Hi folks

Been thinking about this for a little while (and bounced some ideas off some of you), but some inspiration from Melbourne's Climbing Cyclist has caused me to explore this idea a little bit further...  He co-organised a social ride last weekend which covered a dozen of the nastiest hills close to Melbourne - see http://theclimbingcyclist.com/the-inaugural-melbourne-dirty-dozen/#... (fantastic website by the way) and had some 50 or so riders participate.  Regroups at the top of each hill, a social atmosphere, and a lot of fun, and about 30 managed to finish.

Basically the Melbourne Dirty Dozen was inspired by the Pittsburgh Dirty Dozen that has been going since 1983 with some 300 riders every year.  12 of the most difficult hills in Pittsburgh and smash them! The Melbourne event contained some 1500m vertical in only 30km of riding....  Brilliant!  And nasty!

I'm trying to see whether there might be some interest in doing something along these lines in Adelaide.  The difficulty being compacting those sort of steep roads required (pitches of a min 10%) into such a small area.  I'm struggling.  So far I have come up with this - http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1187961 - I've got my 12 steep climbs and a central starting point, but it spreads out over 88km in length with about 3300m vertical.  That seems a little extreme to me...or is that what we could / should be aiming for?

Anyone wanting to have a go at it would not have to complete the whole course - there would be no issues with only doing parts of it and meeting up along the way.  Starting and finishing at the Tower Hotel, Magill, the hills in order I have are:

1. Teringie Dve - 0.9km @11.5%

2. Coach Rd - 2.4km @9.8%

3. Haven Rd / Bishop St / Coach Rd / Knox Tce - 1.9km @8.4%

4. Knox Tce - 1.4km @9.4%

5. Kensington Rd - 1.3km @11.5%

6. Ridgeland Dve - approx 1km??? @approx 10% (can anyone confirm?)

7. Woods Hill Rd (Heartbreak Ridge) - 0.8km @8.1%

8. Adelaide-Lobethal Rd (little climb to Burdetts Rd - 0.8km @6%

9. Knotts Hill / Pound Rd - 2.7km @8%

10. Fernhurst Rd / Cherryville Rd - 2.1km @10.8%

11. Corkscrew Rd - 2.5km @8.9%

12. Coachhouse Dve / Woodlands Way - 2.7km @10.1%

I'm just seeing whether there would be any interest in doing something like this for a bit of fun (insert sarcastic comment here...) and if there is interest, comments on improving the route, and anything else you might like to constructively throw in to the mix.

Cheers, Adam