two separate events - a virtually flat ride from Freo to Melbourne then a ride through the mountains.
Secondly, the wind will make a big difference to what gear you'd want across the Nullarbor, and you can't predict it well enough to decide: I watched the forecasts closely last year and I never expected that it would be 6 days of headwind. So I averaged under 20km on most days. For the few hours I had with still air (overnight on the 90-mile straight) I was doing 28-30km.
There are a couple of ramps right before the SA/VIC border that you will have to walk. I almost had to walk them on 34x40. Very short but must be 2o+% (or else I was completely shagged at that point!). Otherwise, I can't recall anything steep before Geelong - apart from a couple of switchbacks on a road going into Torquay. They felt vv steep but was dark so couldn't see.
Are you trying to do it vegan? Other than the couple of hours when you pass through the big cities, that will be tough. I had to eat a lot more meat on IndyPac than the TCR.
I found there was meat in things I didn't expect to have it (eg do you want beef pie, steak pie, mushroom pie, potato pie? - I ordered the last two and they both had meat in anyway). When there were veg options I found they were often out of stock. Also, my mouth got so fucked that I needed mushy food so, at Eucla RH, I ordered the spag bol as there was no other pasta/rice dish, and chips would have been like eating razor blades. And finally, chocolate milk is a big thing in Australia.
I am so looking forward to dot-watching this!