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Indian Pacific Wheel Race: Kristof Allegaert still leads Mike Hall as pair enter final 1,000km

Australia's Sarah Hammond is still in third place with three men vying to catch her...

Belgium’s Kristof Allegaert is leading Great Britain’s Mike Hall as the pair enter the final 1,000 kilometres of the Indian Pacific Wheel Race in Australia.

Behind them, the battle for third place is heating up, with three men looking to catch Sarah Hammond, the leading woman and home rider in the coast-to-coast event.

Ten days into the solo and unsupported 5,300-kilometre race which began in Fremantle on the Pacific Ocean the weekend before last, Allegaert has an advantage over almost 100 kilometres over Hall.

The pair are now heading into the Australian Alps, where Victoria, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory meet. After that, they’ll pass through Canberra then will be on the home stretch to the finish outside Sydney Opera House.

Video of them arriving in the Victorian capital Melbourne was posted to the race’s Facebook page. At the time of writing, the tracker on the race’s website shows Allegaert as having ridden 4,392 kilometres, with Hall on 4,303 kilometres.

On Sunday, Hall tweeted a warning to his fellow competitors after being deliberately targeted by a motorist.

> Bike check: Mike Hall’s Kinesis GF Ti ready for Indian Pacific Wheel Race

Hammond, too, has passed through Melbourne and is a little over 100 kilometres behind Hall at 4,197 kilometres.

She is being chased by a trio of male riders, all of whom have passed the 4,000-kilometre mark – Germany’s Kai Edel, fellow Australian Davin Harding, and Kim Raeymaekers of Belgium.

Meanwhile Juliana Buhring, who was forced last week to return to Fremantle last week due to a severe allergic reaction to ibuprofen is now more than 1,100 kilometres into her second attempt at riding across the continent, but has encountered a wretched run of bad luck with punctures.

> Video: Allergic reaction halts Juliana Buhring during Indian Pacific Wheel Race - so she is heading back to start to ride it all again

She wrote on Facebook: “So I've had a string of shit luck with punctures and have consumed all my tubes. The patches I've got don't work well and keep slowly deflating. Basically there's no way I can get across the desert in the condition I'm in now.

“I've reached the Balladonia roadhouse and there's nothing for hundreds of km in either direction so this is just a shout out to see if anyone may be passing this way in the next 12 hours with the very off chance they're carrying tubes that'd fit a standard road bike, you may very well save my ride right now. I badly need a road angel.”

In a subsequent post on Facebook, she revealed that she had found one – and armed too with a can of foam tyre sealant.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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13 comments

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Gavlee | 6 years ago
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This race is brilliant. Two of the best head to head. Strategy at play from so far out of the finish. Great coverage by the organisers and very well advertised through YouTube. Come on Rhino and Maven. Would be great if a British equivalent was developed (coastal England, Scotland, wales and Ireland?)

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riotgibbon | 6 years ago
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there's a great Jack Thurston bike show podcast on the race here: http://thebikeshow.net/indian-pacific-wheel-race-overlanders/

 

the general opinion on the podcast is that  Mike dominatates the big US races, and Kristoff has always crushed it in Europe, but this might be because Mike organises the European race, so this the first time they have gone head to head. Mike's got more experience in longer races, so maybe this will help him pace himself ... all about the dots ...

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Jackson | 6 years ago
1 like

I thought Kristof let him pass while he was sitting having a coffee. Could be all a big dastardly Belgian psych-out! Have a massive kip, let Mike pass, then reel him in while he's at his most sleep deprived to totally demoralise him.

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tritecommentbot | 6 years ago
1 like

Kristoff stepped it up and it's down to a 6km gap. Reckon he'll have closed it within the hour..

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Jackson | 6 years ago
1 like

Who knows how  much sleep Kristof got. I was worried when I saw he hadn't moved for 9 hours...

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Ad Hynkel | 6 years ago
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Mike has stopped for breakfast in Tallangatta by the looks of it. Kristoff clawing it back. Did Kristoff get much rest at near freezing up that mountain? Surely Mike can't go all the way to the end without a decent kip somewhere? Fascinating stuff...

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IanW1968 | 6 years ago
1 like

Thats it, Mikes ahead on the road but Kristoffs got a sleep advantage. 

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tritecommentbot | 6 years ago
1 like

Nuts! So Kristoff overslept and woke up not knowing where he was and has paid the price. Mike still has a lead 5 hours later. 16KMs right now.

Would have ben cold at the elevation Kristoff slept in last night, with no shelter and no camping gear. Must be feeling a bit rough and wounded. Has Mike even rested yet?

 

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Ad Hynkel | 6 years ago
1 like

"According to the data..." Mike Hall was in the lead. For about 4 minutes. Twitter exploded (OK it didn't). And then moments later, Kristof's tracker woke up and he was 14km up the road. Right, I really need to go to bed now. Maybe just one more refresh...

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Jackson | 6 years ago
1 like

How can this be so nailbiting when there's not even a TV feed and still ~1000km to go!

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Ad Hynkel | 6 years ago
2 likes

According to the tracker the gap between Mike Hall and Kristof Allegaert is down to around 10km up the Falls Creek climb. There has been a report that someone has been to check on Kristof as his dot had stopped for an unusually long time and they confirmed that he is asleep under his tent/cover. Could be cycling fake news though... could be a tracker malfunction, battery problem etc... just been confirmed by organisers, his tracker is ok, he's drinking coffee. It's now 10minutes separating them. Aargh...I need to get to bed.

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tritecommentbot | 6 years ago
1 like

Yeah Sarah even moving into 2nd would please me, but the three of them look like their places are set in stone for the past 4 or 5 days now. 

Still some chance we'll see a proper attack in the last few hundred KMs though. Must be tempting to hit the stims hard, skip sleep and go for a win. That's pretty much all it'd take. Skip a rest and up the pace 20 watts or whatever.

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Jackson | 6 years ago
2 likes

This is more engrossing than the Tour de France for me, I can't stop watching these bloody dots. I'd love if Sarah took it but Kristof looks unstoppable. 

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