Canberra road riding for a visitor..

Albert 50

..next week. Arriving probably Tuesday night & leaving Saturday. Staying in Kingston. I'm not looking for a group ride because I do not want to be tied to any schedule.
Around a 100 k-er give or take a few & including some long steady climbing [did I say that]. On the other days short rides of interest. I have heard about a steep hill to a tower? Is this right?
Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks

matagi

Can't help with a long climb, but for a scenic ride, you can't beat riding around Lake Burley Griffin.

If you stop in at the Canberra Visitor's Information Centre, and pick up a bike map ($6) that should give you some interesting routes to try.

Finally, you could try getting touch with the folk at Pedal Power ACT
http://www.pedalpower.org.au

mikesbytes

Theres a regular Canberra poster (peterrjleach) over on the following forum who does the hills around Canberra.

http://bicycles.net.au/forums/index.php

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Jono L

All I know is that the roads around the Uriarra settlement are awesome! Try and get out the Corrin Forest climb.

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Classic1-
Don't get me started on triathletes. Sluggo wearing, mechanically inept, dirty, dribbling, elbow steering spawn of Satan. Anyone who sticks food to their bike is a disgrace IMHO.

anthonyg

Lots of nice riding around Canberra. Kingston is inner south and very central. Its also at one end of lake Burly Griffin which you can do a circiut around. The central basin of the lake is very touristy but the western end of the lake has some hills which makes it a more challenging ride and so there are fewer riders which can be nice.

You will need a map as Canberra is a big city but there are lots of on road cycle lanes going a LONG way. From Kingston you could ride down to the Cotter and loop around past the deep space tracking stations to Tharwa. This is the ride that some are refering to and where the Canberra Tour goes. BIG hills! From Tharwa you could come back to Kingston via the suburbs which would be a nice ride. It would be about a 75 km loop with hills.

There are 3 hill tops over looking the city. Black Mtn which has the tower. This is close to the lake Burly Griffin cycle path so if you headed around it you could basicly find your way from the path. Local cyclists do take it on but beware of a narrow winding road with a lot of traffic. You could also climb Mt Ainslie and Red Hill.

With a map you could do a loop of the 3 lakes in Canberra, Burly Griffen, Belconnen and Tuggeranong and you could do this mostly on cycle paths or the roads if you preffered. This would be about 70 km but with easier terain than the Cotter loop.

Wheather wise your in luck. The forcast for next week is for very pleasant weather for Canberra at this time of year. 6-18º and sunny. Mid afternoon its very pleasant but mornings are still cold and as soon as the sun heads in it cools down quickly. I would reccomend that you have arm and leg warmers plus a warm undershirt at the least for early morning rides. A widbreaker vest maybe. If you feel the cold then bring all your warm gear. Mid afternoon will be reasonably warm though so you wan't to be able to take it off.

Regards, Anthony

anthonyg

Next weeks weather forecast for Canberra has taken a change for the worse. Tuesday and Wednesday will be nice but Thursday and on is taking a turn for the worse. You may be still able to cycle but you will need FULL on warm cycling gear or you will freeze. Lazy winds off the snowy mountains aren't the most pleasant.

Regards, Anthony

Albert 50

It really doesn’t get cold here, although when others wear longens I'm still in shirt & shorts. Will have to reassess this though & take the arm & leg warmers.[We are talking about different planets ] Zippered jacket probably in order.I have felt those snowy winds before, not very pleasant.
As always you can get chilled to the bone easilly on down hills. I will have some luxury & be able to ride in the middle of the day. Certainly might be an experiance
Thanks Ant

jcjordan

I can suggest a number of really cool routes for you.

The Cotter/Urriara loop is a common one that alot of us do for training (about 40km round trip). If you want a longer ride I suggest that you ride through Cotter out through Tinbinbilla through Point Hut into Tharwa. Then out to Fitz’s Hill and Honeysuckle Creek. Both Fitz’s and Honeysuckle are popular climbs that will give you a great workout.

If you look on the pedalpower website (www.pedalpower.org) and look up the Fitz’s challenge in November. This will give you map of the route and a profile. This will give you a good ideas for a ride.


If you need any other info drop me a PM with a number to give you a call and I can show you some routes if you like

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thomas_cho

Steep hill to a tower ... could that be telstra towers?

I have just moved to Canberra myself, and am wondering if there is a database of training routes which includes some climbs?

I live in the Belconnen area, and if someone could suggest some routes around there that would be great.

Sorry to hijack the post ...

Albert 50

No worries.......I think that may be the tower in question

anthonyg

Plenty of climbing in Belconnen. Kingford Smith drive from Ginnenderra Drive up to Spence is a doozy. Copland Drive and Tillyard Drive on either side are decent climbs as well. Do laps as manys times as you wan't. You could head around William Hovel Drive and down and up Coppins Crossing Road. That's another doozy of a descent/climb.

Regards, Anthony

anthonyg

The six day weather forcast on my computer is now saying that the weather will be OK for next week in Canberra but this is Canberra so bring some warm riding gear.

There have been quite a few suggestions to head around the Cotter/Urriara area and I don't want to be a stick in the mud but it is quite challenging terain with NO ammeneties out there. NO service stations, no shops and no way to get a taxi back if you've had a mechanical. I don't want to totaly put you off but how confident are you in your abilities. Personaly I would only do it these day's in a group.

It would be feesable to do a lap right around Canberra from Kingston. It would be about a 85 km trip without too many turns so I could give you directions if your interested. No category climbs on the way but reasonable climbing to do none the less. Canberra is a series of valleys so your alway going into or out of one of them.

Regards, Anthony

Albert 50

anthonyg..... good advice, if I do decide to venture into the unknown, I usually take a backpack with spare fold up, chain bits & tools etc. I gather mobiles may not work in some of these areas either, & that may well be the deciding factor as to how far from civilisation I am willing to go.

My area has little climbing unfortunately, although I often go the hilliest way possible, sustained climbing is hard to find.

From my signature you may realise I have a triple set up, which comes in handy for my 50 yo legs, & I am in reasonable shape being a regular rider now for 4 years. I think the cold may be my biggest problem

Thanks again to all.

anthonyg

Yeah I'm not sure if there is total mobile coverage out at the cotter. Your around Gosford aren't you? Some of my friends used to live there and from memory getting from the Highway to Gosford involves going down a big hill. There's plenty of hills that you can ride up within Canberra if you wan't since Canberra is a series of valleys your alway's climbing or descending anyway. You could always head out to the cotter itself, climb out the other side of it then turn around and come back. That will be challenging enough.

Regards, Anthony