Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Hi,

To start off with i'm a semi regular cyclist, riding to/from work with the occasional long ride on a weekend. My longest ride so far has been 77km. For the SuperSpring Kinglake ride i want to attempt the 120km distance. I know I need to do a lot more training to build up my fitness and endurance, but im wondering if doing one very long ride a month as well as the my other riding/training be enough for me to be able to complete the 120km and still be able to walk?

The section from St. Andrews to Kinglake (the "Will Walker Challenge" ) is pretty difficult if you haven't done it before. I'd practise it a few times before the day. I thought I was in pretty good shape until I met that hill...

The rest of the ride is pretty nice. Lots of good scenery and rolling hills. The final few km are over flat ground, so you can get into a comfortable cadence and cruise home.

I did the will walker climb last year, prior to that I was doing training rides up the 1in20 (basin to sassafras) as it is similar in grade and length. When I did the ride last year (turned to finish the ride at the 70km distance and even then I pulled out because of the weather) I found the climb in St. Andrews real hard.

The bits just out of St Andrews and before Kinglake are probably the steepest, Marty, but the bulk of that particular climb is a fairly well-behaved, even, lengthy 4-5% stretch letting you settle into a maintainable rhythm.