Norton Summit and Corkscrew Road

The Norton Summit Road is a ride I've been wanting to do for a while now. Along with the Mt Lofty climb, it would probably be Adelaide's most popular climb. Since I was up that way, I thought I might have a bash at the somewhat legendary Corkscrew Road. It ended up being a short but pretty demanding ride. It was only 45km's (I started from the top of Greenhill Road) but it was a total of 920 metres of ascending, making it probably the most intense ride I've ever done.

The view back down the valley from along the top of Norton Summit Road

Looking back to the city from just before Norton Summit.

I can see why Norton Summit is such a popular ride. It has plenty varying gradients, some magnificent scenery and not a huge amount of traffic (not on a Saturday morning anyway). It felt like it was a similar intensity as the climb from the Tollgate to Mt Lofty but quite a bit shorter. A little way past the township of Norton Summit I came to a fork in the road - with the choice of a downhill road (which was the short way to my destination) or the uphill road (Woods Hill Road) which took the long way around through to Ashton. I was clearly in a self-flagellating frame of mind because I chose the latter. It was pretty damn steep but I made it through to Ashton eventually, then trundled off towards Montacute Road and my destiny.....

The Corkscrew Road turn-off looked unassuming enough, but it only took a minute or two and quick look over the Armco railing for the full horror of the situation to be revealed. The statistics are alarming enough (a 2.4km climb at a 9.2% average gradient) but when you see a view like this with the road snaking it's way through the valley directly below, it was clear that this was going to be a climb like no other that I'd ever attempted.

Now that's just plain silly....

As I cautiously rolled down the hill, the thought of climbing back up this thing made me laugh out loud and I resigned myself to the fact that I'd probably have to walk some sections of it. I stopped a few times on the way down and took some photos then finally reached the valley floor. It's pretty down there with the babbling creek along the side of the road. I almost made it through to Gorge Road before I decided I'd better turn around and face the music.

By now, it was getting pretty warm (around 33 degrees) and, as I passed over the bridge and the climb began, I was not feeling overly confident. My fears were confirmed when the gradient started to bite and I ran out of gas about 50 metres before the first switchback and had to stop and rest for a few minutes. Surprisingly through, the rest of it went okay. I thought those steep ramps on each of the switchbacks would kill me off but managed to get my bum out of the saddle and push through them. I did end up stopping again about 150m passed the last switchback. The worst was over by this stage and I probably could have kept going but I kept looking at my heart rate which had been over 180bpm for quite a while and I decided it would probably be wise to stop and let it settle for a few minutes. Sometimes I think I shouldn't bother wearing the heart rate monitor because I get a bit paranoid about it.

Just before the first switchback - that's the road straight ahead at the top of the hill

Yikes!

Anyway, as I was stopped there, I could hear another rider coming up from behind. He was clearly at maximum effort and his moans and groans were echoing through the valley. As he powered past me I thought to myself "and I'm worried about having a heart attack!". I concluded he was probably doing the Strava Corkscrew TDU Challenge thing which is a month-long competition on Strava to see who can lodge the fastest time up the Corkscrew Road segment. As I got to the top of the hill he was slumped over his bike looking utterly shattered. I asked if he was okay and he nodded so I assumed that was a 'yes'. Anyway, he went seriously fast up that hill and I suspect he's one of the serious cyclists at the top of the leader board who do the climb in the 8 - 9 minute bracket. Anyway, when I got to the top I did briefly flirted with the idea of doing it again, but sanity prevailed and I decided I'd leave it for another day.

For most of the the climbs I've done I'm usually between 5 and 15% from the bottom on the Strava leader board. It's more like 1 or 2% from the bottom after my first attempt at the Corkscrew, so I'm pretty keen to have a few more goes at it to see if I can do a little better. Still, I at least managed to get up the thing on two wheels and not two legs which was more than I was expecting.

Anyway, after Corkscrew it was a pleasant coast down Montacute Road, particularly towards the bottom where the road becomes smoother. A bit of a climb up Stradbroke Road and a meandre back across to the top of Greenhill Road and I was done for the day.

Deep one perfect morning

Saturday was a perfect day to be riding a bike, 26 degrees and hardly a breath of wind. I dawdled around the house for a while and eventually headed off to Mt Lofty just after 9am. I thought I might possibly go further than that but I'd see how my legs felt when I reached the summit.

