Life of Riley: Going up, and up

There have been some nice hills to ride up in Victoria. After riding up from Halls Gap, the next climb I had a go at was just out of Apollo Bay. Skenes Creek road goes up from the Great Ocean Road for 10 km at a 6% gradient. It is a pretty sustained climb but with no great pitches you can get in a bit of a rhythm and, to some extent, enjoy the magnificent views.

After a couple of nice rides around Barwon Heads, where Cadel Evans sometimes spends time during his off season (didn’t see him), and around Bendigo, where I did a loop which included parts of the National Road Championship course held in Buningyoung, it was off to the Victorian Alps.

From the beautiful town of Bright, I headed up to the top of Tawonga Gap Road, which leads to Mount Beauty. The climb was about 14 km and averages 6%. This road makes up part of the 3 Peaks Challenge, which actually takes place the day we leave for Canberra. It is a brutal day of cycling, 235 km and something like 2500m of altitude gain. The big climb on this ride is up to Mount Hotham. I had heard that this was an amazing ride, and told Em about it. My thoughts were that I could come back and take it on, sometime into the future. Em of course, asked why I just didn’t do it the next day, as we were planing to head up there anyway.

After uming and ahing I thought I would give it a go. It is a beast of a climb, 30 km up- with sections at &&& % gradient. What I did like about it was that in Tour de France speak, it would be considered a Hors Categorie (HC), or ‘above category’ climb. That’s the top of the scale. The other climbs- Halls Gap, Apollo Bay and Tawonga Gap would all be considered about Category 2 climbs, below Cat 1 and HC.

I spun my legs the 20 odd km from Bright to the start of the climb. Then it began, starting fairly brutally and then settling into about a 6% gradient. Then you hit MEG hill, which ramps up to easily over 12%. From here, the next 5 km were painful. At about the 10 km mark I was struggling. The wind was picking up, which meant a headwind around many bends and my mind was asking me whether I could keep this up for another 20 km!

I wasn’t too upset therefore, when I realised I had a rear flat. Fixing it on the road side, Em and the kids arrived and stopped. The break wasn’t for too long, but was just what I needed. Once I was on my way again, I was also greeted with a false flat for a few km, a welcome relief.

It wasn’t until the last 6 km where things got difficult again. Rising above the tree line, there was no relief from the 50 km/hr winds. It began raining and got cold. And the road went up! At times I was thinking that I could be walking faster than I was riding. My legs were burning as the metres passed by at an agonising pace.

Finally, the ‘tunnel’ which marks Mount Hotham came into view. I smiled as a motorcyclist went past me, with the wind and rain, he was not traveling much faster than myself. We pulled up at the car park, where Em and the kids were waiting.

“What a stupid idea that was!” exclaimed the motorcyclist as he took off his helmet.

Not really stupid, I thought. Perhaps just a little.

It was a great ride. With better weather it would have been a little easier, and I would have seen some spectacular views which I am sure there are up that hill. It showed me that I could come back and do the full 3 Peaks Challenge- perhaps not as part of the event, but rather just with a couple of riding buddies. It also made me realise just how fit the guys that ride the Tour de France must be. For the mountain stages they can have up to two HR climbs in one day, along with a couple of Cat 2. They can also have three days of similar stages in a row. How they get up for the next days racing is beyond me. Oh yeah, and they RACE up these things, as opposed to just surviving.

Going up!