Bleve Wrote:
Walrus wrote:
Just curious, as I don't know of many other organised rides, and
those
that I know of don't have the profile of the AAC.

http://www.audax.org.au/alpine.htm

With 4 climbs over 200km and ~3500m ascent...is it the toughest day
ride for road cyclists in Australia?

The Warny is a 300km road race, the longest single stage UCI road race
in the world - it's pretty tough to complete, but it all depends on
what you mean by tough. Some would suggest that kilo is the toughest
race, or the Bendigo Madison, and they'd have a case witrh some merit.
The alpine isn't (IMO) *that* hard, as it's not a race and you can stop
& rest a lot, and remember, you only really have to ride half of it,
the rest is a roll down a hill I've done 2 warnies and an alpine,
and IMO, the alpine, while not a doddle, wasn't that hard (I did it in
'06, when it was 43 degrees up Buffalo in the arvo). I certainly felt a
lot better after the Alpine than I did after I rode the Warny.

Racing is a whole different thing though .... Races aren't about just
doing the ride at your own pace.Good point...the Warny did come to mind, but having done 250km rides
before...I didn't think it would be as hard as the Alpine (which I've
also ridden). There are the downhill parts of the Alpine, however
drafting doesn't really help that much - ie big packs aren't pulling
55kmh on flats.

The pace it's ridden at is a key factor obviously, so how about this.
*If either route (or any other Australian ride) was part of the
TdF...which would be harder?*


--
Walrus