ride report by peter

rain, rain go away. wait till i have stopped riding… you bastard. i know it doesn’t rhyme, but i don’t care. i wanted a nice ride today. and despite the rain it was quite a good ride. only a handful of hardcore riders braved the elements and it was not raining when we left the carpark. probably 15 riders all up, but we had to wait a bit longer for some to arrive.

it was another new route today, but really just an old one that we hadn’t done for a while. similar to the tv stations ride, this would take us out grand prome but turn off before morley dr. another small detour and we would come up past the yokine golf course before heading over for a lap of herdsman lake. back down to dalkeith and the usual sprint home.

the roads were wet from the previous showers and i was glad to be at the front as you didn’t get as much spray in your face. we took it easy out great eastern and over the river at ascot. a few more showers made it interesting but not too bad for me as i had my bright orange rain jacket on. a few close calls at the lights with wet brakes made it tricky, and we probably went through a couple we shouldn’t have, to avoid a mass pile-up instead.

the cresswell hill adjacent to the yokine golf course used to be a favourite of vicki and her wednesday morning hell sessions. it is a stepped climb which means you can set intervals at each point in the climb. i.e. hard, harder, spew. today i was taking it easy as i have come down with a head cold and am supposed to be racing a cyclo-sportif event tomorrow. i made sure ryan knew were to regroup and then let them loose on the hill. not unexpectedly, ryan was first to the top with jerry (who is claiming to be sick) not far behind.

a slight change to the route as we went straight out to flinders to do a right hand onto royal. next time i will stick to the original as i think it would cause less problems. we took it easy along royal and main streets but the pace began to pick up once we started out lap of herdsman. similar to last week i had not picked a spot to go hard as i couldn’t quite remember the route. however, this stretch around herdsman is ideal as it is double lane and a good road surface the whole way around. there are a number of traffic lights but this can be both good and bad as it may slow the breakaways or hinder the chasers. this time we stayed together the whole way, but is was getting a bit rough towards the end for some of the weaker riders.

we turned onto shelby st and took it easy as we headed towards shenton park. a slight diversion due to road works but we were still headed in the right direction and turned done past the claremont hotel. once we hit the familiar territory of victoria ave, the boys started to pace it up a bit. a couple of extras caught up to our group and suddenly everyone wanted to show how strong they were. ryan managed to smash them up the small rises on birdwood parade to show who was boss and we all scampered after him on the decent.

by the time we hit mounts bay rd the “extras” had turned off onto the bike track even though they were heading in the same direction. we started single file pretty early and nick was on the front pushing a hard pace from the outset. after a while i came past him to do a long turn as no-one else was keen to play. i still had no sprint, so my job is to be domestique and just ride hard and consistant. nick eventually came back past me and went off the front hard. i couldn’t hold his wheel so i gave a flick of the arm to let the next person through. there was a hesitation which allowed nick a bit more space and i thought he may get away. we were not that far from the finish, so he may have had enough of a break. pretty soon, everyone came crashing past me and mowed nick down in their path. ryan held off jerry again for the line honors, and i past a completely spent nick as both we limped our way to the coffee shop.
the rain had stopped by now and it was looking to be a beautiful day. a quick hot chocolate and a bit of discussion about the new kit and launch breakfast coming up and i was on my way. the bike now filthy and no real time to clean it properly before the race tomorrow, i will have to hope the quick wipe and lube keeps the chain going. there should still be a ride tomorrow, for those that aren’t racing, and i have mapped out the kahuna for you… cause i won’t be there.

the picture is of darrens wet weather bike. even though he has the record for the lightest bike, he rides this 11kg monster, with full mudguards, when the rain sets in. i think his light bike will dissolve if it gets wet.