Seven Hills on Sunday

I went out for a bit of a post-accident shakedown ride on Sunday morning. My rib and my wrist were still sore, so I wasn't sure how far I'd get. I was pretty keen to at least try Saddle Hill Road up in the Belair National Park. After doing Sheoak Road three weeks ago, I posted a comment on Adelaide Cyclists and another member suggested that Saddle Hill Road is a good alternative route up that way. It's still steep but doesn't have that ridiculous bit at the start.

I also felt the need to get back out on the road to try and get my cycling mojo back. Riding on quiet roads in the hills is obviously different to doing an urban commute in busy traffic but I nonetheless had a strong need to get out there and get amongst it. I've been a bit of a nervous wreck commuting in traffic especially in the few days after the accident. I've always considered myself to be a reasonably safe and defensive rider but I'm more cautious now. Having experienced someone doing something completely unpredictable and reckless, I keep expecting everyone to do the same. Every time I have someone on my right when approaching a left hand corner I find myself braking in anticipation of them swinging in front of me. I'm sure I'll stop being so paranoid in the weeks to come but maybe just a bit of paranoia and extra vigilence is a good thing. I don't want it to diminish my cyling experience and take the fun away, but equally, I don't want to end up on the deck again.

Sunday's ride ended up becoming somewhat of an epic. I read a write up recently of the 'Dirty Dozen' ride in Adelaide last year (here, nicely written by Adam Willis with great pics) which involved a bunch of riders doing 12 of Adelaide's steepest climbs - a total of around 3000m of climbing - in one day. It's given me some ideas for future climbs. Anyway, Sunday's ride ended up being my scaled down version - 'Seven Hills' perhaps. I did 1512m of ascending over 84km which is more climbing than I've ever done in one ride. Here's a list of the the main parts of each climb, with stats from Strava segments:

Shepherds Hill Road (bottom end)      2.3km @ 6.3%
Cherry Plantation Road, BNP             0.9km @ 11.2%
Saddle Hill Road, BNP                      1.5km @ 8.0%
Sheoak Road (east end)                    1.0km @ 8.7%
Mt Lofty Summit Road                       2.3km @ 5.1%
Germantown Hill                                1.6km @ 6.1%
Old Mt Barker Rd (from Kain Ave)       1.2km @ 7.4%

As you can see, it's mostly short, sharp and shiney climbs. Not suprisingly, the hardest was Cherry Plantation Road in Belair National Park, which was actually a mistake. I missed the turn-off to Saddle Hill Road and kept riding thinking I was on it. I should have twigged when I came upon a 'no through road' sign, then a boom gate across the road. I persisted and the road turned steep very quickly and was littered with twigs and bark due to the fact that vehicles hardly ever go up (or down) there. It took some serious zig zagging and dodging of the debris, but I made it to the top. The road flattened out and I followed it to it's logical conclusion, which should have found me on Sheoak Road. However, when I reached the junction it looked suspiciously like Upper Sturt Road. I contemplated following it to Crafers but I was determined to do Saddle Hill Road, so I re-traced my steps and finally found the turn off. It turned out to be a particularly nice road to ride on with bugger all traffic - it was still steep and challenging but not as severe and demoralising as Sheoak Road.

The Valley Road - very pretty

The start of the Cherry Plantation Road climb

The start of the Saddle Hill Road climb

and further along

I've had another minor acheivement this week. I finally made it to the top of a Strava leaderboard for my age bracket. It's on one of those countless short urban segements which really are a bit naff. It's the diagonal path running through the south parklands linking Morphett Road/South Tce with Goodwood/Greenhill Roads. It was quite accidental - I was just enjoying having a tailwind on my commute home (for a change) and thought I'd give my legs a bit of a blast. Anyway, I'm number one out of 23 in the old buggers' age bracket (45 - 54). Happy happy, joy joy.....