“What’s a 60’s evening?”

The best fun, music and dance experience the members of the Australian Footbike Team have experienced in ages!

The night was filled with people from all walks of life and ages who came along to help raise funds to send the Australian Footbike Team to the World Champs in Italy. They also came along to sing and dance to 60’s songs fantastically presented by Robbie McGowan, or as he’s better known ‘That 60’s Guy’. Robbie played his guitar and sang, song after song, classic tunes from the 60’s including ‘Ferry Cross the Mersey’ through to ‘Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head’ and ‘House of the Rising Sun’.

The floor vibrated with feet extolling their enjoyment with the entertainment. Robbie’s great voice and welcoming warmth was perfectly balanced with his wicked sense of humour that had us grinning and shouting encouragement throughout the night.

And what impressed many of us was that we knew the songs even though we were never around in the 60’s (as one woman well in her 70’s tried to convince me during the evening). Her reasoning for knowing the lyrics was that a classic survives well through the ages!

Huge thanks to Jo, Hass and Ali for organising the night, and The Pet Resort for gift vouchers, Red Day Coaching for the wine and chocolate package, That 60’s Guy for tickets to future shows, Kickbike Australia for the Wine, Jem Glass for their generous donations, and Kerrie Lathopolous for her amazing Kickbike Cake (check out the photo). And special thanks to all of the people who attended the night!

Not only did the evening present people with wonderful entertainment, delicious food, and fine comany, it gave the Australian Footbike Team the opportunity to interact together in a non-sporting environment, building an even stronger team for Italy.

Meet the Australian Footbike Team - Ready for Italy 2010

Alan Stewart, Kickbike in hand and dressed in Skins – the brand of the specialists in compression garments – wore long sleeves in the hope of saving his arms from the punishing Australian sun that would soon rise.

Adam Connelly – not only a great bloke, good cyclist and an exceptionally talented musician, with torch in hand did a once over of the track to check for glass and discarded bottles from any party-goers the night before.

After some fiddling with Alan’s front carbon wheel, brake adjusting and slapping of blood-thirsty mosquitos, Alan set off on his 12 hour adventure – looping over 168 turns of the 1.44km track.

Due to heavy rain and flooding the day before, the cycle track featured large puddles of water and mud which eventually gave Alan’s white Skins top the ‘camoflage’ look.

As day broke the mozzie population retired – much to the relief of the Australian Footbike Association Officials who were present to regulate and witness the event.

Food intake for Alan during the morning hours consisted of figs and water. Then moved on to more substantial nutrition in the way of Cadel Evan’s Long Distance Bars, bananas, Powerade, a tomato sandwich on multigrain bread, and lots and lots of water.

Just after lunch the wind picked up cruelly, dropping Alan’s average and throwing Jacaranda leaves all over the place – mostly into the areas where you don’t need them – the eyes and mouth!

Alan was encouraged throughout the day by cyclists from the Balmoral Cycle Club, including Adam Connelly, Mark Van Horssen of Redlands Kitchens, Tamara Harrison of the Balmoral Women’s Cycling Team, Kevin Menz from Park Bikes, Peter Dick from the much sought-after Dolan Bikes, Bruce Cook from Kickbike Australia, Brad Cassidy and Michael Keogh from Queensland Rail, old-time footbiker Graham Jenner (who took much delight in splashing water over everyone when they came near him on his Hybrid Bicycle), Pam Jenner, Deb Stewart, Lyn Armstrong (official glasses cleaner!), Bob and Rosslyn Nipperess (Rosslyn, thank you for massaging Alan’s calves during his short break), Barry and Christine Walden from BinCare Australia, James Thompson, and all of the members of the public who stopped to watch and cheer. Your support and encouragement were much appreciated – and helped to stop Alan going stir-crazy after over 168 loops of the cycle track.

