Chantelle Miller

I’m 42 years old and I got my first proper road bike 2 years ago for Christmas. My partner had recently got back into road riding so I thought I’d give it a go. Of course my first two rides with cleats I toppled over but it was pretty much to be expected. Now, less than 2 years later I’m riding up mountains!

The first peak I climbed was Lake Mountain as part of the ‘Marysville Challenge’ earlier this year. It was a good climb and I was happy to get up to the top after 77kms before hand. I have also ridden up Hotham (from Bright) which was pretty tough, it was quite warm and the last 10kms is a killer – I ate a lot of lollies and jelly babies in the last 3kms to keep me going!  It was a massive sense of satisfaction to get to the top. I still can’t believe I did it and I can’t believe that others do several of those mountains in one day!

I’m also pretty competitive in a fun way with my partner, and often I ride with him and his mates, so it’s nice that as the only girl in the group I can hold my own on the climbs.   I like the community and shared enthusiasm on mountain climbs, everyone usually acknowledges the efforts going up, which is great.

Cycling is a great way to hang out with my BF as well and we make weekends of heading off to new parts of Victoria to do long rides, followed by long dinners and good wine (which makes all the peddling worth while). We’ve had some awesome meals in the North East and Bright is one of my favourite places in Victoria. There’s some great wineries just out of Bright and it is always fun to see groups of weary lycra clad peeps celebrating after a big ride.