So with all the rainfall the East Coast has seen over the last 12 months, we've seen a lot of impacts on communities through Australia's eastern states.
Seems like the same fate has befallen Falls Creek, one of the towns through which the Alpine Classic rides:
There's been a major slow moving landslide which has cut the road between Mt Beauty & Falls Creek. And that's the "Front of Falls" - a major climb then descent on the 200 km route (not to mention a key piece of the 130 and 320 km routes).
It seems trivial to whinge about the impact on my planned ride when road closure is having a massive impact on the livelihood of the people of Falls Creek, but impact my ride it has.
The 200 km ride hasn't been cancelled though, rather they've cut out the front of Falls and the two ascents of Mt Beauty, and replaced it with Mt Hotham.
Oooooooffff. Mt Hotham is a much tougher climb than the front of Falls. Higher, longer, steeper. I'd picked the 200 as the route avoided the steep stuff. Front of Falls doesn't get above 6%, Hotham has plenty of 9 and 10%. 6% is a comfortable grind, 10% isn't.
Here's how the Climbing Cyclist describes the two climbs:
My arse is now sucking up buttermilk.
Here's the new route. I think the only pieces of good news about it is once I've done 150km, it's literally all down hill from there. And I get to ride up CRB hill, which looks like a cool piece of road:
I doubt it will look quite as cool on the day......
I see lots of hills in my future
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