The mighty Beales in action
Thanks to Bob for this recount of Saturday's effort up Mt Baw Baw:
Having read that the Baw Baw ride is the only Hors category ride in town I was
not particularly interested in giving it a go but when Steve said he had a spare
spot in the express, how could I refuse. The roll out from Noojee to the base is
hard enough with quite a few challenging rolling hills, so by the time you get
to the start you are either well warmed up or 7/8 bugger'd. The hill really
starts with 6k to go, each 1k mark painted on the road. The first 5k are
unrelenting steep with virtually nowhere to rest, stop pedalling and you fall
off. Having said that, the climb does not have the ridiculous steep pitches
found at other spots e.g. the start of Terry's Ave; above the car park at Mt
William; Martyr's Rd at the base of Donna. The last 1k are relatively easy,
partly because you know the pain will stop soon.
The Climbing Cyclist http://theclimbingcyclist.com/climbs/baw-baw-national-park/mt-baw-baw/
says the climb should not be attempted unless Inverness road presents no great
difficulty, but I would think the harder-though shorter- Terry's Ave is a better
guide so that's my tip for anyone who hasn't done it.
We were pretty lucky with
the weather and there were no crashes or injuries, Howard had a fork malfunction
so we didn't see him at the end, he is either still 1/2 way up MT BB or not.
Given the BB forecast of max 4degrees and intermittent rain I was surprised to
see lots of other cyclists coming and going, including one group of young bucks
who looked hot and could ride, as I later saw when I was struggling up a hill on
the way home.
Anyone who did the ride will love this personal account of the
recent BB race http://theclimbingcyclist.com/guest-post-the-2013-mt-baw-baw-alpine-resort-classic/
, note that's 100k and Noojee is only 1/2 way there!!; her Strava http://www.strava.com/activities/48731803 -climb 50min, gantry
to summit 45min.
Big thanks to Lew for organising a great day.
No comments:
Post a Comment