Tour of Southland could be next goal

Callum Henderson rode in a bike race from Perth to Sydney this month and is now considering a return to his old home province for the Tour of Southland.

The tour holds fond memories for the ex-Southlander, because he rode in it three times (2000-02).

He was unplaced but enjoyed being part of the event that attracts riders from throughout the world.

‘‘I’ve been talking about riding in it again for the last few years,’’ Henderson, a fuel distributor for Mobil Oil in Perth, said.

This year’s tour will be held between October 28 and November 3.

However, for now, Henderson is recovering from the gruelling Perth to Sydney bike event - Indian Pacific Wheel Race (5471km). It took him 18 days to complete and he finished seventh.

He consumed a lot of salt and vinegar potato chips, chocolate and muesli bars and iced coffee along the way. ‘‘I lived on crap, basically.’’ All 54 starters rode without support crews and were virtually solo the entire race, through a variety of terrain in west and south Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.

They encountered temperatures ranging from freezing to 40 degrees Celsius in the Nullabor Plain, which covers 200,000 square kilometres on the border of west and south Australia.

A storm clobbered Henderson on the outskirts of Adelaide.

‘‘I was riding between 300 to 460km a day, depending on the terrain.’’

At one stage, he rode for 24-anda-half hours before taking a threehour sleep break.

Fifty per cent of the time he slept in a bivvy bag close to the main road in the middle of nowhere.

Each time he tried to make sure he was far enough back and out of sight - not to draw attention to himself.

About 2600km of the race was on hills and rises, Henderson said.

‘‘I had some close calls with kangaroos and wombats ... got face to face with a few of them.’’

Despite having to take painkillers daily, he never thought about giving up. Parts of his body were swollen, he was sunburnt and his left hand was numb.

‘‘The last 60km was very hard on the mind.

‘‘Knowing my family would be at the finish ... and my parents had flown over [from Invercargill], I had to get there.’’