A mere 19 days after Mandy Cook set the very first womens end to end and back record on the South Burnett Rail Trail, it has been lowered by Brisbane rider Philadelphia Holmes.
Setting off from Kingaroy early on Friday morning on her Malvern Star Oppy S2 touring bike, Phila made quick progress in spite of mud and fallen trees from storms the night before. She broke the Kingaroy-Murgon record by 7m10s, the Murgon-Kilkivan record by 10m29s, and the Kingaroy-Kilkivan record by 18m1s. After the turnaround, a warm day did little to hamper her speed, with the Kilkivan-Murgon record falling by 9m53s, and 22m7s carved off the Kilkivan-Kingaroy record. When she returned to O'Neill Square in Kingaroy, the stopwatch read 9hr18m54s, exactly 41 minutes faster than the previous record. Phila jokingly said she would have "one schooner for every magpie that swooped me, I don't think I can drink that much though!"
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Only a week after Mandy Cook became the first woman to complete an end to end return on the South Burnett Rail Trail, Brisbane rider Russell Worthington set off from Esk at 6pm on Saturday October 5th aiming to break the 14hr36m Brisbane Valley Rail Trail end to end return record, set in November 2018 by Cameron Wickbold, Bruce Flesser, and Wayne Thompson.
After stopping 20km south of Esk to remove a trip-wire which had been strung across the trail (since reported to local police), Russell reached Wulkuraka near Ipswich at 8:30pm and turned north to ride the 100 miles to the other end of the trail at Yarraman. With mild temperatures and good trail conditions Yarraman was reached around 3:30am on Sunday, less than 10 minutes outside the one way record. The final stretch back to Esk was mostly uneventful except for a magpie attack just outside town which Russell described as "all part of the challenge!" Russell's total time for the 323km ride was 13hr31m26s, more than one hour and five minutes faster than the previous record. While happy with his effort he expects the record to be under threat at next weekend's annual BVRT E2Ex2 Challenge Ride, organised by the BVRT Users Association Inc. Early on Sunday morning, Bundaberg mountain biker Mandy Cook set off from Kingaroy on an attempt to make the first ever Women's end to end return of the South Burnett Rail Trail.
With still air and mild temperatures Mandy flew through the outbound leg, smashing the Kingaroy-Kilkivan record (held by Alison Zahra since May this year) by more than 2 hours, and taking the Kingaroy-Murgon and Murgon-Kilkivan intermediate records. After the turnaround conditions were difficult with headwinds and temperatures rising to just over 30 degrees, however Mandy kept up a strong pace, breaking the Kilkivan-Murgon record by over 46 minutes, and the Kilkivan-Kingaroy record (also previously held by Alison Zahra) by an incredible 2hr32m21s! Mandy's time for the 176km end to end return was 9 hours 59 minutes 54 seconds. In a sign of the increasing popularity of the SBRT, most of the records broken by Mandy were set in May this year, and the longest standing record (from Kilkivan-Murgon) had only been held by Theresa Welch since March 2018. |