BrisDivide Mini

My BrisDivide 'Mini' 2022 experience was nothing short of amazing. Testing, challenging and exciting.

Sadly, the event was essentially canceled on Day 1 due to course conditions and weather as a major weather event closed in on the Darling Downs. Below is my experience.

7:00

We started out with some smooth bitumen to get out of town before transitioning to "champagne gravel" (smooth gravel roads), rolling hills and cow farms.

11:00

Word spread that the mighty Condamine River was in flood and dangerous, if not impossible to cross. Some pushed on while the majority including me chose to take the official alternative which was the same length but around 1,000m of additional climbing on some very rough rainforest trails with heavy mud, downed trees, stinging trees and wait a while vines. We knew this would add hours to our trip.

14:00

We left the forest and descended into Killarney to end-stage 1. I ate a handful of hot chips as we heard that some of the upcoming terrains was closed and impassable. We spoke with the event organizer who said we should take alternate routes but could continue on.

15:00

Stuck in mud, mid calf depth, we pushed our bikes until the clay was so thick they wouldn’t move any further. At this point we had to take wheels off and spend 1hr + removing mud, grass and clay so we could continue.

We then ran into the race manager again who advised it was looking bleak and we should consider turning back. I didn’t come this far to turn back.

16:00

We powered on as the rain set in, light at first but transitioning to hail as lightning and thunder lit the sky. We heard the event was canceled.

17:00

I decided to continue cycling with another guy, Brian - to the Goomburra Hall. We chose this location as it touted hot water and some shelter.

19:00

We rode for another few hours as the roads flooded, our lights died and our drinking water supply ran out, only to arrive at the Hall to it closed.

We pitched our tents at the back of the hall and got some rest.