The Dirty Dozen has been running for a few years, however this was my first opportunity to take part. In summary the event is a socially organised ride that tackles 13 of Adelaides steepest climbs. This covers about 3km of vert and 115kms of road. Funnily enough I had done next to no hill training for this. Since moving to Plympton I have been doing a lot more long flat riding, so needless to say I was slightly concerned seeming in the past 3 months I think I had a total vert count of maybe the total vert of this one event.
Anyways I'm always down for a challenge so I was at Red Berry Espresso 6:45 am sharp for the rider briefing, and then by 7:30ish we hit it. First up, Mt Osmond. See the full hill list below.
Mt Osmond (Hayward Dve) - 2.3km @ 9.7% Gill Tce - 0.6km @ 14.7% Kensington Rd - 1.3km @ 11.5% Coach Rd - 2.4km @ 9.8% Coach House Dve / Woodlands Way - 2.7km @10.1% Cleland Wildlife Park access road - 1.2km @ 10.6% Whitewood Dve - 1.1km @ 10.3% Heather Rd - 0.6km @ 12.4% Ridge Rd - 1.3km @ 9.5% Morgan Rd - 1km @ 10.4% Pole Rd - 1km @ 9.9% Lynton (Caroline) Bike Path - 0.7km @ 11.1% Sheoak Rd - 5.2km @ 4.7% (incl sections of 0.5km @ 15.2% and 1km @ 8.7%)
Anyways, the day went so well. The organisers were rad and had bananas and drinks at the top of a few of the big climbs which was totally unnecessary, but so appreciated. The total bitch of a climb went to Sheoak Rd, as expected. Final climb and what a son of a bitch. Talk about nail in the coffin. Some people were struggling big time up there!
Obviously I didn't take a map, or even really look at the route before hand and thus was totally relying on other people for directions. This led to me doing an extra hill climb that wasn't on the route and adding probably an extra 10kms. So my dirty dozen was actually 14 hills and ~130kms including ride from home to the event. This didn't bother me too much, however one of the guys that took the wrong turn with me was super unstoked when he realised. I thought he was about to throw the towel in!
This ride took some amazing roads through parts of Adelaide that I am ashamed to say I have never been too before. It was so beautiful and I'll have to get back out there now that I know where all the roads go. There are also some damn steep hills in Adelaide so no excuses to not get those hill muscles going.
Overall it was an amazing day and I'll definitely be hitting it again next year.
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