Indian Pacific Wheel Race - IndyPac - IPWR

Correct. He’s been through all that shit before in TCR so sleeping in ditches in sub zero ain’t nothing.

In TCR no1 I dont think he carried any sleeping stuff.. just found some cardboard.

I wasn’t planning to sleep, i just wanted to finish this race, but around 01h i just needed to lay down, and found the perfect spot around the corner of a gas station. Fixed myself a cardboard bed, it felt wonderfull. an hour and a half later i was eating pizza an started the last part of my race to Istanbul.

But there's more accom options once you get to the east coast so it's probably less necessary to sleep rough.

I actually found that there were better accomodation options in the Nullarbor than elsewhere!

Apart from the cities most the route is still remote, on a weekday the Coorong is quieter than the Nullarbor, and riders from last year who did the full route said they saw fewer people on the inland bits between the climbs than the Nullarbor.

The other problem is that stuff closes early. In the little towns you can't count on rocking up at a hotel after 8pm, even if you have a reservation, and getting in. Midnight - no chance. In the Nullarbor what places there are at least stay open decent hours!

"The long search for a good bivouac place meant that I could have fallen asleep on my bike. I absolutely did not want this, and I lay straight down beside the road. Through fatigue I forgot to set an alarm to wake me and so I slept much longer than usual. This was a small problem on the one hand and on the other hand I had a real sleep which would allow me to go thorough for the last 1000 kilometers. Knowing that Mike had not slept too much during the past week, this night’s sleep investment was well worth it.

Wednesday 29/3/2017 and Thursday 30/32017
Days 12 and 13: Falls Creek – Tarago 760 km
Back on my bicycle, I discovered that I had slept just below the summit."

I only use my big one because it's the only one I've got.
(defo euph)

I actually bought a smaller saddle bag for last year's races but it shipped without a key piece of the bracket so I sent it back and carried on using my Revelate.

I haven't actually looked at the route much, just knew it hit Radelaide and Melburn so figured it'd have decent towns in between. Sounds same as TABR then. You need to call before like 8pm or something to secure something miles down the road.

Did you consider the caravan parks at all or just hotel, motel stuff?

I had a "nice" kip in a campsite toilet/shower blocks near Blue Ridge Parkway.

I did think about both the Tarmac and the Shiv for TABR but dismissed both.

Tarmac is not Di2 or disc and I like my Di2 and discs. No hand fatigue.
Shiv brakes are shit and just didn't have enough space for my stuff.

Yeah - a TT bike would need to be thought about and adapted specially, like Ultan did with his custom luggage. Lack of attachment points / braze-ons would be a handicap.

I had an old CAnnondale Slice which was too big for me for TTs but it was really comfortable. Position wasn't very extreme aero but not bad. I used it quite a bit for audax. It would have been feasible for an ultra, but my current one wouldn't really, without completely re-jigging stuff

Kristof (like @Skinny) normally tries to find a hotel on TCR so doesn't use his sleeping kit much

I haven't actually looked at the route much, just knew it hit Radelaide and Melburn so figured it'd have decent towns in between. Sounds same as TABR then. You need to call before like 8pm or something to secure something miles down the road.

Did you consider the caravan parks at all or just hotel, motel stuff?

I had a "nice" kip in a campsite toilet/shower blocks near Blue Ridge Parkway.

I went to a caravan park in Millicent (after finding the hotel that I had booked on booking.com at 8:15pm all locked up) and thought about it, but there wasn't any spot that grabbed me. So went and slept in a field outside town where a bit quieter.
In the remote areas there is often a campsite / rest area on the edge of a town. A couple of times I slept on the picnic tables that they have.
I did a couple of nights on benches, one in a street and one outside a roadhouse that was meant to have been open.
One night on the grass in a park in the middle of a biggish town.
I just did one night actual bush camping in the middle of nowhere, basically in an ants nest.
I had four nights in hotels and one that I rode right through

I noticed in one of those interview pictures there is printed schedule he has which lists hotel phone numbers etc. So this probably helps with the minimalism. That and the rumoured support car :))

Would be interesting from the hotelier's point of view. Having one of these front-riders pit-stop with minimal belongings, looking totally knackered, shovel a buffet down them and race off a few hours later.

Yeah, most towns will have a small park of some sort, unlike here they'll have drinking water outside. Bigger places might have sports fields. I'd probably avoid the roadside rest areas because they're often full of rubbish and people driving in for a quick piss stop.

I've done the 'immediate roadside sleep' too in a grassy patch... and... feckin' swarm of mozzies. My fastest ever bivvy deploy :)

@frank9755, is the second part of the race much tougher from now? Just thinking about what Abdullah has to come.

On paper they both look horrible.. be interesting to hear your thoughts frank

Is the support car a serious fact or just a rumour? If not it's really not worth spreading it. Those guys are racing against themselves mostly.

@frank9755, is the second part of the race much tougher from now? Just thinking about what Abdullah has to come.

I don't really know as I only got as far as Geelong (just before Melbourne) when it all went bad, so I didn't do the big climbs.

The nullarbor was tough because the headwind was quite strong and relentless, all day every day.
I got a tailwind through the coorong so that was easy, probably have me an extra 70km distance.
What I can say is that I was starting to feel apprehensive about the latter stages. Mainly it was I was under massive time pressure. And Partly it was that the step up from a ride of about 2 weeks (at my speed) to 3 weeks was more of a big deal mentally than I had expected. Also I was a bit scared of doing the climbs with so many Kms in my legs I had been really slow on the climbs I had done, out of Adelaide and on the great ocean road. And finally the cold, it had been cold in Victoria and I didn't want any more of it.

Another huge day from abdullah

462.4km. 4329m @26.1km/h

He’s at Murray bridge

Photo someone took of me battling the heat yesterday!

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IPWR podcasts from a Melburn-based bike nerd friend:

http://www.yarrabug.org/radio/2017/12/05/yarrabug-radio-show-469-monday-4th-december-2017/

http://www.yarrabug.org/radio/2018/02/12/yarrabug-radio-show-479-monday-12th-february-2018/

Just a joke. You're correct, to mention it denigrates what Abdullah is doing. Thanks for the run down @frank9755.

Durian rider and abdullah have vegan beef. I think other vegans call it broccoli.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfmrWwmNBzE

I don't understand the internet anymore

lol

I lasted a whole 15 seconds of silence and him admiring himself in the camera.

35 mins of that?

Fuck off.

First time following this or any other type of filthy long endurance race for me and I have to say the numbers these riders are putting out are insane. As for Abdullah, vegan broccoli or not this dude is making everyone else look slow, truly impressive ride. Should he win would it challange the traditional cycling aesthetic or is it that the top dogs aren’t taking part?

Can never compare as conditions different but if he had been racing last year and done the same distance he would probably be 4th or 5th. Stephane in second place has come around 10th in the TCR. He is doing a fabulous ride but there are others, including someone on this forum, who have ridden at an even higher level. That said it is his first event and most people get better with experience so it is great to see another excellent rider come through.