saturday april 5th

what a weekend. my first real bike race in around fifteen years and i was absolutely crapping myself. the tour de perth support race is held in conjunction with the open events but has a reduced race distance and one less stage. it consisted of a 104km road stage on saturday morning, followed by a 5km time trial in the afternoon. sunday then finished with a 84km tough hilly road race. luckily we didn’t have the criterium in the afternoon.

well, the race started at 8:30 for us, which is a later start than most of my rides. however, it was starting at rolleystone high school at, well, rolleystone which is a bit of a drive away. nerves kicked in a hell of a lot earlier and i was up well before dawn for breakfast and a quick (but pointless) shower. while eating my porridge with extra extra sugar on top (if it doesn’t crunch, there is not enough) i checked the bureau of met website for an update of these expected overnight showers. a pleasant 20 degrees with no rain reported in the last 24 hours. great, should be a good day for riding. then i checked the rain radar. what the??? there was a huge rain storm moving in across perth and was just about to hit the city. i checked the longer range radar and kind of calculated that the main front should pass about 8:30 so maybe, just maybe we would not be starting in the rain. what i failed to calculate was the fact that the radar doesn’t really pick up the rain so far out and although it “looked” clear, it really wasn’t.

so, driving down to rolleystone, in torrential rain, didn’t really fill me with confidence. there was so much water on the road already, that i thought that even if it did stop (and i still thought it would) the roads would be holding so much water that we would be soaked anyway. i drove up part of the course, which we have often used for our sunday rides, just to get a last look at the finishline and the crap hill we would have to come up. i was not under any illusion that i would still be near the front by the time we reached the end, as my goal was just to finish the three stages.

i signed in and caught up with brendan and stu who are regulars on the saturday and sunday rides, and also with justin who had come out with us over easter. we were all in the support race so would be either against each other or looking out for each other depending on your view of the world. davina, josie, mel and camille from the sunday ride were also there but competing in the elite women’s race. the continuing crap weather meant that most people had grabbed their stuff and had set up camp around the verandas of the school’s multiple buildings. it was still raining, but at least it was not cold and there was next to no wind.

as we approached the roll out time, josie commented on the fact that i looked nervous. i asked her how old she was in 1993 and she said three. well, that was the last time i did a proper bike race and it was a ‘c’ grade race back in ballarat whilst i was at uni. i eventually stopped racing as the early mornings in the rain, sleet and hail kind of wore me down. so here i was again, still crap weather, but at least a lot warmer than ballarat.

the start was delayed by about thirty minutes as i guess the organisers hoped like hell the weather would clear…it didn’t. we rolled up the line regardless and i had arm warmers and a vest still on. i was worried about overheating if the sun came out but it didn’t and i was “comfortable” for the duration. as we waited for the gun, some of the guys were commenting on the prize money for the support race. there were 55 guys all paying $95 to enter and if you won a stage you would get $50. with the total entry fees totally over five thousand dollars they would hand out $575 in total prize money. hmmm, sounds like there is a profit in there somewhere. i wasn’t too worried about recouping my entry fee, but more worried about a long 100km ride by myself if i got dropped early on.

so, off we went into fray. i had opted for low tint sunnies as i thought that they may protect me from direct rain drop to the eyeball attack. it wasn’t dark or humid so i thought that it may be the way to go. as we approached the turn onto brookton hwy, the group started slowing. i grabbed the brakes and nothing happened. there was so much water everywhere, the pads were aquaplaning on the rims. after a small “oh sh_t” experience i realized that early braking and generally being on guard would be the order of the day.

the rain kept the pace low but it was still springy at the back of the pack where i had taken up residence. the little accelerations and brakings made life interesting when combined with lack of visibility and a mouthful of whatever the guy in front was spraying off his back wheel.

as we rolled down the hill towards karragulen, only a kilometer or so from the start, one guy had such bad speed wobbles that he had to pull over and check his bike as something may have come loose. well, it was either going to be a hard day for him, or a quick exit from the tour as no-one was going to be waiting.

unlike the regular sunday rides, i have no idea who was attacking or what was happening at the front of the group. i rode very conservatively right at the very back of the pack, content to be in the slip stream as well as everything else that was streaming off the bikes in front. there was an attack within the first thrity km’s that took about five guys with it. the pace in the rest of the pack quickened and they were eventually caught. this was pretty much the way that it went all the way to the turn around point.

along the way the things of note were as follows:
glasses came off when they fogged a bit, but then back on when my eyeballs took a direct hit from the rain.
lots of impatient redneck big f100 style utes.
me discovering that i need about 35kms before my hamstrings don’t feel tight anymore (maybe this is why the elites were warming up on rollers).
brendan copping a coke can in the ankle from a pissed off motorist heading the other way. didn’t hurt as much as the guy whose knee it ricocheted off in the first place.
rain, rain and more rain.
then when it looked like it was easing back to a drizzle, more rain.
me looking down and just seeing water running off my bike like i was washing it.
i had a chat to stu who was also stuck on the back of the pack. he said that he was bored. i guess it was, but boring probably meant that i would survive.

so, as we headed back into rolleystone, a few more attacks went and were brought back in. no-one really gained much ground as the roads were not steep enough and the pack could easily maintain a draft.

as we past karragulen servo and headed up the hill, one guy got off the front and looked like he may stay away. no-one really reacted but the group maintained a strong pace. i actually entertained the idea of trying to catch him, but seriously filed that away in the crazy department under “don’t be stupid”. i moved up the inside trying to make sure i didn’t get caught behind once we hit the small circuit that we would take to get to the finish line. the water was coming so hard down the road that the bike in front looked like a speedboat cutting a wake in the ocean.

we turned off brookton hwy and onto chevin rd for the last five or so kms. we have ridden this way before so i knew that it would be undulating and gave people a good opportunity to attack. again, i was happy to just make it up the hill with the group. a few hairy corners and we were on the final stretch up peet road. there was a gentle climb up to the roundabout where it flattened for a bit before a steep but short climb to the finish.

some of the boys were starting to flag after hitting the previous pinch too hard and were dropping bac
k. the pace quickened as we approached the last climb and about halfway up everyone started going for it. i didn’t have much left by then so didn’t put in a big effort but tried to stay with them for as long as possible. suddenly the was a touch of wheels and someone was on the deck in front of me. not close enough that i had to stop, and luckily for me the carnage went to the right side of the road. unluckily for justin, he got forced into the curb and basically came to a stop. i continued to the line where stu had enough in him to stay right to the end and come in around the top ten or so.

no idea where i finished or my time or anything, as the organization wasn’t the best at posting anything past the top three. some guy with a name like a coffee won the stage (mattiaccio), but beyond that i have no idea. i was off to get changed out of my totally soaked kit, stuff my shoes with newspaper to help them dry and get some food into me before the afternoon’s time trial.

i did manage to get back to the finish line to see the end of the open women’s race. with a tough uphill sprint to the line i expected josie to whip everyone, but davina managed to sprint past and take the stage win over one of the queensland girls with josie taking third. it was good to see our sunday ride girls going well, as the talent pool is getting a bit old and tired amongst the sunday ride boys.

time trial next and i will have a crack at writing that up tomorrow night with the sunday stage.