For once I remembered to put the heart rate monitor on. I've been increasingly conscious of my heart rate being pretty high when putting in the maximum effort, so I thought I'd try and keep it around 160 - 170bpm when doing a climb. Using the standard old maximum heart rate calculation of 220bpm minus your age, this is probably near my maximimum and evidently I shouldn't be exceeding 90% of my maximum heart rate. However, that calculation is general at best and I actually feel quite okay sustaining that heart rate for the majority of the hour or so that it takes me to do the Mt Lofty climb. On this occasion my average for the climb was 174bpm with a maximum of 185bpm. My average for the whole ride was 160bpm. I'm still not sure if this is a good thing or not.

Anyway it was a great ride up there and busy with cyclists as is usual on a Saturday morning. I was still about 5 minutes off my best time for the climb but feel like my legs are gradually returning. After the shattering experience of Amy's Ride last week, I think I just need to ride more regularly. I reckon an hour or so on the trainer every night will do me the world of good.

After a break at the summit I felt okay and decided to keep riding. I contemplated heading north through Norton Summit but ended up doing a loop through Summertown, Balhannah, Verdun, Bridgewater and back to Crafers. It was more or less the loop from the Mt Lofty Challenge ride last March so I knew that there was a fair few hills too negotiate, but I felt up to it. Here's some pics:

Just before Summertown and pretty as a picture ....
who wouldn't want to ride a bike in the hills on a day like this???

Germantown Hill - hard work but thankfully short.

The loop was around 32km or so and was just magnificent on Saturday - plenty of challenging climbs, lots of downhill runs and pefect weather. Those nasty hills before and after Bridgewater haven't gotten any easier since March but I managed to get up each of them without stopping (apart from the quick photo opportunity on Germantown Hill), which is more than I could do last week. I arrived back in Crafers with my legs fairly well spent, but thankfully not cramping like last week. Maybe the magnesium is working, maybe it was just because it was a little cooler. Anyway, from Crafers it was 25km of mostly rolling down the big hill.

It ended up being a pretty big ride, my second biggest in fact. It was 84km with just under 1400m of climbing which was basically the same as the Mt Lofty challenge ride. My time of 4:25 was pretty much the same as that ride as well, which I guess means that my fitness level is about the same as it was back in March. All thing considered, I'm reasonably happy with that.

Needless to say my average of 18.8km/h for the ride is very slow. I'm particularly slow going up hills and I'm frequently overtaken by faster cyclists, but it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I'm happy just to grind up those hills and get there eventually. Mind you, I'm pretty keen on getting a bit faster and I'm sure I will if I keep at it, but at the end of the day I'm just really happy to be able to go the distance.

Amy's Ride

Amy's Ride has been and gone for another year. It was a warm last Sunday, around 33 degrees and pretty windy. We (me and the kids) started at Majors Road, avoiding the uphill bit from Darlington which the kids weren't too keen on doing. The run down the Southern Expressway was pretty cruisy and was made even easier by a tail wind. It seemed like we freewheeled most of the way down the Expessway which was great fun. We ended up doing the 25km to McLaren Vale in a leisurely 90 minutes. We love doing this ride together every year (this is our third year) - it's just such a hoot to be part of the big community ride thing. Here's some pics from the end of the Expressway:

After having some lunch at the McLaren Vale visitor centre, Karolle took the kids off to Alison and Troy's place while I trundled off towards Willunga. Climbing Willunga Hill was hard yakka as it was now getting towards midday and warming up. I was a bit annoyed because I got up most of the hill okay, but had to stop about 200m from the top for a couple of minutes because I was feeling a bit dizzy.

With the heat and the wind, it wasn't the most pleasant of riding days. The wind was more noticeable when we turned onto Range Road and headed north. Range Road was okay initially but I found the last part after the Penny's Hill turn off was pretty hard going. I eventually made it to the Wickhams Hill decent - the road was closed to traffic which made the run down the hill great fun despite the head wind. I even managed to catch up to some of those who'd gone past me along the top of the range.

I eventually made it to the final refreshment stop but my legs were tiring and I was feeling the first signs of cramp. I had a break and some food then headed west back through the hills towards Rosemout where the family awaited. The next five or six km's were a continual battle with cramp every time I had to push hard - I had to walk up one particularly nasty hill. Anyway, I finally nursed my failing legs back along Chapel Hill Road towards Rosemount and had just enough in reserve to have a final blast down the hill where Karolle, Miles, Troy and Allison were cheering me on. It hit 73km/h down that hill which is my fastest speed - so I at least had one milestone for the day.

