This classic 77km route starts and ends in St Ives, meandering through tree-lined roads in pristine national parks. If the four major climbs start to turn your legs to jelly, there’s an unavoidable, albeit brief, rest point when you cut across the bay on the Berowra Waters Ferry from BW Rd to Bay Rd.

The four major climbs of 4-5km each will test your legs, although the difficulty of the test is mostly up to you given that the gradient is not too steep. You can sit in an easy gear and cruise slowly up the hills, or you can gear up, increase cadence and get a lasting lactic acid burn. The best climbs zigzag up the mountains with tight hairpin corners.

What goes up must come down, so all that climbing is rewarded with some daring descents that seem to go on forever. You can reach high speeds here but be sure to watch out for the sharp corners.

Course Map and Elevation/Gradient Profile

Key Features of the Route

• Total vertical ascent 1,864m.

• This ride is all about national park scenery, big climbs and fast descents.

• Time to complete — our group of two completed the route at 25.6km/h in a ride time of 3hr 0mins.