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.
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In the early hours of Thursday morning well known Hervey Bay mountain biker Mike Zande set off from Kilkivan on an attempt to break Jason Black's South Burnett-Brisbane Valley Rail Trail "double" record and become only the second person to complete the 307km journey to Wulkuraka near Ipswich in a single day.
Along the way he broke Andrew Handyside's Kilkivan-Kingaroy record (set in December 2017) by 4 minutes and 3 seconds, and with "great trail conditions" Zande said "on paper I thought I could go under 14 hours (to Wulkuraka)". After struggling between Yimbun Tunnel and Mt Hallen, he finally rolled into Wulkuraka station at 7:45pm, making a new record of 13 hours 53 minutes, nearly 3 hours faster than the previous record set in May last year. Zande was congratulated on his achievement by previous record holder Jason Black. Just after 5am on Tuesday June 18, South-East Queensland mountain biker Dan Graham set off from Wulkuraka, near Ipswich, to attempt the more than 300km ride along the Brisbane Valley and South Burnett Rail Trails to Kilkivan.
While the region was experiencing cool temperatures (just above freezing in Kingaroy), Dan was well prepared and jokingly said he was "cold, but only Qld-cold". While the newly-signposted connecting route between the two trails was "quite rough, and decently hilly", Dan said the trail conditions were generally good, and he had no issues until Wide Bay Creek, where the lack of a crossing meant he had to ride the last 6kms into Kilkivan with wet feet. Dan originally planned to stay at the Kilkivan Hotel and ride back to Wulkuraka the following day, but said that he felt it would have been difficult to repeat the 300km course without more rest, and instead his wife picked him up from Kilkivan on Wednesday. Dan's time for the 307km journey was 16hr45m25s, over an hour faster than the previous record set by Mike Zande on October 2nd last year. Mike said he had encouraged Dan to make the attempt and was "genuinely happy to hand over the record". Dan described the trails as "a really good community recreation resource" and said that as nutrition had been an issue in the latter part of his ride, "I expect a better time is still to come by someone". The new record comes just ten days after Jason Black became the first person to ride the two trails from Kilkivan to Wulkuraka and back in a marathon 38 hours, and 3 weeks after Mike Zande broke four records along the South Burnett Rail Trail. Well known Hervey Bay mountain biker Mike Zande on Saturday broke 3 intermediate records on his way to shattering the record for riding the South Burnett Rail Trail from Kilkivan-Kingaroy and back.
Zande, the first person to complete the 311km "double" of the Brisbane Valley and South Burnett Rail Trails from Wulkuraka to Kilkivan, said his ride on Saturday was intended as training for a future attempt on the southbound SBRT-BVRT "double". With favourable trail conditions and mild weather, Zande said he "surprised and smashed myself" by breaking the Kilkivan-Murgon, Murgon-Kilkivan, Kingaroy-Kilkivan, and Kilkivan-Kingaroy-Kilkivan records, the latter by an incredible 55m34s, with a time of 7hr55m46s. Previous record holder Lachlan Davis congratulated Zande on his "awesome effort", and said he would attempt to reclaim the records in June. International Women's Day is a great opportunity to look back at the incredible work of women cyclists over the years. In the 1930s there were more than a few record breaking women who were household names, sadly in later decades their achievements have been largely forgotten, and women's cycling as a whole often struggles to get proper recognition and respect. Below are just some of the amazing women road record riders Australia has seen. The tiny 45kg Billie Samuels, who set the first Melbourne-Sydney women's record in 1934, and just a few months later broke the Sydney-Melbourne record too. Her rides inspired a generation of women cyclists. Valda Unthank's extraordinary 1938 Adelaide-Melbourne ride not only broke the women's record by a mind-boggling 37 hours 56 minutes, she also broke the men's record by over 13 hours! Joyce Barry was famous across the country for her record rides. On her 1938 Brisbane-Rockhampton ride she broke the existing men's record by 23 hours! In the 1960s Margaret Mclachlan was refused a racing licence by the NSW cycling union, so turned her hand to record rides in protest. Her Sydney-Newcastle time of 6hr14m30s, set in 1968, still stands as the record to this day.
