The Great Ocean Road
This road draws the best riders from around the world and offers absolutely beautiful scenery. It is the place where Cadel Evans does some of his summer training when in Australia and also the home of Phil ‘Skippy' Anderson, another Australian cycling great.
It is of course the epic Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia.
La Velocita's Aaron Mulkearns shares his years of Great Ocean Road riding experience with us.
The Great Ocean Road is one of the best roads Australia has on offer, from beautiful scenery, breath taking coastlines and wildlife…. It's a playground for cyclists and it's a hell of a spot to ride your bike!
This week, La Velocita looks at The Great Ocean Road, in particular the 'Great Ocean Road Cycling' crew, who base themselves out of the towns of Anglesea, Aireys Inlet, Fairhaven and Lorne.
'Great Ocean Road Cycling' is a group that I have had the pleasure of riding with for many years. Bunch size can vary depending on the time of year, over summer, Lorne Surf Life Saving Club is the starting point for a peloton of around 100, that then splits into bunches of 20 - 30.
We have been known to try and chase Cadel many times... we'll keep trying.
For years cycling has been a shared passion for those who live, holiday or day trip along the magnificent Great Ocean Road. All year round, every Saturday and Sunday, you can be sure to find the GORC crew meeting in Anglesea, picking up others in Aireys Inlet and Fairhaven, and heading to the meeting point at Lorne Surf Life Saving Club for the 50 kilometre round trip from Lorne to Cape Patton.
For most of the year riders leave Lorne SLSC at 8am, during the summer months it's a 7am start.
Our pilgrimage to Lorne starts from Aireys Inlet at 7.20am, with between 5 and 20 cyclists meeting for the warm up roll to Lorne. We take in the famous Great Ocean Road Arch at Moggs Creek and climb up over Big Hill. There's then a around 3kms of beautiful S-bends (used in so many car commercials) before we roll into Lorne to meet the the GORC crew.
From Lorne we head out past the beautiful Grand Hotel, on our way toward Mt Defiance, a beautiful 2.5 - 3 % climb with a little flat section about two-thirds of the way up before kicking again.
From here it is an undulating ride through Wye River, following this, the road kicks up a few times until you reach the climb nick named 'Mongrol Hill'... no explanation required here. After we are over the top, its through Koala Cove, a great place for spying Koalas sitting in the trees.
If you've got the legs there's always a race up the final climb to see who can reach the beautiful look out at Cape Patton first.
From there it's a regroup for the return to Lorne for coffee.
Depending on your starting point you can clock up between 50km and 100km. Anglesea and Lorne are 1.5 hours and 2 hours drive from Melbourne. If you have not ridden the Great Ocean Road do yourself a huge favour and get down there, you won't regret it!
