Terra Australis cancelled and more ...
Terra Australis Bike Epic 21
Disappointingly I’ve had to pull the pin on the 2021 Terra Australis Bike Epic which was due to start on 1 September. Covid19 state border closures and the various lockdowns currently in place down the eastern seaboard make it impossible for myself, Craig Johnston and Shane Duffy to travel into Queensland for a start. The option for me [from the ACT] to do an ITT run down the course late September or early October remains a possibility if the ACT is removed from the current Queensland ‘hot spot’ setting and there’s no requirement for a fully vaccinated covid negative tested senior to enter Queensland and isolate for 14 days. The alternative might be a Byron Bay - Canberra run down the Terra Australis route around the October long weekend if the Sydney/Regional NSW lockdown is eased by then and intrastate travel is permitted.
We can only hope that some sanity will return to our lives once the national vaccination levels provide the permission for us to travel interstate and overseas in 2022. In the meantime I wish our community good health and a safe journey through these difficult times. Terra Australis 2022 is the challenge in waiting! Craig Johnston has messaged to say he’ll be there … ‘been training for three years now’
2022 Monaro Cloudride 1000k and Prologue 500k
The website is now updated with the 2022 start dates for these events. Easter is mid April in 2022 so riders will need to be mindful of encountering some early season snowfalls. Planning is underway for rider registrations to be processed directly through the Maprogress race tracking site. I'll provide further information on this process later in the year once details are finalised. Breathtaking Events will continue with all event management, route planning..... and coordinating the blackberry pruning working bees.
2022 Cloudride will be counter-clockwise and continue to support the familiar local towns along the route. Tumut, Batlow, Cabramurra [if open], Jindabyne, Tubbut, Delegate, Bombala, Nimmitabel, Cooma, Bungendore.
Planning for the 2022 Prologue course is firming up to include some of the Brindabella's and Kosciuszko National Park ... I'll be adding a bit more grunt to the 500k than recent years to fill out the weekend for those who have been a bit shortchanged by knocking it out in a day or so. Once the current ACT Covid constraint of 'one hour of vigorous exercise' is relaxed I'll get out and ride it.
2021 Cloudride 1000k and Prologue 500k results.
Following are the tabulated finishing times for this years Monaro Cloudride and top 10 in the Prologue. Jason English winning both events with the same bike and demonstrating his extraordinary stamina and athletic ability. Jason, for a change of scenery and discipline jumped across to trail running a few weeks later finishing top ten in the Blue Mountains 50k Ultra Trail Australia amongst a field of 1,800 runners.
Jason’s Cloudride race report is here … thanks Jason!
Vale Paul Ardill 1943-2021
Good friend and fellow ultra-cyclist Paul Ardill from the NSW central coast tragically died following a head on collision while riding in Queensland several months ago.
Paul was a fellow septuagenarian, we spent time on the road during the 2016 Race to the Rock and again the following year during the Indian Pacific Wheel Race. In both events we quickly gravitated to the back of the field and at our pace had plenty of time for conversation and race tactics, mostly the art of remaining vertical while peddling our bikes. Later in 2017 Paul scouted part of the Terra Australis race route from Tambo down to Miles while on his annual migration north to enjoy the warmer Queensland winter. Paul turned to cycling after a heart episode in 2008 and was given advice to get some exercise ‘a ride around the block’. Paul took this a little further and circumnavigated Australia on his bike with wife Val as the support crew driving their motorhome. In recent years Paul had been participating in the annual Queensland Shearers Vintage Bike Ride and was prepping for this on his fully restored vintage bike when the fatal accident happened. The Coroner’s Report found no evidence of mechanical failure or medical issue. Needless to say, Paul was a very experienced and safety conscious rider. Inexplicably he had simply drifted across the centre line of the road while negotiating a bend and collided with an oncoming vehicle.
Paul is survived by wife Val, several children and a gaggle of grand kids. I know many riders followed Paul’s wanderings on his Facebook Page ‘Back Road Bicycle Adventures’ and if you want a quiet moment to reflect on his life journey and some peaceful backroads there’s a thousand photos and words of wisdom to enjoy right there …. see you down the backroads Paul, RIP.
InSync Bikepacking Surveys
A Bikepacking community resource [secure with no commercial gain].
James Garriock, a third place Cloudride finisher in 2018 has very generously put together an extensive survey resource for bikepackers in general and for particular bikepacking events [races and non-competitive events].
James is Vice President of Bicycle Network a regular road and bikepacker racer and in his spare time Managing Director of InSync Surveys a Melbourne based engagement research company.
Past Cloudride, Prologue and Terra Australis riders, and I urge you to do so, can log in and complete the survey to contribute to the knowledge base for future riders. ... go for it! Much better resource than asking me. Thanks James, really appreciate your enthusiasm for the cause!
If you just want to check it out ...
Username: bikepacking@insyncsurveys.com.au
Password: justlooking