Welcome to the hopefully somewhat daily and always informative Indypac blog
So as I write these words competitors are gathering at a Freemantle waterhole and signing onto this monumental event. Last minute carbo loading in the form of amber liquids is in full swing and hopefully nerves don't get the better of anyone with rubbery arms or there may well be a few DNS come Saturday morning.
In short this blog hopes to pull together the best from each day in a condensed format easily consumed in our fast paced world. Although this ultra endurance bike racing caper is slower and harder to read than a 5 day test match cricket game, it can be immensely hard to know exactly what the hell is going on out there for those uninitiated dot watchers.
So here we go, here's your five step plan to following the indy pac from Saturday:
Step 1:
Follow the dots at:
Step two:
Sign up to the social medias! Click on the facebook page and Instagram page for up to the minute coverage and live feeds when cell coverage allows.
Step Three:
Save step one and two in your bookmarks bar, trust me you'll need them, and no there's nothing wrong with clicking the links at 3am whilst you partner sleeps next to you and you are hiding the glow of the laptop under the sheets coz you just want to check where your mates are :). It's OK
Step Four:
Pick your favorites and stalk them, it's OK I won't judge you!
Below is a spreadsheet, anyone who knows Jesse, knows Jesse loves spreadsheets. This is a good spreadsheet, one of the best!
Step Five
DON"T PANIC. If the above randomly selected dot from above hasn't moved for twelve hours and you have lost your voice yelling at the computer, it's OK don't freak out. It's possible they just rode the biggest three days of their lives and decided enough is enough, crawled into the fetal position then subsequently went ransacking the nearest convenience store in the hopes of feeling normal again.
Now that we have all this sorted you might be asking who the hell is this guy tapping at the keys? Well, firstly i'm a mate of Jesse's and part of an ever growing crew of Melbourne cyclists who love adventure cycling, bikepacking and racing each other over hundreds of Km's with no real goal other than to win the race to the next food stop. Secondly I've done a lot of this stupid shit before. In 2015 I rode down from Alice Springs to Adelaide on about the most off-route tracks available, if you want an extra read click here and here. My ride helped shape a lot of the 2015 Race to the Rock route and given my intimate knowledge of that route I wrote a daily update for Cycling tips which was received quite well. With the Indy pac unfolding Jesse got me onboard for some more keyboard punishment. I'll take a rather tongue in cheek approach to this. No one is safe, especially my mates. I have ridden with over 10% of the field at some point and have some good inside info on how quite a few people are backing themselves in the push to Sydney. So racers if you are reading this on the that sleepless race-eve night, just remember if your dot hovers too long it might end up getting analysed here :)
Thanks for tuning in dot watchers and good luck to all the brave people who signed up the first of hopefully many Indian pacific wheel races.
And just so my first post is not so word heavy, check this guy out, Jerome Murif, cracking human, first to ride across Australia, in 1897!
Thanks for reading