The ride was only 70km in total but, with the fairly unpleasant conditions, it was a pretty challenging ride for me. I was completely spent by the end of it but satisfied that I persisted through the cramping and got there eventually. The main thing I took out of this ride was the need to prepare. I hadn't really ridden at all for the two weeks prior to the ride and my lack of training showed at the end. The other thing I need so sort out is the cramp thing - evidently magnesium is the go, so I'm giving that a try.

Building bikes

I've been doing some bike building over the last six weeks. I've built up the old Giant Peloton frame that I bought last year into a very light and quite spunky little retro ride (it's from 1999). I thought I'd use it as a commuter but the ride is a bit harsh and the geometry is a bit too aggresive so I'm going  to sell it along with my old Repco Superlite that I haven't used for ages. Here they are:

I've also picked up a cheapo noname track frame/forks secondhand for $70 a few months back. I built it up as single speed that I could chuck in the back of the car and commute to work on, on the days that I drop both kids to school. However, after trying it out for a while, I've come to the conclusion that that I'm not particularly into the single speed/fixie thing. Maybe I haven't got the gearing right, maybe my legs just aren't strong enough or maybe I just like having gears to choose from. Anyway, I'll hang it up in the shed for the moment and maybe try it out again in the future. Maybe I'll even set it up as track bike and have go at a velodrome one day...

The bike I've most enjoyed building up and riding over the last month or so is my old Repco Olympic 12 (circa 1989). I've had it for a couple of years and was using it to commute to work on when I first got into cycling. It was a decent quality bike in it's day with a Giant made CRO-MO frame from before Giant became one of the er... giants of the industry. I've always loved commuting on it because it's so comfortable - the steel frame does a great job of absorbing the cracks, bumps and foreign bodies found in bike lanes. However, the drive train shows it's age so I've built it up with modern(ish) components - 9 speed STI shifters, a compact crank, upgraded brakes and wheels etc. and it's just lovely to ride. It's a bit lighter than it was - around 11kg - heavy by modern standards, but not too bad for a vintage steel bike.

Anyway, I've done some rides around the place on it and taken it up to Eagle on the Hill a few weeks ago and it was went okay. My Scott roadie is definitely less effort to push up a hill but going down hill the old Repco felt great. The Scott is quite skitty and harsh when descending down the rougher bits on the bike path whereas the Repco felt smoother and inspired more confidence. It looks a treat too, well I think it does anyway.  I has a bit of that 'modernised old bike' look about it which is not to everyone's taste, but I really like the look of it. Here it is, in it's blue glory....

 

 

Anyway, the whole bike building thing is enormously satisfying. This one presented a few challenges, but it worked out pretty nicely in the end.

Emerging from hibernation

It's been six months since I've posted anything here, mainly because I've hardly been on my bike. I've come to the conclusion that I am a fair weather cyclist. I just can't seem to get motivated to ride in winter. In light of this lack of motivation, I decided to set my trainer up in the shed at the start of the winter, complete with a video setup to watch stuff while I rode. I thought I might at least be able to maintain some level of fitness throughout the winter.

I even made up a nifty little handle bar mount for my video camera and went out in April and filmed the Mt Lofty climb and a few others so I could play them while I trained, recreating the inclines etc. on my trainer (the good old Cateye Cyclosimulator - love that word). It was a nice idea but unfortunately I've only ended up getting out on the trainer a few times this winter, mainly because it's been too cold in the shed! What a wuss.....

So my winter cycling activity has been a handful of commutes to work and few short rides around the place. The net result of this apathy is basically several months with bugger all exercise and a very out of shape Graeme. I've even started to wonder if I was losing interest in cycling but I needn't have been concerned because it's started to warm up over the last month and I'm back into it. I've done around 350km in the last month and started easing myself back into the hills.

One of the highlights was a nice a ride to Victor Harbour to visit Barrie and Ruth. It was my first ride down that way since the windy Hindmarsh Island ride last April and my first ride on the Mt Compass to Victor road. I thought it was quite reasonable for cycling - most of the road has reasonable verge to ride on. The only bit I'd avoid is the bypass/ring road thing to Encounter Bay - it was pretty tight and a little hairy in places with 100km/h traffic. Next time I'll go through Victor where the road is safer. I also did Old Wilunga Hill for the first time this season and found it pretty tough. I had to stop for a breather half way up, but it was good to put a bit of work into my legs.

