Challenge of the Northern Hills

The last day of July saw the running of the Northern Hills 200 and 300k rides. Henry de Man has taken over the organising of this ride from Bob Bednarz who had successfully run the ride for many years. The routes that these rides follow put them amongst the more challenging on the calendar.

Briefing the riders

 I rode the 200 and my GPS recorded in excess of 2400m of climbing. The ride took in some well known climbs including up to Kinglake from St Andrews and Junction Hill on the Whittlesea-Yea Road. After the checkpoint at Yea the 200’s head towards Strath Creek along the King Parrot Creek Road from Kerrisdale and negotiate the climb of Murchison Gap on the way to Broadford. For the 300’s you can throw in some serious climbing in the Switzerland Ranges and in the Great Dividing Range that put that ride up to about 3700m of gain. The good thing is that all that climbing is rewarded with the equivalent amount of descending to even the score. The weather varied with some rain here and there but the majority of the day was cool and fine.

Along with a band of willing helpers Henry provided great support to the riders that almost numbered 40. This was Henry’s first go at organising a ride and he excelled. Adding a 200k option to the ride was a great move that certainly added to the numbers attending.

I had a day of feeling rather sluggish. I managed to do an extra 7k as I left the Yea checkpoint without my helmet so had to do a U-turn to retrieve it. I thereby wasted a good twenty minutes. My elapsed time for the ride was 9hr 17 mins so I finished before dark and the new Ay-ups didn't get a work out.