Media


Do you think you might have seen us before? Well chances are you have! We're very proud to have had plenty of television, radio and print media features over the past few years. Cycling is such a minimal impact activity, it is high on the list of activities that meet with Tourism Tasmania's tourism values and of course, we happen to love it.

And because we love it, we've managed to make it onto the small screen and big print throughout the world.
We featured in England on Hollyoaks extreme sport challenge with Roxy and Matt as they pushed themselves well out of their comfort zones, see more here. We've been shown on television in Singapore, Cananda, Malalysia, America, India and plenty more we can't even remember!
We'll even let you have a sneak peek at some of our media appearances - no autographs please...

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Media Stories The Cycling Test (Weekend Australian, May 6 2004)
THE WHEEL THING
With sag wagon in tow for the weary, Michael Gebicki takes a biking tour along the convict roads of the Apple Isle.
    At just over 60km/h, two wheel travel becomes very exciting indeed. Hunched over the handlebars, free-wheeling down the southern side of a steep hill somewhere near Bream Creek on Tasmania's East Coast, I spared a microsecond to check my speed on the computer between my clenched knuckles - yet here's someone in a bright red jacket coming up from behind, and Sam Denmead screams past. By the bottom of the hill she's 50m in front, turning around to grin back at me.
    The tour is called Convicts of the Road, organised by Island Cycle Tours, Denmead's cycle touring company: three days of two-wheel touring among the rustic tapestry of farms, fishing villages and convict remnants between Hobart and Port Arthur. This is one of Denmead's four Indulgence trips - part of Tasmania's expanding menu of sophisticated adventures. The food is elevated to the gourmand plateau, wineries feature prominently on the itinerary and overnight accommodation is in small historic guesthouses. All the paying guest has to do is pedal - but there's back-up in the form of a sag wagon that follows at a discreet distance, ever ready to provide transport if legs give out.
    It turns into a lovely morning. We leave Hobart early and head north to wind along the banks of the Prosser River to the coastal village of Orford, where Denmead adjusts our bikes, gives us a few pointers and shoots a final gasp of air into the tyres. The bikes are 21-speed Trek hybrids with road tyres, front-fork suspension and an extra big cog at the rear for added low-range hill crunching, which proves its worth on the uphill gravel sections.
    The first part of the ride takes us along the coast, past a quietly lapping sea at Shelley Beach and on to the gravel roads towards Spring Bay. We stop for morning tea to admire the forests on the Wielangta Walk, tut over the butchering instincts of Tasmania's forestry industry, drive a short section to avoid the steep pitch to Marion Bay lookout and remount on the far side.
    "Blackberries!" Denmead yells as we crest the hill somewhere around the vineyard at Bream Creek, and we abandon our bikes by the roadside and wade into the feast until our arms are scratched from the thorns.
    Unless you knew, it would be easy to speed past the turn-off that leads to Dunalley Waterfront Café, where we stop for lunch. Located in what was once the cannery for the local fishing fleet, the café draws a regular crowd of escapees from Hobart. I have grilled haloumi, served with mesclun salad and cherry tomatoes that explode in the mouth, all the more rewarding for the hard work of the morning.
    Late in the afternoon we reach Port Arthur, the largest, most single-minded and most evocative of all our convict remnants. The grisly horrors are there all right, and if the guided tour doesn't conjure a sufficiently nightmarish vision, the museum will. The agony is in the detail - the chafing of the leg-irons, the horror of solitary confinement that left a man absolutely alone in a damp stone cell where neither light nor sound penetrated, and the insidiousness of a system that stripped a prisoner of his name and gave him a number instead.
    However I am unprepared for the sheer beauty of the place. On a calm day, the view of the penitentiary casting its honey-coloured skeleton across the harbour at its feet is guaranteed to have you reaching for your camera. The English-style gardens, created for the wives of the officers and the administrators, might have sprung from a page of Beatrix Potter, while the junior medical officers' house bears witness to the satisfying elegance of Georgian domestic architecture. Scoured of its human casualties, Port Arthur looks like a model of industry and efficiency.

   Confronted by so much prettiness, my righteous indignation is becoming endangered - so before I leave, I clamp on a pair of leg-irons in the museum and clomp awkwardly across the floor, just to remind myself exactly what it was all about.
    After a 20-minute drive from Port Arthur we turn off to Cascades Colonial Accommodation, home for the night. Dinner is a barbecue on the lawn in front of the Mess Hall, on a rise overlooking the placid armpit of Norfolk Bay. While the night blossoms with stars, we dine regally on South Cape Brie and Roaring Forties Blue, followed by grilled flathead fillets, honey and mustard chicken kebabs and tiny beef fillets that melt in the mouth, with a Ninth Island Pinot Grigio that Denmead had somehow managed to keep chilled.
    Cascades also illustrates a fascinating sidebar to the Port Arthur story. A few of the less troublesome convicts were sent to work on outstations such as this, and much of the apparatus of this former satellite - the overseers' quarters, the workshops and the officers' quarters - has been converted into handsome, historic accommodation. Scattered about the property are all the remains of what was once an industrious community of felons, such as a sawmill, a stone quarry, a jetty and wells.
    My bed for the night - officers quarters No. 3 - is part of a cosy suite of rooms furnished with antiques, with a separate lounge room and modest kitchen, a fireplace stoked and awaiting my match, and a pretty bedroom with the sort of bed that requires a run and a leap. These days the accommodation side of the business is operated by Marcus Clark, the fifth generation of Clarks to farm this property.
    "Heard the ghost," one guest has written in the visitors' book, but nothing disturbs my sleep - although I did make a mental note of the sword above the fireplace, just in case.
    The next two days blend contentment, moments of wild exhilaration and fatigue in about equal proportions. En route to Fortescue Bay, there are grinding uphills and juddering descents over the corrugations that leave us with sore hands and numb bums - but the reward is a bay that segues from green to navy, deep in a girdle of forest, rocks and sand. There is a long and hilarious lunch at Meadowbank Estate Vineyard Restaurant and an equally long, gliding descent on Brinktop Road to Richmond, snug in its valley.
    The tour ends with a wine tasting at Moorilla Estate, which overlooks the Derwent on the outskirts of Hobart. While the sunlight sparkles in our glasses, we compare sore body parts, admire our fractionally firmer calves and promise to email the pictures.
    We have not gone far. By car, we could easily retrace our route in a day - yet we would have missed out on those wild blackberries, and 60km/h on four wheels is never going to set your heart thumping.

