all the opens and supports would roll out together today and roll under a neutral flag to the start at carmel. this gave us a bit of a warm-up and a preview of the hill to the finish. however, a combination of pre-game nerves and over hydration saw no less than thirty guys stop somewhere along the way to have a pee before the start. i must admit i was guilty of this too.

as we waited for the start, i commented on how hot it was especially compared to the day before. The sun was out and sitting around, you could feel it burn into you. the open men were off first followed by the support men then the open women. i had taken up my usual position at the back of the field and was talking to the open women lined up behind me. josie was wearing the leader’s jersey after making up enough time over davina in the time trial. she was also complaining about the heat, and i said that i was surprised that she hadn’t already cut the arms off her new jersey. she seems to do it to most of her jerseys to stop the tan lines. anyway, the open men were off and we didn’t have long to wait till we rolled out too.

the game plan for me today was just hang on as long as i could and hope that i did not get dropped to embarrassingly early. the first stage was a confidence booster for me so i thought that i may be able to hold on. however, the legs were telling me a different story.

we had rode the course the previous weekend and did three laps around plus welshpool and mundaring weir rd to complete the package. i knew the course well, but it was the pace that i was worried about and how soon the attacks would come. i thought that i would be more worried about the hill to the finish rather than the climb up patterson rd to the observatory. the observatory is a long climb, but with no real steep sections, so you can set yourself a nice pace to the top. the climb to the finish is short and sharp and just steep enough to really hurt. we would have to see which one would be my undoing.

we rolled out at a decent pace and as soon as we were on canning rd a couple of guys decided to break away. as it was a five lap 84km race, i thought that they may be going a little early in the day. they had a bit of a gap but no-one seemed worried as there was no way that they would be able to hang out there all day, not with two climbs per lap.

unfortunately the gap was big enough for a small truck to think that it had enough room to pull out onto the road and travel along in between the break and the main pack. it was one of the trucks that service the orchards in the area so was no surprise when it also turned up patterson rd with us. so now it couldn’t get around the break guys as the road had a couple blind corners and the break guys were now also slowing down.

so we traveled up the first part of the hill behind the truck, before the road straightened out and it could pass the two riders ahead of it. the main field then swallowed them up and continued at a reasonable pace over the rest of the climb. i was not too surprised that the pace was not on early as i think that everyone was just testing their legs and seeing was damage was done by the previous day.

over the top of the climb and then into a fast descent. there were a few guys out sweeping some of the sections were the gravel had washed onto the road, which was a smart idea, as the rain from the previous day had deposited quite a bit of crap. up past hill to the finish line for the first time and again the pace was not too high as i found it manageable and made it to the top in one piece. however, by this time i was wondering if i could even hold on for another four laps.

as we rocketed down towards pickering brook, a few guys tried to go off the front. i wasn’t sure how many as being at the back does have it’s disadvantages. i am pretty sure that there was two groups that had gone and by the time we hit patterson rd again, the pace was on. the field immediately became strung out as guys started to chase the break away bunches. the other disadvantage of being at the back was the fact that there were a lot of riders that i had to get around to find my rhythm. stu and brendan were also caught with me and strangely enough we managed to get away from the guys behind but end up in no-mans land on the climb. stu set a nice pace to the top and brendan and myself managed to hang on till the decent. just before we crested, chris was up there taking pictures of our misfortune. i dropped off a bit on the last bit of the climb and now began to have doubts over my ability to complete three more laps. i managed to bridge back to stu and brendan, but so did a group of about 7 or 8 riders. we now had a decent size group that we could benefit from if we decided to chase.

the hill to the finish was done at a reasonable pace as i don’t think that anyone wanted to be on their own if they got away. darryl one of the wais coaches was doing running commentary at the finish line and commented that we would need to work together if we wanted to catch the guys up the road. this spurred us on a bit and we started to try to get a roll through happening. not everyone wanted to play and some were just looking for a free ride to the end. this made the chase a bit harder, but we managed to catch a few of the others that had been spat out the back of some of the leading groups. there were also a few of the open men ambling along the road quite content to finish their day with a training ride.

we hit patterson rd hill and no one wanted to lead. i went to the front but was soon overtaken by stu who has always been a better climber. the group strung out behind him as he set a rally good pace. he would occasionally pull over to the right and look behind him, but no-one really had enough to come around him so he just continued up over the hill. once at the top, i yelled at chris to “shoot me, shoot me now”. unfortunately he only had a camera with him.

the decent gave a bit of a reprieve, but i now seriously doubted my legs ability to get through two more laps. well two and a half, if you count the fact that we still hadn’t finished the third lap. i told stu but he said that he felt good and if he could do it then so could i. yay. two more laps. my heart wasn’t in it though.

as we tackled the finishline climb for the third time, brendan and i dropped back a bit from th
e rest of the pack with another guy stuck in between. we managed to push hard once the road flattened out and catch the other guy to get a draft for a sec. we all realized that we had to go hard to catch the others or it would be all over for us. brendan commented on how far the rubber band would stretch before we were totally gone. he stood up and sprinted up the road to manage to get back on, while i resigned myself to the embarrassment of riding be myself for a while.

the other guy didn’t make it back on either and was stuck in between me and the back of the pack. once we hit the patterson rd hill i tried to set myself a decent rhythm to grind my way up the hill. whenever i turned the corners on that hill, i could just see the pack ahead disappearing around the next bend with the other guy still hanging off the back. he looked around a few times, trying to judge whether i would be catching up to him to give him either a hand or some company. unfortunately i would be doing no such thing.

i set myself a goal earlier that i would be happy if i just finished the event. it was always going to be jumping in the deep end with my first race being a three stage tour, but i thought that in now can’t get any worse. sucking down carboshotz and making sure i kept drinking, i made my way up the climb and onto the decent. i managed to pass one of the open men who was having a worse day than me, and also one of the open women.

i now had two goals.
1. finish the damn race
2. don’t get lapped by either the open women on my fourth lap or the open men on the fifth lap.

i plugged away for another lap which was very uneventful. didn’t come across any other riders and saw not a soul either up or down the road. with no human company and no radio the only song that was on permanent repeat in my head was the last one i heard on the radio this morning. mika – big girls. i don’t like that song so much now. i would say that the most embarrassing thing would have to be crossing the line at the end of the fourth lap with quite a crowd there, knowing that i had one more to go.

anyway, with my legs shot, my brain fried and my bike now making crap noises after the crap weather on saturday, i finally rolled over the line. a quick look behind me and i saw no-one so i ducked over to the footpath where stu and chris were. as i got my breath back the open men flew past and continued on their final lap. i only just got my lap in before them. as this stage finished a fair distance from the start, i had to scab some money off chris for pepsi as i really needed sugar and caffine to get me back to the car.

a quick check of the speedo’s and it seemed that stu had put 12 minutes into me over the last two laps. it sounded like a lot, and it probably was, but i was just glad it was over.

in the women’s event, josie had broken away with a girl from queensland and took the stage win and a couple of minute’s advantage, with davina taking the bunch sprint for third. so at least someone had a good stage.

i rode back with stu to kalamunda and headed off to get changed. the opens had a criterium in the afternoon and i was so glad we didn’t as i don’t think my legs would have been able to back it up especially out of the corners every lap. so it was off to chicken treat for a carbo injection before settling down to watched the crit.

with a clear advantage in the open women’s event, it was going to be hard to beat josie for the overall, but davina managed a big sprint at the end to take the stage with mel second and josie third. this wrapped it up for josie, but it was good to see a couple of our sunday regulars taking two stage wins each.

as for my cycling race career, it was a good first attempt and i intend to keep it going with some more events during the year.