climbs - The Mayhem's Blog

Harrietville Cycling (Victorian Alps)

Last weekend i was lucky enough to be invited to go on a cycling trip to the Victorian Alps staying in the small village of Harrietville down the road from the larger town of Bright.

The trip was organised by one of the guys who I’ve met through Croydon Cycleworks and they have been going for a few years now. We stay in a large house that has had bunk beds put in all the rooms and use that as a base for a few days of riding.

This was my first chance to try some of the climbs in the 7 Peaks challenge. The aim to to ride 7 specific climbs in Victoria during the summer season, this is something i hope to complete this season if i can.

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Alternative Cycling Climbs on Mt Dandenong

In a previous entry i have written about the main climbs on Mount Dandenong, – our local hill which is very popular amounts cyclists being the highest point in the metropolitan Melbourne area. As we are lucky enough to live so close that means that i get the opportunity to explore the other routes up, these alternatives are mostly from the Fern Tree Gully side and a bit more out of the way. Similar to my previous post i will just give a brief description and link to the Strava segment for each of these.

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Cycling Mount Dandenong

We are very fortunate to live so close to Mount Dandenong which is a hill just over 600m high to the East of the Melbourne CBD. The various hills in the range form the Dandenong Ranges National Park, the ranges are mainly covered in large trees and ferns forming a ‘temperate Rainforest’ (stole that definition from wikipedia).

Chicken Parma — Parma at Pig and Whistle Tavern

There are a number of roads that criss-cross around and over the hills with some great climbs (then descents) in lovely scenery. There are a few little villages dotted around with some pubs, restaurants and cafes; at the Pig and Whistle Tavern as well as great parmas (Australian “classic” which is schnitzel with tomato, cheese and ham on – just realised now it is a schnitzel pizza…) you can get Old Speckled Hen, London Pride and other English beers. I’ll go through the main cycling climbs on Mt Dandenong and throw in some pictures too.

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Strava Starred Segment Explorer

Since I have moved to Australia i have started using the starred segments in Strava to find climbs and recommended routes to ride but it is a real pain to see where these are located relative to each other. So I decided to knock up a page using the Strava API to do it (the weather was rubbish so i didn’t use up cycling time).

Click Here to give it a go let me know what you think or if you have any issues / ideas in the comments below.

Update 19/09/2018: Now includes segment category filters

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Leith Hill Octopus + Barhatch Road (twice)

This Saturday I agreed to ride the Leith Hill Octopus, it is an unofficial sportive route which takes in all 8 ascents up Leith Hill in Surrey. Although Box Hill is probably the most famous climb in Surrey following the Olympic road race course Leith Hill is much more challenging and steep. Adding to that is the face the road conditions vary a lot, it is quite narrow and there are steep banks on either side of the road for a large proportion of the routes.
I’ve climbed a few of the routes up before but certainly not all in one ride especially as at least 2 loops of Barhatch Road had been thrown in at the end to add to the pain. This was all training for the other guys I was cycling with to ride the 3 faces of Ventoux in September, unfortunately I can’t make that trip though.

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