On July 3 Stacey Duffy will set off from Springfield (east of Ipswich) for an attempt on the Women’s Around Australia record. The existing supported record is 92d6hr32m set by Lesa Ashford in 2023, Stacey is doing the ride unsupported and just aiming to complete the distance. She’s got “about 3 months” off work so she could well beat Ashford’s supported record as well as setting the first unsupported women’s record.
Under RRAA rules the minimum distance required is 14,200km and pass through at least 6 of Adelaide, Brisbane, Broome, Darwin, Esperance, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney. Stacey’s route includes all but Darwin (opting to go to Karumba in the Gulf of Carpentaria instead).
Her warmup a week ago was from Springfield to Bundaberg, 483km in 3 days
Updates will be on here and the RRAA facebook page.
Day 1, 175km in the bag. My daughter and I met her at the Redcliffe bridge where she was happy to have a break from pushing into a mild headwind. She’s going into it with a very relaxed attitude of “seeing how far I get and just enjoying the experience”. The plan is to stay at accommodation half the time and she has camping gear for more remote stretches.
I didn’t spot the model but her bike “Bluebird” is a Giant road bike with wide-ish tyres and fairly tall aerobars.
Day 18- 185.8km to Cloncurry (BIG day with a solid headwind that she just relentlessly plodded into).
Day 19- 123.2km to Mount Isa.
She’ll mostly have a modest tailwind today, so it shouldn’t be too big an effort to reach Camooweal at 190km.
The next stretch into the NT will be the first to show the challenge of riding unsupported. Soudan Station on the Ranken River is 120km from Camooweal, but doesn’t appear to offer camping or supplies. The next public rest stop is at Soudan Bore 15km further on.
From there another 125km to the Barkly Homestead, and finally a 187km leg to the Threeways Roadhouse north of Tennant Creek. Once she’s on the Stuart Highway there are reasonably spaced services through to Katherine.
So much for my prediction she might stop at Soudan, she just punched right on through! She reported nasty crosswinds for the first 150km before conditions settled.
Day 22- 187km to Threeways Roadhouse north of Tennant Creek.
Now 399km ahead of record pace. Another day with some crosswinds but she got through well. She reports “I’m losing weight more quickly than I would like even though I’m almost constantly eating”.
Day 35- 169km to Broome (plus 10.5km around town to get supplies and a service at the local bike shop)
Day 36- 127km to Barn Hill Station
Day 37- 192km to Sandfire Roadhouse (reported brutal headwind all the way)
Day 38- 138km to Pardoo Roadhouse
Day 39- 165km to Port Hedland
651km (over 4 days) ahead of the record. The harsh conditions of the Kimberley/Pilbara are knocking her around, a high pressure system moving across the south of the country over the next week will hopefully provide less hostile winds.
