Lorne / Forrest Loop

Lorne / Forrest Loop
Having missed the last two years of Amy’s Grand Fondo, my dad (Kevvy) and good friend Patto thought it might be nice to enjoy a weekend down in sunny Lorne as respite from the recent lifting of covid restrictions.

Safe to say, the first night we may have enjoyed ourselves a little too much which made for some groggy heads come Saturday morning as well as a little bit of a sleep in.

Nothing a stiff post ride coffee or three couldn’t fix and we set out up the first and main climb of the day which is one of the reasons why I like this ride, you get some of the big numbers out of the way reasonably early allowing you to enjoy the rest of the day.
Approx. 10km at a lazy 4% later, because we left it a bit late, there were a few frustrated drivers behind us as we approached the top of the climb. There are limited opportunity for cars to pass on the climb so it’s safer to leave early which we obviously did not.

Leaving the greenery of the forest and ocean views behind us, we rolled into Deans Marsh where we were greeted with rolling hills and sweeping country side. A stiff headwind also and a touch of rain, enough to give us a little soaking.

Thankfully the rain had subsided and it wasn’t long until we greeted to the warmth of The Forrest Brewing Company. This place is an institution and gets really busy during weekends and holiday periods, so you want to get in nice and early. They close the kitchen between breakfast and lunch also, so time yourself wisely. We we able to grab a last minute toastie which was enough to keep our hangovers at bay.

Straight out of Forrest on a full stomach, we were to climb the second major challenge of the day.
Broken into two sections with a slight descent in the middle, you’ll climb around 12km at around 4 – 5% gradients before you start the long descent into Skenes Creek and the most scenic part of the ride – The Great Ocean Rd.

A quick dunny stop later with a bit of a tail behind us, we were able to settle into something rhythm and enjoy a reasonably flat Great Ocean Rd through to Lorne. Traffic was intermittent and nothing too terrifying on this particular section.

There’s no doubt about it, Amy’s Grand Fondo is a hell of a photogenic ride. With a mixture of ocean views, the greenery of The Otways and beautiful countryside – it’s a really enjoyable day.