For bookings and information, Island Cycle Tours, 1300 880 334; www.islandcycletours.com

The Mill's Tale
    Among the highlights of the Convicts of the Road trip, the night at Millhouse on the Bridge stands out. Hard against Richmond Bridge overlooking the Coal River, this is one of Tasmania's finest bed-and-breakfasts. The former mill has been brought stylishly back to life by Suzanne and John hall, and from the driveway past the pretty cottage garden brimming with roses, lavender and euphorbias, you are in for a special experience.
    There are just four guestrooms, all properly furnished with brassy beds and well-polished antiques. Apart from the River room, which has a separate private bathroom, all are huge and equipped with ensuites. If you'd like a little more privacy, there is a self-contained cottage in the garden.
    There is also an orchard filled with plums, peaches, apples and nectarines. And whatever you do, don't decline Suzanne's smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for breakfast.

More: 2 Wellington Street, Richmond 7025. Phone: 03 6260 2428 www.millhouse.com.au

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Article from "Australian Cyclist"

The following are excerpts from an article in Australian Cyclist by Kevin and Amy Beimer

Adding Tasmania to your cycling holiday
    "we began sparring with the idea of 'adding on' Tasmania. After all, we thought, can we really say we've cycled the entire country if we miss a state? Sure enough, it may be a small stage, and you need a very large boat to get to it, but it's still Australia.
    According to Tasmanians, we'd only been to the North Island so far. Yes, we decided. Let's 'add it on'.
    'Adding it on' was a major blunder of thinking on our part, one does not 'add on' Tasmania. 'Adding on' Tasmania to your Australian cycling trip is like ordering a 96oz Porterhhouse Steak and "Adding on" a family-size supreme pizza. Tasmania is its own meal in itself."
The West Coast
    "As you pedal off the boat at Devonport, the west just narrows its eyes at you and say, "Come on, punk. I dares ya"."
The Weather
    "When we said "who in their right minds would cycle in this?", the sun would come out and say "suckers". This happened three times one day."
Launceston
    "The city of Launceston is built to bring people in and keep them there. Literally. I'm not talking necessarily about the tourism . . . No, I mean the city itself is built at the bottom of a huge basin, such that no cyclist who enters can possibly escape without building up momentum in a giant skate-park half-pipe sort of way."
Mt Wellington Descent
    ". . . is a fantastic and unique way to see Tasmania's capital and the surrounding area. It takes everyone's favourite part of cycling, the downhill, and turns it into a half-day event! Be honest. Can you picture the "Mt Wellington Ascent" being nearly as popular? Neither can I."

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The Mercury, March 16 2004

Cyclists tough it out on Tassie Tour
By John Briggs
    The 19 survivors of the inaugural Train In Tasmania cycling tour pedalled along Salamanca Place yesterday afternoon promising to do it all again next year.
    They had just completed a 10-day cycling adventure not for the faint-hearted.
    These are not your bed-and-breakfast tourists looking for an island indulgence in Tasmania but competitive riders getting into shape.
    Sam Denmead, who established Island Cycle Tours early last year, said this was the ultimate experience for those who wanted to train hard while seeing plenty of Tasmania from a bicycle seat.
    "We started out with 20 riders, including three women, and only one dropped out with an injured knee", Ms Denmead said.
    "They ranged in age from 26 to 71 years but are all pretty fit - you need to be to cover 1250km in nine days."
    There was one rest day in Launceston, during which the cyclists were tested by staff at the Tasmanian Institute of Sport.
    Among the overnight stops were Swansea, St Helens, Sheffield, Tullah, Strahan and Derwent Bridge.
    The gruelling ride ended with an ascent of Mt Wellington before the downhill journey to Salamanca Place.
    Only one of the cyclists was from Tasmania, and the interstate riders promised to promote the ride among their cycling friends.
   

"I hope to have 40 or 50 riders next year", Ms Denmead said.
    The touring riders have two back-up vans to carry food and clothes and a masseur goes along and gets plenty of work.
    "There are plenty of tours such as the Great Tassie Bike Ride, which offer a softer option - this is for the seriously tough riders", Ms Denmead said.
   

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