Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

UPDATED 31/05/2010
This post will be kept updated as a summary of the current Peak Bike Hub Heidelberg and surrounds group training rides details.

Details

Monday Molehill Ride (29km / 75mins) - Monday's at 6AM
The Peak Bike Hub Monday Molehill ride was launched in June 2010 specifically to cater for the needs of newer cyclists, as well as provide more experienced cyclists an opportunity to turn their legs over at the start of the week. It is a recreational ride done at an easy to moderate pace to encourage newer riders to come along, build strength and fitness and one day tackle the prestigious Tour de Eltham and our St Andrews ride. The Monday Molehill ride leaves Peak Bike Hub in Burgundy Street Heidelberg at 6AM each Monday and returns to Burgundy Street for coffee at Rocket Cafe by 7:15am. The 29km route is based on the well-regarded Tour de Suburbs ride and traverses the rolling suburban landscapes of Ivanhoe, Kew, Doncaster, Templestowe and Viewbank on mostly well lit streets with only light traffic at times. We regroup after the moderate climbs and KoM bragging rights are there for the taking up the Doncaster Road hill and Williamsons Road hill. We also contest our usual sprint past the horse paddocks in Viewbank for those riders who have their competitive juices flowing.

Below is a map of the ride and its profile:





Tour de Eltham (35km / 90mins) - Wednesday's at 6AM
The Peak Bike Hub "Tour de Eltham" group ride has been running since November 2008 and has gained a reputation for being one of the more challenging group rides so close to Melbourne. The ride leaves Peak Bike Hub in Burgundy Street Heidelberg at 6AM each Wednesday and returns to Burgundy Street for coffee at Rocket Cafe by 7:30am. The 35km route includes over 600m of climbing and takes in the beautiful surrounds of Banyule Rd, Bonds Rd and Mt Pleasant Rd, described as stunning back road terrain by Wade Wallace in his Cycling Tips Blog http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2010/04/ ... more-10329. There's three testing climbs with KoM bragging rights for the taking, so a good to very good level of bike fitness is required. Even though we do regroup after each climb this ride is a high intensity ride and is not recommended for newer cyclists (see our Monday and Saturday group rides instead). Also, a good quality light to see the road is essential before sunrise as some of the roads have little or no street lighting.

Below is a map of the ride and it's profile. Beware that there are several short and steep climbs of 10% to 15% gradient that aren't shown and the Mt Pleasant Road climb proper varies from 10% to 15% (or more in sections ) over about 1km in length. Definitely not for the faint hearted!





St Andrews Ride (60km / 2hrs 15mins) - Saturday's at 6:30AM
The Peak Bike Hub St. Andrews group ride has been running since March 2009. The ride leaves Peak Bike Hub in Burgundy Street Heidelberg at 6:30AM each Saturday and returns to Burgundy Street for coffee at Rocket Cafe by 8:45am. The 60km route takes in the rolling hills of Diamond Creek and Hurstbridge to St Andrews, with a bunch sprint to the St Andrews Saturday market as the tantalising prize for more experienced riders. Some riders usually head up to Kinglake whilst those without as much time to spare return via Panton Hill, Kangaroo Ground and Eltham to Heidelberg. This is a recreational ride done at a moderate pace to encourage newer riders to come along, build strength and fitness and one day tackle the prestigious Tour de Eltham.

Below is a map of the ride and it's profile.






Anyone wanting to join either group ride should ring Sean at Peak Bike Hub on 9459-1200 to get more information and answer any questions you may have.

There's plenty of parking on Burgundy Street, the Leo's supermarket carpark or in the carpark behind the bike shop, which is accessible from Cartmell Street.


Original post:
Hi All,

For road cyclists living in and around Heidelberg we've started two new rides:

Tour de Eltham - 35km
Leaves Peak Bike Hub on Burgundy St every Wednesday at 6am, returning about 7:30am. The route includes Beverley Rd, Bonds Rd, Mt Pleasant Rd and returns via Main rd and Bonds rd again. There's three testing climbs so anyone comfortable with the Tour de Suburbs should give this a go to test you. A moderate level of fitness is required and we regroup after each climb.

Saturday Ride
Leaves Peak Bike Hub on burgundy St every Saturday at 6:30am. A couple of different routes to keep it interesting including Whittlesea, St Andrews and Black Rock. Done at a comfortable pace to accommodate newer riders and ensure we all have a good ride.

