With a couple of friends I recently cycle toured, at a fairly leisurely pace, almost the full distance across Australia. The 3800 km ride took 42 days including three rest days. I found it to be a physically and mentally hard ride even though we averaged less than 100km per day.

So when I read today that Bryan Taaffe from Melbourne has 
just cycled  across Australia from Fremantle (approx 4000 km) to Sydney with no support team or vehicle in less than 10 days I was amazed. The daily distances he covered are truly extraordinary. 

The full story is here.

https://roadrecordaus.weebly.com/news

Wow!  Should I ever get to Australia, I plan to take my time.

I should say extraordinary! My PB while touring is 330 K ‐ in my youth. Back the 200 +  a K was average. Now if l break the metric century it's a big and rare deal and most likely slowing down a bit the next day.

I think the longest TDF legs are around 250 K so yes 400 per day is mind boggling.

It sure is Robert. Backing up day after day of those distances with or without support is close to super human. Note also there is about 8000 metres of ascent on the trans-Oz route. Many people have the impression that Australia is totally flat.

The previous trans-Oz record holder is local Canberran Peter Heal. Pete also set an around Australia record on his Polish recumbent. He averaged over 300km per day for more than 50 consecutive days with no support. I’m still not convinced that Pete isn’t bionic.