ACT Advice, please

[gorilla monsoon]

I am in the very - VERY - early planning stages for a corporate charity cycle ride and have narrowed the event location down to two places, Canberra and Albury with the national capital easing ahead as first choice.
I want to run the event for about 70 people (plus support vehicles) over a 100km route that can also be shortened to about 60-65km for the less fit/experienced.
So, Canberrans, can anyone suggest some roads I should be looking at that can make a good loop out of and back to the city or somewhere close? I would be planning the event for Easter next year so maybe even the weather or higher/lower traffic numbers around the ACT may need to be taken into consideration.
Reason for the choice of Canberra as a ride base is because of its road and air access from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide.
Hope you can take a couple of minutes to put up a suggestion or three.

[lobstermash]

What sort of difficulty level are you thinking?

The classic Canberra loop is to go out West on either Cotter Rd or Uriarra Rd, then through to Point Hut or Tharwa and head north again on Drakeford Drive. It's very scenic, can be fairly challenging (depending on the route you pick) and also covers a bit of historic Canberra areas.

Easter is a great time to do an event like this, because at least half the population will be at the coast.

[TonyMax]

Here's a route that was used earlier this year:

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/353892425" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We had closed roads for the first part which made it easier, as lobstermash said there are some quite challenging climbs on this route but it was used for a mass participation ride.

We have some quite good bike lanes/shared paths around here but for anything of length like you're suggesting you will probably have to use some road portions with narrow shoulders.

[gorilla monsoon]

Lobstermash, difficulty level is all over the shop because we have a skill and fitness base that goes from guys who pedal 25kms on Sunday morning through to guys who think 300km a week is okay to one guy who is actually a fairly reasonable triathlete/ironman competitor. Maybe we'll look at a back pack full of rocks as some sort of equaliser for those guys!

Seriously I guess the best way to do it will be to get some sort of rough course laid in early on paper and then for a couple of us to come into town and have a look at it in real life. That's about the time we'd open dialogue with the local government, constabulary, media, etc.

[lobstermash]

No need for rocks... Just limit their gearing to min 42 on the front and max 23 on the back...

In deciding on the routes, map out a few in Strava/MMR etc. and see what they look like. The toughest climb is Pierce's Creek (1.1km at 10%), which I think most people who go for a 25km trundle on the weekends could (perhaps just) handle. Most of the roads out through the Brindabellas have fairly regular large, organised cycling events held on them.

[cp123]

gorilla - jump onto the pedal power act website and look for fitz challenge. that has the route and the various short loops, longer loops and megadeath routes and hill profiles showing.


other than going west and south, I wonder if you could design a route down south - say towards Bredbo and back - but that would be highway all the way. The Hartley Challenge goes that way with support vehicles and they manage ok. Or northish out via Nanima Road to Yass and back?

what's the charity?

[gorilla monsoon]

Thanks cp123 and others. We will look at all of that. Ride will comprise mixed businesses and associates within a particular industry group and money raised will go to prostate or testicular cancer research. Or possibly split between both. We already have a private paramedic and rescue service company volunteer its services so that's a good start.

[gorilla monsoon]

A question to you Canberrans: what enticements would it take to get a couple of riding mechanics to join our merry crew if this ride comes off? I'm thinking meals and booze as an opening gambit. Might even be able to organise a few other freebies but at this stage cannot make promises.

[lobstermash]

Canberra has a very strong volunteer culture. Food and beer is plenty of enticement. Finding people that hang around in the capital for the extra long weekend is probably the biggest issue.

I'd be more than happy to help out if I'm in town.

[cp123]

you could easily sus it out either here, or elsewhere.

do you do farcebook? there is a page called the lycra diaries that is a Canberra based cycling page. You'd possibly get some takers from there. or contact Pedal Power and any of the clubs - CCC, TVCC, ACTVCC, CORC, FIT, etc and seek a 'volunteers wanted ad' in their newsletters/websites.

[gorilla monsoon]

Thanks very much for that advice/infiormation. Greatly appreciated. I put out the first email to intereswted parties last week and was surprised by the responses so at this stage it is looking good.