We're off to Kinglake tomorrow if anyone's keen to join in.

Cheers!

Just wanting to give this thread a bump for any riders living in / around Heidelberg, Ivanhoe, Rosanna and Viewbank who might like a change of pace from the usual Beach Road ride.

Saturday's ride is a well-paced loop via St Andrews, out via Greensbourough / Diamond Creek and back via Kangaroo Ground / Eltham. Departure is 6:30am outside Bike Hub with coffee at Rocket Cafe when we gat back around 9am. Distance is a tad over 60km.

You can see a map of the route here -> http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/australia ... 3472267359

Are you able to provide a route map of your Wednesday rides? Thanks

Correct link for the St Andrews loop: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/australia ... 3472267359

The Wednesday morning "Tour de Eltham" ride is here: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/australia ... 3056208094

Just giving this thread a bump now that the Summer riding season is upon us.

Wednesday's ride is proving very popular with up to 20 riders fronting up to test their mettle on Mt Pleasant Road.

Saturday's ride has a regular though smaller following of up to 10 riders so a few more riders are very welcome! It's a long distance (60km) training ride and the pace is kept at a reasonable level for the newer riders who have recently joined us.

See you then!

I've just moved to the Heidelberg area, so I may join your wednesday ride sometime

just got my first bike, ill be keen for a saturday ride... not this saturday, as im working, but hopefully the next

Great...hopefully see you next Saturday!

We had two new riders join us this week having found our details online.

this sat is looking good for me so far. have had bugger all time to ride though. took a slow 15km ride with my gf (who was on a crap old mountain bike), with a fair bit of medium grade hills.. looking forward to slightly more pace in this ride though.

Great ride today even if the temperature was a little on the cool side. Played havoc with my arm warmers...on, off, wish I had them on again!

Also, my hamstrings were begrudging riding partners with the rest of my legs and let me know about it all the way up the early climbs on Rosanna Road / Greensborough Highway. Come to think of it, they didn't stop their whining all the way to St Andrews!

Xavier duly took control of our peleton on the new C7...what a machine, and the bike ain't half bad either!

Meanwhile Nicko kept himself fresh by staying waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back up until the last few rolling hills around the St Andrews footy oval before claiming self-glorifyng line honours in a sprint nobody else was contesting.....

Ride honours would have to go to Rowdy though. On the way out he simply left us in his wake, much to his surprise when he looked back as we approached Hurstbridge and we were but a mere speck on the horizon. From this point on he will now be known a Rocket Rod! Probably could have done with Karl Hungus as a riding buddy too....where were you BTW?

Momentum is building for the Peak Bike Hub Summer Challenge!!! The proposed route is at http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/australia ... 0997818702 for anyone interested. This is a ride that Xavier and I are planning as we both thought the 3 Peaks Challenge was a little on the easy side...just kidding! It's 150km with two climbs (KInglake and Toolebewong) and plenty of rolling hills through Healesville, Yarra Glen and Toolangi. A date is yet to be set but given the AAC is Australia Day weekend and 3 Peaks is early March, sometime in mid February looks favourable.

Hi there,

I am most likely to be joining your rides sometime soon. Have only wait for a few bits and pieces to come from ribble and then sprint to assemble the bike.
I could actually come around on my $158 one. Its pain machine, only 17kg and has 6x3 speeds, top speed downhill was registered at 57km/h. I can average around 30km/h on flats with minor short hills. Wonder If I can keep up with the group on Wednesday rides, can always just turn around I suppose. I ride by myself all the time, can't wait to try group rides.

Cheers

Let me see.....17kg.....6 x 3 speeds......Mt Pleasant Rd......not a nice combination!!!!

You'll enjoy it much more on your new stead I suspect as the hill climbs are testing on a normal (say 8 - 9kg) road bike and the group tends to motor along. The last couple of weeks we've averaged almost 26kph from Heidelberg to the top of Mt Pleasant Road where it intersects with the Research - Warrandyte Rd.

I must say though that we do have a guy (James?) riding an old Shogun 7 speed road bike with downtube shifters and a creaky bottom bracket to boot. He shows me a clean pair of cleats on the climbs!

In the spirit of Xmas a few of us are planning to dress up a little for tomorrow's Tour de Eltham "sleigh ride".

So grab some tinsel, reindeer ears or santa beard and show us your festive spirit tomorrow!

anth73 wrote:In the spirit of Xmas a few of us are planning to dress up a little for tomorrow's Tour de Eltham "sleigh ride".

