Climber's Tour of Victoria - Stage 2 Hurstbridge to Mount Baw Baw
Ok, stage 2 of the climber's Tour of Victoria, and we're going to get straight into it with a 170 km stage with several climbs and a brutal summit finish.
Map and profile here.
Major climbs: Kinglake 7.2km@4.8% cat 3
Description and profile here.
Vesper's Hill 2.9km at 9.1% cat 3
Mount Baw Baw 6.4km at 12.0% HC.
Description & profile here
We start in Hurstbridge, something of a "tree-changer" town 50 km from central Melbourne. It's attractive enough in its own way, but rather lacking in architectural highlights. This was the best that I could do:
From here, we hit a warm-up climb almost immediately, the climb to Kinglake: 7.2km at 4.8 %. This is another favourite of Melbourne cyclists. The area was devastated in the "Black Saturday" bushfires of 2009, with 120 people dying throughout the region:
This photo of
Kinglake is courtesy of TripAdvisor
While the trees have begun to regrow from the time the photo was taken, the natural and human environment bears scars will which take many years to heal.
From there, we roll through and gently descend along Chum Creek Road into Healesville, another lovely daytripper tourist town and home of
Healesville Sanctury, a superb native animal zoo.
Unfortunately, the riders will not have a chance to dine at the wonderful
Healesville Hotel, and continue on their way through Yarra Junction. A short distance to the east is another fine climb,
Mount Donna Buang, but instead we turn south and towards Noojee. The
massive wooden trestle bridgeisn't visible from the course, but is well worth a short detour if you're down the way. The burgers at the Red Parrot Cafe are also excellent, but not recommended given what's coming...
Coming out of Noojee, the fun really begins at about 40km to go, with the short but nasty pinch of Vesper's Hill (2.9 km at 9.1%). There's basically no level road from here to the finish - you're either climbing or descending.
After what will seem like an endless series of rolling hills, the final assault on the infamous Mount Baw Baw begins. The full climb is 12.27 kilometres as 7.9%, but its infamy comes from its final 6.43 kilometres starting from the
old toll booth. The average gradient is 12%, and the road briefly peaks at 20% at "Winch corner". It is but a small mercy that the road surface is excellent, and the climb conducted almost entirely in the shade.
The view from the top at the small ski and mountain bike resort is gorgeous, but after the brutality of Baw Baw, it will be a while before the riders have any interest in looking.