Back in 1983 in the US city of Pittsburgh, three intrepid cyclists put together a ride showcasing the toughest and steepest cycling climbs their city had to offer. The Dirty Dozen, which is still running, features 13 nasty climbs within a 10-mile radius of the Pittsburgh city centre, including Canton Avenue which has a gradient of 37% at its steepest.
Now, nearly 20 years after the first Dirty Dozen was held in Pittsburgh, the concept has made its way to Melbourne.
The dirtiest of the dozen: Terrys Avenue.
Date: Sunday May 27
Time: 10.00am
Location: Mobil petrol station, cnr Burwood Hwy and Hughes St, Upwey
Ride length: 30km
Total ascent: 1,326m
Read more
It’s one thing to climb a mountain by bike. It’s another thing entirely to climb that mountain against the clock while competing in an official event. In this guest post, Josh Goodall describes his experience competing in C grade in a recent individual time trial (ITT) up Mt. Donna Buang.
Mt. Donna Buang: prettiest in the wet.
The other week Jason Spencer wrote a terrific guest post about his third place at the Baw Baw Classic. It’s the kind of performance that few of us can aspire to, least of all myself. I’m one of ‘the rest of us’, the also-rode, the pack fodder.
The good news is that you don’t have to be on the A-grade podium to enjoy racing – it’s a social sport, and there’s always someone your level to work and compete with.
But a couple weekends ago I found myself in a very different place – an uphill battle: the Cycling Express Warburton ITT to the summit of Mt. Donna Buang. Read more
Route: Warburton to Mt. Donna Buang, return (including Martyr Road)
Distance: 45.6km
Duration: 2 hours 2 minutes
The Donvale Demon climbing the upper slopes of Mt. Donna Buang (artistic, right?)
I’m not one of those cyclists that normally gets up before 6am to go for a ride … especially when the outside temperature is well and truly in single digits. But when the Donvale Demon sent me a message at 5.30am on Saturday saying he was on his way to Mt. Donna Buang, I bounced out of bed and got myself ready to go.
It had been many months since I’d last climbed Donna and I was keen to test myself on the great mountain. The Demon swung by a little after 6am and we got on the road, grateful for the heater in the car. Setting up the bikes at Warburton it was clear we were in for a cold one — it must have been no more than 8° in town with a several-degree temperature drop ahead of us as we climbed the hill. Read more
The longest climb you’re likely to come across in Victoria is the gruelling 30km ascent of Mt. Hotham. But when you’re climbing Alto de Letras in Colombia, 30km of climbing is barely a warm-up. In this guest post, Alejandro Jiménez recalls his encounter with the epic Alto de Letras. This post first appeared, in Spanish, on Alejandro’s great blog, GOandRIDE.co.
If you'd just completed 80km of climbing, you'd be pretty happy too (Image: Alejandro Jiménez).
It’s a ride I’ve always wanted to do and one that I had to wait a long time for. But a few weekends ago, I finally did it: I climbed Alto de Letras. Before I get to that, here’s some information about the climb itself.
Alto de Letras is the hardest cycling climb in Colombia. In fact, many cyclists consider it to be among the most challenging climbs in the world. It’s a climb that’s included in the Vuelta a Colombia (Tour of Colombia) and the Clásico RCN (another Colombian stage race).
The climb starts in the small town of Mariquita which has an altitude of 468 metres above sea-level. By the time you reach the top at the Páramo de Letras pass, you’re at an altitude of 3,663 metres … and you’ve been climbing for 80km. Read more
It was a good thing I’d already completed the Ride Hard to Breathe Easy Challenge before the final week of April. The first five days of that final week were extremely quiet cycling-wise and, in fact, it wasn’t until the weekend that I managed to get back out on the road.
But when I did, it was certainly worth the wait.
Marcus (left) and Fletch (right) laying down some pain near the Brisbane Ranges.
Sunday April 22 to Friday April 27
Rather than write a separate entry about each of the six days from Sunday to Friday I thought I’d sum them up in one short phrase: no riding. A combination of rain, early mornings at work, after-work engagements and, to be honest, a little bit of laziness saw me take six full days off the bike. Not ideal.
