As well as doing great car hire deals, the DIY Car Hire team also love to cycle. Mountain bikes, road bikes, 'fixies', single speed - for every mode of cycling, there's someone on the DIY Car Hire team who loves to do it - the harder the challenge the more we like it.
Our most recent adventure saw Pete and Hugh venture from Brisbane to the beautiful town of Bright in northern Victoria for the annual Audax Alpine Classic. This is just about as close to alpine country as we get in Australia and, while not big in European terms, the mountains here are big enough to test even the hardest riders.
Rather than driving from Brisbane, our radonneurs flew into Melbourne Airport on the day before the ride, picked up a nifty Mitsubishi Outlander from Thrifty Car Hire, loaded our bike boxes, food and kit and, like two boy scouts on a brand new adventure, headed north up the Hume Highway.
An easy 3 hour drive (including the stop for a great bacon and egg sandwhich)later we pulled into Wangaratta - still 70km from Bright but as close as we could find accommodation at short notice.
Wangaratta is a one of the prettiest towns you could hope to find and is a major service centre for surrounding farms (wheat, sheep, grapes) and wineries. Note that every Australia Day week-end, Wangaratta hosts a twilight athletics and cycling meet at the local showgrounds. We only heard about this when checking into our hotel and spent a leisurely couple of hours watching this thoroughly Australian event.
On to Bright - riders can choose from any one of several events at the Alpine Classic, from a 70km 'bakery ride' with only one fairly easy hill, to the full 200km classic with one easy, one moderate and two hard climbs. Since the first race in 1986, all this takes place on the Sunday of the Australia Day long-weekend, and attracts around 3000 riders on various two wheeled steeds.
While the mornings are cool and clear, the days can get very hot and this year was no exception as the mercury passed 34 degrees C. Now 34 degrees may not sound hot, but when you've just ridden 100km and climbed about 4000 vertical metres, with 100km and 2000 vertical metres to go, it's hot enough to test the strongest will.
Sadly, the heat, the hills and severe cramps got the better of our two intrepid DIY Car Hire riders this year, with both retiring hurt at the 130km mark - fortunately this point coincides with electrolyte drinks, cool beer and loads of high carb food at Howitt Park in Bright where the Bonjour Bright festival was in full swing - so until next year the Alpine Classic remains unconquered.
Our next major challenge is the 100km Flight Centre Cycle Epic which doubles as the Australian MTB Marathon Championships - at least we have all completed this one before so know what to expect - a long, dusty day in the saddle.
Our most recent adventure saw Pete and Hugh venture from Brisbane to the beautiful town of Bright in northern Victoria for the annual Audax Alpine Classic. This is just about as close to alpine country as we get in Australia and, while not big in European terms, the mountains here are big enough to test even the hardest riders.
Rather than driving from Brisbane, our radonneurs flew into Melbourne Airport on the day before the ride, picked up a nifty Mitsubishi Outlander from Thrifty Car Hire, loaded our bike boxes, food and kit and, like two boy scouts on a brand new adventure, headed north up the Hume Highway.
An easy 3 hour drive (including the stop for a great bacon and egg sandwhich)later we pulled into Wangaratta - still 70km from Bright but as close as we could find accommodation at short notice.
Wangaratta is a one of the prettiest towns you could hope to find and is a major service centre for surrounding farms (wheat, sheep, grapes) and wineries. Note that every Australia Day week-end, Wangaratta hosts a twilight athletics and cycling meet at the local showgrounds. We only heard about this when checking into our hotel and spent a leisurely couple of hours watching this thoroughly Australian event.
On to Bright - riders can choose from any one of several events at the Alpine Classic, from a 70km 'bakery ride' with only one fairly easy hill, to the full 200km classic with one easy, one moderate and two hard climbs. Since the first race in 1986, all this takes place on the Sunday of the Australia Day long-weekend, and attracts around 3000 riders on various two wheeled steeds.
While the mornings are cool and clear, the days can get very hot and this year was no exception as the mercury passed 34 degrees C. Now 34 degrees may not sound hot, but when you've just ridden 100km and climbed about 4000 vertical metres, with 100km and 2000 vertical metres to go, it's hot enough to test the strongest will.
Sadly, the heat, the hills and severe cramps got the better of our two intrepid DIY Car Hire riders this year, with both retiring hurt at the 130km mark - fortunately this point coincides with electrolyte drinks, cool beer and loads of high carb food at Howitt Park in Bright where the Bonjour Bright festival was in full swing - so until next year the Alpine Classic remains unconquered.
Our next major challenge is the 100km Flight Centre Cycle Epic which doubles as the Australian MTB Marathon Championships - at least we have all completed this one before so know what to expect - a long, dusty day in the saddle.
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