Alan set the following new Australian records:

Century (100km) – 4hrs 9mins (previous record 4hrs 15mins)
Imperial Century (160.9km) – 7hrs 15mins 19secs (previous record 7hrs 58mins 4secs)
Double Century (200km) – 9hrs 28mins
10 hour Record – 210km
12 hour Record – 241.33km (previous record 210km)
Longest distance of an Australian Footbiker in a day – 241.33km (previous record 210km)

Alan says he took his inspiration to try the 12 hour odyssey from Kickbike legends Alpo Kuusisto and Mario Reijne’s 24hour rides. Alan has a new-found respect for their mental and physical stamina, and is awe-struck that they were able to maintain such fast paces over a full 24 hours.

Linda who had been awake only moments before looked across at me and gasped. I stared at her too.

“Winda, you’re wips are aww swowwen!”

“What the – ?”

Yes, Linda’s lips were swollen… and so was my whole face. But where Linda had the sexy botox thing happening, I looked like a pale watermelon withlegs!

Times like these the mind does a quick panicked once over of every possible scenario…

Dehydration? Wind burn? Bee sting? Wasp bite? Spider bite?(yikes!) Allergy to the camping pillows? An allergy to my sister-in-law that has remained dormant for the past 20 years??? Some unidentified, highly contagious, tropical disease that we were about to die from?

Fortunately we’d bought a 4L bottle of water the afternoon before and we were able to wet our camping bathtowels and lay the coolness on our faces. The swelling began to subside… much to my relief!

We got dressed for the day – on the ride you don’t have access to the showers in the mornings (blearh!). We both cursed the fact and hoped we wouldn’t B.O. (body odour) anyone to death during the day.

We filled our water bottles and got our gear together for the ride. Then as I struggled to get my contact lenses in (the skin around my eyes was still swollen) Linda raced off to the breakfast tent with instructions to bring me back some fruit.

She came back about 20 mins later laden with food and a huge grin…

“You’re sure you only want some fruit?” She waved her chocolate muffin in front of me, the plate of bread with butter and strawberry jam sachets, a banana, apple, tub of yoghurt and bowl of cereal precariously held in the other hand. I took the apple and packed the banana in my backpack.

After Linda finally got through her meal (I should mention that she’s as skinny as a rake handle!) we packed our bags. As we only had 66km today we weren’t worried about leaving a little later.

We dismantled our tent, packed it and loaded our bags on the luggage truck – a BIG thank you to the guys on Luggage Truck 2 for helping us get our bags on top of the huge pile in the truck!

And we were off. Today’s ride was from Portland to Macarthur – 66kms.

The course proved to be fast and mostly flat. There were a few nice steep climbs close to Mt Eccles which I thoroughly enjoyed (did I mention that I love the hills?). I’m ashamed to admit it, but I experience this peverse pleasure when passing cyclists on the uphills… especially when most of them could easily pass me on the flat. The only challenge I had today with the wet roads was losing traction as I kicked up the hills, but as we had started later we were amongst slower riders who were also having challenges with the hills.

On going up one hill I passed a young couple struggling on their bicycles and as I passed I heard the man say to the woman, “See, Monica! And yesterday you were mocking the scooter!”

I thought, ‘Yeah! No one mocks this scooter, babe!’  And pumped my legs faster leaving the mockers behind for dead.

When we turned right onto the Princess Highway there were three Police Officers slowing traffic to keep it safe for the riders. My ‘up and down’ motion caught their eye and one of the Police Officers yelled out, “What happened to your pedals?!”

I said, “Someone nicked them!”

He replied, “Maybe you should call the Police!”

A group of us laughed as we turned onto the busy road.

On the Princess Highway we were directed to travel in a single file and stay as far to the left as possible…

Unfortunately, not everyone adhered to that information!

