Melbourn, AU - Workout while traveling

I will be in Melbourne, Australia for work and would like to find a place to do a Trainer Road workout. Does anyone have recommendations on gyms or other places where I could use a smart trainer/bike if I bring my pedals and shoes?

Rent a bike and ride outside? (Said as I stare at snow in my front yard…)

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+1 on hiring a bike if you can if it’s a short visit. If it’s really short, consider timing your recovery week with it, & hiring a bike to do some recovery rides. How long are you there for? If it’s a longer visit you could possibly buy one cheaply by scoping out the alley cat scene. Someone will know someone. It looked a bit weird but when I was visiting my parents a couple of years ago I whacked my Assioma Duos on a bike that wouldn’t be worth more than $100. BYO saddle as well as, shoes, pedals, helmet. Definitely got the job done. :+1:

Okay so I’m at Brisbane & I use a dedicated cycling circuit at Toombul for my TR workouts… intervals & sustained power alike. It’s open to the public at all times that an event isn’t scheduled. Good for all types of workouts pushed to Garmin/Wahoo/etc. If this sort of thing appeals to you, it looks like there’s a similar facilitiy at Casey (map, website) in the southeast.

I’m guessing your work has you somewhere inner city so in that case I’ve heard of people using the roads around Albert Park (the site of the F1 GP just south of the city centre) for cycle training, but consistency on sustained efforts could be luck of the draw because it is open to motorised traffic.

If hill repeats are your thing, the roads up to Mt Dandenong from Monbulk, Upper Ferntree Gully, The Basin, or Montrose should be good for efforts up to 15 minutes. Typical for a bush setting, the road shoulder could be strewn with leaves & bark. They’re tourist roads & also function as cut-throughs between said suburbs so watch your turnarounds.

If you’re over at Geelong I seem to remember the 25km stretch of road from Geelong to Queenscliff as being pretty flat, & not a huge number of traffic lights. Probably gets busy with traffic around the Queenscliff-Sorrento ferry’s operating times. Some of the other roads on that peninsula may be better.

As I discovered when visiting my brother, inner Melbourne has a pretty comprehensive network of offroad cycle-only* & mixed-use paths (as with anywhere, don’t trust that pedestrians will stay off the cycle-only paths), which are great for commuting between locations but be aware some of the paths have blind corners & might not be great for training as such.

Anyway, some thoughts from an occasional visitor. Hopefully a local can give some more info. :crossed_fingers: