A couple of years ago now, Byron Davy and I rode up Mt Baw Baw from Tanjil Bren.  We didn't race it, but he wanted to see what it was all about and I did too.  Let's just say it's bloody steep, and unlike Hotham, which while long is generally climable by anyone fit enough to ride 100km and with low enough gearing, Baw Baw isn't climable unless you're very fit.  I was pretty fit (but still heavy at ~88kg) when I did it then and it took me 55 minutes to do the last 6km.  Byron did it in about 45 with a break to fix a broken rear derailer.

Anyway .. to the story.  I go back every year to take photos of the Baw Baw Classic.  Baden Cooke, the year he won the Tour green jersey, said that it was the hardest hill he'd ever raced up, it was just a survival ride.  Maybe ... but every year Warrigal Cycling Club run the Mt Baw Baw Classic, and it does get raced.

Here's my lot of photos from Winch corner this year. winch corner is ~20% gradient and is about 3km into the main part of the climb.  It's the steepest part of the race and a good spot for photos, riders are going slow enough that you can get several shots of each rider.

In other news, Oil today, $116 per barrel. Almost doubled price in 12 months.  The graph tells the story, on yer bikes ....

In the PowerHouse today I managed to squat  : 6 @ 170kg, 6 @ 175kg x 3, 5 @ 175kg all with 120s seconds recovery.  I probably could have made the last one 6, but let the bar go a touch low and didn't want to blow my back out trying to get it up while out of balance.