I got stuck behind two rather large cyclists who sat two abreast, chatting away, oblivious to the world around them. The cyclist on the right (closest to the traffic) kept drifting out into the traffic lane – sometimes half way in the lane! I thought it was only time before a semi collected him. As they were only sitting on about 18 to 19km per hour other cyclists had to overtake. The overtaking cyclists were screaming out ‘passing!’, ‘passing on your right!’ and ’stick to the left!’ and one party did yell ‘oh! get over for (expletive) sake!’ but this only had a momentary impact on the pair. I looked for an opportunity to pass as well, but with traffic roaring alongside us I decided it wasn’t worth the effort or danger, so I tucked in behind the larger of the two (fortunately the one on the left) and drafted for a while. It turned out to be a good thing as a headwind had picked up.

Eventually we turned off onto some nice little back roads with no traffic and I was able to get around the pair.

Linda and I were then able to ride side by side for a while and chat.

A cyclist pulled up beside me to have a chat as well. Apparently I was getting a reputation and had earned the title ‘Scooter Girl’. The man turned out to be Ian Trevaskis, the author who does a bit of freelance journalism on the side. We spoke for a while and he asked if he could do a piece on the kickbike for the cyclist magazine, Australian Cyclist. I readily agreed. He was fascinated with the kickbike, and being a keen cross country skiier, could see similarities in the movement.

Eventually we parted ways and came into the lunch spot.

Lunch was delicious – cheese, tomato and basil on thick bread – yummmmmmmm! It was so big I could only eat half of it, so I stored the other half in my Reservoir Dog (backpack), donated the choc-chip cookie, cheese block and crackers to Linda which she stored with some more fruit (more Chipmunk behaviour) in her tool bag.

Back on the kickbike and only 16km out a group of ‘real ones’ passed me. ‘Real ones’ are what I call the male ‘elite cyclists’… you know the ones: they wear team colours, have shaved legs, are tanned from their long rides, have diamond calves, ride bikes worth more than my car and basically look super hot in their lycra! This group congratulated me, one honked his horn, and another said, “I’m going to marry someone like her.”

I thought ‘See what a kickbike can do for you! It not only carries you 550km around the south coast of Victoria, it can also get you hitched to a lycra-clad hottie!’ So sweet!

When we arrived at the Macarther campsite, Linda and I found an area for our tent. I sat down in our spot with the bikes to eat the rest of my lunch while Linda had the near-impossible task of finding our bags amongst the other 500 pieces of luggage dumped on the ground.

A cyclist came over and said ‘hi’, squatted down beside me, checked out the kickbike and raised his arms in a gesture of amazement.

“How – ?”

I smiled, “It’s like riding a bike – at first it’s a challenge but when you get the fundamentals and put the mileage in, it’s not as hard as it looks.”

“You’re amazing. And you’re doing the whole ride on it?”

“Yep”

“Wow!”

“Thank you” I laughed.

“Good luck” he said and with a wave, left.

Linda staggered back, hefting two of our bags, which we dumped beside our bikes. Then we both went back to find the ‘big’ bag and carried it between us back to our spot.

We laid our tent out and thus began the laughing and chatting associated with two totally inadequate tent-erecting individuals.Obviously our lack of expertise showed as we received several offers of help, including the man I had chatted with a short time ago. We declined each offer – afterall isn’t putting up the tent half the fun of camping!

After our tent was up we attempted to call our husbands with updates but mobile phone coverage was shocking in the area, so we decided to walk into town, try for better coverage and get some water for tomorrow. Fortunately, our sandshoes were dry – so no more thong torture… my dead blister twinged with relief! In town we found a sausage sizzle, so I had two sizzles without the sausages… basically two pieces of bread with a bit of tomato sauce.  Linda, wisely decided to wait till dinner time.

Finally we got through on our phones and chatted with hubbies – then my phone beeped with a low battery.

“Don’t worry – there was a sign back at camp for mobile phone charging and they’re open till 7pm.” Linda assured me.

So we headed back to camp to find that someone had crossed out the 7pm on the sign and changed it to 5.30pm. I looked at my watch: 5.40pm… bummer! I would have to wait until the service was offered again at a future campsite, keep my phone switched off and only use it in an emergency.

