The "Commando"

[BarryTas]

So does anyone know the story behind the Commando route? or is it just all here say? i should just ask old man Ray

[Baldy]

It was a convo between a roadie and a mtber years ago when they were totally different species.

Roadie: Did a sweet loop round Ferntree,Sandfly,Howden[replaceable with Tinderbox/Huntingfield] today. My new knicks are great.
MTBer: Do you wear undies under them?
Roadie: No.

A legend was born.

[fixedlegs2012]

Well here it is.

Macca Graeme McVilly used to train on the commando route....which he coined many years ago. It used to also involve Verrona Sands and the Mtn to be ascended and around 160ks not the 90ks it is today. Who is Graeme McVilly well the best cyclist to come out of Tassie many years ago now. 71,72 Aus Road Champion, Herald Sun Tour 71,73 and 74 Winner, plus a host of other cycling achievements.

[BarryTas]

fixedlegs, could you map out the route on may=my-ride? i would like to see it

[fixedlegs2012]

Ill have a crack Barry see how I go. The other route he use to make his riders do that he trained was up Proctors down the Outlet and back over Bonnet and repeats at 5am in the morning.

[possum-magic]

There seems to be as many variations on The Commando Route as there are people riding it. Do a quick search on Strava for "Commando" and you'll see what I mean!

The most commonly accepted version seems to be the Hobart-Kingston-Huntingfield-Margate-Sandfly-Longley-Neika-Fern Tree-Hobart variant, which is about 60km from Hobart. Others seem to throw in the additional section through Blackmans Bay and Howden, and there are even some that add on the loop around Tinderbox as part of their standard Commando loop.

[BarryTas]

http://app.strava.com/activities/42139817

[BarryTas]

or http://app.strava.com/segments/3069439

[AndyRevill]

I've thought about adding in the Tinderbox loop as part of my ride home, what's the condition of the dirt section like for a road bike?

Andy

[BarryTas]

I've thought about adding in the Tinderbox loop as part of my ride home, what's the condition of the dirt section like for a road bike?

Andy

it's fun i have lost a biddon on there once though.

but i like gravel

[BarryTas]

i *might* do the clockwise commando including tinderbox and the channel loop sometime soon just to have a strava record of it

[AndyRevill]

it's fun i have lost a biddon on there once though.

but i like gravel

The Domane is supposed to be for the rough stuff so I'll have to give it a go

Cheers, Andy

[AndyRevill]

Well I added in the Tinderbox loop to my ride home tonight, interesting and mostly fun there was one bit of corrugations that caused me grief as I didn't see them due to shadows across the road. I suspect doing it from the Howden end (anticlockwise?) would be a bit easier as the steepest section of dirt would be uphill.

It's now in my list of routes home

Andy