Episode 3: Short and sharp

Route: Eltham, Kangaroo Ground and Diamond Creek loop
Distance: 34.5km
Duration: 1 hour 27 minutes

When the weather is as good as it is, it’s almost hard not to head out for a bit of a spin. The plan is for Brendan and I to head out for a longer ride tomorrow so today I took the opportunity to go out for a short ride along some local roads.

I headed out of Eltham and turned onto Mt. Pleasant Road, a challenging 6km stretch that is well worth a look if you’re in the area. After battling up the many short and sharp climbs that are spread along that road, I took a right onto the Warrandyte-Research Road, another stretch that is worth investigating if you like your rides to be undulating and steep in parts.

Reaching the end of the Warrandyte-Research Road rollercoaster I took a left, up toward Kangaroo Ground. While you could probably class this road as a climb, it certainly isn’t a sustained ascent, climbing instead in a step-like fashion toward KG.

The road from Kangaroo Ground to Wattle Glen is quite delightful and with a gradual descent for several kilometres, you can sit above 45km/h without too much trouble. Once through Wattle Glen I pushed on to Diamond Creek and then back through to Eltham via Ryans Road and Wattle Glen Road.

For those that are interested, that’s a total of about 400m climbing and more information can be found at Bike Route Toaster. Sure, it might not have been the world’s longest or most challenging ride but at this stage of our training efforts, it’s still about building base fitness. If nothing else, it got me out of the house and away from my computer…

127 days to go…