We lined up for dinner behind some 500 other people – which sounds like a drag, but the line moved very quickly. There was an abundance of volunteers serving up the meals, all very efficient at piling your plate full. The meal again was delicious – chickpea curry, rice, thai salad, and pita bread. Linda scored a Mango dessert and gobbled it down in two seconds flat. It’s funny, I’d read on a forum before the ride that the meals would be pretty ordinary and this particular person had recommended eating non camp food. By now you’ve probably guessed I love my food – indeed any event is highlighted in my memory in regards to the food served - and I can honestly say I was enjoying the meals so far! The food was hot, tasty and there was plenty of it.

As the weather turned colder we headed over to the shower trucks hoping there was no line up. How lucky were we! We only waited a few minutes before we got to the head of the line. Yikes! I stared with horror at the flimsy shower curtains on the front of each cubicle that flapped open and closed with the wind that whipped through the open door of the truck. Linda couldn’t disguise her groan as she saw the same thing.

But I must admit it was gorgeous under the warm stream of water and the sudden flashes of bare skin fell away to oblivion. It was also clean in my cubicle and as I was wearing thongs my tinea-phobia was held at bay.

There had been a note in our camping guide as to the shower routine. We were to: turn the water on to briefly wet ourselves, turn the water off, lather up, turn the water back on to quickly rinse, then turn the water back off again. In the warmth of the shower I had one clear thought: screw the shower routine! I certainly didn’t hear any showers being turned off and on around me, and I most certainly didn’t follow the routine either!

It wasn’t until I was towelling off that I discovered that the backs of my legs were sun-burned. Then when I got dressed and finally got to see myself in a mirror… OMG! Rudolph the Red nose Reindeer had nothing on me. My nose was glowing, as were my cheeks and chin. Fortunately, I had worn a Ground Effect Cycle Shirt which has a fairly high collar so the back of my neck had been protected. (Thank you G.E. – your design wizards are my heroes!)

Linda fortunately had avoided the sunburn as her makeup has sun protection, and she wore leggings. I made a mental note to put suncream on tomorrow.

Back in our tents we settled down to sleep, and that’s when we heard the noise. The tent directly behind us was obviously a love nest… and the female party, a ‘moaner’. So Linda and I spent the next half hour (very impressive) stifling giggles like a pair of teenagers…

Gee, we really do need to get out more!

The drive there was filled with music, laughter, Snakes and Subways (hooray!). We only had one incident where Ed (brother-in-law) and I had to physically restrain Linda from jumping from the car to visit Ray’s Camping Store. Since discovering camping was our accommodation for the ride, Linda has visited every known camping supplies store in Victoria (and I’m only exaggerating slightly). Ed and I only had a moment’s notice of Linda sighting the store in Warrnambool that day… her shriek of “Rays! Rays!” and subsequent salivating over the dashboard as she leaned forward, hands splayed on the windshield… warned us, and Ed put pressure on the accelerator and we were soon past that beckoning haven of tents and camping equipment.

Arriving in Portland around 3.30pm we only needed to follow the other vehicles packed with bikes to find our camp.

Parking at the back, we approached a very nice volunteer who told us to just go in, find a spot and pitch our tents.

So Linda and I made a couple of trips with our bags… and nearly keeled over with the weight…

Every rider was allowed to take 20kgs of ’stuff’ with them – including all of your clothes and camping equipment. You could have a 20kg bag or 2 x 10kg bags. I had a 19kg bag with clothes and some of the camping equipment, and Linda took 2 x 10kg bags – one with clothes, the other with our tent and some food items.

We pitched our tent (with much more decorum than we had in Linda’s Living Room the night before!) and decided to go through our luggage and send back the ‘non essentials’ with Ed to lighten the load. So we dumped the umbrella (dumb move), 2nd pair of shoes (dumber move), some bras (still to this day I wonder how much they weighed!), some other items of clothing, our inflatable matresses (incredibly dumb move – choosing those pathetic light foam ones instead), and some toiletries.

