# India-Pacific Wheel Race under way now. live tracker



## BCSaltchucker (Jul 20, 2011)

this is the 5500km race across Aussie, on now.

wow, these guys are fassst!. Leader did 630km in the first 24 hours, headwind + rain all the way. I see that brit who won the Great Divide race Mike Hall is near the lead.

live tracker here
https://www.curvecycling.com.au/pages/indian-pacific-wheel-race


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## HFroller (Aug 10, 2014)

BCSaltchucker said:


> this is the 5500km race across Aussie, on now.
> 
> wow, these guys are fassst!. Leader did 630km in the first 24 hours, headwind + rain all the way. I see that brit who won the Great Divide race Mike Hall is near the lead.
> 
> ...


Wow, things aren't going well for Allegaert. He's done 3800 km now and has only a 90 km lead on Mike Hall. Usually it's at least 300 km.
Very strong performance by Sarah Hammond!


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## MMsRepBike (Apr 1, 2014)

Indian Pacific Wheel Race rider feared dead in car crash | road.cc

Not sure what even to say.


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## TmB123 (Feb 8, 2013)

MMsRepBike said:


> Indian Pacific Wheel Race rider feared dead in car crash | road.cc
> 
> Not sure what even to say.


It's not good. I'd never even heard of Mike 3 weeks ago, but have been following the race closely since the start and seen a few riders as they've come through Adelaide. I know a few of the locals that are/were in the race.
Feel really sad today.


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## Migen21 (Oct 28, 2014)

Wow, that is horrible news. This was my first year following IndiPac, and I was enjoying following along online, and reading the profiles of the various riders.

Such a tragedy that this happens.. Not really even sure what to say...


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## TmB123 (Feb 8, 2013)

The race has just been cancelled.


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## Migen21 (Oct 28, 2014)

I just saw that on their facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/IndianPacificWheelRace/


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## kookieCANADA (Jan 20, 2011)

TmB123 said:


> It's not good. I'd never even heard of Mike 3 weeks ago, but have been following the race closely since the start and seen a few riders as they've come through Adelaide. I know a few of the locals that are/were in the race.
> Feel really sad today.


I first heard of Mike after watching "Inspired to Ride" on Netflix.

Was watching the race and Mike since day one.

RIP Mike


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## MMsRepBike (Apr 1, 2014)

f u c k .


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## Migen21 (Oct 28, 2014)

For those who may not know who Mike Hall is, there is a pretty good video on NetFlix called "Inspired To Ride" - it documents the 2014 Trans Am bike race, which he won.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Hall_(cyclist)


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## BCSaltchucker (Jul 20, 2011)

shocking. very sad day. can't believe it

Mike was such a champion in many major races including the around the World race, he was also the founder of the Transcontinental race across Europe.


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## jetdog9 (Jul 12, 2007)

All of the details aren't there yet and we can't simply blame drivers at this point but it's alarming that there were around 70 riders and at least 2 were hit by vehicles with one suffering a head injury and one dying.


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## BCSaltchucker (Jul 20, 2011)

jetdog9 said:


> All of the details aren't there yet and we can't simply blame drivers at this point but it's alarming that there were around 70 riders and at least 2 were hit by vehicles with one suffering a head injury and one dying.


Sydney Morning Herald has more insights on that. Mike had noted how scary the Aussie drivers are with close passes on many occasions:

Champion cyclist Mike Hall killed in accident during Indian Pacific Wheel Race


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## HFroller (Aug 10, 2014)

BCSaltchucker said:


> Sydney Morning Herald has more insights on that. Mike had noted how scary the Aussie drivers are with close passes on many occasions:
> 
> Champion cyclist Mike Hall killed in accident during Indian Pacific Wheel Race


Terrible news. 
At the moment my anger is directed mainly at the organisers. In the European Transcontinental, riders choose their own route. But in the Indian Pacific Wheel Race, they had to follow a route designed by the organisation. The organisers knew people would ride at night - that's how you win. They knew that the frontrunners would go to limits of what's humanly feasible They knew that there would be many moments when riders would be physically, mentally and emotionaly exhausted. It's their responsibility to choose roads that are as safe as possible for the participants. A few reactions on the internet suggested to me that the road where the accident happened was known to be dangerous.


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## Migen21 (Oct 28, 2014)

I don't think there are a lot of route options to get across that part of Australia.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk


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## kiwisimon (Oct 30, 2002)

across the Nullarbor Plain there only is one route, the others have no water supplies or human occupants for hundreds of miles. Who is to blame? No one knows but tired people have dulled reactions, Mike was also tweeting that his vision was getting wrecked. These races should have enforced rest periods where you must cross a designated line at exactly 23:59mins after you first crossed it. this gives the riders a chance to refresh, get support and allows riders to maintain their distances. Aussie drivers are pretty aggressive and this is well known. The organisers have some responsibility here. RIP Mike.


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## TmB123 (Feb 8, 2013)

I can't help but think extreme levels of fatigue and exhaustion have played some part in this. As it was, a week earlier there were stories of people just riding off the road on the Nullabor and sleeping where they crashed, riding in the wrong direction for 75km until they realised when they crashed, crazy stuff, and this wasn't even the front runners. Mike looked shattered the day before, his eyes were glazed, helmet strap undone, he'd been complaining about his vision, not saying it was his fault, but not the place you want to be in that condition.


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## Migen21 (Oct 28, 2014)

Unfortunately, this is the nature of these types of races - How fast you ride is not as significant as how much time you spend not moving - sleeping, eating, etc... 


Mike was very experienced at these things, and I would think if anyone could handle the physical and emotional stress, he could. However, he's also very competitive, and being behind probably had him making poor decisions about how much to rest and recover. 


Unless there is a criminal act involved (impairment, road rage, etc...) I don't see much value in assigning blame.

The best we can hope for is to understand the circumstances that led up to the crash and hopefully everyone (organizers, participants, fans and spectators, motorists, etc..) can learn something from it and we can all go on riding our bikes.


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