80 years ago today, at 7:10am both the mail train and the famous Les Cecil left the Kingaroy station bound for Brisbane.
Cecil was a seasoned veteran, holder of many records such as Melbourne-Sydney and Brisbane-Lismore, but ahead of him lay 150 miles (241km) of rough, hilly dirt roads, slick from the rain that fell almost all day. In spite of the slippery surface, he kept the pace up, and coming down the Blackbutt range hit 48 miles per hour (over 72kmh!) He rode through 2 severe storms, and crossed more than half a dozen flooded creeks, but after 8 hours, 45 minutes he finally reached Brisbane at 3:55pm. The train was not to arrive until more than 2 hours later, at 6pm! It was an extraordinary achievement, widely publicised, and 80 years later his record still stands, along with a dozen others he set during the golden age of road records. At 5:35 on the morning of Saturday the 24th of November, Hervey Bay rider Troy Geltch set off from the Maryborough Post Office, with Bundaberg his target. There was no known men's record for the journey, and the fastest women's time of 6hr30m was set by Joyce Barry on her 1938 Brisbane-Rockhampton record ride. Geltch said he had a westerly crosswind for the trip, but luckily avoided a later northerly change. He wasn't unduly hindered by the conditions, as he recorded a stunning 37kmh average for the 112km journey, finishing with a remarkable time of 3:02:51, almost 3 and a half hours ahead of Barry's record! Geltch says he's planning to tackle other records, and to encourage more people to take up the challenge. Kin Kin record breaker Lachlan Davis left the Brisbane GPO at 4:30 on the morning of Saturday the 10th of November, aiming to break Kevin Cassidy's 1948 Brisbane-Esk record, and lower the Brisbane-Toogoolawah, Ipswich-Esk, and Ipswich-Toogoolawah records.
Lachlan was aiming to take 2.5 minutes off the Brisbane-Esk record, and to reduce his own Brisbane-Toogoolawah record from 5:08:28 to 4:45:00, but with mild temperatures and a light tailwind he reached Esk nearly 15 minutes ahead of the record with a time of 3:41:13. He finished the ride at the Toogoolawah Post Office in 4:19:47, nearly 50 minutes faster than his previous time. Ipswich-Esk fell by nearly 17 minutes to 2:10:33, and Ipswich-Toogoolawah by nearly 40 minutes to 2:48:07. On October 30th 1938, Gympie rider Mervyn Lister broke the Gympie-Brisbane record with a time of 9:05:45. 2 days short of 80 years later, Kin Kin rider Lachlan Davis took more than 1hr 43m off the record, with a time of 7:22:27 for the 187km journey.
It was the first attempt on the record since another Kin Kin rider, Gilbert McAndrew, was forced to abandon at Landsborough with cramps in 1939. Davis started from the old Gympie Post Office building at 1:10am and enjoyed still air and mild temperatures throughout. He established a new record of 3:47:00 from Gympie-Landsborough, and said he would have taken around 15 minutes off the 1939 Landsborough-Brisbane record if not for a wrong turn in Bald Hills that cost 34 minutes. He now holds 14 records and will attempt to add Brisbane-Esk to that tally on November 10th. On Sunday September 30th, Kin Kin rider Lachlan Davis rode from Rockhampton to Yeppoon and back, attempting to better Hugh Doran's record of 2hr30m6s set on March 20th 1938.
At Yeppoon Lachlan was well behind schedule, struggling with the numerous small climbs and an unfavourable crosswind. Pushing hard on the return clawed back time, and a final effort along Moores Creek Road saw him reach the Old Rockhampton Post Office in 2hr29m7s, just 59 seconds ahead of the record! As with his Gladstone-Rockhampton record set at the start of September, Lachlan expects the strong local riders to soon eclipse his time, and says he is looking forward to seeing their efforts. |