Brutish hills and spectacular views await those willing to take on the challenge of the Gold Coast Peaks discovers Andrew Demack.
Okay, should we get this bit out of the way first? Bicycle Network and Bicycle Queensland’s newest ride—Peaks Challenge Gold Coast (Saturday 8 August, 2015)—is going to be super, super hard, and the first climb of the ride, Henri Robert Drive up Mount Tamborine, is a total brute.
I set out recently to test ride some sections of the Peak Challenge Gold Coast course with four friends, all of whom are better at riding up hills than me.
But although the first climb to Mount Tamborine is a bit nasty, the overall ride was brilliant.
The Gold Coast hinterland is always green and pleasant, but after a rainy late summer, including the remnants of a cyclone dumping plenty of water on south-east Queensland, the countryside looks spectacular, and the Peaks Challenge route takes in some of the most picturesque roads in the region.
We started in Nerang, and warmed up on the gentle ascent of Beaudesert-Nerang Road. After about 14km, we turned onto Henri Robert Drive. The climb could best be described as Pyrenean. Thankfully after 2.5km of 18% average grade, the road flattens out.
Unfortunately, after a couple of kilometres of respite, it does kick up again to the aforementioned 18% for another 800 metres.
I’m not ashamed to say that the reason I use SPD mountain bike shoes and pedals on all my bikes is because sometimes you just gotta walk up a hill.
I rode my cyclocross bike on this day, shod with road tyres, and a 36 x 28 low gear. Others in the group had 34 x 27, and one unlucky or masochistic rider had 39 x 27.
It didn’t matter. We all struggled. Those of us with a BMI in the high 20s didn’t make it without some walking, and even the skinny mountain goats had to stop for a breather halfway up.
It’s an interesting question as to what effect this hill will have on participants in the Peaks Challenge Gold Coast. If you have to walk some parts of the first climb, will that put you under pressure to meet time cut-offs later in the day? I suspect it will.
Once on the Tamborine plateau, heart rates returned to a more normal operating range, and discussion began about the best route.
Peaks Challenge Gold Coast will descend from Mount Tamborine on the northside, down to Tamborine Village. But on this day, we took the quicker, more direct route down to Canungra, on Tamborine Mountain Road.
The reason? The author of this article didn’t want to use up lots of his energy along the valley floor from Tamborine Village to Canungra … he thought he might need it for climbs later in the ride.
This road, known to locals as The Goat Track, suffered some damage during heavy summer rain a couple of years ago. The silver lining is that the rebuilt sections are far safer than earlier versions of this road.
We negotiated the descent and arrived quickly in Canungra, home of the Outpost Cafe, where the coffee is passable (order a double shot, even if that’s not your regular) and the food is filling.
By now it was a typical late summer day for this part of the world. That means a temperature in the low to mid 30s, and a level of humidity that causes buckets of sweat.
Our route took us east from Canungra a short distance towards the coast, but then we took the Beechmont turnoff, past the Kokoda Army barracks, and beside the upper reaches of the Coomera River.
Sharp Park River Bend is a sensational camping spot on the river, and Brad and I stopped to take photos while the others motored ahead towards the Beechmont climb.
There was respite from the heat of the day only in the shaded sections off-road up this longer climb. The climb to Beechmont is 6km, averaging about 6.5%, but it gets steeper towards the top.
In comparison to the first climb of the day, Beechmont was a cruise for most of our group. But in reality, for this rider, it was more of a slog than a cruise.
But the good thing about all climbs on all bike rides is that time passes, and at some point the climb is over. And when we got to the Beechmont plateau, it was oohs and aahs all round as we admired the views, enjoyed the lack of traffic and snapped photos of each other and our surrounds.
Perhaps the principal danger was that if you stayed in one spot too long the vegetation would engulf you.
Beechmont would be a beautiful part of the world to live in, but I already complain about how often I have to mow my lawn in Brisbane. I imagine homeowners in Beechmont give their lawn a trim in the morning, and then by the afternoon it has the appearance of a hairy man with a five o’clock shadow.
Beechmont Road traces a 14km circuit around the plateau, and then points you back down towards Lower Beechmont (downhill, hooray!) where there’s a shop for a final refuel.
And for us there was a further descent back down to Nerang. Our ride on this day was a mere 76.5km, less than a third of what Peaks Challenge riders will face.
Two of our group have entered the event, and finished this ride planning to come back and ride a couple more of the Gold Coast climbs very soon, as part of their build-up towards the event on the first weekend of August.
With Mt Tamborine and Beechmont under their belts, the next target will be a ride from Mudgeeraba which takes in Springbrook and Natural Arch, diving down to Chillingham for a frozen choc-coated banana and returning via Murwillumbah and Tomewin.
Peaks Challenge Gold Coast is a harder ride than any event Bicycle Queensland has been involved with thus far. We look forward to seeing both Queensland locals and interstate visitors tackling the massive challenge that it entails, and enjoying the satisfaction that meeting such a challenge brings.
For more info about Peaks Challenge Gold Coast: bicyclenetwork.com.au/peaks-challenge-gold-coast
