Terra Australis Bike Epic 6,500k

[cloudrider]

In August the Terra Australis Bike Epic of 6,500 kilometres was launched to start 15 September 2018. Running from the tip of Australia’s north at Cape York down to it’s southern most point generally down the east coast and Great Dividing Range of Australia.

https://www.terraustralisbikepic.com/

Over the past week we’ve had a rider out doing a ‘canary’ test ride of the north Queensland section from Cairns to Longreach a distance of 1315 k’s 

Our 'Canary' test rider was non other than the 'no fixed address, hobo' from Brisbane ex Kiwi, Dave Wicks.  Yes the same man who in his youth won the 1998 NZ Weetbix Eating Contest [unsupported] Total: 47 with choc milk.

Dave, as many of you on this forum will know has been a repeat offender on the US bikepacking circuit with several TD’s and an AZTR to his name.

He seemed to have the perquisite experience to be let loose in this remote part of Australia and so it came to pass …. he finished in nine days on Sunday with a 252k leg, riding from 5:30am and finishing in Longreach at 10:00pm … a big day’s riding in mostly 40ºC temperatures…. that's 100ºF+ for you peeps.

Dave’s ride and pictorial highlights have been posted on the race website ‘Blog’.... link above. I've posted a few 'teasers' below...

For those interested in heading down under for some reverse cultural exchange  … 'subscribe' on the website Home Page and get the race and route planning updates.

Cheers, Steve Watson

[cloudrider]

OK boys and girls ... entries open January 1. You still have time to get fit for this...

Starting 15 September 2018. From the tip of Australia at Cape York finishing at the bottom, Wilson's Promontory in Victoria. Just you and your bike, no support, the clock runs non-stop... off road. You'll end up a bit grubby on the outside but you will cleanse the mind and cleanse the soul .... do something that's possible that you thought was impossible.

A draft route will be available to riders upon registering...

No need to worry about Bears ..

There will be some suitable 'best practice' advice to negotiate crocodiles, snakes, sharks, wombats, kangaroos  etc on your journey south. A large portion of resident Australians have survived a lifetime of these perils ... you'll be dead unlucky if you don't survive.

Everything you need to know is on the website ...

https://www.terraustralisbikepic.com

[cloudrider]

Steve Halligan, 4th in last years Tour Divide has just smoked it down the 3,000k Tour Aotearoa route in New Zealand in 10d:12h:08m. .... fasted time [it's not a race ] so far by a couple of days.

Steve is an early entry in the inaugural Terra Australis Bike Epic starting 15 September.

Entries to date;

Ben Cadby 34, Trafalgar Vic
Simon Faber 53, Eagleby Qld
Matt Hart 50, Murdunna Tas
Rod Gemmell 69, Surrey GB
Steve Watson 71, Canberra ACT
Paul Vandeleur 59, Woombye Qld
Steve Halligan 41, Hanmer Springs NZ
Mark Gibbens 55, Athelstone SA
Brendan Corbin Gladstone Qld

[KO]

Way to go Steve! 

I met Steve the day before TDR started.  He caught me on the long climb after Fernie and rode with me who is a much slower rider and talked for quite awhile on the way up and camped together at the pass(can't remember the name).  He lost a lot of time on because of a broken rear derailleur and had to wait in Elkford.  I was amazed when I saw that he still finished 4th (I finished just under 30 days) Great guy overall.  I'll be rooting for him.

[VibrantLife]

    Thank you Cloudrider and K0.

 I had  a great time on the Tour Aotearoa Route and would absolutely recommend it .   A fantastic way to adventure and explore   this beautiful country. It really has a bit of everything , including lots of hills and mountains.

     Hey KO , i do remember that night on the Tour Divide , into the wilderness out of Fernie . The company was good,  after that i pretty much rode solo all the way to Antelope wells ....

  Looking forward to recovery for the moment and then set my sights on this huge new event  over in Australia , very excited  bout this !!!!
         Thanks
              Steve Halligan

[KO]

Steve,
Good to hear from you again.  Congrats on all your great races and especially TDR.  My path took a different turn after we departed though. I ran into lots of issues leading up to Holland Lake and made up my mind to quit there.  After spending half the day there contemplating, I decided to push on but went into semi touring mode into Antelope Wells.  TDR was an amazing adventure and wish I could do more races like that but alas, family life keeps me too busy.  Cheers!

