Beverley Heroic
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Beverley Heroic
Postby hiflange » Tue Aug 05, 2014 12:58 am
it's an event but the events topics are all international
it's in WA but the WA forum is mostly concerned with commute route issues
In the end I've plumped for my personal favourite the retro board (Mods please feel free to relocate!)
The Beverley to Perth Road Race was originally run in 1897. A one day event, it covered about 180 km and at it's height had thousands of spectators en route and at the finish, which most often was at a Perth pub. The Melbourne to Warnambool is just two years older. The "Beverley" was considered a challenging race and interstate riders, Dean Toseland among them, competed in it frequently. Some Trove articles on the B2P here
Anyway Toby, the guy behind Giro d'Perth, got pretty excited about cranking one of Australia's forgotten one day classics up again. Phil and I rode the original route a couple of months back as crash test dummies. Ride day arrived with appalling northerly headwinds. The flats along the Avon from Beverly to Toodyay were ridiculously hard work. The hills from Toodyay to Wundowie were unpleasant and the rain that set in aound Chidlow capped it all off!
In the end Toby decided to dump the Toodyay to Perth section in favour of two loop routes from Beverly, ton and a half ton in the old measure. Riders and bikes of all ages can enter but there's a point system that rewards "heroic" riders. MEN OF METAL NOT PLASTIC! See you there.
http://www.theheroic.com.au" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby LG » Tue Aug 05, 2014 9:43 am
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby HappyHumber » Tue Aug 05, 2014 3:01 pm
thinking, dreaming, scheming...
Hit me up via the BNA dm; I'll get an alert. If y'know, you know.
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby hiflange » Tue Aug 05, 2014 7:26 pm
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby HappyHumber » Tue Aug 05, 2014 7:37 pm
Even if I can't pull off participating... save me a shirt or jersey with that on it!
Hit me up via the BNA dm; I'll get an alert. If y'know, you know.
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby landyacht » Tue Aug 05, 2014 8:45 pm
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby hiflange » Tue Aug 05, 2014 11:53 pm
Ooops, apparently the first person to register is a womanRobertFrith wrote:MEN OF METAL NOT PLASTIC!
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby HappyHumber » Wed Aug 06, 2014 10:51 am
Tin Lizzy?RobertFrith wrote:Ooops, apparently the first person to register is a womanRobertFrith wrote:MEN OF METAL NOT PLASTIC!
Hit me up via the BNA dm; I'll get an alert. If y'know, you know.
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby Tinker » Wed Aug 06, 2014 10:54 am
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby HappyHumber » Wed Aug 06, 2014 11:52 am
Wow... thanks for sharing, Tinker.
per this events website - did the original really run as recently as 1999?
Hit me up via the BNA dm; I'll get an alert. If y'know, you know.
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby utedeej » Wed Aug 06, 2014 12:36 pm
But satisfyingly appropriate given the ride's name.RobertFrith wrote:Ooops, apparently the first person to register is a womanRobertFrith wrote:MEN OF METAL NOT PLASTIC!
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby hiflange » Wed Aug 06, 2014 7:11 pm
I'll check with Toby to see where he got his info. He is in touch with at least one B2P rider of yore and also a bloke by the name of George who, along with Ken Ward, has been putting together a list of riders and dates over the history of the race. I'm not sure if it's just placers or all starters.HappyHumber wrote:per this events website - did the original really run as recently as 1999?
There's a black and white photo sitting on a table in the Dead Finish Musueum in Beverley (gotta love a country museum!) of some starters in the main drag. Their names are handwritten on the back along with the date - 1980. There were certainly many years that it didn't run, with bigger gaps later in its history.
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby landyacht » Wed Aug 06, 2014 10:03 pm
How do you date a bike built in 2014 when the front of the bike is a 1987 frame and the back is a 1990.
also contains bits from a very early 1970's bennett,
also contains fragments of malvern star,repco, speedwell and raleigh
looking forward to riding through country that isnt Kalgoorlie
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby hiflange » Wed Aug 06, 2014 11:27 pm
The B2P race ran continuously from 1897 to 1998 with the exception of 1900 as well as 6 years in WWI and 4 years during WWII.
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby hiflange » Wed Aug 06, 2014 11:34 pm
Pics pleaselandyacht wrote:built in 2014 when the front of the bike is a 1987 frame and the back is a 1990.
also contains bits from a very early 1970's bennett,
also contains fragments of malvern star,repco, speedwell and raleigh
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby just4tehhalibut » Wed Aug 06, 2014 11:36 pm
I last raced the Beverley-to-Perth in 1997 in the support event. Was fun chasing the handicap groups ahead until you ran out of groups and became the chased.
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby hiflange » Thu Aug 07, 2014 12:19 am
There have been a lot of races over the years that took in the wheatbelt and Perth, but the distance and longevity of the Beverley are something special. In particular I'm fascinated with the idea of the early years. The year the race began was roughly coincident with the production of the very first automobiles in Europe. The roads the first race was run on would have been "unsurfaced" and their heaviest traffic would have been horses. The bikes were single speed fixed and unimaginably heavy by today's standards. The winning rider in 1897, John Beck, covered the 180km course in 6:47:30 (something I can't hope to match over 100 years later on much better roads with a much better bike ) (bustard must've had a tailwind )
I love the idea of riding something approximating the original course (which I did a few months ago), but I think Toby has opted for the advertised course for good reason. He is super concerned about about safety and the route out of Toodyay, no matter how you cut it, exposes riders to a relatively narrow road with a fair amount of high speed traffic.
The other challenge is pure logistics; in the early days when the race was popular there was a special train to Beverley for riders, it had a dedicated carriage for their bikes. Young men would pile on and have a crack. Today, the demographic has shifted and the train no longer runs to Beverley; many potential riders are reliant on our support teams, aka families, to get us to the start and pick us up at the finish. The last problem is being able to offer at least two different course lengths. With an a-B race it means having eithe an extra start or finish point.
Doing the race as a loop solves the traffic problem, it means that you can finish at the start and end up where you left your car, and it makes it easy to run a short version.
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby landyacht » Thu Aug 07, 2014 9:55 pm
RobertFrith wrote:Pics pleaselandyacht wrote:built in 2014 when the front of the bike is a 1987 frame and the back is a 1990.
also contains bits from a very early 1970's bennett,
also contains fragments of malvern star,repco, speedwell and raleigh
temporary pedals attached, will have clip ins next week for its first race , broadarrow-orabanda 27lms with 7kms gravel
for beverley it will be rattraps and straps. waistcoats and leather patent shoes
gumwalls will be replaced with whitewall treaded as the gummies are really good condition 1989 from the bike the wheels came off
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby Max Brinkworth » Sat Aug 09, 2014 6:21 pm
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby hiflange » Sat Aug 09, 2014 6:23 pm
There's now provision on the registration site for Audax members to get the discounted entry fee available to Cycling Aus members.
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby Max Brinkworth » Sat Aug 09, 2014 6:49 pm
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Re: Beverley Heroic
Postby landyacht » Sat Aug 09, 2014 7:47 pm
my stoker is 12Max Brinkworth wrote:i'm going on the 50mile.doing it on one of my old girls i wonder if i'm going to be the youngest in the race?(15 years old)
and keen as
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