A couple of shots from the Bluff at Victor

I also did my first run up to Mt Lofty for the season last Friday after work. It got off to bad start - I was almost skittled on Pirie St by woman who was clearly oblivious to the bike lane, let alone my presence in it. I stopped beside her and politely asked if she realised how close she was to running me over and respectfully suggested that looks next time. She seemed startled and and little worried about my gesticulating appearance at her window, but maybe it means she'll might look next time (but maybe I'm just an optimist). Pirie Street is shit to ride on and I'll avoid in the future.

Anyway, I cut though the bike path around South Tce/Hutt St, then realised that I was on the wrong path. This necessitated a U-turn involving going onto what seemed to be firm dirt but was actually quicksand. Needless to say, my front wheel buried itself and I went over. With no real damage done, I dusted myself off, stuck my chain back on and hoped the ride was going to improve. Thankfully it did. Once again, it was one of those perfectly still, warm late afternoon rides to Lofty. I got up there feeling okay and was five minutes slower than my fastest time from the Tollgate to the Summit which I'm quite happy with. However, the downhill was just a perfect run. The descent from the bollards at Crafers to the Tollgate took 11:12 minutes (at an average of 45.4km/h) which is my best effort on that run by about 40 seconds. I was pretty excited about that and, needless to say, it was great fun.

Just past Eagle on the Hill

Sunset at MtLofty

The other hill I've attempted is a bit closer to home - Morphett Road at Seacombe Heights, from Seacombe Road to the top of the hill. It's only a kilometre or so but it averages nearly 10% with a 100 metre or so bit at the end that's closer to 20%. I couldn't make it up the last bit and stopped for a breather before continuing. The problem was starting up again on the slope. It was just too steep and I didn't have the power in my legs to get going and clip in okay. I contemplated the situation for a minute and decide to roll down the hill a little bit do a u-turn back up the hill. The manoeuvre worked and made it to the top - just. I'll have to try it again when my legs done a bit more work. Here's a couple of pics:

The big hill at the end

The view from the top

I've registered for the Tour Down Under challenge ride in January (hopefully doing the 126km ride), so that's a fairly big goal to work towards with my fitness. Brother-in-law Troy has taken up cycling and intends to do the challenge ride too, so I'll be heading down to McLaren Vale over the next month or so and we'll start tackling some of those great climbs down there. Amy's Ride is also coming up next weekend and I'll do the 25km with the kids, as we've done for the last two years. I'm thinking I might continue on without the kids after that and tackle Old Willunga Hill and the loop back around to McLaren Vale, which should make it around 70km or so. 

I've also been doing some pre-season shopping - new tyres, knicks/jersey/socks, yet another saddle, amongst other things. The search for the perfect saddle continues. I got this latest one on Gumtree - its a 'Scor' which is BMC's home brand. Its more immediately comfortable than the Selle Italia C2 that I've been using but I need to take it out on a few more long rides in the hills to see what by posterior thinks of it after 80km +. Onwards and upwards....

One last Indian summer twilight ride

The forecast for the next week indicated that this Indian summer we're having is about to draw to a close, so I thought I'd do one more twilight ride from work to Mt Lofty last Friday night. The other reason for the ride was that my new wheels had just turned up and I wanted to try them out. They’re nothing flash, just entry level Shimano R500's which were on special online at Cycling Express for $99 (half price) with free delivery. I sometimes feel a little guilty buying bike stuff online and not from a local bike shop but, believe or not, we have more important things than my cycling habit to spend our income on (mortgage, food, school fees etc.), so I've always tried to do the bike thing on a very tight budget. Mostly this means buying stuff secondhand and sometimes online. I still do buy stuff from my LBS, but with items like these wheels, it’s pretty hard resist the online deal because it’s just so ridiculously cheap. 

So anyway, I was a little excited about my humble wheels because there’s hardly any new components on my bike. Unfortunately though, they still needed work. The back wheel was well out of true, so I spent 20 minutes getting it right, and the front was little out of whack too. Evidently that’s quite common with new wheels, especially cheaper ones, but I still think it’s a little dodgy that they leave the factory in less than perfect order. So I whacked them on and they looked a treat - the black, red and white of the wheels nicely matched the white, black and red of my frame and forks.

It was even warmer than last Friday, around 29°. I headed off from work a little earlier than last week and, after my last dodgy ride up Glen Osmond Road, I took a safer route along Duthy and Wattle Streets, then up the back streets to Cross Road and the freeway corner. Sadly the serenity was missing on the climb this week. There was a traffic restriction on the freeway so a lot of traffic was diverting up Mt Barker Road at Devil’s Elbow. It was no problem because the bike lane is mostly protected by a curb but it was a little noisy and smelly with all those trucks and buses climbing the hill.

