bikes

The Col de la Croix de Fer is unlike any other climb in the French Alps. It goes up and down, the road winds through forest then open high meadows, the gradient changes from steep to relatively easy back to steep in the space of a few kilometres... in other words, it�s a temperamental bastard. The Croix de Fer is a 'hors category' climb, thirty-one kilometres of trying to find a rhythm when the road varies so dramatically.  All this is good enough reason to indulge over breakfast. Anita is a willing host, loading the table with croissants and baguettes, home-made jams and local honey, all washed down with as much coffee as any tight fitting lycra-clad bladder can hold. It�ll be my excuse for frequent stops today while climbing. Jean-Louis wishes me �bonne chance� as I cycle down the gravel driveway. The sky is cold blue as I cruise along the valley road, a quick wave to the folk at La Cascade. I�ll be reporting in there tonight for a few recurperative glasses and perhaps some e...

  It's been a year in which I've hardly been out of the saddle. I've clocked up over 10,000 kilometres of cycling in Australia, Asia and Europe, so it seems appropriate I nominate my Top Ten rides of 2012, in no particular order. For a more detailed blog on each of the rides, click on the link. Some of the blogs featured include videos of the ride. 10.   Col du Galibier, France :  Let's start at the top shall we? The top of the French Alps, that is. Of all the mountain climbs, Col du Galibier was my favourite. For an Australian, the thrill of cycling in-between two-metre-high snow drifts was thrilling and, given it was summer, refreshingly cool. This climb is an icon of the Tour de France, for good reason - sumptuous views, excellent road surface and all that history. 9.   Hua Hin to Ban Krut, Thailand :  Three days of riding along quiet backroads through beachside villages on the Gulf of Thailand. No hills, a strong wind at our back and fantastic food for lunch...

Four months ago, I cycled up a few Tour de France mountains. It was the best fun I've ever had on two wheels. Since I've been back, my daily ride to Wentworth Falls and back has satisfied me, but I miss the thrill and challenge of a sustained climb. So today, I decide to ride to Mount Wilson, from my home in Katoomba. I figure any place with a name beginning with the word 'Mount' would require some climbing. A quick google map check tells me, I'm in for eighty-five kilometres return. I have a large lunch and set out.  In my novel, 'the simple gift', the main character, Billy describes the Great Western Highway as 'not great, not much of a highway, but it does head west...' He's right. Trucks and delivery vans crowd me as I climb steadily to Mount Victoria, where I turn off and ride past the Mount Vic Flicks. The Darling Causeway is a truck speedway and I'm buffeted the undulating length of it before turning onto the Bells Line of Road and hea...

�I will not fail in my work in proclaiming that beside Galibier you are but pale and vulgar beers. There is nothing more to do but tip your hat and salute from well below.�  So said the legendary Tour de France director, Henri Desgranges in 1911, about Col du Galibier. Allowing for the poor translation, I can but only agree with Monsieur Henri, who has a monument in his honour one kilometre from the summit.  The Galibier is an icon of cycling, used by the Tour more times than any other mountain in the Alps. Climbed twice in 2011 to celebrate its one hundredth anniversary of Tour involvement, I�m pleased I�ve left the �Giant of the Alps� until last. The summit is a whopping 2,642 metres elevation, and today I�m climbing it from Valloire, an alpine ski village eighteen kilometres down the valley. I should mention, many riders first climb Col de Telegraphe before dropping down to Valloire and taking on Galibier. One Hors Category mountain is enough for me today. The 1911 Tour win...

    When I was much younger and living in inner-city Sydney, my girlfriend and I would occasionally catch the red-rattler  train from Central to rural Moss Vale with our bicycles on board.     We'd slowly meander the backroads of the Southern Highlands admiring exotica like cows and foxes and birds. The green of the fields was reminiscent of tellytubby land. LaaLaa and I would trundle down from the Highlands into Kangaroo Valley, nervously braking at every hairpin bend, before spending the night in a caravan park beside the Kangaroo River. Next morning we'd cycle, or walk, very slowly up to Camberwarra Mountain and down the other side into Bomaderry for another red-rattler back to Sydney. It was a budget weekend away from Newtown.     Twenty five years later, the backroads are still relatively quiet as I cycle away from Moss Vale, enjoying thirty kilometres of dairy farms, intense greenery and even more intense roadkill. Foxes, wombats, snakes, kangaro...

The iconic Six Foot Track is one of the most popular bush walks in the Blue Mountains, three days of trekking from Katoomba to the Jenolan Caves. The end of its first stage, the Megalong Valley cemetery is the destination of one of my favourite bike rides in the mountains. The ride starts in the village of Blackheath, home to at least ten coffee shops and the Victory Theatre... no movies, just antiques and crockery from your Grandma�s house. To reach the start of the ride, you cross the train tracks and immediately turn left. The signs point to Shipley Plateau and Megalong Valley. Before the sweeping seven-kilometre downhill ride to the valley floor, I always warm-up with a short pedal along the plateau, past suburban houses, the occasional mock-Italian villa and Logan Brae apple orchard, still selling fresh fruit and juice, and sublime apple jelly. At the Shipley Plateau Volunteer Fire Brigade, a life-like white cockatoo sits glued to the street sign, obviously on the lookout for bus...

There's debate as to whether the iconic bogong moth was named after the Bogong High Plains where they return every summer, or that the mountain range was named after the moths. Either way, it's widely accepted that bogong means 'big fellow'. I pedal out of the 'big fellow' village and set my sights on Falls Creek, a climb of nine hundred metres over fourteen kilometres, with an average gradient of 5.7%. Unlike yesterday's ride to Mt Buffalo, this gradient plays tricks, changing from a relaxing 5% to a 'my knees are shaking' 10%. But, don't be dismayed, the hard stuff is near the summit and doesn't last for long. And there's always the view to keep me occupied. The Weather Bureau has warned of high winds, storms and torrential rain. I start early enough, crossing the Pretty Valley Branch of the East Kiewa River - nice name that one. The climbing starts immediately on good tarmac winding through snow gums surrounded by a thick carpet of fer...