After delivering these back to the car and plastering Ed with an abundance of good-bye kisses and hugs, Linda and I waved goodbye as he drove away. Poor guy had another 5 and half hour drive back home to Melbourne. Thanks Ed for getting us to and from the ride – you’re a gem! xx

As we wheeled our bikes to the camping ground entrance (a large oval) we passed two guys unloading their bikes from their car. One remarked, “It’s the Great Vic Bike Ride, not the Great Vic Scooter Ride.”

Linda cast him a withering look (don’t mess with my sister-in-law, buddy) and I simply smiled… I was sure there would be more of this over the next 9 days. One of the simple pleasures of riding a footbike in an area where they haven’t been seen before, and your potential as an athlete hasn’t been recognised is that you do tend to land a bit of… shall we say, fertilizer??? The good thing about fertilizer, though, is that it helps things to grow!

Back to our ‘home’ we secured Linda’s bike and stored my Kickbike in our tent. Now we wondered what we were supposed to do next as we hadn’t been briefed about what to do when arriving at the campsite. So we took off to find the information tent for more… you guessed it, information.

Wandering around the oval, dodging bikes, bodies, tents, toilet trucks, shower trucks, and a funny flying football that kids were throwing around, we finally asked someone who didn’t look as lost as us where we needed to go. He pointed us in the direction of information – and we were able to see a map of the campsite and pick up our lanyards (green for vegetarian meals) which we would get tomorrow night. This pre-camp night we needed to get our own meal.

Linda and I decided to walk into town to get some food and grab some water for our ride tomorrow. We had decided to steer clear of the water supplied by the ride, because feedback on the taste did not make us overly enthusiastic about drinking it. Thunder and lightning overhead and a cold wind stirring up caused the maiden voyage of our She Shell waterproof jackets from Ground Effect (thank you Ground Effect, I can honestly say that your She Shell is one of the best investments I have ever made).

Hmmmm… where does one go for food in a medium sized town when nearly 2000 people (and potentially 5000) suddenly arrive?

The pizza shop of course! And these were real pizzas – well worth the hour waiting for our vegie pizza minus cheese to come out… but it was cosy inside and we met some really nice people in the pizza shop!

We made it back to our tent… leaning into the gale force winds…

And the storm hit – I really don’t know how we didn’t get blown away!

It poured rain and the wind gusts smashed our little tent. One part one side of the tent buckled in so low it enveloped Linda completely! I stared with horror while Linda nearly killed herself laughing over the next 3 minutes… these Stewarts really are a strange clan! 

Finally we prepared for the next day – I filled the 2 litre bladder of my Ground Effect Back Pack – the Reservoir Dog – which I absolutely love. It has more than enough room for my pump, tubes (1 deep rim for the front wheel, and a 16inch tube for the back), money, tissues (you never know when nature may call while you’re out on the road), hydration gels, apples and dates, bottles of Gatorade or Powerade and of course the 2 litres of water. And no, before you ask – I just love Ground Effect’s products; I’m not sponsored by them… yet???  LOL

We finally settled for sleep – and fortunately we had camped near one of the toilet trucks so its generator’s hum blocked out any snoring that we were warned about from nearby tents. Looking forward to the 50km start tomorrow…

Fortunately my helmet saved me from a head injury.  I also had a new appreciation for the Ab Workouts that I love to complain about as I am sure that it was those dreaded stomach exercises that prevented me from being totally winded as the bar end tried to do a Samurai on my solar plexus.

Since then you can be sure I have been somewhat paranoid when it comes to my laces.  Yes, I have tried double, triple and more knots to prevent any overhang. The problem: how do you get them undone in a hurry – especially when you need to make a critical adjustment during a longer race?

