I was feeling pretty good about myself before my last race, and I can lay the blame on Doug Stoddart. Doug is the owner of Village Vélo, a bike rental shop north of here, and of course, he is a fellow cyclist.
He knows his backyard pretty well and offered to take me up the area’s mini Ventoux – Mt. Bouquet. I had see this protrusion on the horizon of many a ride and was eager to see what it was like. Doug had been up it lots because he brings his clients (he runs tours as well) up there, timing them all on the climb. This has become, over the years, his ‘Bouquet List’ (pronounced ‘bucket’…and possibly spelled that way, too). Here is Mr. Stoddart near the foot of Mt. Bouquet.
And a closer view of the climb. As you can imagine, the top is where the antennae are; the beginning is near the bottom left of the photo. If you can make out the road from there, follow it till it looks like it goes straight up the mountain for a half cm or so – it does. That is the 1st or 2nd ramp of 20%+ that makes this climb a little tough. They aren’t very dramatic though, and the road flattens out at the top of the 2nd. Still, it’s a shock to the system to hit a wall like that.
Here is a stretch further up that was heart throbbingly steep as well, as I think you can tell.
Doug has not been riding much this year, so I went ahead of him to see what kind of time I could manage, and reached the peak in 21:20.
21:20, it turns out, puts me at No. 2 on the Bouquet List, right behind former pro racer (and ex-teammate of Tom Simpson), Colin Lewis. OK, not ‘right’ behind. More like 3 minutes.
Here is the great view from the top. This is looking east towards Mt. Ventoux, but my little lens couldn’t really capture le Geant from this far away. It’s there, if you squint.
Below is an article that Doug wrote up a few years ago when he had Colin as a client. It’s pretty entertaining, not to mention inspiring. Colin’s time on the Ventoux climb, for example, was around 1.5 hours, a very, very respectable time, especially for a guy in his sixties.
The Vicious Cycle 
So, how many repeats did you do on this hill?
I plan to repeat it someday. Does that count?
haha, awesome!
Three Ventoux ascents for me in one day this year. I think I did it in 80mins from memory.
These are awesome photos.
I think you should come ride up Mt Baw Baw with me! 25% gradients: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/78488594
Damn, that’s a high mountain for Australia. I need good reasons to go back to OZ, so I’ll add that one to the list. Thanks!
Tim – you ‘d man!!! Three Ventoux’s, how many in one day? Velo Stud!
I concur. I am thinking about doing it this Sunday again, which would make 3 in a year. I was feeling pretty good about myself till I woke up and saw Tim’s comment…
hey Gerry – I just made out the steep part of the hill….two words….COMPACT GEARS
Although I hate to admit this, I’ve got two even better words for that climb – TRIPLE RING! I know I will lose the respect of my racing blog buddies with that statement, but I was a novice when I bought the bike. I’ll upgrade to a compact soon…promise!
What a delightful article. Thanks for sharing it and the photos.
And there is Mt Glorious and Mt Mee in behind Brisbane, but as I dont have a fancy Garmin, I cannot send you a cool map like Tim’s!
And also the “V Australia” pro team climb up Springbrook, behind the Gold Coast on their training days.
There are 3 more to ad to your Oz must do’s, seeing as you are in training to become a mountain goat!
And of course Old Willunga Hill, which I read is going to have a hilltop finish next year.