Kara Crescent... and more
The key reason for commuting into Adelaide from Elizabeth-- apart from the general enjoyment, money savings, and fitness, is that it is effortless training for my real passion, which is long distance riding. My three days riding to the city and Kurralta Park give me 200kms a week. The one shortcoming with all this is that the trip to Adelaide is flat.
So I've used a number of slightly longer loops over the years to add kilometres and hills. The tricky thing is to find routes that are efficient; that is, not too much traffic, not too long waiting to get across busy roads, and not too much longer than the average 30km run into town. There is a great route up Yorketown Road and along the top of the range (via Torrens Hill and Corkscrew Road, but at 60km it's not really viable as a before-work ride on a regular basis!)
I think I've worked out a new route which eases into some climbing, and yet remains reasonably fast. It's also off the worst of the high traffic routes.
I take the normal route from Elizabeth to the Old Spot Hotel, where this map starts, which lets me cut across Main North Road if there is a lucky break in the traffic, or simply keep rolling under the highway on the bike path. You can click on any of these images to enlarge them.
Head next to Target Hill Road. You can see on the map that I take the path along side Main North Road and go past the school, instead of taking the roadway down to Target Hill Road. From Target Hill Road, Canterbury Drive will deliver you across The Grove Way into Nicholas Avenue. This goes to the bike path across Cobbler Creek and into London Drive. London Drive comes onto Gloucestor, which will deliver you across Smith Road into Aquamarine Drive. Then Marquiste Drive will bring you up to Bridge Road.
Getting across Cobbler Creek
At Bridge Road, I cross straight over to the footpath, head south to Barker Road, and then up to Grenadier Grove. Cross the park on Grenadier, and you have Keikebusch down to Winn Vale Drive and Cornwall Drive, which will take you across MacIntyre Road to Kara Crescent. This has a whole range of short sharp fast and steep stints, going into or out of town.
Kara Crescent will deliver you down Kelly Road to the Linear Park path into the city. It's 33.5km. I can do it in 1:39 riding time without hurrying, and about 1:50 all up. It has some 12% slopes, and you climb 275 metres.
Kara Crescent and more GPX FIT
Good people.