I remember on a cross country race a small jagged stone somehow ended up in my shoe. The combination of several double knots and the burs they had collected felt like they took an eternity to get undone as they stole precious time from the race.

“Lace Traps I don’t kick without them”

Over the years I have seen numerous attempts at trying to solve the laces issue including some of the elite guys resorting to reams of masking tape around their shoes. The solution I finally discovered that works best is a set of Lace Trap™.

A Lace Trap™ is a simple Velcro fastener that is a quick, easy and effective way to keep your shoes tied. Lace Trap™ saves you the hassle of tying and undoing double knots and reduces the risk of tripping over your laces.

A Lace Trap™ is one of those items that you will not fully appreciate just how good they are until you have a pair installed on your favourite pair of running/kicking shoes.

This brings me to my ‘ethical bribe’…

If you donate $20 or more to help send an Australia Footbike Team to the world championships in Italy during August 2010 we’ll send you a free set of Lace Trap™ so you can keep kicking safely.

Simply follow these 3 easy steps:

1. Go to the Supporters Page and make your donation of $20 or more.
2. Go to the Contact Us page and send us your shipping address.
3. Check your email inbox for our confirmation emails.

Keep kicking,
Alan Stewart

Applause!  Applause!  Cheer!  Cheer!

After an infinite amount of replacement tyres and tubes, and 6 pairs of shoes, today Alan celebrates his 1000th consecutive ride in a row. As a celebration he completed a 100km ride this morning (gee! I can think of lots of other celebration alternatives!)

In between a crazy work schedule Alan managed to complete each day of riding anywhere from 10km to 100miles by getting up at 3am on some days or scooting along at 11.30pm on some nights just to meet his quota.

Alan obviously needed to be strategic in his schedule to avoid overtraining, by incorporating ‘easy’ days after hard workouts.

Congratulations Alan – and here’s to a further 1000 consecutive days of riding!

A very hot and windy day greeted the footbike competitors on the latest Short Course Footbiking Races in Queensland, Australia.

Despite this, several PB’s and records were set on the day.

The racing distances included:

1km Time Trial
10km Time Trial
200m Sprint

After a 141km training ride the day before Alan Stewart cruised around the 10km course to set a new Australian Record. We’re not sure if it was the heat or the ride that brought about the single bead of perspiration on his cheek. Don’t you just hate the guy!

Sharon Simmons set new Australian Records for the 10km Time Trials, and bettered her 1km time, setting yet another record for Australian Women. She would have broken yet another record on the 200m if Sharon had learned that ‘Ready, set, Go’ means to actually go. Not turn and say to the starting official, “Are you serious?”

Ali Hassan set new records for the Juniors in the 5km Time Trial, 1km Time Trial and 200m Sprint! Excellent work, Ali!

And our newest and youngest member of Footbiking madness from the South East, Reegan Lumley set a new Australian Record for the 1km and 200m races for juniors in the 7 – 9 y.o. category. Major applause to you Reegan for such a good effort and we are looking forward to seeing more of you at future races.

Another face that shined on the day was Karen Toll, who put in a great effort for her first meet in the Novice Section. And, yes Karen, when you start to get that tingling sensation throughout your body it is not wise to ask Alan if you should stop. He’ll just tell you: If you’re still kicking, then you can keep kicking!

We also wanted to say thank you to Brendan Purcell for demonstrating his unique style of ‘chin biking’ on the day. After sprinting around a particularly tricky corner of the circuit Brendan opted for a more aerodynamic position by hitting the ground with his chin rather than his foot. Ouch… Fortunately, there was no permanent damage… after scraping Brendan back off the bitumen and getting him some much needed First Aid Treatment, he emerged with a bandaged chin, hands, knee and shoulder. Brendan has warned all footbikers to not try chin biking at home – and stressed that it is only for the extreme sport junkies.

