SM1200 Day4

December 14, 2017

Day four and we are at Lake Nillacootie. The usual breakfast scene presents itself; a list being looked over for those riders names that have not arrived yet, Simon doing a video story, selfies, stories of wombat encounters, food being devoured, punctures making themselves present overnight, in house barista making coffee... a good start. The coffee intake increased by one each day, it'll be four today.

Hamid, Soufiane and Wolfgang arrive separated by a few minutes, while other riders leave for the final 183km ride into Melbourne.

Today's far shorter course, rail trails set away from the road (wake up NSW, you need these), higher amounts of traffic on road and suburban sections inbound to Melbourne offered a few less photo opportunities. But the day wasn't going to be any shorter than any of the the previous three. A definite highlight for me personally was the blood plum slice I ate at a bakery in Yea, almost as good as my mother used to make. A highlight for the riders was the gravel section of the rail trail, although I did'nt actually hear anyone say that.

The end of the four days was a lap of the newly refurbished Brunswick Velodrome, a great venue to host the celebrating riders and families.

Wolfgang and Hamid turned up together and got straight into the re-hydrating. At 11:30PM, 89.5 hours after leaving Sydney, Soufiane arrived. Congratulations to all the riders for completing an amazing four day ride.

A big thanks to all of the riders for putting up with me popping up beside the road, laying in gutters, standing in the tall grasses and up on hillsides calling down to them. I didn't make it to Melbourne on my ride attempt four years ago, so I thank Howard and Bec for allowing me to experience the full ride through the lens of my camera. Thank you to all of the volunteers that fed Michael and I throughout and a big thank you to Michael for driving me from Sydney to Melbourne, all the back tracking and return.

I hope to be back in four years, on a blue bike.

PS. If you are interested in a calendar of some of these photos, please follow this link.

SM1200 Day3

December 6, 2017

Day three and the previous days difficulty had its effect on the field of riders. Of the 43 riders that left Sydney two days ago, 34 riders had made the time cutoff and were continuing on to Melbourne.

The white board showed that the riders were being taken care of by a group of endurance volunteers. A super effort thanks to Peter Makin and crew.

At 4:30 two riders that left Canberra the day before had yet to arrive. With only minutes to spare before Laurel Hill closing time, Wolfgang and Hamid arrive. I don't have the riding times but that must have been a long day for these two!

4:50 and Linton is happily eating breakfast. Within 30 minutes he has ridden away from Laurel Hill, discovered the freewheel hub on his bike is broken, walked back and is now quietly waiting to hear if there are any bike shops or other riders in the area that he can borrow a wheel from. Luckily, a local rider offers Linton his wheel. It's a two hour dent in Linton's day and somehow he has kept it all together, well done on not wasting energy on factors out of your control.

Michael and I spent some of the morning not knowing if we were transporting DNF riders or bikes to Melbourne. There seemed to be a general feeling of a lack of urgency by riders to get back out on the road. More likely that there was no nervous energy left after two difficult days. Bike riders were quietly making their way out of camp, I was glad when it was decided our services were only required for conveying a single bike and we could set off.

Many fast riders left early, those that required more sleep left later. The field of riders were going to be spread far over today's course.

Jingellic was the first quick checkpoint, restocking well here for the 90km slog to Lake Hume checkpoint was important. I don't recall any services between the two points and it was getting warm.

From Lake Hume to Beechworth and we don't encounter many of the riders.

This won't excite anyone on the ride, but I find a sky with clouds to be a beautiful thing, a sky with clouds has character, so in the absence of riders I took photos of clouds. Looking for the next potential place to stop and wait for our riders i thought about how the riders we've seen over the three days looked both on and off bike.

Some stern faces would smile enthusiastically when they saw us, others had their heads dropped and were hurting both on and off the bike. Most riders had a calm look on the bike, others looked like they had a job to do and were getting on with it. But off the bike they dropped the game face and happily chatted with volunteers. There were also the chatty ones that could be heard before they were seen, dealing with the third day of over 300km in their own way.

I finally got my head out of the clouds and we were at Greta Valley Public School where Phillip, Matt and Chris were dishing up food.

Final stop for the day at Lake Nillahcootie Camp. Dinner at 23:00 which was early compared to many of the riders that would be out riding for many hours yet, a repeat of the previous nights efforts.

SM1200 Day2

December 4, 2017

...riders awoke to the tragic news of the death of one of their fellow riders the night before. Out of respect to family members, the riders name was withheld. The news made the start of the most difficult day of the ride even more difficult, everyone felt the loss.

After a quick and quiet breakfast, Michael and I set out to catch riders. We came across Bhanu and Soufiane, only a short distance away, trying to install a new internally routed rear shift cable after the one installed had broken. Lesson one, even if a mechanic says the cable is OK, insist they change it anyway. Lesson two, practice fixing any fault you may encounter out on the road while at home. Over two hours were spent on the task, it was difficult for Michael and I not to assist here, but Audax is based on riding self supported and this was something they needed to sort out themselves. Kudos to the two riders working at solving the problem.

