Details of four road cycling routes around Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Download the corresponding GoogleEarth data for each route at the end of each section.
1/ The “City Nightlights” 
Easy
- a) Follow route 4/ further down in this topic until you reach Fortitude Valley
- b) To turn right onto Water St
- c) Continue up onto Upper Edwards and down to Turbot St through Wickham Tce
- d) All the way down to Gipps St and turn right towards Bradfield Hwy (Story Bridge). If it’s the middle of the night, you may try to ride on the actual left lane of the bridge, almost not a single rider in Australia has ever made it (I did!), else take the safer bike path
- e) Ride up the highway for a few kilometers until you reach Annerley Rd, on the right , and ride back down Annerley Rd to Dutton Park
- f) Turn left onto T J Doyle Memorial Park and cross the bridge, where you think it’s safer
- g) There you go, you’re at UQ now. Cross the campus how you like it and end up on Upland St and The Esplanade, and ride a few kilometers there along the river, until you reach the very much lit up roundabout
- h) Turn right onto Indoroo Rd, up to the next roundabout, there just 30 m on the left and turn right again at that roundabout, and straight down to Gailey Rd, then all straight to Brisbane St, Benson Rd and Coronation Drv
- i) Then turn off Coro left at Eagle Tce, to join Upper Roma, and follow up right onto Petrie Tce, that will satellise you onto the Normanby orbit. From there you should know your way home huh?!
- j) For those who need to be taken by the hand, er, tyre, at the Normanby you follow straight onto Kelvin Grove Rd, uey at the lights at the top of the hill, and keep left, slipping smoothly onto the Inner City Bypass
- k) Exit at RBH (second exit left) as you must, and you’re on Gympie, on your way back to Chermie.
Download the GoogleEarth data for this route #1.
Download all of my Brisbane routes for GoogleEarth.
2/ The "Mt Coot-tha Riding" 
Medium difficulty
- a) Follow route 4/ further down in this topic until stage e)
- b) Follow Road 5 in the direction toward Toowong
- c) At the roundabout, take the Boundary St in the direction toward Bardon
- d) Take the left, then the first right. Attention! the descent with the right turn is tight
- e) Take the left, and then always straight, to pass by Bardon primary school, The Bardon Centre, and to arrive on Sir Samuel Griffith Dr, the famous 9600 m loop
- f) Now that you have arrived on the loop, I advise turning left and going clockwise for those who do not want to finish at a risky T-intersection at 70 km/h. Alternatively, turn right, and follow in an anti-clockwise direction for those who want a slope greater than 10% for at least 9 minutes
- g) On completing this loop, return to f), and retrace the path back till Chermside
- h) For those who wish, make several 10 km loops of Sir Samuel Griffith Dr. Personally, I like to do three continual loops in the clockwise direction.
Download the GoogleEarth data for this route #2.
Download all of my Brisbane routes for GoogleEarth.
3/ The “City living and Hill Riding” 
Hard
- a) Follow route 4/ until stage h)
- b) Continue straight, through the hills, for as far as wish until you feel you’ve had enough!
Download the GoogleEarth data for this route #3.
Download all of my Brisbane routes for GoogleEarth.
4/ The "Sunday night - no fever" Hard
- a) Depart at the intersection of Gympie Rd and Hamilton Rd, CHERMSIDE. Continue along Gympie Rd towards the City
- b) Turn right onto Newmarket Rd
- c) Turn left. This places you in the right-hand lane to take the first road on the right
- d) Turn right onto Ashgrove Rd
- e) Turn right onto Waterworks Rd, then continue straight
- f) Commence a new chronometric ’lap’ starting at 1285 Waterworks Rd. This is my reference spot from where I mark my performance. .
- g) as you continue winding up this road, after one of the bends , look to the right and you will see an impressive passage cleared for the high-voltage electrical line - also impressive when seen from the sky on Google Earth.
- h) Further along, the Samson Valley is very scenic. There is a circus of 10 km in diameter !
- i) Keep going until the Mt. Nebo Country Cottage. There you will see the sign ’Mt. Nebo 549 m.’ Here, make a U-turn
- j) Return all the way to Waterworks Rd - you will have already clocked a 39 km lap on return to 1285 Waterworks, and still have another 3 km by reaching the uphill right turn-off to Cooper Camp Rd, on your way to Mount Coot-Tha.
- k) Ride to the other end of Coopers Camp, and turn right. Then turn right again onto Simpons Rd at the lights. Stay on the main road as it will get you all the way down to Bardon State School and Bardon Conference Centre soon after, finally onto Sir Samuel Griffith
- l) Turn right on the loop, so that you ride anticlockwise. Enjoy that increasingly steep ride . . .
- m) You made it up there, not too lactic? Good, because you have another 40 km to go! Make the complete round, and ride all the way down to the dreadful T-intersection. Attention, brake long before the STOP sign at the bottom. I personally don’t do that, as I don’t like braking more than a few seconds at once. I just brake as late as I can, and stick on the fringe of the left lane then turn off on the left, since it’s uphill, if there’s no car coming. You can see if a car is coming quite a bit before, so get organised.
- n) Turn right onto Mt Coot-Tha Rd, stay on the left lane all the way down, and go back up Frederick St, then up Boundary St and McGregor Tce back to Coopers Camp Rd
- o) Once again, ride to the other end of Coopers Camp Rd until Waterworks Rd, and turn right on Waterworks
- p) Ride down Waterworks Rd until the Normanby Hotel. Unmistakable on Sunday evenings with its procession of taxis at the front !
- q) Turn left at the Normanby corner and go down then up Kelvin Grove Rd, and do a U-turn when you can , to go down Kelvin Grove the other way, stay left and slip onto the Inner City By-pass
- r) How good is that to ride the ICB on a Sunday night huh? Just you and the wind . . .
- s) Exit at“RBH exit”, as you must, and turn right onto Lutwyche Rd. It’s typically here that I drink up my last drops of fluid, and another 15 km to go . . .
- t) Ride Lutwyche Rd, that becomes Gympie Rd, all the way up to Carseldine
- u) Make a U-turn before it’s too late, when you think it’ll be 100 km when back in“Chermie”, and come back to“Chermie” Mall
- q) At this point, this should make 100 km.
Good Luck and Good Riding!
For the anecdote, last night, after that session, I had burnt 3,000kcal and lost another 1.5kg of fluid, although I did have intake while riding . I had another 2 cans of Coke , a“flan caramel”, 25 g of“Snek” wafers, a Packham pear, yougo choc, a crumpet, half a fresh deli pizza, a litre of water, 100 g of bread, 100 g of pasta and cheese.
Today I’m back to 78.6 kg, so half a kilo less than my normal pasty IT-nerd weight.
I said no to these expensive electrolyte drinks. I add the juice of half a lemon in my Coke, and a sprinkle of salt
Download the GoogleEarth data for this route #4.
Download all of my Brisbane routes for GoogleEarth.
In Brisbane summer is particularly humid, and that makes riding in the Hills a hard business. The timezone here is to please the early birds , and the latitude close to the tropic makes the sun set early and fast. So, get a pair a flash lights and great deal of water. In my case, I sweat a fair bit, and I lose 1 litre every hour. I therefore have two bottles at the front, and 2 bottles at the back in my guernsey (Pepsi cans).
The best season to ride in South-East Queensland is undoubtedly from April to October.
Find Fabien’s best times on these routes here.
