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Audax Australia
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Bikejournal
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Cycling Adventurer
The Cycling Adventurer has tossed in the structured life of an urbanite to explore the world by bicycle. A well-written site detailing how he came to cycling, and what he learned along the way.

Crazy Guy on a Bike

Bicycle touring journals from all over the world, including a couple of my own.

Johns Cycles

This is my LBS on the Gold Coast. While they cater more to the racing market, their service, advice and workmanship is the best on the coast.

St Kilda Cycles

Importers of all manner of things hard to find in Australia, including the legendary Schmidt hub dynamo & E6 lights.

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Lance Notstrong
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Aussie Writer and Cycletourist
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Allez
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London Cycling Diary
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CouchPilot-2-BikePilot (Zin's cycling blog)
Living an adventurous life with Type-2-Diabetes.

The adventures of Crazy Biker Chick
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Redneck Espanol
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Treadly and me
"Work is something I do between riding my bicycle".

Crowlie
Womanist philosophy and theology. Cycling, climbing, art, single-motherhood and fire-twirling.

Adrian Fitch's random rambling.
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Geo's big adventure
The life and times of Geo.

It's about the bike
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Spinopsys
Various cycling tidbits.

Industry Outsider
A blog about bikes and stuff.

Tweed Coast Treadly
An old man's bicycle riding diary.

A cyclist's life in Tenerife
(Canary Islands).

Bike to work to live to bike
It's never too late to get back on the bike

Stupid Hurts
Just the random scribblings of a guy with a bicycle

I'm not drunk enough for this
Really, I'm not.

BikeHacks
What can I say? Just read it.

Mozam's cycling adventures
A random collection of the things I like to do most, and mostly that is to ride my bikes, bicycles that is... My musings from competitive riding, long distance endurance to puttering around the neighborhood..

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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

K.O.M



It's my blog and I'll gratuitously post pictures from bike rides if I want to. These were actually from a ride a few weeks ago, but I didn't get around to posting a ride report at the time. Now that I'm trying to get confidence and motivation back after a couple of nasty crashes, it seems like an opportune time to post them now. This particular ride involved a 175km trek through the Gold Coast Hinterland with two major climbs, O'Reillys and Beechmont.



O'Reillys is actually quite unusual for Queensland in that it actually experiences winter. On this particular day, I'm fairly certain the temperature on that particular mountain wouldn't have reached 10 degrees C during the entire day -- despite the bright sunshine. It's also one of my favourite all time climbs on three continents. The switchback road with the steady gradient switches sides of the mountain, offering different views around every corner and oozing character. The higher parts pass through dense world-heritage-listed rainforest.



The descent can be treacherous in wet weather, but on this day that was never going to be a problem. I did, however, manage to pick up a flat tyre in the Canungra valley below, which delayed me from reaching the other climb, the western approach to the Beechmont Range. The gentle scenery at the bottom of the valley gives no indication of what is to come on this climb, and it's long stretches of double-figure gradients. This climb isn't so bad in isolation, but in the latter sections of a long ride with O'Reillys already in your legs, it becomes difficult. Was I especially fatigued this day after a flat tyre? Hardly, but this climb always seems to take a lot out of me.



The rewards come at the top of the range, sweeping views first of the ranges to the west, then after passing through Beechmont village and switching to the other side of the range, the views over Numinbah Valley, Springbrook, Horseshoe falls (after solid rain) and the coast. I was back in the mountain air, and the cooler temperatures helped me recover quickly from the climb. I probably didn't need to stop at the store at Lower Beechmont village, which is followed by a 7km descent, but I had made a promise to myself.



The promise kept, I headed for the descent, and the ups and downs of Gilston before returning to the coast, knowing that I had to recuperate quickly to take some friends out to Dickfos falls the next day. I still had a good couple of hours to savour this ride, however, and after the crash five days later, I had even longer to savour it.

2 Comments:

Blogger Apertome said...

That is some absolutely incredible scenery. What a ride!

2:10 am  
Blogger martin said...

This is a beautiful place to ride.

8:11 am  

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