First checkpoint of the day was Cooma at 122km after enduring the fast and heavily trafficked Monaro Highway. Time for refreshments and a rest before getting onto the quieter Snowy Mountains Highway heading towards Adaminaby. It was great to see that Soufiane's bike was back in operation and both he and Bhanu in good spirits, although hot.

The day was warming up as the riders climbed along towards the Kosciuszko National Park. Wolgal Hut was a welcome rest point for riders and Phillip put on another big effort supplying riders with food and water. Phillip was lucky to make it as the transmission in his car was overheating.

The next stop was McPherson Plains Caravan Park, but first a huge descent down to Tumut River and then the difficult climb back out of the valley. Note, be aware of brumbies.

By 21:50 5 riders had arrived with the rest of the field yet to roll in. Peter Makin and the merry band of volunteers at Laurel Hill Checkpoint were up all night making sure riders were fed and shown their bed for the night.

Day 1

Sydney-Canberra. 358.3 km +3806 m / -3199 m

SM1200 Day1

November 29, 2017

Four years ago my good friend, Michael S. picked me up from my place and drove me, my bike and bags to Hickson Road Reserve for the 2013 Sydney to Melbourne Alpine 1200. In 2017 Michael came out early once again, this time no bike. The bike was swapped for a bag of camera gear, a drone and a bucket of batteries and chargers. We were going to Melbourne to take photos of this great event.

Riders and volunteers started arriving at Hickson Road Reserve in Sydney, friends and family came down to wish the riders good luck and Sydney put on a gorgeous sunrise.

Nervous excitement was evident on many faces, bits of banana on others. There was plenty of milling around as bags were packed into the truck, riders did final checks of their equipment and set up the GPS navigation devices. I can't recall if I was more nervous 4 years ago as a rider or today behind the lens, hmm, definitely more nervous 4 years ago.

We got out of Sydney as soon as possible, off to the first checkpoint at Mittagong which was 126 km and 631 m above sea level.

The smiling checkpoint volunteers at Mittagong signed brevet cards and offered food to all the riders. The fantastic support of volunteers was going to be repeated at checkpoint after checkpoint.

With riders signed in and fed, the next checkpoint to visit was Marulan via Bundanoon. "It's all down hill from here."

Next stop at Tarago, 289km. The descent into Tarago is a pleasure, not only because food is only minutes away, but also because of that lovely S.

Phillip Pearce cooked up fantastic meals at Tarago, all done for riders as they sit on seat benches that were padded. Phillip didn't forget a thing, how he fit two microwaves and the rest of the equipment he had there (including emergency lighting) into his BMW is beyond me. Phillip, Ed, Grant, Matt and Chris (not pictured here) worked with incredible efficiency.

Some riders had already left, others were yet to come into Tarago and the light was beginning to fade. It would soon be dark and photography was beginning to get a little difficult away from town lights. Michael and I set off for Canberra to where the riders would be sleeping tonight. But first we had to make a visit to a service station and get a pair of reading glasses for me. I had lost my pair somewhere in Mittagong. I bought a pair at the bargain price of $2. The plan was to get into our accommodation and start editing the days photos, starting to edit at 11:30PM, with terrible glasses and an early start on the cards. That idea didn't last long.

Pre-ride Bike check

November 18, 2017

Audax Australia have a set of lighting rules to ensure all riders start with adequate lighting (including a spare) and reflective vest. Since there a 43 riders,checking all bikes just before the ride would take some time. Who wants to wait around while bikes get checked.

Omafiets in Redfern, Sydney, allowed Audax to use their premises as a gathering point so checks could be made the day before the ride.

Meet some of the amazing people that will be leaving Sydney tomorrow morning, heading to Melbourne via the Australian Alpine region.

The Sydney to Melbourne Alpine 1200 will have some riders carrying trackers, follow along here.

A huge thanks to Omafiets Dutch Bicycles in Redfern, Sydney for hosting Audax.

Tracker map.png — Sydney Melbourne Alpine 1200

**Audax Australia**

SM1200 Introduction

November 14, 2017

At 06:00 on the 19th of November 2017, 44 riders will leave Sydney and travel to Melbourne via the Australian Alpine region. 1,200 kilometres within 90 hours with over 12,700m of climbing.

Some of the intrepid travellers will be carrying trackers, dot watchers may follow friends or family here while the ride is underway. There will also be posts on Instagram at @audaxoz and #audaxoz. Same goes for twitter.

If you happen to be anywhere along the route when riders are about to go past, come out and give them a wave, I'm sure it will be appreciated.

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