Domestique - Lake Mountain
Hells 500 and the Climbing Cyclist are back with their ‘Domestique’ Rides. Today we take a look at the first ride of the summer, the awesome Lake Mountain. It’s the perfect environment to get out in the mountains and test yourself in a friendly, safe and supportive environment.
This isn’t a race. It’s an experience.
ABOUT
Domestique Cycling is running two rides as support Tourism North East’s 7 Peaks Rides, helping riders tick off two of the climbs. This year it’s Lake Mountain at 9am on 15 November 2015 and Mount Buller at 10 am on 5 March 2016.
The Domestique rides are a brilliant opportunity to ride the mountains with riders that will help cyclists of all abilities conquer some of the Victorian Alps and give you the confidence to take on the others, knowing what it takes to get up and down safely.
The Domestique rides are particularly popular with women riders who will show up in numbers. Hopefully we’ll see even more women this year, coming down and showing the boys how to climb.
THE LOCATION
The Domestique ride begins in Marysville, located 100km North East of Melbourne. The Black Saturday fires tragically destroyed Marysville on 7 February 2009. Much of the habitat around the town and around Lake Mountain was destroyed, and was left barren. With love and hard work, Marsyville has a proud strong community that has worked hard to help regrow the town and area over the past 6 years. It’s great to see the area is now beginning to get back to its former beauty.
THE CLIMB
The Domestique ride takes you up Lake Mountain. 21.3km long with an average gradient of 4.3%. But don’t be fooled by the average gradient. This is a tough climb! The first 4.5 km averages in excess of 8%. If you can get up this first section in one piece…which you will, you still have 16.8km left to climb.
If you haven’t climbed Lake Mountain before then add it to your bucket list. The climb offers stunning views, and is one of the most popular of the 7 Peaks climbs.
OUR VERDICT
We have been to several of the Domestique rides and would highly recommend them. Matt de Neef and Andy Van Bergen have been instrumental in promoting climbing throughout Victoria and the events they run are really down to earth.
No machoism, no heroism, just a bunch of cyclists all sharing a common joy of climbing. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a world class cyclist, or someone who’s there doing their first mountain climb. At the Domestique ride there’s a tonne of support, encouragement, and there’s always a Lantern Rouge to make sure that the last rider gets up and down with a smile on their face.
Check out The Climbing Cyclists review of Lake Mountain HERE
THE DETAILS
Entry is FREE so get along and enjoy!
When: Sunday November 15, 2015
Where: Marysville, Victoria, Australia
Register HERE
Hosted by Andy van Bergen and Matt de Neef.
La Velocita Rides
Do you dream of the open road, riding through beautiful rolling country and breathing in the fresh country air? Of riding roads with little traffic and testing yourself against some very spicy climbs? Well, you can get this and a lot more from this year’s Newcrest Orange Challenge.