Brianna Scarlett
In March 2013 I completed my first Ironman at Melbourne. After 12 months of full dedication and focus, I decided to treat myself to a month indulging my love of the bike, cycling across Europe and seeing the Tour de France.
Unfortunately, 3 days in to my cycling trip, my brother passed away and I raced home to be with my family.
As Melbourne winter started to fade, a friend suggested that after a tough year and given my missed cycling holiday we should spend the summer of 2013 – 2014 tackling the 7 Peaks of Victoria on our bikes. A great social way to get me back out cycling with friends and enjoying the fresh mountain air.
So off we set planning weekends away, day trips and mapping out the summer of Victoria’s Alpine Region. I recruited the friends I was in France with and other friends who I ride regularly with on weekends. We started ticking off the climbs one by one and along the way visited beautiful country towns, spent afternoons in gorgeous wineries, breweries and summit cafes, and warm summer nights watching the sunset over some of Victoria’s most spectacular mountains. We rode through amazing scenery, pushed our bodies and generally had a blast. At each summit we would treat ourselves to a chocolate milkshake (among other treats!) and sit comparing the climbs verses the quality of milkshake!
My last summit was Mt Buller, by which point my body and bike were starting to tire, which made it a very tough climb to finish but a great sense of satisfaction on completing my 7th PEAK. That last milkshake was by far my favourite!
The following year I returned to Europe, riding from Bordeaux to Barcelona, Corsica and Sardinia, watching the tour and conquering some massive climbs. All that work in the 7PEAKS paid off!
I think the 7 Peaks is such a great initiative. A positive way of building tourism in the alpine region during summer and such a healthy way of enjoying summer – I’m a convert, I’ll take mountains over beach anytime!!