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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-10-18 Daily Xml
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PEDAL PRIX

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (17:08): On the weekend of 17 and 18 September, Pedal Prix devotees from all over Australia gathered in the great rural city of Murray Bridge for the third heat in the 2011 series. The member for Hammond and I, in what has become a mutual pilgrimage and highlight of our year, were made welcome by Andrew McLachlan and the board of the International Pedal Prix, all of whom work above and beyond every year to make sure this fantastic event is always bigger and better. To Andrew and his team and all the volunteers who make Pedal Prix happen, and particularly to UniSA and all the other sponsors, we all say a very big thank you.

I want to give the house a few Pedal Prix facts. The lap is 2.15 kilometres. There are four categories: category 1 is primary (up to and including year 7), which allows 20 riders per vehicle; category 2 is junior secondary where riders are under the age of 16 before the first day of competition and up to 14 riders are allowed; category 3 is senior secondary where everyone is under the age of 19 with up to 12 riders in a team; and category 4 is for those who exceed the age limit of category 3 and they are private or non-institutional teams, and this is where all the fast riders and fast machines are, and we have up to 10 riders per vehicle in this category.

Fair skies greeted us this year, although a strong wind caused some concern. The start saw 215 vehicles on the grid to begin the 24 hours of challenge to human and machine. It would be wrong to say 'human' and indicate only one person as responsible for an individual bike's performance as each machine has a strong team behind it. People build and power the machines and for every rider on each team there are people cooking and feeding, maintaining the bikes, controlling the fitness and IT needed to get the team to the grid and, of course, all the logistics and transport people who move the entire team around South Australia.

Thousands of people attended this year, as they do each year, for it has become one of the state's most anticipated and well-loved events. Some Pedal Prix enthusiasts have been going for well over 20 years, and every year people attend or participate for the first time, boding well for the future.

Florey is well represented in the Pedal Prix. Modbury High School had four teams: Cheetah came sixth in category 3 and 25th overall; Wildcat, 19th in category 4 and 33rd overall; Pink Panther, 24th in category 3 and 74th overall—that is a girls' team and they came seventh overall in the girls' section; and Lynx came 26th in category 2.

The Heights School had Odyssey, who came 37th in category 3; Quasar, 40th in category 2; Harsky & Such, 26th in category 4; and Phoenix, who came 81st in category 1. The Heights School had a team in each category.

I am terribly proud of the Chilli Peppers of East Para Primary School. They came eighth in category 1, 82nd in their section and, actually, 83rd overall in the entire competition. Ardtornish Primary School, just one street out of Florey, had the Ardtornish Rockets, who came 54th in category 1. St Paul's College, also very close to Florey, came 12th in category 3 and 43rd overall.

Of nearby schools, Golden Grove came 26th in category 3. Gleeson did the best of them all, coming ninth in category 4 and ninth overall. Emilio came 14th in category 3. Pedare college had Laser, 16th in category 3, and I must mention the sponsor, UniSA. They came 23rd in category 4.

I would also like to put on the record the fact that the Scotch College girls team won the national title for the third year in a row. The girls, who are all in years 8 to 10, competed with their aerodynamically-designed carbon fibre vehicle, which was pretty speccy, and they took that to the third round in Murray Bridge.

Their three wins have never been matched in any division in the competition, according to the article in The Advertiser on 27 September, which also mentioned that the Australian human-powered series began in 1984. So, it will not be long before they are having their 30th anniversary, and I urge all members to get behind the schools in their area who compete in this event. It is the most fantastic day and, for every person riding a bike or every team there, there are dozens and dozens of supporters from each of their schools. I really commend Pedal Prix, thank wholeheartedly everyone involved with the event and look forward to seeing them all again next year, particularly at heat 3 at Murray Bridge.

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