4 replies to this topic

[calogurlie]

Hi - i'm quite new to this forum, so please forgive me if this is not in the right place.
I've just started doing triathlons - did my first race about 3 weeks ago (Novice length) and have another this coming weekend.

Anyways, in my training with my triathlon club I have been doing 2 on-road rides a week with distances around the 40 km mark.
I'm going to be spending about 3 weeks in Melbourne over Christmas/NY and want to keep this training going (perhaps building up slowly to 50 km) as I have a few more races in the New Year.

I'm not very confident on the roads, and like riding in cycle lanes when on busy arterial roads.
I'm going to be staying around Essendon - and was thinking I might try and do a ride north up Mickleham Road, then west along Somerton Road to Gellibrand Hill Park and then back again - does anyone know if these roads have cycle lanes as I think they carry quite a bit of heavy traffic diverting from the Tullamarine Freeway?

Or if anyone has suggestions of a nice 50 km ride (on-road) or good roads to ride on (with cycle lanes) around the Essendon area (Buckley Street, Milleara Road, Pascoe Vale Roadm Mount Alexander Road, Sharps Road, Melrose Drive etc) , it would be very appreciated

[slowaz]

I am not a cyclist but there are sealed bike tracks along the Western Ring road and along the Maribyrnong River south of the "Aberfeldie" (Moonee valley) athletics track (near Maribyrnong Rd) that should be pretty accesible to you. I have run along the river and you could get nearly 50 kms in going in towards the city as far as you can go on the sealed track and back. if you wanted to ride on the roads specifically i would avoid Mt Alexandr Rd as it carries very heavey traffic and trams, also Buckley St and Pascoe Vale Rd are very busy as both pass through a number of shopping centres. If you could conveniently get to Melrose Drive or Sharps Rd these would be OK and it would not take too much to then get out of suburbia onto some quieter roads past Greenvale.

[Prozac]

calogurlie, on Dec 14 2009, 11:03 AM, said:

Hi - i'm quite new to this forum, so please forgive me if this is not in the right place.
I've just started doing triathlons - did my first race about 3 weeks ago (Novice length) and have another this coming weekend.

Anyways, in my training with my triathlon club I have been doing 2 on-road rides a week with distances around the 40 km mark.
I'm going to be spending about 3 weeks in Melbourne over Christmas/NY and want to keep this training going (perhaps building up slowly to 50 km) as I have a few more races in the New Year.

I'm not very confident on the roads, and like riding in cycle lanes when on busy arterial roads.
I'm going to be staying around Essendon - and was thinking I might try and do a ride north up Mickleham Road, then west along Somerton Road to Gellibrand Hill Park and then back again - does anyone know if these roads have cycle lanes as I think they carry quite a bit of heavy traffic diverting from the Tullamarine Freeway?

Or if anyone has suggestions of a nice 50 km ride (on-road) or good roads to ride on (with cycle lanes) around the Essendon area (Buckley Street, Milleara Road, Pascoe Vale Roadm Mount Alexander Road, Sharps Road, Melrose Drive etc) , it would be very appreciated

Hi Calogurlie, I used to live there and there are few opporunities for you to ride on roads with bike lanes. I highly suggest you stay away from Pascoe Vale rd, Mount Alexander Rd, Sharps Rd, Melrose Drive because they carry quite alot of unfriendly cycling traffic. The roads around Gellibrand don't carry that much traffic and if you bik can handle slightly rough sandy paths Gellibrand offers some great paths. You could catch the train to Jacana staion (I used to) and make your way to the ring rd and travel towards Greensborough and exit at Plenty Rd which has a bike path all the way past Whittlesea. Plenty Rd is used heavily by cyclists due to its great bike path.

I hope this helps you out.

[Prozac]

Prozac, on Dec 16 2009, 01:44 PM, said:

Hi Calogurlie, I used to live there and there are few opporunities for you to ride on roads with bike lanes. I highly suggest you stay away from Pascoe Vale rd, Mount Alexander Rd, Sharps Rd, Melrose Drive because they carry quite alot of unfriendly cycling traffic. The roads around Gellibrand don't carry that much traffic and if you bik can handle slightly rough sandy paths Gellibrand offers some great paths. You could catch the train to Jacana staion (I used to) and make your way to the ring rd and travel towards Greensborough and exit at Plenty Rd which has a bike path all the way past Whittlesea. Plenty Rd is used heavily by cyclists due to its great bike path.

I hope this helps you out.

I forgot to mention the Moonee Ponds Creek bike path runs through there and it isn't used too much so you shouldn't get slowed down too often. Head towards Greenvale where you will bump into less people.

[Andrew(ajh)]

I live in Greenvale and ride out here quite a bit.

Mickleham Rd has bike lanes up to Greenvale, but then not from there up, but the shoulder is fairly wide. There are some good country roads out through Wildwood (if you don't mind the odd hill), there is a nice 42km loop from Greenvale through Wildwood I do every now and then. These roads are better on weekends, especially earlyish when there is very little traffic.

The Moonee Ponds Creek Trail runs all the way up to Roxburgh Park, and you can find your way through to Craigieburn if you know where to go. Then from Craigieburn you can return back down the Hume Freeway Bikepath and the Western Ring Road path.

I do tend to ride more on the bike paths, they are pretty good and not too crowded.

What sort of speed you looking at riding at for your training rides?