Showing posts tagged Kenmore Hills Ride
Kenmore Hills Ride I was finally silly enough to put my hand up to accompany some of my more slender cycling brothers on what has fast become known as the KHR Pain Train. A nasty 40+ kms with some 850m of climbing including quite a few pinches of 20%. The ride was developed as training for Brisbane cyclists looking to head to France and tackle the Alps and the Pyrenees - though my riding buddies are using it as training for Grafton to Inverell (G2I). This version is the ‘Bronze’ or easy version. Yes, that’s right, there’s a ‘Silver’ and ‘Gold’ version too. The object of the ride is to do as much climbing in as few kilometres as possible without ever doubling back on yourself i.e. taking the same route twice. For a big guy like myself (193cm and 110kgs) this is completely the opposite of how I usually prefer to spend time on the bike. I’m a Redcliffe via Mango Hill guy. Give me a hundred flattish kilometres with a couple of hundred metres of climbing. Or if I’m heading upwards, I’ll take O’Reilly’s everytime - a steady 30kms of climbing at 5% with a whooshing 30kms downhill to accompany it. So, how was it? Ghastly. A god awful, excruciating, giant bag full of hurt! Around every corner, another climb - much of it at 12 and 13%, some at 16 and 17% and several nasty pinches at 20% or more. Fark me. On and on it went with the occasional downhill only, it seems, in order to commence climbing once again. My gang looked after me though. Lot’s of encouragement. Waiting patiently as I ground my way to the top of each new nasty pinch. Warning me of what lay ahead, whilst keeping the nastiest of them a secret so as to not dent my resolve. Chapeau, South Bank Bunch. Chapeau. Now it’s done, now there’s a tick in the box, I’ve been thinking am I silly enough to tackle it again? Probably. I don’t think I could do it every week. And I think my cycling buddies would pretty quickly get sick of waiting for me at the top of most of the sharper climbs. But I can see that the occasional ride on the KHR Pain Train might actually give back more in the long term than it takes out on the day. View high resolution

Kenmore Hills Ride

I was finally silly enough to put my hand up to accompany some of my more slender cycling brothers on what has fast become known as the KHR Pain Train. A nasty 40+ kms with some 850m of climbing including quite a few pinches of 20%.

The ride was developed as training for Brisbane cyclists looking to head to France and tackle the Alps and the Pyrenees - though my riding buddies are using it as training for Grafton to Inverell (G2I). This version is the ‘Bronze’ or easy version. Yes, that’s right, there’s a ‘Silver’ and ‘Gold’ version too. The object of the ride is to do as much climbing in as few kilometres as possible without ever doubling back on yourself i.e. taking the same route twice.

For a big guy like myself (193cm and 110kgs) this is completely the opposite of how I usually prefer to spend time on the bike. I’m a Redcliffe via Mango Hill guy. Give me a hundred flattish kilometres with a couple of hundred metres of climbing. Or if I’m heading upwards, I’ll take O’Reilly’s everytime - a steady 30kms of climbing at 5% with a whooshing 30kms downhill to accompany it.

So, how was it? Ghastly. A god awful, excruciating, giant bag full of hurt! Around every corner, another climb - much of it at 12 and 13%, some at 16 and 17% and several nasty pinches at 20% or more. Fark me. On and on it went with the occasional downhill only, it seems, in order to commence climbing once again. My gang looked after me though. Lot’s of encouragement. Waiting patiently as I ground my way to the top of each new nasty pinch. Warning me of what lay ahead, whilst keeping the nastiest of them a secret so as to not dent my resolve. Chapeau, South Bank Bunch. Chapeau.

Now it’s done, now there’s a tick in the box, I’ve been thinking am I silly enough to tackle it again? Probably. I don’t think I could do it every week. And I think my cycling buddies would pretty quickly get sick of waiting for me at the top of most of the sharper climbs. But I can see that the occasional ride on the KHR Pain Train might actually give back more in the long term than it takes out on the day.