May 28, 2018
Rail Trail fans watched in awe as the small dots started to appear on an online map on Friday night, tracking the progress of the first-known non-stop pushbike ride from Kilkivan to Wulkuraka.
Toowoomba tri-athlete Jason Black left Kilkivan at 3:00pm on Friday.
His aim was to ride the full-length of the South Burnett Rail Trail to Kingaroy, then use the connecting route mapped out by local cycling enthusiasts to join up with the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail at Yarraman.
At Wulkuraka, his plan was to continue back up the trail to see how far he could get in 24 hours …
southburnett.com.au caught up with Jason as he powered through Crawford on Friday night, a solitary light bobbing along the rail trail with a long road still ahead of him.
He paused just long enough for us to grab a quick photo before he pedalled off into the night on his record-setting attempt.
On Monday, we spoke to him again and he confirmed he made it into Wulkuraka in 16 hours and 48 minutes.
He did a U-turn there and continued up the trail to Toogoolawah, stopping after riding for 22 hours and 400km.
Along the way he was waved on by a spectator at Linville about midnight and at Yarraman, a couple turned on their porch light and cheered as he went by.
How did he find the ride?
“Long,” he admitted. “And it rained between Blackbutt and Moore but it wasn’t too cold.”
He stopped at Kingaroy to put on a warmer jacket and had brief stops at Yarraman, Esk, Coominya and Wulkuraka to top up his water bottle.
He also got close to nature along the way, spotting a herd of deer near Blackbutt as well as cows, kangaroos and wallabies and even a possible bilby.
“A hare accompanied me down the road for about 500 metres,” he said.
But the ride wasn’t without its mishaps.
“I had one stack on a creek crossing between Linville and Moore about 1:00am and ended up down the bank and into the bushes,” he said.
His satellite tracker, regular SMS messages and the fact friends knew his rough schedule meant he had no fears if a real emergency had occurred along the way.
Most of Jason’s ride was solo, but one friend accompanied him from Coominya to Wulkuraka and back to Toogoolawah, and another also joined him for the return leg.
Paul Heymans, from the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail Users Association, also joined in on the return leg from Fernvale to Esk.
Why did he do it?
“I am into races and triathlons,” Jason said. “But I am injured at the moment and I can’t compete so I was looking for something to do.
“I like to do something that pushes my boundaries.”
Would he do it again?
“There is some talk of turning it into an annual race …”
