It feels like a lifetime ago that we held our final 7 Peaks ride of last summer over at Mt. Baw Baw. And with a new summer just around the corner we’re excited to announce that the Domestique 7 Peaks Series is back for its second year! Plans are well underway to ensuring this year’s series picks up where last year’s left off.
For those of you that mightn’t have heard of this series, the 7 Peaks Alpine Ascent Challenge is an initiative from Tourism North East Victoria that’s all about getting riders out into the hills over the warmer months.
It’s free to enter; you just sign up for a passport, climb the 7 Peaks — Lake Mountain, Falls Creek, Mt. Buffalo, Mt. Baw Baw, Mt. Buller, Dinner Plain and Mt. Hotham — get your passport stamped at the top of each climb, then send your passport back to Tourism North East for a chance to win some prizes.
The challenge begins on October 18 and runs until March next year.
The Domestique 7 Peaks Series is a series of rides, organised as a collaboration between The Climbing Cyclist and Hells 500, and run with the support of Tourism North East. Between October and March we’ll be running a series of free rides to encourage riders of all abilities to get out into the hills, get their passports stamped, and have a great time along the way.
Over the past few weeks we’ve been working closely with Tourism North East, local police, VicRoads, the alpine resorts and insurance providers to ensure everything runs smoothly.
We know you all need plenty of warning about events like these so here are the dates for this year’s Domestique 7 Peaks Series rides:
- Sunday November 17: Lake Mountain
- Sunday December 8:Â Mt. Baw Baw
- Saturday December 28:Â Falls Creek
- Sunday December 29:Â Mt. Hotham (morning)
- Sunday December 29:Â Mt. Buffalo (afternoon)
- Monday December 30:Â Dinner Plain
- Saturday February 15:Â Mt. Buller
We’ll be doing everything we can to stick to these dates but there’s a slight chance that one or two might have to change. If that’s the case we’ll be sure to let you know as early as possible.
All of the rides are totally free to join; we just ask that you let us know you are coming. We’ll be creating a simple online registration form for each ride shortly and we just ask that you fill in the details so we know who’s coming and how to get in touch with you in case anything changes.
We’ll also be creating a Facebook event page for each ride which will allow you to discuss the event with fellow riders, organise car pooling, share tips and tricks or anything else related to the ride.
Everything you need to know about the rides and how to sign up will be over at the Domestique 7 Peaks Series hub page. That page is now live with some basic information about the series and we’ll be updating that hub page constantly over the next few months to keep you up to date.
Speaking of which, we’ve got a couple of other exciting announcements to make in the coming weeks. Stay posted for those.
In the meantime put the dates above into your calendar and start training up for the 2013/14 Domestique 7 Peaks Series!
Matt de Neef & Andy van Bergen
Hi everyone, just letting you all know that Cedarwood Apartments in Falls Creek has availability for this awesome ride between 27/12/13 & 30/12/13 so if you are looking for comfortable affordable certified cycle friendly/family friendly accommodation call on 03 5758 3393. Apartments vary and sleep from groups of 2 right up to groups of 10 in self contained comfort. Rates start at $50.00 pp/pn min 2 night stay and cheaper if you stay 3 nights or more!
Awesome works guys – I’d love to make all of them, but will struggle with the dates just after Christmas – should be able to make the rest though! Fantastic effort and organisation. Can’t wait to get out there.
Well done guys… Hope to do more this year, but gotta say that making the 1st ride at Lake Mountain on the exact same day as the nearby Wiggle Donna Buang Beast (that already signed and paid for) wasn’t your best decision… Can imagine that many others in same boat, so why not have weekend before or after instead, for 2 weekends of climbing bliss !! Still, big UPs to all your efforts for this great free event..
Hi Dave, we certainly didn’t mean for the ride to clash with the Wiggle Donna ride. In fact, your comment was the first time we’d even heard of the ride!
Glad could point it out then Matty… What about for a weekend of awesome climbingness (just made a new word) move LM to SAT 16th ??
Why don’t you just climb Donna and then duck across Reefton Spur and climb Lake Mountain? Make a proper day of it.
How about 4 out of 7 to get that digital badge instead 😉 Since I don’t have enough holidays to cover the entire 7 and am looking to fly over from WA if those are the set dates it would be perfect!!
Can we earn a ‘Domestique’ digital Strava badge? That would be awesome. Maybe for completing 5 out of 7 rides, cause I can’t make the Buller ride (Springsteen concert that day!)
Going climbing. Can’t wait.
So many leave passes, god I owe so many….I can feel an Eternity ring coming up….oh well…its worth it…..looking forward to it guys
Looking forward to climbing those hills with hells500 again. Had a great time last year and am a better rider because of it.
I’m in Mt. Beauty from the 27th. You beauty!
Interesting to note that you had to work closely with “Tourism North East, local police, VicRoads, the alpine resorts and insurance providers” to bring these events to us. I’d be interested to know at what point this officially/legally turned from a group of of like-minded individuals who gathered to partake in a mutual pursuit, into an organised an presumably insurable event, and how this is being paid for. I hope you have some helpful sponsors on board?
Hi Don,
We’ve really taken a proactive approach with these organisations this year. The reason for this is so that we can deliver the best, most professional, and ALWAYS free events. We really love riding in the hills – and this series is all about helping riders get out and see why we love it so much.
There are significant costs involved in bringing these events – and sponsorship goes some way – but it certainly doesn’t cover it. The easy route would be to charge a nominal entry fee – but that is something that we are just not prepared to do.
Keep an eye out next week – we’ll be launching a little program that will help us continue to bring these events to you for free – and if you happen to know of anyone that is able to assist with volunteering at any of these events we’d love to hear from you!
Cheers,
Andy
hells500@hotmail.com
Good to hear. I certainly wasn’t suggesting you’d need to start charging for participation. It was just an interesting juxtaposition ‘cos I’d just finished reading the article on CT about organising a cycling event.
Keep up the good work 🙂
It was a great article, and is spot on in terms of the array of organisations that need to sign off on any event. It’s worth pointing out that everyone we have dealt with to date has been incredibly supportive (sometimes to the point of being surprising) – and any pushback is purely with rider safety in mind.
Looks awesome, can’t wait! Any chance of a second round of dates for the Christmas/NYE period as some of us will be away interstate, but are uber keen to get the peaks stamped off.
Best news I’ve had all day! Especially considering I’m all booked and paid for in Bright from 27th – 31st!
Fantastic. I can’t wait.
Although I’m really happy and grateful that you are running these rides again this year, there seem to be 5 fewer dates this time around. That’s 5 fewer opportunities to join in. Is it just remotely possible that you will announce 2nd dates for Lake Mountain, Mt Buller and Mt Baw Baw?
In order to be able to continue to bring these amazing events to you for free we needed to consolidate (plus our many, many volunteers are grateful for an extra five weekends at home!). Make sure you get along to what you can – we’re pulling out all the stops this year.