Did this ride to Hahndorf today. Highlights were the gentle descent down the beautiful Aldgate Valley Rd, the short ride up Ambleside Rd in Hahndorf (which passes by The Cedars), and Collins Rd between Summertown and Ashton which has a steep descent down into a gully followed by a picturesque climb back up to Lobethal Rd (there were warnings that it was a gravel rd, but actually it’s a nice riding surface, though it might not be so good going down, or in the wet). It was probably about equal to my previous longest ride but that one wasn’t into the hills. Next challenge might be Strathalbyn.

Just got back from 2 weeks in Sydney and Brisbane which means 2 weeks of no riding, so to make up for it I thought it was time to have a go at the well known Corkscrew Road climb. It has to be one of the most spectacular I’ve done, the view at the top when you look back down into the valley and see the road winding below you is great. I thought that by the time I got to the top I’d just cruise back down the Montacute Rd descent but it was so great to be back out on the bike I went the other way instead and completed the climb to Marble Hill and then back down through Norton Summit. A good start to my training for the 100km Amy’s Ride next month.

Did the following ride today

It’s a spectacular ride, for about 20km from Athelstone to Chain of Ponds you follow the Torrens River, after all the rain last week it’s really flowing. Mostly Gorge Rd isn’t a difficult ride, but the climb up to the top of the dam is hard.

View Larger Map
That’s the only really steep bit though. It’s a fairly narrow road, but has a good surface and once you get past the dam there is not much traffic at all. The ride down through Cudlee Creek is really beautiful.
Gorge Rd meets the Adelaide-Mannum road between Chain of Ponds and Gumaracha. This is a much busier road, though for the most part is wider. There are a few narrow bits though. Also there’s some reasonable climbs, there’s one particularly nasty one into a cutting where I was really starting to suffer as I tried to ride as fast as possible to get past the narrow section (I think my legs still hadn’t recovered from a ride up the Crafers bikeway yesterday as well).

View Larger Map
I got a bit lost and came back down the wrong way, I meant to come down Lower North East Rd but missed the turnoff so ended up coming down North East Rd instead – not a particularly nice descent. It’s never very steep, but there’s lots of traffic and the road surface isn’t great, I suspect the Lower NE rd one would be a better option. I didn’t realise I’d gone the wrong way until I came down and couldn’t work out where Grand Junction Rd had gone!

Here’s a ride I did recently, unfortunately I can’t seem to get the 3d video embedded as before though. Montacute Rd is a great climb, it starts with a gentle slope up the valley before you climb up onto a ridge which takes you pretty much all the way over to Norton Summit. The view on the way up the climb was beautiful, I imagine that it could be quite spectacular up on the ridge but yesterday all you could see was fog. Thanks to Ianto for recommending the ride (go buy his book here.) Also thanks to Cakesy for the photos

I just found this feature on MapMyRide, after mapping out a route you can show a 3d video of it. Here is a ride I did yesterday (with full details here):

[youtube n-AbPav5E5M]

via Adelaide Cyclists

and here’s Copenhagen

[youtube OYajXN4pPHI]

Tonight sees the final stage of the 2009 Tour de France, which finishes as always in Paris. Overall I’ve found the 2009 tour to be enjoyable, I think that the organisers came up with an interesting route. Monaco was a great place for the opening time trial, Annecy was also a good time trial setting (especially for a Rohmer fan), the stage finish in Barcelona (nasty weather though), the exciting mountain finish in Andorra, some spectacular descents in the Alps and of course the famous Mont Ventoux last night.

Of course the tour has been heavily dominated by to riders, both backed by strong support from their teams. The tour leader Alberto Contador and the incredibly strong Astana team with the likes of Armstrong and Kloden (and Leipheimer until his early withdrawal), but also there is Mark Cavendish who has been incredibly dominant in the sprints with numerous stage wins. His team (Columbia) did a great hob of getting him into the best position each time, especially his lead out man Mark Renshaw. Thor Hushovd has kept things interesting by aggressively going for points to get ahead of Cavendish for the green jersey, there should be enough points up for grabs for them to fight it out tonight.

It’s hard not to wonder what we might have seen if Contador and Armstrong had have gone head to head rather than being team mates, but it looks like we’ll get that next year. Also strong this year was their team mate Kloden, the Schleck brothers and I was impressed by the Liquigas team who had a great team time trial and have the King of the Mountains (Pellizotti) plus two top ten finshers (Nibali, Kreuziger). The other big standout was Bradley Wiggins who put in a great effort to threaten the other big names, and was well supported by Vande Velde.

A number of big names struggled to make an impact, of course the focus was on Cadel Evans here in Australia, but also last year’s winner Carols Sastre, and Giro d’Italia winner Denis Menchov also failed to finish high in the GC.

One big difference this year from recent years is the lack of a drug scandal, which is something of a relief for the follower of the tour, however given the events of recent years you can’t help but wonder whether the riders are clean or the cheats are once again gaining the upper hand over the testers.

Anyway, even with the GC decided firmly in favour of Contador there is still plenty of interest tonight, can Cavendish grab yet another stage win, or can Hushovd gain the upper hand to keep the green jersey. On top of that there’s the usual spectacular backgroung of Paris.