So grab some tinsel, reindeer ears or santa beard and show us your festive spirit tomorrow!

Pictures or it didn't happen

my helmet has already been tastefully decorated by santa's little helpers!

I hereby present the evidence your honour!

An impressive goup of 16 reindeers (what is the collective noun for reindeer I wonder???) presented themselves for today's Tour de Eltham sleigh ride, with a smattering of Christmas decorations on display. Here's a few photos:

Sean (on the left) tying to explain to me that he couldn't find any tinsel. Yeah right....


Me pointing out my kids handywork in decorating. Note the antlers and silver star! I'm happy to report that all survived the morning ride and my commute to / from work intact. Gotta love sellotape! aAso got a lot of comments from fellow commuters!


Troy (left), Karl Hungus (centre) and I demonstrating some festive cheer. Love the gold antlers Karl


The pace was on from the word "go", though "go" was delayed by 5 minutes or so as "Princess" had to assemble his Ridley Dean. Nicko was again trying in vein to enhance his reputation as an elite cyclist by once again being MIA!

Steve the greek finally earned his Bike Hub jersey by promptly falling over at the Banyule Rd / Beverly Rd T-intersection. The grazed elbow and bruised hip means you're a fair dinkum roadie now! Bravo re!

The bulk of the ride was rather smooth and uneventful, mainly owing to the fact that yours truly was really feeling the effects of a heavy training schedule and was mid-pack for the climb up Mt Pleasant Rd...so pffffffff...whatever! Four of us powered down Main Rd and no, I dared not to put my nose in fresh air given my legs were barely keeping me on the back of the breakaway

The ride ended in controversy worthy of a royal commission however. Approaching the final sprint point along the back of Rosanna golf course there was a mysterious "CAR BACK" call which promptly shutdown any planned attack of the leaders by myself and at least 2 other aspiring sprinters. Next second I see Sean sprinting past us out of the saddle....grrrr

I vainly tried to clamber onto the back of his wheel but to no avail, crossing the line several metres back in 4th but I did manage to come from about 8th wheel back. I think Xavier got the chocolates just ahead of "Car Back" Sean. I reckon they'll be payback next ride though!

Merry Christmas!

Awwwww how cute are you guys!

Merry Christmas Boys!

merry christmas gentlemen... looking good!

I got my bike together, hurray!!!!

So, when is the next ride?
You guys not quitting sport for the rest of 09 aren't you?

Next ride is 6:30am this Saturday in order to work off the excess calories from Christmas Day. The wednesday ride will also be on as per usual next wekk.

See you there!

A bloated and hung over group presented themselves for the Boxing Day detox ride. Due to the excesses of the prior day a Kinglake climb was deemed in order!

Xavier reckons he was sweating Heineken on the way up! Captain Kirk and Steve the greek completed their maiden climbs - well done fellas!

Today was the day the king returned though! Nicko aka "scorpion king" led the way up KL with Xavier and Rowdy. Apparently he did it easy as he didnt stop talking the whole way up. Great riding mate!

I got my timing markers right and did a 23:40 which i was happy with given my legs really need some recovery.

The trip home was an incident packed affair. My front tyre hit some stones on a fast left hander on the descent, absolutely shat myself! Meanwhile Xavier had a minor love tap with the rear end of a small hatchback in Kangaroo Ground. No damage to the C7 but a nasty gash on his chin bled most of the way home. The lovely lass driving the hatch was really good about it too!

Beach road monday AM if anyone is keen. Plan to leave from the shop at 6.

Got up at 5, but was late by 10 minutes went to Yarra bends instead. It was actually my first ride down there. Followed a group of three, that was bit of fun.

I am thinking lucky me, that I didn't make it in time. How long was your ride? Sounds intense to me.
Mine was 60k at 2 hours or something, feel exhausted.

Anth73 wrote:Momentum is building for the Peak Bike Hub Summer Challenge!!! The proposed route is at http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/australia ... 0997818702 for anyone interested.

I've incorporated the Old Healesville Road (aka Death Valley) between Healesville and Yarra Glen as suggested by Rowdy and it spices up that part of the ride nicely. The updated URL is http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/australia ... 0997818702 for those interested.

Still shows the main Healesville-YG Road.
Also, I was driving past YG the other day and there were some roadworks going on where the Old Healesville Rd meets the Melba Hwy as they are making it into a truck bypass. At least I think it was the Old Healesville Rd