Ultracycling

"The record was established by Arthur Richardson in 1899, who returned home to Perth after 245 days on the road. The current fastest time was set by Dave Alley of Brisbane in 2011"

Dave Alley cycled it and then ran it!

In 2011 he was the fastest person to cycle around Australia, and now Dave Alley has a new record to add to his name, this time for running.

The 39-year-old hit the 13,383-kilometre milestone just before two-o’clock on Tuesday morning, claiming the title in a record 169 days, 15 hours and 31 minutes.

The previous record of 174 days was set by Pat Farmer in 1999.

He undertook the Race Around Australia ‘2’ challenge to raise funds and awareness for depression.

https://runnersconnect.net/running-interviews/david-alley/

https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/brisbanenorth/2015/08/28/daves-race-around-australia-good-bad-ugly/

Before that, it was 41 days, set in 2000.

Cool! I have some family in a couple of the cities he's going through, am going to try to persuade them to cheer him on as he passes near their houses!

Holy shit - that running effort!

Caloundra was the furthest we ever went on holiday before I left Oz for the first time and flew to Japan.

He's such a machine that assuming nothing goes wrong no doubt he'll put the marker down for a serious record - doubt it's something people consider having a crack at very often so assume it will endure for quite a while!

Maybe one day you'll make it to WA!

I wonder how he compares to Strasser? He took the West-East record a few years ago, when he was at his peak. It is a bit shorter and, presumably, a better known / more prestigious record.

I guess he didn't fancy it, given he's going for the lap instead...? Or maybe he just isn't into the serious supported stuff? I know he's got his family in a camper van but they're most likely not support to a RAAM standard like Strasser's team.

@veganjoseph did the fixed lap record a few years ago, as a cool down ride from indypac!

Worth effort IME 😁

Yeah, I've got three sets of relatives over there and I've never been. I still want to ride the Indypac but TD is more interesting to me still.

Lael hit the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz7344w3jzzo

I want to a lil’ beginner friendly off-road ultra next year I think

• Off-road but gravel bike friendly. Pushing and hike-a-bike is always part of it ennit but im not looking to totally hate my life or have to buy and mtb to ride it.
  
• Somewhere warm? Or just pretty?
  
• Probably less than 1000km
  
• Bonus if it’s late Summer/very early autumn
  
  

Goats.cc’s Portugal event looks cool but new so I don’t know lots about it, as well as Gravelbirds one, obviously there is Badlands but it kinda seems a bit bro, but maybe im just being judgmental without just cause, the Bright Midnight looks really cool but is 1100km long, anything else out there?

I did Dorset Divide this year which might tick many of those boxes, only 500km ish though so might be too short?

I did it on a gravel bike, there were a few bits I wished I had a hard tail but it was perfectly doable. The guy who won did it on a gravel/CX bike and someone did it on an omnium cargo.

Very beginner friendly, organisers were super friendly and the vibe was good. Plenty of re supply and sleeping options so less pressure there.

Probably am going to do it with a friend who also did it last year! He really liked it too as his first ultra-esque experience. Sounds good though, nice to hear another positive experience. Good scenery?

The Escapade in Kent is another probability for UK stuff.

I was just thinking maybe somewhere warm and new to end of the year might be fun

have you considered the Turin-Nice Rally? It’s on my list of rides and I lined myself up for it this year but swerved the day before because snow/weather. it must be one of the most beautiful and amazing routes and ends somewhere very likely to be hot and sunny

Ah yeah that does look pretty stunning! Easy sell to my partner for a tie-in holiday too ay haha. Interesting.

Thanks for that!

My missus and I did @skinny El Piri this year and enojyed it a lot. There's even a photo of me smiling during it which is unheard of. Warm and pretty. I rode it on my hardtail and didn't regret it but missus was on her Mason Bokeh and got around with no dramas.

https://www.lesperitdelbikepacking.org/el-piri-overview-2025

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Cheers!

No man, thank you. It was a really good event.

Look at the Bokeh go! (This is what I saw for most of it as she out-climbed me most of the time).

Fuck it, have some more pics since I'm looking

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Ok that looks amazing but 20,000m climbing might be a bit much for me

It's too much for me, but I got around ;)

Glad to see there were some proper mountain goats. :)

wow

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Was reading this last night. So matey was having someone back home book hotels, check what other riders were up to etc? Be good to hear what he has to say on it

Had to go to the comments to try and figure out what a virtual assistant camp was, clearly I’m not along and still don’t really get it. If there’s someone helping you book stuff, they’re a real person not virtual assistant

I got the impression that was maybe just a translation thing?