well sunday arrived and as i said yesterday, if my form is as crap as saturday then it will be a really short blog. luckily it was semi-ok for the first two climbs then crap for the second two, so don’t expect a good read once we get to the observatory.

the course would take us down to roleystone and up canning mills rd, down urch and back up peet to roleystone high school. past karragullen and head over the observatory and back up lawnbrook to the coffee shop.

21 starters this morning and one extra picked up along berwick st. the morning was cool but not too bad as the predicted 33 degrees meant that as soon as the sun was up the temperature would follow. a fairly strong, cool easterly made things interesting as we headed out along albany hwy.

a very uneventful ride out to the hills as no-one no dropped glasses or chains like yesterday. dr paul and dr greg turned off early and decided to tackle the kahuna instead. we continued on to canning mills rd which would take us to the same point anyway. this climb has been used a number of times as the state hill climb championships. it is a very constant grade of close to 9% for just over 2.5 kms before it flattens off to a 2% for about a km.

as the road pointed up michael rocketed off the front to try to get as much advantage as possible. mike upped the pace to follow him and young robbie went too. michael put a bit much into his early attack and mike overtook him with robbie in tow. i put in as much effort as i thought i could without blowing up, which goes against everything i have written previously. after yesterday, though, i was a bit wary of my form in the hills.

i managed to pick up michael but was not having much luck keeping mike and robbie in sight. stu set his tempo and came past me too but i managed to keep within 30 or so metres of him. looking back down the road there was a nice pack forming with michael, jerry and brendon from yesterday, who was discovering hills after a few years at kalgoorlie. my recovery was certainly better than yesterday and i managed to keep my heart within the 180 bpm’s without getting into oxygen debt. as the road flattened stu put the power down a bit and managed to extend over me, but didn’t really get any closer to mike and robbie. i was happy just to keep going to the top where we regrouped at the turn to chevin rd.

i asked robbie whether he let the old man win as mike must be closer to 50 than 40 and robbie has just turned 16. he said that he didn’t know where we were stopping so just stayed with him to the end. not good for us as it meant that he must have had quite a bit more in reserve. anyway, it wasn’t going to be a concern to me today as i was happy just to be close to the front on the climbs. the remainder of the pack scrambled their way up the climb before we headed onto part of the state road championship course.

a quick, very quick descent on urch rd before climbing up onto peet rd lay ahead. michael and i decided to push the descent to try to get a big break on mike and robbie before the climb started. it is steep, fast descent and i hit 82 km/hr at the bottom. mark was even faster and came past both michael and myself to start the climb first. mark used to be the one that would hurt us on the climbs but a number of overseas work trips have played havoc with his training and is also struggle to find form. michael and i started pushing to get a gap, but by the time we turned onto peet rd, the others were only 20 metres behind.

i pushed as hard as i dared and managed to drop michael but robbie came up to me quite easily. he wanted to know where the next regroup point was so he could see if he could give it to mike on the climb. he left me behind and mike came past as well to join him. i set a tempo and managed to get stuck in no-mans land between them and a group with michael, jerry and stu.

as we approached the final pinch up to roleystone high school, i was caught by the chase group and jumped on stu’s wheel. he put in a nice effort up to the “finish-line” of the state road championships and i was not anywhere near holding his wheel. robbie had out gunned mike on the line too. we regrouped as everyone made their way up and headed to karragullen for a refuel or pit-stop. simon managed to use the right toilet this time.

from karragullen to pickering brook is undulating with one short “bonus” climb towards the end. we tend to set a nice pace as most of it is downhill but someone always goes on the climb to see what will happen. it is usually me and i usually get past quickly. this time i thought i would wait to see and mike decided to take off. i jumped on his wheel and managed to keep up as it is not that steep. however, the previous efforts were taking their toll and i couldn’t hold his wheel. i signaled for the others to come around and let about five of them head off into the distance while i picked up the pieces.

at the pickering brook intersection, we regrouped and lorraine decided to take a short-cut straight to the coffee shop. it was her first time out to the hills with us and she did well as we tackled some very steep climbs. stu and i led the pack as we headed to the start of the climb on the easy side of the observatory. the wind was strong enough to make it difficult and i noticed that my thighs were starting to cramp. bugger. another side-effect of being on holidays. as i was not in a routine i was a bit hit and miss with my supplements and so missed quite a bit of magnesium. i had this problem earlier and the supplements certainly helped the situation, but now it was starting again.

as the hill started i pulled over to the edge to let everyone else past and managed to stick with a small group to get to the top. i thought that maybe i could conserve enough energy to get a good run at the last climb which was coming up soon. i’m pretty sure i saw robbie and mike take off from the others towards the end of the climb though. another regroup and we headed into the nice fast descent down the steep side of the observatory. i noticed robbie really struggling to keep up on the descent and was still in his small chanring. being 16 he is still gear restricted so is not allowed to push big gears yet. it makes it hard when you need that extra bit of speed.

as soon as we hit the other side, mike took off hard and michael and i tried to match him. not today. i quickly went into damage control mode and just tried to set a rhythm that i could handle. robbie took off after mike and stu came past me too. well actually almost everyone came past me. about half way up i was caught by a small group and i managed to sit on for a while. camille put a big effort in and i tried to stay on her wheel. when i got up out of the saddle my thighs began to cramp so i just had to sit back down and let her go. simon chased her down but it was the last i saw of them. as the gradient leveled out a bit todd flashed past me happy to inflict some payback pain in me. i managed to jump on dr marc’s wheel and received a nice draft to the regroup point.

coffee awaited us although we lost stu, mike and camille as they headed home early. we hit the coffee shop to find the table all ready for us with water and all. lorraine had managed to set it all up while she waited for us to arrive. it certainly made for a pleasant surprise and i thank her for that. i think that the coffee
shop might finally understand that if they get us served quickly we will leave quickly. service was quite good overall.

the trip home was fairly uneventful although the boys tried to light it up a few times on welshpool rd. my legs were too shattered to chase so i hung on to the back markers with muscle memory the only thing keeping my legs turning. we managed to drop riders off along the way as people found their own way home. the final sprint was approaching and the pack was down to about ten riders. the boys were a bit hesitant as no-one wanted to lead out. my legs were gone so i decided to lead out as there was no way i could sprint. coming into the final stretch, michael and jerry both came around and it looked like a dead heat but michael conceded that jerry just got him on the imaginary line. we don’t actually know where the line is, but we just sprint till people give in.
well i have to send a search party out to find my form, but hopefully i can get it together sooner rather than later.