Author
|
Thread |
|
|
|
|
Marc N.
Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 457
Location: Israel3/22/17 10:12 AM |
Doing that at any age is impressive, but in your 70`s . Good for them !
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nick Payne
Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 2626
Location: Canberra, Australia3/22/17 11:29 PM |
What amazed me about the guy who's 74 is that he only took up cycling at age 65 after having a stroke and being told by his doctor to do some cycling to help restore his balance...I'd say he's well and truly managed that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nick Payne
Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 2626
Location: Canberra, Australia3/28/17 12:35 AM |
Well, the coverage of the race has been pretty good over here - even the mainstream media have taken some notice of it - helps that the tracking of riders on the web is pretty much real time, and quite a lot of them have (somehow) managed to keep posting occasionally on social media. Unfortunately for the competitors, although the leaders in the race have now covered over 3/4 of the distance, they still have a bit over half the total climbing to come - all the big climbs come in the final 25% of the course.
Based on progress so far, the first rider should be coming through here sometime late on Thursday.
Edit: I rolled down to Parliament House around 4pm to watch Kristof Allegaert pass through. He had a gaggle of riders following him, and didn't stop, just gave us a wave and kept riding. I chased and caught up at some traffic lights - photo below. He looks remarkably human for someone who's 5000km into a 5500km race and has just ridden the last 36 hours straight. The guy's a machine - when I look at the map, he's ridden about 650km across the mountains since yesterday morning - a total of around 8500m climbing - and that on the back of 4500km in the preceding 11 days. He's opened a 180km gap on Mike Hall by not stopping overnight, though they were neck and neck for much of yesterday.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nick Payne
Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 2626
Location: Canberra, Australia3/30/17 9:15 PM |
Bad news this morning - Mike Hall, who was riding in 2nd place, was struck by a vehicle and killed about 30km south of here. Happened about half an hour before dawn, details as yet unknown. When Kristof Allegaert, who was about 200km ahead and only 200km from the finish, heard the news, he stopped and pulled out of the race, and the organisers put out an announcement shortly afterwards that the race had been cancelled.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
daddy-o
Joined: 12 Apr 2004
Posts: 3307
Location: Springfield3/31/17 10:08 AM |
Really sad news but thanks for sharing. The race announcement and prior updates were appreciated and anticipated.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Brian Nystrom
Joined: 26 Jan 2004
Posts: 5101
Location: Nashua, NH3/31/17 11:20 AM |
Wow, that's truly sad...
...on several levels.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
dan emery
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 6890
Location: Maine3/31/17 4:14 PM |
Terrible
Truly awful.
I really respect the leader's decision to abandon. A powerful statement of respect for his colleague, and he didn't have to do that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|