North suburbs to goulburn valley bike route

[zakka101]

Hi all,

after a whole bunch of rides and what not i have decided in a few weeks that i want to tackle a point to point ride from specifically greensborough to tatura/shepparton.
I ride the cragieburn track all the time back and forth and have gone only as far as donnybrook on my normal rides, have a fair decent base of fitness and no doubt in my mind know i can make the ride....its just finding a safe route.
obviously the freeway is too busy/scary/too many trucks hanging around and i was just putting it out there..

has anyone done this route/something similar? And if so is there a safe way to do it without hitting the freeway?
Any advice would be sweet!

[KenGS]

I would make my way to Whittlesea via the Western Ring Road path and up Plenty Road. The only bit I don't particularly like is the section is before South Morang.
From Whittlesea turn off towards Wallan but when you get to the T junction turn right towards Heathcote Junction and Wandong. I've done this section as an Audax ride but in the opposite direction. http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Murchison-Gap Using that map from Whittlesea head west and not north unless you really like hills

From Wandong I've done another Audax ride that takes you along back roads to Seymour http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Au ... mbug-100km
That's as far as I've been up that way

[zakka101]

hey ken

looks good to me, if i can get as far as seymour just using backroads and stuff i should be okay to get to nagambie then murchison. once im at murch though i pretty much have clear sailing from there.

so do you advise heading straight up plenty road? i ride plenty road all the time, but am more accustomed to the western ring road path/donnybrook road then heading to whittlesea via that way. bit of a detour but plenty road is busy (guess if i leave at 6am it wont be that bad but )

cheers for the maps too, will have a squiz over them and figure it all out.
once ive done the ride ill let you know i guess!

[KenGS]

Plenty Rd is ok once you are past South Morang as there is a hard shoulder you can ride on and the traffic should mostly be heading the other way.

Alternatively you could take your route to Craigieburn then if you can find a way to the Wallan-Whittlesea turnoff along the Epping-Kilmore Rd you can pick up my route from there. I've not ridden along the Epping Kilmore Rd so not sure what its like. But that saves a detour into Whittlesea

[Semar]

You can avoid the freeway by riding up Hjgh St, which becomes Epping Kilmore Rd.
Cross to Wallan and follow the Northern Highway, which I think from there to Broadford is the old Hume Highway.
From Broadford, ride towards Sugarloaf Creek and to the Seymour - Tooborac Rd. (There are plenty of undulating rides on quiet roads in that area.)
Near Seymour take the Northwood Rd. It parallels the GV Freeway almost to Nagambie. Very nice riding and lined with horse studs.
From nagambie take the Kirwans Bridge Rd to Murch. You'll want to walk over the bridge, but it avoids the road works on the freeway and is my weekday training road.
Avoid Murch-Tat Rd traffic by riding Dhuringhile Rd

Do it on a day of strong southerlies and you're laughing!

[zakka101]

semar you are effing unreal mate.

i basically know the way im going now!
just got to hope for the wind gods to be nice to me!!!

[zakka101]

but wouldnt i want northely winds?

[zakka101]

also i heard when i was back home in tatura that kirwans bridge is closed?
obviously not if you are using that route all the time?

[Semar]

The bridge has been open for months.

Another good ride is from Tat to Bendigo via Rushworth. Turn right to Barnadown before the Midland highway, then right at Barnadown to Bendigo. Brings you in at Ascot. 200km return.

If you want to climb, ride from Seymour to Yea and back via Highlands. Total of 1800 metres climbing.

[zakka101]

so i finally did this ride yesterday. set off from watsonia at 10am and arrived in tatura at 5pm. stopped in seymour for lunch and pushed through the rest of the way. riding from wallan to broadford was so amazing, after the northern highway in wallan its pretty much downhill the entire way to broadford. im yet to upload the ride to my strava account but my runkeeper had me averaging 36k an hour from just past wallan to broadford. being the first day of spring, it was amazing conditions. pretty much no wind, sunny the entire time, wow what a great ride! semar i took the exact way that you had advised and it was pretty perfect. apart from a section of gravel road on sugarloaf drive it was perfect so thank you for that! all up copped two flat tyres and got swooped by the maggies 5 times haha! all up it was 183km's. i set out wanting to ave at least 25k an hour and ended up doing 28k ave.

[Semar]

Well done! It was a beautiful day yesterday. Perfect for a long ride.

If you ride from Tatura to Rushworth, you'll be swooped every few km.

[willow3088]

so i finally did this ride yesterday. set off from watsonia at 10am and arrived in tatura at 5pm. stopped in seymour for lunch and pushed through the rest of the way. riding from wallan to broadford was so amazing, after the northern highway in wallan its pretty much downhill the entire way to broadford. im yet to upload the ride to my strava account but my runkeeper had me averaging 36k an hour from just past wallan to broadford. being the first day of spring, it was amazing conditions. pretty much no wind, sunny the entire time, wow what a great ride! semar i took the exact way that you had advised and it was pretty perfect. apart from a section of gravel road on sugarloaf drive it was perfect so thank you for that! all up copped two flat tyres and got swooped by the maggies 5 times haha! all up it was 183km's. i set out wanting to ave at least 25k an hour and ended up doing 28k ave.

Are you able to post a link to strava so I can see the exact route you took? Am contemplating doing this ride...

[zakka101]

hey man,

i am doing it again this sunday as i have just joined up to the rapha 500 challenge on strava. but this time going to shepparton and then back to tatura. hopefully about 200-220k on the day. will put me in a good position to smash that 500k out no doubt.

the link is here. my garmin reset itself somehow at 177k but you get the point where i am headed at that stage.
If you wanna ride back there sunday let me know! will be leaving about 8am in the morning hoping to get to shepparton at about 430pm.

http://app.strava.com/activities/20549765