The Alpine Delight is a challenging cycling event for experienced cyclists with a "delightful" route thorough the beautiful and scenic alpine region in the glory of late spring.
The route begins at Howitt Park in Bright and follows along the wonderful Ovens valley through Germantown, Freeburgh and Smoko to Harrietville. Here the road swings steeply upward through the tall timber on the lower slopes of Mt Hotham and continues ever upward with varying degrees of difficulty including 'The Meg' at 9%, CRB hill at 10% and Diamatina Rise at 9.7%.
As you climb the scenery is ever changing, the tall trees thinning out around but magnificent vistas at every turn. Once the village is reached at Hotham Heights, the road turns downward as it heads towards Dinner Plain through the alpine meadows and beyond to more open farmland on the far side of the mountain on the fabulous descent into Omeo. The long fast descent is generally without highly technical requirements but it has a couple of decent hills just to keep your legs warm. Climbing out of Omeo is a long and steep affair reversing the fabulous descent all the way back to the top. Unlike the Omeo side, the descent to Harrietville requires more skill and control but it is a really enjoyable ride.
Hard climbs, fast descents and superb scenery are features of this event.
The 100km riders will turn back at Mt Hotham Heights Village and return to Bright, while the 200km riders continue to their turn around point at Omeo.
A map of the route is available at Bikley.com or view the ride profile.
Alternatively, check out these reports by the Climbing Cyclist about climbing Mt. Hotham and the climb to Dinner Plain.
Entrants in this event will be riding on the highest sealed road in Australia and will be subject to alpine weather conditions. On any single day these can be both highly variable and extreme. At altitude the temperature may be more than 15° lower than at the start and accompanied by fog, wind, snow or rain.
In the interest of rider safety, the following conditions apply to the Alpine Delight.
Before riding out, all entrants will be required to show that they are carrying:
- A rain jacket (shower jackets are not adequate for mountain conditions);
- Thermal arm and leg cover (plain lycra is not sufficient at high altitude)
- A space blanket; (available from outdoors shops for ~$5)
- Minimum repair equipment of tubes, pump and tyre levers
- At least 2 water bottles
- Pocket food (bars, gels etc) for sustenance on the long climbs
All bikes must carry both a head and a tail light and entrants in the 200 km ride must comply with Audax lighting rules and the Reflective garment guidelines.
Please note: In the case of extreme weather the event may be re-routed in the interest of rider safety.
Additionally, successful completion of the 200km event will qualify you for the Audax Alpine Classic ACE250 and/or the Ultimate 320.