[VibrantLife]

  Good man for finishing it .... its one hell of a ride ... un forgettable . Take it easy man

[cloudrider]

TERRA AUSTRALIS RIDER REGISTRATIONS
START LIST UPDATE @ 30.5.18
A further two rider entries in this month. Welcome to the fun for Steven MacLeod from Auckland NZ. Steven has a background in Adventure racing and has traveled to Australia to compete in the past. Carlos Maroney from Melbourne makes it eleven on the start line. Carlos has a deep background on the bike, road and in the past decade on the mountain bike being age competitive on the XC race circuit and the National 24H solo champs.
Ben Cadby 34, Trafalgar Vic
Simon Faber 53, Eagleby Qld
Matt Hart 50, Murdunna Tas
Rod Gemmell 69, Surrey GB
Steve Watson 71, Canberra ACT
Paul Vandeleur 59, Woombye Qld
Steve Halligan 41, Hanmer Springs NZ
Mark Gibbens 55, Athelstone SA
Brendan Corbin 30, Gladstone Qld
Steven MacLeod 53 Auckland NZ
Carlos Maroney 50 Melbourne Vic

[flyboy]

Well, 11 adventurers set off from the northern tip of Australia today heading south (mostly) on the Terra Australis route. It is going to be one tough, long ride with thousands of kilometres (metric miles) of outback riding before they even get to the big hills......
Follow their progress here - http://trackleaders.com/terraustralis18

[davew]

Is there a discussion going on somewhere other than here about this race? Was there something at a pre-race briefing about the gps course just being a really long squiggly north arrow and not something to follow  for directions? Why are some going to Cairns and others bee-lining it to Mareeba?

Port Douglas through to the Dinden State Forest will be the last substantial tree cover they have for a quite a while and its an extremely beautiful part of the race(?).

Does anyone have links to riders social media pages to check out? All the trackleader rider links go back to a page with rider info and no links.

[ScottM]

It's part bad GPS line and part people intentionally detouring.  White dots went live today per Steve Watson's direction.  The rest are officially racing. 

Don't know of where more discussion is happening.

[davew]

Thanks for the update Scott.

That's a very long way to go to not race the course. A very expensive trip just to get to the start line as it is a very remote location. Stunning, but remote.

Steve W looks like he pulling the bivvy out tonight.

It looks like Steve H has made it to the Gilberton retreat. They have an amazing unit that looks out over the gorge that is 5 Stars. Steve wont be staying in that. There is some workers accommodation (dongas) that are just down from the station house. It has everything he will need, air-con, showers, a bed, and a better than average chance to sit out on the deck  in the outback tranquillity having a chat with Cookie (if he is still there). The greeting he will get will be second to none as they are a very generous family. Those white dots are missing out in a big way but nobody asked me so take this as you may.

[davew]

Steve and Matt are coming up to 200-300km of flat rutted roads with a tail wind to get to Longreach. No doubt they will be pulling off at every overflowing stock water tank to make sure they have plenty of water. Its hot out there at the moment,  33degC + and nowhere to hide.

This race goes much faster when you are busy at work.

It seems we have OpenStreetMap on Trackleaders for this race. Is there a way to get coordinates from these maps to put into google earth?

[flyboy]

I bet Steve Halligan’s head is spinning now that he has hit the heady delights of Byron Bay.
He has a pretty healthy 2800km lead over Brendan so he could enjoy a week on the beach to recover.
Not really liking the mapping option on Trackleaders either. Is this the new standard map or a “tiered” Trackleaders package?

[davew]

The only benefit with such little chatter here, no-one has made a cliched and predictable reference to/about Nimbin. I'm not sure if this counts.

[ScottM]

Not really liking the mapping option on Trackleaders either. Is this the new standard map or a “tiered” Trackleaders package?

I still need to hunt out some other map options, but we are using open street map based maps going forward for all trackers.

2 years ago the google map API was free.
1 year ago it was a reasonable cost.  Happy to pay.
2 months ago they started charging 20x more.  The bill for TCR, just for map loads, was $6000.  We may have actually lost money on that one, despite all the time put in.  No tracking company can afford to use google any more. 

The only tangible difference is the map quality, and the loss of streetview.

[flyboy]

Thanks Scott. I thought it might have been something like that. I wonder when/how they are going to start charging the general public for using it?

DaveW, I was going to ride down and Spot stalk Steve at Woodenbong but I’ve been crook since I last saw you so missed that opportunity. He is doing well and has outstanding self motivation!

[davew]

I still need to hunt out some other map options, but we are using open street map based maps going forward for all trackers.

2 years ago the google map API was free.
1 year ago it was a reasonable cost.  Happy to pay.
2 months ago they started charging 20x more.  The bill for TCR, just for map loads, was $6000.  We may have actually lost money on that one, despite all the time put in.  No tracking company can afford to use google any more. 

The only tangible difference is the map quality, and the loss of streetview.

Is it possible to have a kml output function or give x,y or lat long so we can investigate google maps/earth and street view?

[ScottM]

Is it possible to have a kml output function or give x,y or lat long so we can investigate google maps/earth and street view?

KML output is a little messier, but I was thinking about a "view in google maps" function that would open a direct link on google.com with a single marker on it, or maybe multiple markers.  a live link for google earth is another idea.

[ScottM]

I changed the default to an ESRI 'topo' map -- do you guys think it is any more detailed?  The "Imagery" layer is pretty darn close to google's.