If you’re the sort of cyclist that enjoys the challenge of climbing hills, mountains and anything in between, you’ve come to the right place. The Climbing Cyclist contains detailed information about the many terrific cycling climbs in Victoria, Australia, including start and finish line photos.
But the site is about much more than that — quite simply, it’s about the joy of climbing. We publish articles about hilly rides and events, great stories from the world of climbing and more.
So if you’re planning your next hill climb, or if you’re curious about the rich climbing opportunities to be found around Victoria, or if you just love climbing, you should find something of interest at The Climbing Cyclist.
Origins
The Climbing Cyclist was born in September 2009 and was originally a WordPress blog created for a university assignment. Three months later, the site broke free of its WordPress.com shackles and found its way here.
Since the launch of the new site in December 2009, The Climbing Cyclist has grown significantly with many new climbs and a range of other features added.
About me
Hi, my name’s Matt de Neef and I’m the founder and publisher of The Climbing Cyclist. Like most people, I started cycling from a young age and, like a lot of people, I’ve never really stopped.
I climbed my first mountain (Mt. Buffalo) on a rickety old mountain bike when I was in my late teens and since then I’ve bought a couple of road bikes and improved my climbing.
I’m definitely not the world’s best cyclist, nor do I aspire to be. For me, cycling is all about freedom and the opportunity to see some fantastic countryside, all while getting fit.
I’ve completed a number of cycling challenges in the past few years, including Bicycle Network’s Around the Bay in a Day (210km version) three times and Bicycle Network’s 3 Peaks Challenge three times as well.
The Climbing Cyclist is a labour of love. In the past few years, I’ve spent hundreds of hours researching, recording and publishing information about cycling climbs, blogging and generally improving the website (I hope!).
By day, I’m the editor of the popular CyclingTips website and I work alongside the site’s creator and publisher, Wade Wallace. It’s a privilege to be able to work with Wade and to be able to combine my passion for cycling with my career.
Adding new climbs
It takes many hours of work to publish a single climb on the site. As a general rule, I only document climbs that are more than 2km in length, and more than 3% average gradient. All of the gradients mentioned on the site are approximate, sourced from online mapping tools – such as BikeRouteToaster, Google Earth and Strava – and from estimations.
If you’d like to see a new climb added to the site, please get in touch.
The future of The Climbing Cyclist
The Climbing Cyclist is a site under constant development and new additions and improvements are being made all the time. There are a number of expansion plans and exciting new projects in the works, and these will develop when I have the time!
One plan is to expand the site to cover great cycling climbs from around the country, not just in Victoria. If there’s a climb somewhere in Australia you think I should add to the site, please let me know and I’ll add it to my list.
If you have some feedback about the site, or a suggestion about how the site might be improved, head over to the Contact page and to find out how you can get in touch.
Q & A
Why do you only cover climbs in Victoria?
For a start, I live in Victoria and when I started the site it made sense to document the climbs around me.
I’d love to expand the site to cover all states and territories in Australia, but I’ve got a full-time job and I don’t have the time to expand as yet. It’s something I’m keen to do at some point though, and if you’ve got any ideas how I could make that happen, please get in touch.
Why isn’t Climb X featured on the site?
The most likely explanation is that I haven’t yet documented that particular climb. This is a lengthy process — I’d estimate about 5-6 hours per climb, start to finish — and, the truth is, I don’t have the time to add as many climbs as I’d like. I’ve got a long list of climbs I want to add to the site, that I just haven’t gotten around to yet.
It’s also possible that I haven’t heard of Climb X. So, let me know about it. Where is it? Where does it start? Send me some information.
Where do you get all your photos from?
All photos on the site are taken by me, unless otherwise noted.
Can I use your images in my website/blog/newsletter/flyer/magazine etc?
The copyright on all images featured on The Climbing Cyclist belongs to me (Matt de Neef) — unless otherwise noted — and such images mustn’t be used without permission. If you want to use one of my images, let me know and we can discuss.
Will you review my product?
Quite possibly. Send me an email about your product and why it’s relevant to the Climbing Cyclist audience and we can go from there.
Can I advertise on The Climbing Cyclist?
Quite possibly. If you think your product is relevant to the TCC audience then get in touch and we can discuss.
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