Gateway Bridge Ride

Registrations opened last week for the Entoure Kingscliff Classic. This October we’ll be riding 400 k over 3 days from Brisbane to Kingscliff and then Byron to support the day of Difference Foundation.

I got my registration in and am looking forward to the event. The challenge between now and October is to get as many quality k’s into the legs in  preparation for the 145 k – 165 k we’ll be riding on day 1.

Weekends are the best time for me to get some decent rides in and today was no exception. Today was my first ride over the new Gateway Bridge (or the Sir Leo Hielscher Bridge to be precise). The bridge has been open to bikes and pedestrians for a couple of months now.

We set off from Racecourse Rd and headed for the Gateway. The first challenge was finding the way on to the path. Maybe it’s still early days and the signage is incomplete, but it was definitely no easy task finding the entrance.

Once on the path though it’s a nice steady climb up the rise to the peak. We passed a couple of pedestrians heading down carrying cameras, obviously up there to catch the sunrise. From the top the view is quite spectacular. The lookout at the top has a glass pane through which to look east. The rest of the way the wire fence is around 2 m high on top of the concrete wall.

I’d heard that the speed limit for bikes is set at 10 k/h. Coming down the hill you’d need to be braking pretty hard to keep to that limit. Needless to say, we coasted down at a reasonable clip. From the bottom of the bridge it was off to Wynnum and then a standard return to Ascot via Southbank.

George Zdanowicz