ride report by peter

cold, dark, throw in some more cold. welcome to winter. dry though. if it was wet it would have been a horrid day. we are expecting some showers during the week but they are always predicting that. i think we had close to 30 on the roll out and almost everyone had their winter longs on. melvyn and i headed the pack as we took off up mill point rd towards the great eastern hwy. today’s route would see us do a figure eight as we headed out to helena valley and over ridge hill rd before crossing our path and heading home through guilford.

after a while brett and jerry came to the front to ease the load for melvyn and myself. melvyn commented on the fact that guys just don’t look good in tights. i thought it may be like that beer ad where the guys cover their beer to stop it going flat when the two guys in lycra roller-blade past. that’s right, don’t drink beer while riding in lycra. the un-manliness of it will make it go flat.

we had a very cruisy start to the ride and the journey out great eastern and into south guilford gave everyone an opportunity to catch up and have a chat. no-one was going hard as i think everyone was saving it for the hill. as we crossed the railway tracks dr wally seemed to be having a bit of trouble. it seems his handle bars slipped and so dr paul slowed down to help him. there is a bit of a trend amongst the older doctors at the moment. they all seemed to have ritchey breakaway bikes. there are four (carl, greg, paul, wally) that have these swish titanium folding frame bikes that you can easily pack into a standard size suitcase. great for bike for traveling, if you do a bit of it.

so, paul and wally slowed down, but i knew that they knew the shortcut for the day and i was sure that they would be using it. we pressed on. as the group snaked it’s way towards the base of ridge hill rd, i flitted between talking to those at the back that may be struggling, to keeping an eye on the boys at the front to make sure they were being nice. i rolled around to the front just before the start of the climb to make sure i wasn’t boxed in when it started.

the ridge hill climb is nothing compared to the normal sunday rides, but we don’t often do any climbs on saturday, so it is always interesting to see how the group will react. i was on the front leading into the climb and started at a steady pace whilst watching behind myself in case anyone (ryan) put in a big attack. nothing was happening and the pack was staying well together, so i thought i better start to thin things out a bit. i upped the pace and watched john p fall back through the pack. jerry came with me and rob sprinted around to keep up. it started to string out a bit by the time we were on the first plateau.

just as it kicked up again, i came past jerry to try to set the pace higher. i thought i was doing a good job until ryan came past at pace and i’m sure he was in the big chain ring too. i tried to hold on to his wheel, but to no avail. i set my own pace, but used him as a guide to try not to lose too much more ground. i managed to gap jerry slightly on the next plateau, but by the time we had past the old quarry, i was starting to fade fast. mr dickhead was driving a green barina (or something) today and managed to come past us without much breathing space between. unfortunately the camera was facing the sun (as it was for most of the ride) and so i didn’t get his number plate.

as the road gently headed up for the final time, stu came flying out of the chase pack and past jerry and me. i tried to jump on but had nothing. the legs didn’t want to play nad jerry came past me at the end too.

down the other side and we had a regroup before heading along kalamunda road. the trip through high wycombe and back to guilford was taken at a moderate pace as the windy road can be dangerous if the group is all strung out when people are attacking. mr dickhead had changed cars now and was driving a 4 wheel drive that started to come around us just as we hit the bridge into guilford. no where to go he started to squeeze the cyclists off the road.

as we enter bassendean, the road extends to two lanes all the way back to the coffee shop and so the guys were given their head of steam. there were no attacks initially, but the group started to roll through to pull the pace up into the 40+ km/h.

unfortunately when we hit the undulation section of guilford rd, i was on the front and was very wary of any attacks going off the front. on the second hill, hamish and bruce did the bolt and gapped the field a bit. i had decided that i still needed to prove something to myself after and aborted kalgoorlie race and wanted to hurt myself and anyone else that dared to follow today. i chased the attack down, but it was bruce’s last as he turned down garrett rd, just as we caught them. ryan had jumped across with me and not the three of us had a slight gap over the field. chris and another guy had managed to bridge across so ryan and i swapped off turns to keep the pace high. unfortunately we came close to getting every single traffic light, so the pack regrouped a number of times.

i stayed at the front as much as i could and pushed the pace and my heart rate into the +180’s for the majority of guilford rd. by the time we turned onto east parade, i had wanted to spew at least twice and had dropped back a bit. the group eased a bit on east pde so i took the opportunity to try to time trial off the front and managed to get away for quite a while until ryan chased me down. i tried to stay with him, but had pretty much spent everything by then. the rest of the pack engulfed me as we crossed over the graham farmer.

i took it easy up the plain st hill and it turned out to be my undoing. the group was split into two packs at the lights and i was in the second one. we hit every light after that and never caught the front boys again. so not sure who even got up for the sprint. if i had to guess, i would say, ryan was first and jerry the eternal second.

no ride for me tomorrow, but the group should be heading out as normal. i will bring the young lad along for coffee in kalamunda and try to time it right to meet the group during the ride. then it is down to wandi to watch the 100km state title. i bought a wee-ride (kids bike seat) today from glenn parker south and so will do a lap or two (the opposite way so i don’t get in the way) while the race is on progress. show him what bike riding is all about.