The results were as follows:

1km Time Trial

Mens Open 1km
1st Bruce Cook – 2min 21.11secs
2nd David McKinnon – 2min 22.58secs
3rd Brenden Purcell DNF

Ladies Open 1km
1st – Sharon Simmons – 2min 28.59secs
2nd – Kerrie Lathopolous – 2min 32.03secs
3rd – Deb Stewart – 2min 40.89secs
 
Ladies Vet 1km
1st – Lyn Armstrong – 2min 54.94secs
2nd – Suzanne Moule – 3min 18.22secs
 
Ladies Novice 1km
1st – Karen Toll – 3min 13.44secs
 
Juniors – age 7-9 category 1km
1st Reegan Lumley – 3min 45.09secs
 
Juniors – age 10-12 category 1km
1st Ali Hassan – 3min 12.37secs
 
10km Time Trial

Mens Open 10km
1st Alan Stewart – 23min 31.60secs
2nd David McKinnon – 26min 47.1secs

Mens Vet 10km
1st Alan Stewart – 23min 31.60secs
2nd Bruce Cook – 25min 10.00secs

Ladies Open 10km
1st Sharon Simmons – 25min 59.10secs
2nd Deb Stewart – 27min 51.43secs
3rd Karen Toll (and 1st Novice) – 34min 45.65secs
 
Ladies Vet 10km
1st Lyn Armstrong – 32min 01.71secs
 
Juniors 5km Time Trial

Juniors – age 10-12 category 5km
1st Ali Hassan – 16min 12.79secs
 
200m Sprints

Mens Open 200m
1st – David McKinnon – 25.66secs

Mens Vet 200m
1st – Bruce Cook – 26.47secs
 
Ladies Open 200m
1st – Sharon Simmons – 27.45secs
2nd – Kerrie Lathopolous – 27.85secs
3rd – Karen Toll – 34.87secs
 
Ladies Vet 200m
1st – Lyn Armstrong – 31.02secs
2nd – Suzanne Moule – 34.06secs

Juniors – age 7-9 category 200m
1st Reegan Lumley – 37.94secs
 
Juniors – age 10-12 category
1st Ali Hassan – 32.69secs

Thanks to all who attended – see you at the next ride! Keep kicking!

The cycle challenge was a huge success with at least a thousand riders taking part. As usual the variation in ages, riding styles, and cycling apparel was wide – not to mention the types of human-powered vehicles… top of the range road bikes, mountain bikes, tandems, recumbents, and of course, footbikes.

Three Kickbikes took up the Brisbane 2 Ipswich Challenge, ridden by Bruce Cook, Alan Stewart and Deborah Stewart, all of whom offer their special thanks to Lyn Armstrong who was the official Kickbike Support Officer for the day, racing around in the Kickbike Van and chatting with people about the benefits and cross-training benefits of footbiking.

The bike ride, titled the Mall 2 Mall Challenge in previous years, sported the new name of the Brisbane 2 Ipswich Challenge as well as a new route.

The ride started at Moorlands Park, Patricks Lane in Toowong, with plenty of parking available in the surrounding side streets. It then turned into Sylvan Road and Milton Road to enable to riders to get onto the the Bikeway which was followed for a good part of the course.

The route was continuously undulating with a few challenging hills around Riverview. The signage was excellent, and even though there were a good number of road crossings and turns, every single one was manned by at least two volunteers. Police presence was exceptional, with Police Officers directing traffic on a few of the major road crossings, a police vehicle and several roaming Police Motorbikes.

Head winds were fairly strong and the day warmed up nicely. Fortunately, there were three rest stops for cyclists who found the course that little bit challenging – one at Jindalee, another at Goodna and one more at Bundamba.

Alan Stewart completed the course in just over 2 hours with Bruce Cook coming in about ten minutes later. Deb Stewart finished in just under 2 and a half hours.

AFA would like to congratulate Bruce, Alan and Deb for their performances on the day, as well as thank Bernie Ripoll, the Patron for the Brisbane 2 Ipswich Bike Challenge for putting together yet another successful cycling event.

