Claire Stevens

Claire Stevens

G’day! The bike has been the centre of so many adventures throughout my life and has always proven ideal for recalibrating my mindset, seeing the sights and daily commuting. I have been through many incarnations as a rider, raced on the road and track and competed in multiple endurance, stage and 24hour solo races on the mountain bike.

While I have ‘bikepacked’ in some form since the early 00s, my preparation and subsequent participation in the 2017 Indian Pacific Wheel Race, really transformed my riding. I love to get out and ride to see things from a perspective not possible by any other means. While loving a good descent like any ‘normal’ cyclist, highlights of my rides are usually the landscapes I travel through, making incidental bird and wildlife sightings and appreciating the trees and flowers. My ‘why’ in bikepacking races is not necessarily the competition, but the influence of urgency and the experiences that are unlocked as a part of the immersion in the landscape through long hours in the saddle and distance covered in a short time.

My solo bikepacking adventures had mostly been on road or “Commodore” gravel until I trialled a few rough off-road routes on an entirely inappropriate bike between 2020 lockdowns in Victoria. Wanting more, I ordered a Curve GMX+ and far out, it is the most fun bike I have ever ridden. Gerty, as my GMX+ is known, has taken me on various UK bikepacking routes including England’s King Alfred Way and Scotland’s Highland Trail 550. Most recently I raced the GBDURO covering 2000km from Land’s End to John O’Groats.

I am temporarily living in the UK to gain some extra special training in my work as a surgeon specialising in the liver and pancreas. I will be coming home to (R)Adelaide in December 2021.

  • Hometown(s)
  • Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane

  • Nickname
  • CB

  • Achievements
  • - GBDURO 2021 GC Finisher

  • - IPWR 2018 Finisher

  • - Audax Australia Sydney-Melbourne 1200km Randonnée

  • - IPWR 2017 – Stopped in Melbourne

  • - World 24hr Solo Mountain Bike Champs 2010 Stromlo

  • - Gravity 12hr Solo MTB Race 2008 winner… hey, I was really proud of that one!

  • - TransRockies MTB Pairs Stage Race 2007 (Canada) Finisher

  • - Completed the first five Otway Odyssey MTB Marathons 2007-2011

  • - Mount Gambier 100 mile Classic 2005 Female winner

  • - Multiple solo unsupported bikepacking trips covering South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania; Southern England and Scotland.

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