INTERVIEW: Louth man Bryan Taafe smashes Australian record!

Bryan arriving back on Spencer Bridge in Melbourne having smashed the round Australia record.
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INTERVIEW: Louth man Bryan Taafe smashes Australian record Louth Live

"But that wasn’t too bad it was ok,” is a favourite phrase of Bryan Taafe, it’s a phrase he uses when describing trials and tribulations that most of us would regard as anything but not too bad or ok.

Be it getting knocked off his bike by a bird in Western Australia or coming down with tendonitis in Queensland it seems that nothing was going to stop him completing his record breaking 15,000km around Australia in 43 days 23hrs 1 minute.




Bryan from Roestown emigrated to Australia when he was 23 in 1999, set off from Spencer Street Bridge in Melbourne on 17th May cycling a colossal 529.5 kilometres in eighteen hours on his first day.

The route followed sealed roads as close as possible to the perimeter of the Australian coastline.

Bryan took up cycling as a hobby just three years ago and already held the record for cycling across Australia, doing so in nine days 19 hours breaking the previous record by 45 hours raising $13,500 (AUS) in the process.

Not satisfied with resting on his laurels Bryan set about planning the 15,000k ride around Australia with the help of his niece Aoife Taafe.

The ride was completely solo on a recumbent bike and without a support vehicle.

Setting off from Melbourne Bryan encountered heavy rain and cool temperatures early on as he made his way through New South Wales.

“It wasn’t too bad. I didn't really worry too much about that, it was a little bit cold but you just keep on pumping and pumping your legs to keep your core warm.

“You can always add extra layers, as long as you do that you can pretty much keep on going, it can be hard fiddling with pockets through the layers though because you’re constantly eating.

“I had to eat every 10kms, you have to be eating the whole time because if you don’t your legs won’t turn.
It wasn’t long before Bryan hit his first obstacles.

“Up in Townsville, in Queensland they had about three months of really bad rain.

“I was coming along in the dark and hit one, I didn’t see it, I buckled the rim and broke two spokes but it wasn’t too bad I loosened the callipers and could still cycle.

“Up in Northern Queensland, I came across a bull in the middle of the road and you're looking at it and it's looking at you and you don’t know which way to go. Should you shoo it or stop and wait for it to move or what?

“If you come up too close to it it might charge you so I ended up stopping and making a few noises and it eventually moved to the side of the road and was glad because these things were about two tonnes,” he laughs.

Making his way across northern Queensland Bryan started feeling a “mushy” burning feeling in the back of his knee.

“When I hit Mount Isa in northern Queensland I took some painkillers and went into the hospital and the doctor said he’d give me about three days and my ride would be over and that I wouldn’t be able to go on.

“I was already on anti-inflammatories everyday and he couldn’t give me any more than I was on.

“I was already well into the race and ahead [of the record] by two days at that stage so I thought what do I do?

“I asked my sister and she said to keep going and I’ve a niece who’s a physio and asked her what to do and she said to keep it iced when you’re off the bike, I thought where the hell am I going to get ice out here?

“So every hotel I went to for the next few nights I wetted the towel and wrapped it around my leg on the bed and slept every night like that.

“After about three days it wasn’t too bad it actually sorted it. I was able to pedal as well as I was before.”

“I actually found the big distances in between easier to do than the cities because in the cities you have to be more alert and prepared for cars, sometimes they don’t see you on a little recumbent bike so it's more menatlly and physically straining in the cities than on the long straights.

“It’s the boredom more than anything else. There was one place in Western Australia, it was 146k with no turns, it's the longest straight in Australia and last year a cyclist got killed on it by a truck with three carriages clipped him pulling back in.

On that you really had to work to keep focused.”

Australia is known for large and long trucks which pull forty foot trailers in trains and this was something else Bryan had to contend with.

“If they’re coming up behind you and they toot you to get out of the way and you go to the side of the road for a minute and wait till they pass.

“They all speak to each other at night on the two way radio and let each other know that there’s a cyclist out here.

“I actually preferred cycling at night. They can see you alot better because I have two flashing lights on the back whereas during the day the SUN glares on them especially when I was heading back East.

“You’re always looking in your mirror the whole time which is another stress trying to keep them off your back and if they don’t see you you have to wave your hand around a bit and then they’ll see you.

“The good thing about night cycling was that ...

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