That said, I did get to a leg-smashing spin class on Tuesday afternoon which had me feeling as if I was about to become reacquainted with my lunch. Sadly, spin-class kilometres don’t count toward Ride Hard to Breathe Easy and so, for the first six days of week four I didn’t add to my total of 904km. Read more
Victorian readers would be familiar with challenge rides such as Around the Bay in a Day and the 3 Peaks Challenge but there are a host of other terrific such rides around the country. Once such ride is Bicycling Western Australia’s 5 Dams ride. In this guest post, Melbournian Aaron Twigg describes his trip out west to ride 5 Dams.
Aaron at Serpentine Dam (Image courtesy of Aaron Twigg).
I’ve been back riding bikes for about four years now after a long siesta. I am by no means a hill climber and I have to train harder than some just to keep up in the hills. Even then I get dropped with little effort. I know I will never be the fastest in the hills, but I get in a rhythm and keep plugging away. Importantly, I enjoy every moment on the bike! Read more
At 2pm today, ABC Radio National is airing a repeat of an Off Track episode in which my good friend Matt Smith and I talk about the joy of climbing.
I thought I’d put together a quick behind-the-scenes post to give you all a bit of insight as to how the program came about and how the day of recording unfolded.
It all started with a couple of beverages at the Wesley Anne bar in Northcote.Toward the end of the conversation Matt suggested we should pitch a story to Off Track about this website and about climbing more generally. I thought it was a great suggestion and we decided to put together a couple of ideas and reconvene before sending the proposal off to Radio National. Read more
Douggie (right) and Brendan (left) between Strathewen and Hurstbridge.
After two weeks of the Ride Hard to Breathe Easy Challenge on Strava I’d amassed more than 600km. I was well ahead of schedule and, at that point, only injury or other mishap could have prevented me from reaching the 800km target.
Now, after three weeks, I’ve completed the challenge, having covered more than 900km. But I’m not stopping there. I’ve got just over a week to see how many more kays I can do. Read more
For most of us mere mortals, even just getting up Mt. Baw Baw is a huge challenge. But every April, several hundred hardy souls venture to West Gippsland not just to ride up Mt. Baw Baw, but to race up it. The Baw Baw Classic is among the hardest single-day bike races in Australia and concludes with the epic climb to the Mt. Baw Baw village.
In this guest post, Jason Spencer from Team Budget Forklifts describes his preparation for last Sunday’s Baw Baw Classic and explains how the day unfolded, landing him with a podium finish. Oh, and if you feel like you’ve seen the name ‘Jason Spencer’ before, you probably have; he’s the guy who seemingly has every Strava KOM in Victoria.
Jason (in yellow and black) competing in the Australian National Road Race Championships in January.
The 2012 Baw Baw Classic was my fifth attempt at the race. The first time I raced was in 2008 when I lined up in C grade. In 2009, 2010 and 2011 I raced A grade, achieving better results every year.
In the lead-up to this year’s race I was feeling reasonably confident of a good result. My training had been going well and I had completed a couple of rides earlier in the week that I was happy with. I got a PB at the Kew Boulevard TT and a PB by 1.5 minutes up the 1 in 20 [ed: just a casual time of 13 minutes 20 seconds!]. Read more
While GreenEDGE's Mitch Docker was the star attraction, some of us were just finding our feet.
In the four or five years since I started riding a road bike I’ve never really been interested in racing. I’ve been more focused on getting fit while training for and completing challenge rides like the Around the Bay in Day or the 3 Peaks Challenge.
But a few months ago I started thinking I wouldn’t mind having a bit of a go at this racing caper. Why not do something with the fitness I’d developed for 3 Peaks? These thoughts became more frequent as Fletch and Douggie started getting a few crits under their belt — including a one-two in their first race — and as 3 Peaks drifted further into the past.
So when Fletch sent me an email last week about the opening round of the Northern Combine winter road season I decided it was time to have a go. Short, fast crits don’t really suit the sort of riding I’ve been doing in the past few years — endurance rides with plenty of climbing — but a road race, I figured, would be more my style. Read more