Rides.

Australia’s legendary alpine cycling town has some unbelievable climbs around it. Which are the best though?

If you’ve not ventured to Orange you are missing out. It’s a ridiculously good place to visit… eat, drink and enjoy the stunning Australian countryside…. and to take the bike, ride up some ripping hills at the Newcrest Orange Challenge on Sunday 31 March 2019.

I love my road bike... but the 'road' part of the name is not entirely accurate because my bike also loves eating up gravel. 

Bicycle Network’s United Energy Around the Bay is one of the most well-known mass participation rides in Australia. It’s one of the events that many new cyclists really find their legs, and one where the more seasoned riders out there train hard to bring down their time and beat their personal best.

Coming to Adelaide and looking for route information? Well, here’s some tasty options to get you rolling.

Our mate Nick Skarajew is taking on the second ever Hunt 1000. Below is his overview. This is one extreme event.

The Mawson Trail is the best fun I've ever had on a bike. Put it on your bucket list.

Introducing the 2017 La Velocita Adelaide Dirty Dozen. We're sponsoring Adelaide's hardest annual ride. Because we hate you.

Get your bike set and get ready for the Gravel Grit Central coast. It's going to be good. 

I'm not going to lie, I'm a bit scared. But I'm also excited. 

'Anyone want to do the Sydney Melbourne ride' was the call out from Drew Ginn by text message to a few of 'the guys'... two days later, he and Andrew Pike, aka Pikey, were sat on a plane with bikes and kit ready to hit the road. Last minute is not even a close to describing this one.

Lana's recent bikepacking trip to Japan didn't just yield some unbelievably pretty photos; it revealed a country that is incredibly friendly to cyclists. We were all jealous of this trip. Enjoy a top read before researching flights to Japan.

For all you Raphafarians out there it's time to get your bike looking its best, your Rapha kit ready and start banking some sleep... 'Rapha RIDES' starts this Friday 5 May and involves, as you might imagine, a bunch of rides. This weekend it's Sydney with Giro viewings followed up by four rides exploring Sydney's best.. then onto 19 other cities worldwide over 6 months.

When people who ride start talking about the “Back of Falls” you can literally see the fear in their eyes. And if they’re wearing oversized sunglasses you can tell they’re uncomfortable as they recoil in their seats, their hair stands on end (hair on arms obviously - no decent cyclist has hair on their legs) and they break out in a cold sweat.

I know some of the girls will be up around 6am to begin their preparations, so I’m up at 5 to eat and shower so I can stay out of their way on race day. I don’t know if I’m expecting some highly strung monsters, but the girls are the opposite.

La Velocita talks with Bike France, a Victorian based tour operator, that provide high quality boutique cycling trips in the Pyrenees. 

Staying in a French Château, small groups and with all your riding starting at the front gate these tours are well worth a look.

The Shimano Super Crit is back this weekend at St Kilda Cycling Club's crit circuit in Port Melbourne. If you've never been to a race you should go. If you're not a racer you should go... even if you don't ride a bike you should still go.

This is a must see event, the Super Crit takes everything to the next level and is as much a spectacle to behold as it is a bike race.

So Ballarat is not on the top of the list when it comes to many people's 'must' travel destinations... but I'm here to persuade you that as a cyclist, it should be.

A couple of weeks ago, I packed up the car with two bikes, my wife and two young kids to try and achieve the holy grail, a cycling weekend away... with family in tow. Is it possible?

The Cycling Australia Road Nationals event is quickly becoming a must on any self respecting cyclist's calendar. Standing on the side of Mount Buninyong Road during the road race you get pretty close to the experience of standing on the side of a climb in the Tour de France... to make it even better though, the riders keep coming around and around.

And even better than that you can take the opportunity to ride the Gran Fondo on closed roads and experience what it's like for yourself... combine this with five days of cracking racing and riding and you're getting pretty close to a dream cycling adventure.

Riding in the Victorian High Country does not get much better than this. In it's 30th year, last weekend's ride was another cracker, perfect conditions, awesome riding and smiles all round. We were there to get a piece of the action.

The innaugural Gravelaide Grinduro event on 30 October seeks to explore some of the less-travelled paths through the gratuitously pretty Adelaide Hills. Event organisers have served up a menu loaded with gravel, quiet back-roads, and burgers. Count us in!

The Dirty Dozen is an event like none other. This event challenges riders to get out of their comfort zone and climb 13 hills that are so steep that even a car would struggle to get up them. 

Since it first kicked off in 2010, the ride as Ol’ Dirty has involved all the things we love most about riding at La Velocita: challenging yourself, exploring new roads, spending quality time with mates, and a detailed knowledge of the history of rap music.

I cried as I shivered. I thought about my family, my wife, my kids, my parents. I love you my darling.

I started to realise what it feels like to be crazy. 

Rocacorba was damn hard, and I was hoping for some relief on the Colle delle Finestre. In retrospect, that's about the dumbest thing I have ever hoped for.

Time to get the job done in Spain.

The first Saturday in September will host the fifth Adelaide Dirty Dozen. The ride has grown rapidly as word spread about the savagery served up. Adelaide is spoilt with excellent climbing but no community event has dared to punish participants like this one. 

It's not the longest, it doesn't finish the highest, but man is it steep.