Mount Stuart ride

Today I decided to cycle to the top of Mount Stuart, a hill in the locality which has the television and radio masts mounted at the top, and is therefore visible from most parts of Townsville.

The ride to get to Mount Stuart Road is about 15km and this is then followed by a 9km uphill ride to the top. From looking at a few cycling websites such as mapmyride.com I have found that it is made up predominantly of category 3 climbs with some category 2 road towards the top. I have done category 3 rides before, most recently the climb up to the top of Castle Hill, but it turns out that this was not enough preparation for what I found when I got there.

So for today, I have managed to ride about one third of the length of Mount Stuart Road which got me pretty high , but there is still a long way to go to get to the top. I took a picture from a decent spot on my way down - apologies for the quality as it was just snapped on my iPhone.

Tomorrow I intend to get up another hairpin or two before heading back - I may possibly walk to the top if I feel able, but that may still take another hour or so!