Anyway, I’ve decided I’m not working nearly hard enough up these hills. When I start a climb I've had a tendency to put my bike into the lowest gear and just slowly plod away, leaving plenty in reserve because I’ve been unsure about how well I’ll cope. Now that I know I can get up hills okay, I’ve decided I need to start pushing myself a bit more. So, on this ride, I started to periodically drop down 2 or 3 gears, get out of the saddle and push. It worked out pretty well and it certainly felt more productive. I pushed myself fairly hard and by the time I reached the top I was breathing heavily. My time reflected the extra effort – I took almost 5 minutes off my previous best time from the Tollgate to the summit. The other benefit of getting out of the saddle a bit more was felt in my posterior - it wasn't quite so sore at the end of the ride.

Like last week, the descent was in the dark only this time I has my new little USB rechargeable LED  rear light (a Moon Gem 3.0), which was very bright and quite impressive for it's compact dimensions. I just need to get a decent front light now. I took the descent relatively easily but still managed to get up to a 20km/h average for the whole ride. Clearly, in the scheme of things, this is pretty slow but it is, nonetheless, better than I've ever done on a Lofty run before. So I'm pretty happy to start seeing some measurable progress.

My first 100

The unseasonably balmy autumn weather continues. A 30° day with light winds, a day off work, a bike and a destination is the perfect combination. It also seemed like the perfect opportunity to do my first 100km ride after the aborted ‘broken spoke’ attempt a few weeks ago.  So I mapped out a ride sticking to the Veloway and the Sea to Vines trail all the way to Willunga, then up the hill, along Range Road, down Pennys Hill and back home along the bike path. According to MapMyRide this is 94km, so I thought a run down along the Esplanade at Seacliff would be a nice way to round it up to the ton.

Hitting the road, it was indeed a perfect morning for a ride. The 35km to McLaren Vale was pretty cruisy after the first climb up the Veloway. I stopped for a stretch and a bite to eat at the rest spot on the trail just past Field St, then continued along the path to Willunga. After stocking up on Powerade at the general store, I took a deep breath and headed up Old Willunga Hill.

I’ve only done this climb once, back in January, just after the TDU. Back then, it killed me. I had fresh legs and I still had to stop for a rest a couple of times and was pretty knackered by the time I got to the top. So, I was keen to see how I’d go now, given all the climbing I’ve been doing over the past few months.

After the first kilometre of the climb it was pretty clear that my legs were noticeably stronger than they were three months ago. I settled into a nice rhythm in my granny gear and, whilst my progress was slow, I was finding it relatively easy going. I maintained that rhythm all the way to the top, feeling quite okay. It still took me 21 minutes but I was pretty pleased to make up there so comfortably. In fact, I found the other road up Willunga Hill (Victor Harbour Road - that I climbed a couple of weeks ago) to be more punishing. Anyway, now that I’ve done it, I reckon I could push a bit harder and maybe knock 4 or 5 minutes off my time (which would lift me from 489^th to around 400^th place out of 537 for this climb on Strava! Whooaa .… go crazy.) Here's some pics I took on the way up (I managed to not drop my phone this time).

Anyway, I stopped for a quick drink before heading off along Range Road. This is a great part of the ride – it’s a pretty quiet road with great views down the coast to left and across the rolling hills to the right. After a left turn onto Pennys Hill Road, the descent starts quickly. On this particularly quiet morning, it was extraordinarily good fun and I even managed to finally crack the 70km/h mark. 

Range Road

Looking to the coast from Range Road

The top of the Pennys Hill descent

From there on it was relatively cruisy around to the end of the expressway, where I stopped for a stretch in the tunnel. I was 75 km into the journey and my legs were getting pretty sore - I was hoping there was enough left in them for the climbing up to O’Halloran Hill. Mind you, I think my bum was hurting more than my legs – might be time to try another saddle. Anyway, I forged ahead and got through the hills, rolled down the Veloway from Majors Road, then headed across to the coast for a spin along the Esplanade and back. The last 15km was fairly painful. I kept cramping up but I was determined to reach my goal and not get off the bike. So it ended up being a painfully slow and painfully painful last few kilometres.

So, all up it was a bit of a milestone ride – I finally did my ‘century’, I got up Old Willunga Hill without stopping and I did my fastest speed. Life’s just dandy.