Indian Pacific Wheel Race - IndyPac - IPWR

Happy 2 year Jo. I'm sure you will have further adventures to sit alongside it. You could start at another coast somewhere and pedal, see where it takes you. The joy of what you did was the lack of plan after IPWR. Unplanned trips are very different to ones that are mapped out within an inch of their life. Both can be good. Anyway you remind me of another ultra rider: Sofiane. You both have the ability to keep pedalling forever it seems!

I suppose you could always have a shot at doing it clockwise!

Doing the country boundary of Norway (with all the fjords) would keep you going for a while!

Vegan Joe's autobiography - 'life on the edge' - My circumnavigation of life.

I'm not as fast as him, or can sleep as little as him though! But yes, that's why I think it will be hard to 'top' this ride, just down to how spur of the moment it was, there was just this gravity and momentum behind it. I have some other ideas, maybe even a theme that I can carry over and do in different countries.

Norway would be interesting, would need to time it right though to not freeze! Maybe it's a warm winter...

7 riders lining up for start next week.

Handful of riders have started: https://indianpacificwheelride2021.maprogress.com/

36 hrs in, 600 km covered by the leader. Broken spoke temporarily stopped rider KP. There is also a video meeting some of the riders by a guy who does it each year.

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

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Brings back memories!
Great weather.
Had to laugh when he remarked on the guy riding it on an old steel bike (cf Kristof)
Looks like it might be a more leisurely one this year with the first guy managing to stop at 8pm for a 9 hour break and not lose his lead.

Yes it has a calm feel to this year. Rowan is going well at the front, his blog is here.

Still would like to do this. By the time I get back to Oz though I'll all dirt based so might have to find and overlander crossing instead and get some 36" wheels...

You need the triple crown hippy. You can do it.

Does IndyPac even count these days? I just want to ride it because I've seen more of the UK than Oz. Shit, I've probably seen more of France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany than I have of Oz. But it is kinda big :)

It's not officially a race now is it? So maybe not. I guess the cool kids replaced it with Silk Road Mountain Race :(

All the cool kids did Badlands last year. I'm gonna take what I can get in racing terms. I've done enough of EU road riding but I'd still like to do Northcape-Tarifa or maybe some Scandi stuff, more Spanish stuff, I'm building an MTB so one day I would probably do TD, maybe I'll look for some longer MTB events but there's something about doing that big Oz ride that appeals - and I'm not just talking about drowning myself in iced coffee for 2 weeks :)

There's options for you on dirt as well. Hunt 1000 and Victorian divide come to mind. Oh yeah, and rttr. I think all of those don't have triple length road trains thundering past you for the first 1000k

Definitely do the Nullarbor. That is an experience. And try and do it into a headwind all the way to get the full pleasure of it.

But I wouldn't bother with the rest of the route. The road trains on the Nullarbor are not too bad as there is so little traffic on the road. It's the arseholes who increase in number one you reach Port Augusta that I would worry about.

I'd love to do Race to the Rock or even Terra Australis. The off-road stuff sounds great.

2 weeks

That's a good goal to aim for (check the length!)

I'm less worried about road trains than I am the bogans I spent dodging for 20-odd years but yeah I was thinking more along the lines of RTTR or maybe just some stupid DIY thing. A friend did Hunt 1000 but other than some podcasts I don't know much about either it or the Vic Divide.
I also like the idea of crossing the country moreso than a shorter race route.

do it into a headwind all the way

I'd expect nothing less from Oz, especially with my ability to attract shit weather.

I'd really have to lift my game if I was going off-road there. I can get away with poor planning and skipping water refills in Europe (ie. Badlands got unpleasant but not risky) but it could prove less annoying and more dangerous over there.

It's a bit longer than I thought at ~5500km so that'd be pushing my appetite for km/day but it is flatter than TransAm so that would help me quite a bit.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/19090419

Yes, don't want to wing it wrt resupply over there!
I tended to be over cautious and, a couple of times, I ended up chucking away water that I wouldn't use for another day. But I still got unconfortably thirsty a couple of times too.

But I got the impression that the off-road riding is mostly easier, unless you go looking for hills. Things like Rttr are much flatter than Europe, and Sarah says she went from complete novice off road to winning stuff in a couple of years / 1 ride.

Both, hunt 1000 and Vic divide are pretty lumpy, but they absolutely did go looking for hills when they designed it.

Some kind of incident happened with 3rd place JJ Rider: broken arm, taken to A&E. Leader Rowan is about half way.

Oh no.
Car, or animal?
Long way to A&E too