Indian Pacific Wheel Race

[pharmaboy]

Yes Eastin, Matt got off the bike on Friday night because on the road he was on, he thought his life was in real danger .

We seem to blame the car, but at the same time with a couple of hours sleep a day, day after day, after day, it's just as likely that the driver wasn't at fault. I know I couldn't ride in that kind of sleep deprived condition safely.

 

[hifiandmtb]

Mixing bikes riding at 15km/h with cars travelling at 100km/h on shitty roads is & always will be risky.

This is irrefutable.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ozzybmx]

Its a sad day for cycling. Met quite a few of these riders coming through Melrose this week. Some of them even joined us for a chat outside the pub.
Been dot watching from the start... was in shock this morning.

RIP

 

[The Duckmeister]

Undeniably shocking and tragic though this morning's news is, as well as the fact that the standard of driving in this country by and large is frankly appalling, for a point of balance it is perhaps worth considering Mike Hall's own words just a day prior which may suggest the possibility of another scenario....

“It gets dark and all the glare of the light hitting the signage and road furniture just swirls around and blurs,” he said on the race’s Facebook page on Thursday.

“I’ve been thinking that I can’t stay awake because I’m just really tired. But it’s just the fact I can’t see in the dark properly — my eyes are nailed.”

Given that the incident occurred near an intersection, where there are signs, and that it was dark, it's plausible that the car's lights reflecting off the signs may have disoriented him and he veered in front of the car.

Tempting (and often warranted) though it is, we shouldn't go slinging blame at the face of the driver without knowing the facts of the matter, which we don't.

 

[Elbo]

So sad! I've followed Mike's whole career and, like most of us, I just thought with only a few hundred km's to go, the race was pretty much a wrap.

Unfortunately that stretch of the Monaro Highway is notorious and I was a little shocked to see it as part of the route. When I rode from Sydney to Albury last year, I researched alternative routes and found 4 or 5 accounts of bad experiences on the Monaro Highway between Canberra and Cooma where touring cyclists said they would avoid it altogether.

Such a tragedy for all involved.