The History of the BAD Ride

The BAD Ride was conceived at the February 1990 committee meeting of the Ballarat Bushwalking and Outdoor Club Inc.

The morning of Sunday 6th May saw 83 cyclists set off from the Len T Frazer reserve cnr. Main Road and Barkly Street at 9.30am and ride via the Ballarat University to Lal Lal Falls for lunch, returning via Yendon then down Eureka Street.

The cost for a family on this inaugural ride was $8.00 including lunch!
The ride was to fund the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Club to take place later in the year, and was seen as such a success it was decided to make the ride an annual event

The second BAD ride took a similar route, but with a “hero’s loop” taking participants to the top of Mt. Buninyong, the ride had grown to 138 participants for the second year.

1995 saw the inclusion of a mountain bike ride, however this option only continued for 4 years.

Since 1990 the ride has taken off from 4 different venues and has been to 8 towns in the district for lunch, always with a 50klm route, growing to 100 klm, with a 75 klm option and several MTB options.

The event has now grown to over 1000 participants and is a very important event in the Ballarat sporting calendar.