TransOz: ​​ Christoph Strasser to finish Trans Oz World Cycling Record in Sydney

Supported by a crew of eight with friends, mechanics, a doctor and media staff, Strasser has been riding his bicycle non-stop starting in Perth on Tuesday at 5pm AEDT through Western Australia, across the Nullabor Plains, past Port Augusta and through Victoria. This morning he passed Wagga Wagga in New South Wales and will be riding along the Hume Highway via Gundagai, Yass, Goulburn and Campbelltown towards the Sydney Opera House. His planned arrival is scheduled between 1 and 6 am tomorrow, Tuesday morning, which would secure him the successful entry into the Guiness Book of Records for the World’s fastest continental crossing of Australia.

The ride so far has been throwing everything the Australian Outback has to offer at the brave athlete – after gruelling hot days at the start, Strasser rode across the Nullabor Plain in gushing rain, which was “completely unexpected”, as Arnold Schulz, the Trans-Oz team manager admitted, however, the cooler temperatures played in his favour, he continued.

The ride from South Australia across the border into Victoria was tough with punishing head winds, which forced Strasser off his time trial bike and onto a more comfortable road bike, which also helped to relieve soreness in his lower arms that had set in. With increasing fatigue of the brave athlete the crew had to become more and more inventive to keep him awake and pedalling – the pacecar, equipped with speakers, blasting favourite tunes into the night and quiz questions and jokes keeping the rider entertained. “We did experience some challenging moments, when Christoph started to halluzinate and see things that weren’t there – we’ve known him for so long now and as a crew have been working well together, to talk him through those situations and bring him back to reality. The sunrises are always a highlight”, the team manager said of the last few days.

He added that they had been looked after extremely well by cheering residents along the way, but also the road train drivers were very considerate. “The roadtrain drivers must have been communicating about us, so as soon as we come into view, they honk their horns and cheer us on and keep a very respectable distance – they have been so considerate, even though, we tried to keep our impact on the traffic flow to a minimum, but sometimes you just have to protect your rider.”

With 300km to go at 4:00pm Sydney-time the arrival at the Sydney Opera House and the well-earned rest for rider and crew is approaching fast. At this stage, the arrival time has been scheduled for 5am on Tuesday morning, 17 January 2017, which would be 12 hours ahead of the 7 day goal that Christoph Strasser set himself and 20 hours ahead of the current World Record to beat.

Ends.

Where: Sydney Opera House

When: 4:30am for 5am arrival – to be confirmed!

The window of the scheduled arrival time will become smaller, as the day and night progresses – please follow the updates via the following channels and spread the word to gather at the Sydney Opera House forecort to greet Christoph Strasser and his crew after their epic adventure and welcome them “home”:

• Live Tracking Tractalis http://live.tractalis.com/cs2017/
• LIVE Ticker on Christoph Strasser Website
• Twitter Updates via @rockytrailent (Press Office Australia)
• Subscribe to the Facebook event with arrival timing update