Audax Alpine Classic (Victoria, Australia) 2015 - part 2

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Shut Up Legs

Down Under Member
The St Bernard Snow Clearing Depot, which is immediately followed by a section of road that plunges downwards at about -20% grade, which makes it a tough little interruption to the descent on the way back to Harrietville.
20150124-mt-hotham-11-mt-st-bernard-snow-clearing-depot.jpg


Immediately after the above depot, another Mt Hotham challenge awaits: CRB Hill, a 10% grade over 1.1km (0.7mls).
20150124-mt-hotham-12-crb-hill-bot.jpg


Here's the view of the top of the same hill.
20150124-mt-hotham-13-crb-hill-top.jpg


About 25km (15.5mls) from the Harrietville start of the climb, a saddle provides panoramic views on both sides of the road. On this day, sunlight broke through the clouds intermittently, colouring the hill sides with a mixture of light and shade.
20150124-mt-hotham-14-saddle.jpg


Getting near the Mt Hotham village, you can see it from nearby hills.
20150124-mt-hotham-15-village-from-afar.jpg


The view from Dannys Lookout, a spectacular (and very windy) part of Mt Hotham. I was starting to have trouble holding the camera steady, due to the incessant strong wind.
20150124-mt-hotham-16-dannys-lookout.jpg


When almost there, another cyclist noticed me clicking away with my camera, and offered to take a photo of me. So here I am, with my Specialized Roubaix Expert SL4 road bike, a perfect mountain-climbing bike. I think I'll switch to a smaller saddle-bag, though, because that one just looks ridiculously big. :rolleyes:
Behind me is The Diamantina, another part of The Great Alpine Rd given its own name. Again, I don't know the origin of the name, despite searching for it.
20150124-mt-hotham-17-almost-there.jpg


The Diamantina, closer this time, with some mist closing in on the Mt Hotham summit. While I was approaching the summit, the temperature dropped down to about 14°C, even though it was about 30°C down in the valleys.
20150124-mt-hotham-18-diamantina.jpg


The Diamantina, looking down hill this time, at some other cyclists grinding their way to the top.
20150124-mt-hotham-19-diamantina2.jpg


The entrance to the Mt Hotham Alpine Village, also known as The Hull Skier Bridge.
20150124-mt-hotham-20-village-entrance.jpg


The view from the village, a nice reward for 30km (18.5mls) and 1300m (4260ft) of climbing. :smile:
20150124-mt-hotham-21-village-view.jpg


After a brief water-stop in the village, I then reversed my course and rode (mostly) down to Harrietville, then on to Bright, arriving in Bright just before 1pm. So the total elapsed time was about 7 hours, as I stuck to my plan of taking it easy and saving my legs for the even bigger day ahead, the Audax Alpine Classic 200km ride.

(To be continued in part 3... )
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Nice!

I never think of Australia as having proper mountains, but obviously it does ... Wikipedia article.
 
Top Bottom