EVANS, Rodney Peter,
Rod Evans at the Geelong College Carnival, 1992.
Rod Evans, long distance cyclist and a resident of Western Australia, was educated at Geelong College from 1968 to 1974. He graduated with a Bachelor of Economics from Monash University in 1978.
In 1990, he claimed the world 24 hour track cycling record at Perth’s Midvale Speed Dome. He completed 808.5 km breaking Sir Hubert Opperman’s 50 year old Australian and World Records by 18 km. Rod also bettered the 100 mile (160km) record also held by Sir Hubert. He, together with his father Geoffrey Peter Evans (1931-), in June/July 1989 sliced more than 30 days off the 13,900km Around Australia Cycling Record in a time of 49 days, 22 hours and 31 minutes breaking the previous record of 80 days. In 1994, he again set new track records for 100 miles, 200 miles, 12 hour, 24 hour and 1000 km distances. He has been Australian Cyclist of the Year in 1990 and 1994 winning the
‘Oppy Oscar’ named after previous distance cyclist and Geelong identity, Sir Hubert Opperman.
Rod was reported in
Ad Astra as saying that his
‘interest in cycling came as a result of reading the autobiography of world champion cyclist Russell Mockridge who was a student at the College in the early 1940s’ . Rod was a featured guest at the 1992 Geelong College Carnival.
In March 2018, fellow Geelong Collegian
Dr Mitchell Anderson broke the 24 Hours World Cycling Record with a distance of 894.35 km.
Sources: Ad Astra August 1989 p16; Ad Astra September 1990 p16; Ad Astra August 1991 p12; Ad Astra July 1995 p20.