Looking forward to dot hunting rather than watching in friday evening!

Also hoping the Crikey, how much van and Jesse maybe stopping at the Gravel Event we are hosting on Sunday (Gravelaide). That should.be pretty cool!

Just catching up with this.

A clip on FB of Mike shows him looking settled on the bike and determined... the race needs him back on form.

Kristof looks fresh though and will be well rested when Mike rolls in knackered but a visual should pep Mike up and maybe introduce a sense of fallibility into Kristof.

Whatever happens it is starting to look interesting.

Great work by the chasing pack too... hat off to the lot of them.

GregMay wrote:He also has a habit of exploding...

How unfortunately correct are you. Dons out. Exhausted

Morning Leaderboard (UK):
1. Kristof
2. Mike +45k
3. Adam Hunter +151k
4. Sarah Hammond +71k
5. Kim Raeymaekers +7k

Justchris wrote:

GregMay wrote:He also has a habit of exploding...

How unfortunately correct are you. Dons out. Exhausted

Yep. Won't be the first or last time.

I quote "I'm not into that science lark" was my memories of a coaching chat with him.

40% of the distance covered by the front runners and the race is on!


Makes me want to get out and suffer.... kinda.

The Spanish coast to coast guys can throw that one back at me at some point no doubt.

60KM now between Kristof and Mike. Seems to be a yo yo holding the together!

It seems like Kristof has a bit of a strategy of ride, stop and check the tracker, set alarm for when he thinks Mike will arrive, snooze, ride.
Mike doesnt have the opportunity to get into the lead and Kristof can control things.

They're set to pass through Adelaide early doors, and they're wanting to recreate scenes from the Overlander years, where the streets are lined with people. ***I'm looking at you Pete***

Morning Leaderboard (UK):
1. Kristof
2. Mike +67k
3. Seb Dune +169k
4. Sarah Hammond +17k
5. Kim Raeymaekers +86k

Keep on trucking

I will be popping up, Chew!

Sunday is out as i have this gravel event to make sure runs smoothly but will be chasing them down on Monday from Adelaide to Mt. Gambier and then riding from there to Nelson to camp out and hopefully catch a few as they pass!

I will be cheering and waving (and taking selfies etc)!

The thought of sharing the same space as road trains scares me.

Juliana is doing her bit to break down the barriers it seems!

Once they get off this leg they will be free of them but they are huge!

Funnily enough don't look out of place in the middle of nowhere but you couldn't imagine them in the uk!

Some chat about it with Chris White (ridefar.info) and Aussie cycling journo Craig White:

http://thebikeshow.net/indian-pacific-w ... erlanders/

Just looking at the graphs for Mike and Kristof - insane - looks like a game of cat and mouse... Who's going to sleep first?
Sarah Hammond has had a much more consistent and regular sleep pattern so looks to be going as quick, if not quicker - I recon she could catch the top 2
Loving the dot watching

Given the hillier nature of the terrain that Kristof and Mike have been traversing it's difficult to get an accurate gap but it seems to have settled to between 40 & 60Km or two to three hours. They're just about to get to another flat section.

The last time Kristof had a reasonable stop/sleep was nearly 1000Km ago. Mike's last lengthy stop was 800Km ago. Since then the longest either appears to have stopped is for about an hour

Top three are beasts. Just incredible.

Managed to catch up with Kristof in the Adelaide Hills after about 2900km of riding

Saddened to have to concede that even after all that distance he was still looking fresher and smelling sweeter than i would after a 3 hour gravel biased jaunt.

Bastard

Sadly triple parent duty meant i had to miss Mike and Sarah or risk loss of limb but hope to do an early morning drive to see them on the road.

Kristof though was just so cool and calm and collected.

This race is bonkers and i hope that they only run it once as once it has been done it doesn't need repeating for a good few years.

Mike had to stop last night according to facebook, he conceded that traffic was bad (nearly hit a few times?) and wasn't worth the race itself

voodoo_simon wrote:Mike had to stop last night according to facebook, he conceded that traffic was bad (nearly hit a few times?) and wasn't worth the race itself

Is that going to get worse the further east they go and more built up/urban areas are encountered or is it out on the rural roads where drivers are getting tired and not really looking out for tired cyclists?

Ugh. :(

voodoo_simon wrote:Regretfully, Eoin Marshall was injured after a vehicle collided with him on the outskirts of Tarlee in South Australia this morning. Local police responded at the scene. Eoin was treated for a head wound in Tarlee initially and then transferred to the Lyell McEwin Hospital in Elizabeth Vale for further tests that also revealed a fractured rib.
Eoin will be released shortly.
Another rider, Ben Hirons, witnessed the incident and travelled with Eoin to medical care.
The driver of the vehicle remained at the scene of the incident and has since been charged for driving without due care.
Both riders will withdraw from the race. We all wish Eoin a speedy recovery.

Reason # 13783 why to stay away from the road.
hopefully that will have been it - no more such incidents.

The "battle" between 1st and 2nd never really was one and it's looking like one between 2nd and 3rd.

Then, best of all, https://indianpacificwheelrace.maprogre ... ?embed=yes is metric

They're into some pretty steep looking stuff at the sharp end now.

One bad mechanical and that lead is gone. Sorry, but 110km is not that far of a margin on a road race like this.

interesting that the second placed female Jackie was someone I rode with quite a bit on the Divide early days. Strong rider, great ability to stop and sleep anywhere. Also, she got hit by a kangaroo :)

https://en.francevelotourisme.com/base-1/itineraires

Sad dot watcher that I am - but seems that Mike has just overtaken Kristof. Could be a faulty tracker but some people saying not. I can't begin to imagine what their respective mental states are right now......

Ha - that was short lived - Kristof's dot is doing some interesting things that don't bear much resemblance to the route, but has decided it likes being back in front again

Spot trackers are notorious for being a bit iffy under tree cover. They're going through some nice old growth forest right now climbing up through the Victorian high plains.

Greetz

S.