Well, what can I say about 2020, it had its up’s and down’s depending to whom you talk too. When talking about the effects its had on Audax Australia Brevet results, it’s been sufficient to say at the very least. The shutdowns, lockdowns, restrictions and don’t forget the bushfires at the beginning of the year has meant plenty of rides being cancelled or rescheduled and the Victorian statistics were already going to take a hit by the announcement of the Alpine Classic not offering any of its rides as a Brevet ride.
Australia wide for the 2019 season there were 48 rides that were cancelled for various reasons. The average number of cancelled rides for the years between 2016 – 2019 is 42. 2020 saw 262 cancelled rides! 262 equals the same amount of cancelled rides between 2011 and 2019.
As you can guess is has also reduce the number of completed kilometres (kms). In 2019, Audax Australia riders completed 1,026,575 kms, in 2020 we drop almost half!, with 580,099 kms! This is the lowest Australia wide kms since 2004 (505,446 kms), with the average since 2005 being about 940,000 kms.
| Calendar BRM’s | 200’s – 1,022; 300’s – 163; 400’s – 56; 600’s – 50 and 1000’s – 14. |
| Calendar LRM’s | 1,200’s plus – 25. |
| Calendar BA’s | 50’s – 733; 100’s – 1,044 and 150’s – 260. |
| Calendar FLECHE’s | Fleches – 44 and Petit – 31. |
| Calendar GRAVEL’s | 50’s – 276; 100’s – 181; 150’s – 104; 200’s – 18 and 300’s – 6. |
| Calendar DIRT’s | 35’s – 143; 70’s – 21 and 100’s – 28. |
| Calendar UAF’s | 100’s – 17. |
| PERMANENTS | 50’s – 182; 100’s – 345; 150’s – 44; 200’s – 275; 300’s – 28; 400’s – 13; 600’s – 13; BPD 35’s – 11; BPD 70’s – 6; BP Raids – 3; BPG 50’s – 12; BPG 100’s – 12; BPG 150’s – 12; BPG 200’s 4; BPG 300’s – 1 and SR’s – 1. |
As you can see RAIDS were back on again at the back end of the year with two riders doing the ‘Mawson Trail – Northbound’ in SA and one rider doing the ‘Munda Biddi’ in WA. Brevets under 50 were also given a go, with fours riders being award with completing those rides and only one rider (from NSW) completing a 250 BRM.
Jeff Franklin, from Queensland (QLD), for the third consecutive year, has completed the most kilometres by any rider this year, as he continues to break all records in front of him. Breaking his own record of starting 201 brevets with 211. Raoul Dover, also from QLD, went past 10,000, for the third consecutive year. Despite the cancellation of many rides we still had 17 other riders completing between 5,000 – 9,999 km within Australia, including Kendall Trembearth (QLD), Francis Lim (NSW), Ernest Pekar (NSW), Nicholas Mandoki (WA), Trish Plant (SA), Craig Grant (SA) who all for the first time completed 5,000 km or more in one year. The 2020 list for 5,000 km or more are: Jeff Franklin (28,783 km), Raoul Dover (11,074), David Riddel (NSW) (9,053), Thomas Price (VIC) (8,533), Kendall Trembearth (7,762), Pete Heal (ACT) (7,330), Leigh Paterson (VIC) (7,205), Francis Lim (6,883), Ernest Pekar (6,698), Chris Rogers (VIC) (6,605), Dome Deli (NSW) (6,520), Peter Watson (QLD) (5,762), Nicholas Mandoki (5,705), Adam White (ACT) (5,577), Trish Plant (5,395), Scott McCarthy (QLD) (5,111), Craig Grant (5,110), Wayne Hickman (WA) (5,012) and Tara Horner (QLD) (5,000).
There were four riders who finished the year in the 4,000s, 10 riders in the 3,000s, 26 in the 2,000s, 76 in the 1,000s, 107 between 500 – 999, 643 between 100 – 499, 288 between 1-99 and 314 who did not get off the mark.
The Queenslanders have done it again! In the past 5 years (2016 – 2020) they surpassed their previous total each year. 2016 – 82 riders on Rudolph’s Revenge (BA 110 kms), 2017 – 92 on Rudolph’s Revenge (BA 73), 2018 – 103 on Rudolph’s Revenge (BA 53), 2019 – 140 on Colt 45 (BD 52) and this year they did it twice, 151 on Wet and Wild Wondecla (BD 42) and 151 on Colt 50 (BG 53).
It was quiet a smaller addition of the Fleche Opperman and Petit this year for obvious reasons. ACT had no Fleche riders, NSW had no riders for the Petit and had 5 teams sign up for the Fleche but 3 pulled out because of COVID concerns. QLD cancelled their events because of COVID, SA we had 2 teams sign up but again the ladies team pulled out of COVID concerns. Tasmania had no Fleche riders, Victoria had 14 Fleche teams but 5 pulled out (COVID) and one team (of 3) defunct after one ride got injured before the start date, with the other two riders moving two other teams. Better success rate with the Victorian Petit teams with only one team pulling out (COVID). WA only had one Fleche team (of 3), but had to pull out because one rider got injured before the start date and only one Petit team who pull out because of COVID concerns.
So overall for the Fleche Opperman, the remaining teams clocked up 17,110 kms, with 23 teams signing up and 98 riders. This is the lowest total for a very long time…1988 (12,590 kms). Lowest number of teams to sign up since 2006 (22) and lowest number of riders since 2006 (92) as well.
The ‘winners’ for 2020 Fleche are team ‘Team NCC’ 603 kms from Victoria and for the Petit are ‘Monday Down Under’ 186 kms, also from Victoria. Glo Moscattini this year became the first rider to past 2,000 Petit kms, after 12 events.
As expected there were big percentage drops for most regions across Australia during 2020 compared to 2019. In terms of completed kilometres, Tasmania had the biggest percentage drop of 70,49%; NSW 57.89%; VIC 49.33%; QLD 40.66% and SA 21.28%. But amazingly this was not the case for all, ACT increased their kilometre count by 8,550 km and WA by 7,340 km. The reason I can see for the increase for WA is simply they had more riders and fewer non-rider events than last year. ACT had more riders completing their LRM events and Permanents rides.
It did not take Jeff Franklin long to top the Permanent list (4 years) this year, by the end of the 2020 Audax season, he leads the kilometres chart by 7,941 km over Kevin Ware (VIC) (61,400 km). He also became only the second rider to complete 400 Permanent Brevets (429), Kevin Ware (437). Behind them are Barry Hahnel(VIC) (348), George Judkins (VIC) (343) and Chris Rogers(VIC) (338). The rides ‘Drouin Cruisey 100’ and ‘Portsea Express’ remain the most popular Permanent rides in Australia. The towns/suburbs of Drouin (VIC) and Hornsby (NSW) also remain the most popular starting places in Australia.
910 riders completed a Permanent (plus 2 DNF’s, I know of). This is the lowest number since 2016 (780 riders). Overall 4,736 riders have completed a Permanent since they first started in November 2008. The 200 km distance has the highest number by popularity (40.67%), closely followed by 100 km (35.45%).
Matt Rawnsley
Audax Australia Brevet Editor.