Training/Touring Riding
Six training routes, each with extensions for those looking for a real physical challenge, allows you to choose one that suits and to always come home with the wind at your back.  Ballarat offers so much for the serious cyclist.

If you want to get some serious k’s into those legs, but not get mown down in heavy traffic, here are some suggestions for you. 

Each map includes a short and long ride, and descriptions of each.  Although all can be started and finished at any point on the respective circuits, each is calibrated from the carpark at Windmill Drive (on the western side of Lake Wendouree).   -That way you can readily stop off for a latte after your ride!

Hard copies of these Training/Touring Routes are available as one side of the Ballarat Commuter and Touring Map, which can be found at any of Ballarat’s official tourist centres (Eureka Stockade, Gallery, Gardens Conservatory, Sovereign Hill, Town Hall/Phoenix Place), Ballarat Railway Station and public libraries.

Ballarat and district has also been home recently to the Australian Road Cycling Championships and  the Victorian Time Trial Championships.  Some visitors wish to try out the courses on which the pros have raced, be it in time trials or the road race.  BalBUG suggest extra care be taken on these courses, as they have been designed with speed in mind, are often on busy roads, and were fully marshalled events (and last time we looked, those marshals weren’t still standing around on street corners protecting you cyclists from traffic). 

For downloadable pdf maps of these championship courses, click here.

Several of the training routes take you around Lake Wendouree.  Please take care when crossing the tram tracks near the botanical gardens, as many cyclists have fallen and injured themselves there. For technical advice on the safest way to cross tramlines see http://www.bv.com.au/bikes-and-riding/10429/

To ride safely whilst training is important for you and for other road users.  Cycle Sport Victoria has produced a Code of Conduct for training cyclists. So too has the Amy Gillett Foundation. Both pdf versions are available here.