Ultra Cycling. Just Go for Miles


Sunday afternoon, Tallarook roadhouse south of Seymour, Victoria on my way back to Melbourne and hoping for some fried food to provide some diversionary therapy for my liver after a big night out.  A bike rested against the window outside the entrance.  I say to my mate, "I'll ride back to Melbourne and you can give the rider a lift".   The first thing that struck me was that this was no ordinary bike  with 80/73/53 front chain rings and 11/32 rear cassette.   To paraphrase Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee, "that's not a chain ring, that's a chain ring"!  More like something out of an engineering workshop.  To put that in perspective 53 is the upper end of the biggest chain ring on a standard off the shelf road bike. This bike is a beast in it's own right.  



The rider appeared. "How far are you riding today I inquired?" 470km was the reply accompanied by a  brief outline of the day's activities so far starting in Melbourne at 3am with a ride from Port Melbourne to beyond Frankston (98km) and then a ride to Seymour and back twice, following the same routes taken by the legendary Ossie Nicholson who briefly held the world record Annual Mileage Record in 1937.  Miles was his name and being a cyclist on a mission to break a record he didn't have a lot of time to stand around and talk, so he pointed me to his website gomiles.com.au for all the details.  It was surely faster than providing me with a history lesson on the world manual milage record he was having a crack at.  This is Audax on steroids every day for a year.  



Welcome to the world of endurance cycling where ordinary people take on  extraordinary challenges.  Imagine setting a world record that has so far stood for 76 years riding a steel framed bike with 3 speed gears.  That's what Tommy Goodwin (UK) achieved in 1939, where he averaged just shy of 331 km or 207 miles a  day over a calendar year.

The Australian record, also a world record at the time was set in 1937 by Ossie Nicholson where he averaged just over 276km or 172 miles per day riding to and from Melbourne to Portsea twice a day.

Currently there are 3 cyclists, Kurt Searvogel, Steven Abraham and Miles Smith attempting the record,  with Kurt currently on track to break the record.  Strava members can follow their progress daily.  Whether Miles breaks the Australian or World Record, I'm going to keep following him via social media and I'm already keeping an eye out for that beast of a chain wheel on beach road for the chance of having a longer conversation with him.   So next time you think you've put in a big week, it's probably a pimple on the bum relative to what these guys are doing every day or week. 

 To finish, I'll leave you with a quote from Mile's home page which inspired me to ride a little further this week.  

 Pushing past your own personal envelope, whether that be a 50 or 200 kilometre ride, is what matters, not the actual distance achieved.

Comments

  1. selfrighteouscyclist23 November 2015 at 22:18

    Miles pulled out of the UMCA Highest Annual Mileage Record on the 16th November. Miles is an inspiration to me in so many ways. To paraphrase John Bingham, No Need for Speed: A Beginner's Guide to the Joy of Running. “The miracle isn't that you finished. The miracle is that you had the courage to start.” You have such a great story to tell others from recovering a discarded bike, getting yourself fit, keeping the black dog at bay and having a crack at a world record when most people are considering taking life a little easier. Chapeau Miles. For the full story goto https://www.facebook.com/GoMilesAU

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