Special thanks also to the event organisers, volunteers, Police and St John Ambulance Officers for their help and friendly guidance on the day.

Also a huge thank you to the sponsors of the event. Without their support we’d all still be hitting the roads, alone as we drone out our daily training regime. The sponsors make it possible for riders to come together and share a love of the human powered vehicle, the sense of freedom that riding instills in you, and great weather that Ipswich and Brisbane turned on for the day.

Please support the sponsors of the event when you can. They include: Goodna RSL Services Club, Ipswich City Council, Wingate Properties, Brisbane City Council, Springfield Land Corporation, CitiSwich Industrial Estate, Yellow Jersey, Brodies, Truck Cranes Australia Pty Ltd, Ipswich Festival, Stefan, Ipswich Central Motors, Mix Events, JBS Swift and Company.

Thank you to all the riders who participated, and for your encouragement to our Kickbikers – we’re all looking forward to next year’s challenge.

The 100km course wove through Ipswich, Mt Walker, Limestone Ridges, Peak Crossing and Yamanto with a plethora of relentless inclines and open roads which did little to stop the continuous headwind that buffered the cyclists and kickbikers. A good number of cyclists pulled out as the day heated up, humidity was high, and a strong headwind took its toll.

The 50km course meandered through Ipswich, Rosewood and Walloon, with many steady inclines and one particularly challenging hill.

The boys on the 100km course left at 7.30am, while the 50km began at 8am.

While waiting for the 50km to start, Lyn was approached by some men who were fascinated by the Kickbike. After a good chat, lots of laughter and one of the men, Paul who had a quick spin around on Lyn’s kickbike, Lyn and Deb soon discovered that Paul was actually Paul Pisasale, Mayor of the City of Ipswich.

When it came time for the Mayor (or ‘my new Mayor friend, Paul’ as Lyn was now able to refer to him as) to make a short speech before the take off on the 50km, he called Lyn out the front of the other cyclists to show them what a kickbike was. He also informed the rest of the riders not to think they were doing it hard on the ride – they atleast had pedals and a seat!

Both Bruce and Alan entered this race injured due to some freaky non-kickbiking incidents in the previous week. As a result Alan was unable to bend one leg effectively or drop down to make the most of any downhill which meant that he had to change his kicking style resulting in bonking (hitting the wall) at 75km, and Bruce’s back gave out at the 30km mark!

Alan managed to finish the course, but understandably was disappointed with his time. Bruce, unable to bend and in terrible pain still continued up to the 70km mark, and then had to admit defeat… his first ever time pulling out of a race in all of his years of kickbiking. Mind you – any other mortal would have died at 31km. Respectful effort guys – you gave Kickbikers (and the sport of footbiking) a good name on the day with your ‘do or die attitudes’ and determination.

Deb finished the course at a time of 2hrs 38mins, and cursed that the finish line lay at the top of a steep incline. But the enthusiastic welcome from organisers and spectators made that last effort all worth it.

Lyn completed the 50km in just over 3 hours, stopping to make new friends at Rosewood, and kicked up to the finish line to chat with the organisers… and no doubt, her ‘new Mayor friend’ again!

Overall, the day was a success. The organisers did a brilliant job at choosing a route that avoided heavy traffic and detailed lovely scenery. The council had also been busy all week before filling pot holes that had appeared with the unusually heavy rain experienced over the last two weeks. Thank you, from the riders!

The courses were well-marked, and the Marshalls – volunteers and the SES were all delightful, supportive and very helpful. The drink stops and the finish line spoiled riders with chilled water, sports drinks, soft drinks, a sausage sizzle, buns, watermelon, bananas… and much more.

There were physios and massages available at the end of the ride, as well as great music, and many smiling faces.

A big thank you to the organisers and sponsors of the event from the Australian Footbike Association – we’ll definitely be there again next year!