The highly unlikely occurred and I rode the range this week.
It's not that hard, but it was great fun riding down it

For those considering a holiday in Aus, it's the Gibraltar range 60km west of Grafton and has some breath taking world heritage rainforest during and at the top of the climb if you're taking your time.

Sydney weenies might be interested in this site that details the location of good climbs in central eastern NSW and keeps a competition for the best improved rider for each climb.

http://www.kompm.com

little late to the reply lol, but i'm not from holland. i'm from boulder, colorado. and yes, 3% is a climb, something you can certainly tell when you're racing it. it happens to be a good grade for me because i'm not a small guy but i produce a good bit of threshold power. so it's steep enough to break things up, and yet not steep enough that i get dropped.

we have some very steep climbs here (the horgan hill climb averages at least 15% for between 5 and 10 miles), but i usually don't bother racing them. i end up midpack instead of up front; and at my weight, i'm never going to win them, so i don't see the point.

and finally, whoever it was that said 5% isn't a hill should definitely enter the mount evans hillclimb. it's a steady 5% grade for 28 miles. tom danielson did it at 17mph average last year ... haha i think he will be very disappointed to find out *i* just did a flat 28 mile ride at 18mph without breaking a sweat.

Something I have always wondered is how does LA climb standing for extended periods of time. (maybe extreme core strength?)

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Cannondale is quite simply the best

It all comes down to training for what you want to do. If you prefer to climb in the saddle, then most of your training should involves climbing in the saddle. If you want to be standing a lot, like Lance, the late, great Pantani, Virenque, etc., then you train on climbs out of the saddle.

And yeah, a good deal of core strength and endurance is required. An often-overlooked aspect is form; look at some people climbing out of the saddle and they're all over the place/ Bike swaying a foot and a half with each pedal stroke, upper body moving left and right, weaving back and forth on the road. Think of how much energy they're wasting with all that added movement! When I stand on climbs (which is rare, I spend 90% of any given climb seated) I focus on keeping my upper body very still, keeping the bike's movement to a minimum, etc. It certainly seems to help; when I stand on climbs my heart rate (at the same power level) only goes up by a beat or two per minute.