When out cycling for an extended time, we rely on the “local knowledge” of people we meet when planning important aspects of our ride.

Unfortunately, though, these first-hand accounts can sometimes be far from accurate. This realization hit me on my three-week Snowfields to Sandhills ride in 2015 when so many of the advice from strangers turned out to be very misleading.

The most common of these was the answer to my question “what is the road like from here?” to which the answer would often include the phrase “mostly downhill”. This even came from people who I expected to be the experts! People whose advice was to be relied on.

Arriving at the entrance to Kosciusko National Park on day eight of this twenty-one-day ride, after climbing some 700metres from Jindabyne, (see the ride statistics for full details) I asked the standard question and was elated to be told the worst was behind me.

From here the road to Khancoban was “mostly downhill” and just what I was wanting. But no, as I was to find out, of the approximately 80 kilometres to Khancoban, only the last 20 kilometres was mostly downhill. In fact, the next day was saving a 1087 metre climb for me, most of the entire trip and a new personal best!

In fact, between Canberra and Kanchoban, this misinformation was to be repeated many times and the only really accurate updates came from other cyclists. It seems that the car windscreen distorts anything with an incline, making the driver believe that it is the exact opposite. But when there was downhill, it was glorious!

My suggestion to you is to take this helpful (?) advice with a grain of salt, don’t trust it until you experience it.