Just posting to say that i did the Heartbeat Geelong Otway Challenge yesterday and found it to be an excellent ride.
It started just south of Geelong, went inland then south through the Otway ranges to Lorne then along the Great Ocean Rd back to Geelong. Total distance was 152km, with what I found to be some fairly challenging hills. Mate and I did it in about 7hrs of which 6 hours was on the bike and the rest spent getting lunch in Lorne or stopping for a stretch and bottle refills at the checkpoints on route.
Organisation was great all round and the vibe was really good. Volunteers did a great job and were very friendly/helpful (especially the man handing out orange quarters to riders at the top of the major climb). Views were awesome and provided a good distraction from the sore legs.
As I'm fairly new to cycling my only benchmark is the Around The Bay (Sorrento -Melb) organised by BV. In comparison I found this ride to be:
better organised
better marshalled
better sign posted
a friendly group
cheaper to enter and most of the entry fee went to charity
free t-shirt actually fitted
In short I walked away from the ATB thinking were did my money go and walked away from this one thinking would have happily paid more.
I would highly recommended it to anyone how can make the distance and doesn't mind a few hills. I'll be there next year for sure.
It started just south of Geelong, went inland then south through the Otway ranges to Lorne then along the Great Ocean Rd back to Geelong. Total distance was 152km, with what I found to be some fairly challenging hills. Mate and I did it in about 7hrs of which 6 hours was on the bike and the rest spent getting lunch in Lorne or stopping for a stretch and bottle refills at the checkpoints on route.
Organisation was great all round and the vibe was really good. Volunteers did a great job and were very friendly/helpful (especially the man handing out orange quarters to riders at the top of the major climb). Views were awesome and provided a good distraction from the sore legs.
As I'm fairly new to cycling my only benchmark is the Around The Bay (Sorrento -Melb) organised by BV. In comparison I found this ride to be:
better organised
better marshalled
better sign posted
a friendly group
cheaper to enter and most of the entry fee went to charity
free t-shirt actually fitted
In short I walked away from the ATB thinking were did my money go and walked away from this one thinking would have happily paid more.
I would highly recommended it to anyone how can make the distance and doesn't mind a few hills. I'll be there next year for sure.
I seem to recall they pegged the maximum number of entrants at 200 or so? due to possible conflict with traffic ?? can't remember.
