The world’s best cyclists will be in Australia in September for the championships. What happens when a weekend warrior tackles the route?
, which overlooks the city and tops out at 473 metres, according to the official UCI course profile. I stop to fill my water bottle, expecting this could take a while, and tell the others not to wait. I’ll see them at the top.who’s the chair of the local organising committee, kindly insists on shepherding me up the climb. It starts hard, with the second kilometre averaging 10.4%, before settling into a steady effort., Sydney peppermint and turpentine with rainforest species in the wetter areas.
But the climbing will sap the legs and have an impact later when the riders hit the Wollongong city circuit and the action heats up.The city circuit is similar to the one in Geelong when Australia last hosted the world championships in 2010. But this year’s course, overall, is more difficult. Thankfully, we are not riding the complete distance. The elite women will do six laps of the 17.1km Wollongong city circuit to complete their race and the elite men will do 12 laps. We are riding the loop just once for a total distance of about 70km.
If the photographer had not been positioned on Ramah Avenue I may have climbed off and had a lie down on the front lawn of one of the neat suburban houses. It’s steep.