…with the sound of cyclists suffering! Two weeks ago I headed down to Port Kembla to go for a ride with a friend of mine, Simon. He was going to take me up two of the bigger climbs near him - Saddleback (avg: 6.6%, max: 14%) and Jamberoo (avg: 8.5%, max: 18%) - so I could see what climbing ‘proper’ gradients is like before heading off to France.

I had my full France set-up on the bike: compact cranks, an 11-28 on the rear, plus my new Garmin 500 GPS telling me all the details on the ride: speed, cadence, HR, plus new stuff like gradient and VAM (how fast I was going vertically in metres/hour).

As it turned out Saddleback wasn’t too bad, although there were one or two super-steep pitches where my Garmin told me it was 18%, though I’m not sure how accurate it is for stuff like that yet. Jamberoo was a whole different ball game as it’s just relentless. The first couple of kilometres are just constant 10-15% with no let up which is really tough. Myself and Simon climbed at our own pace, and I’d stop every now and again to wait for him, but also to get a much-needed break! Lugging 86kg up a 14% grade is hard bloody work! There’s a section where it eases off in the middle and then the last few kilometres are mainly around 6-7% with a few 10%+ pitches.

All up we rode 118km but my knee was pretty sore by the end of it. Will have to head back to the physio!