we were about to head off sans ryan again, when young jordan from a couple of weeks ago turns up in a ute. he gets out all kitted up and his “driver” takes the bike out of the tray and he is ready to roll. we all wish we had a support crew like that. as we turned onto mill point rd, ryan turns up just in time…again. as we make our way through the suburbs, i notice that rachael was no longer with us. i’m guessing she heard today’s route and opted for an easier day. i could be wrong and maybe she thought it was too easy and went to find some harder hills.

we eventually hit albany hwy and worked our way down towards gosnells. we had briefly lost john to a call of nature and i was thinking much the same thing. just after the road bridged over roe hwy, i ducked off behind a bus shelter and into the bushes. what seemed like a good kilo lighter, i chased for a bit to get back on the group just as they were coming through maddington. a good stop for me as i lessened the weight i was going to carry up the hill and the chase put some warmth back into my fingers and a bit in my toes.

we turned up mills rd west and picked up doug along the way. the kahuna loomed above us and i let the fast boys know where we were going to regroup. jordan left it in the big ring and started grinding his way up. i managed to hold his wheel for a while before a gap appeared and the guys behind moved around to fill it. i couldn’t maintain and had to let them go. i watched jordan tow matt, robbie, ryan and rob towards the top. i was stuck in no-mans land with no riders to be seen i managed to keep ahead of the one behind, but could not make ground on the guys up the road. stu started at the back of the pack and was working his way through. he easily dispatched me and worked his way to the front group. from what i could see, he didn’t quite make it but caught rob who had dropped off the pace. apparently jordan could not hold the big ring for the whole climb and had to drop it back a notch. ryan claims that he took him at the top, but i am not sure of the context. i am assuming he was talking about the race to the top… on the bike… who knows.

we regrouped at the turn and bid farewell to jordan who was only using our ride as a gap filler before his shop one started at nine. we traveled down urch and started our next climb after a short sharp descent. i left it in the big ring and tried to power up the other side. unfortunately, the other side is quite long and i started to run out of puff. ryan came past and i jumped on his wheel. as the climb progressed, we shook off mel and bella who relished the descent, but mat and robbie were not far behind.

we turned up peet rd and ryan set a decent tempo. to hard for me, he gapped me and i had to let him go. robbie, with his bouncy style, hopped up the road and onto ryans wheel. i was again caught in the middle but managed to stay away from any of the chasers. on the descent, i eased off enough for mel and rob to catch up. as peet rd became raeburn and the road starts to climb again, rob came to the front and stepped up the pace. it was enough to shake mel but i just sat neatly on his wheel. as we approached the state champs finish line at roleystone highschool, we were caught by another couple of riders and my memory is vague, but i think it was stu and mat. taking off from the same spot as the state champs masters race, i came around rob, who was spent from too much time on the front, and took line honors in our group. as the group came in, melvyn started to make excuses about spending the last couple of weeks in spain not riding. he was going to take a short-cut, but through the power of peer pressure, we convinced him to keep going.

up this high, the fog had rolled in and we could not see very far at all. we were going to take a right turn across brookton hwy not very far from where the accident happened last week. mat and phil were riding with that group last week, but as most of them were off the bike, they were out with us instead. we stopped at the intersection and allowed people to put their flashing lights on, just to be safe. you could hear the cars coming, but not see them properly at all. we listened for a break in traffic and headed off for our descent. we kept a single file all the way down and the road was not really conducive to high speeds as it continually flattens out. we past a couple of groups heading up the hill and it surprised me how many were out in the cold weather.

speaking of cold, it was so cold that i got an ice-cream headache on the way down. the fog turned out to be more like low cloud as it wasn’t to be seen after we were halfway down the hill. doug and i swapped off turns to keep the pace high and we led the train to the bottom. we turned right just before we hit albany hwy and regrouped before heading to the base of canning mills rd. this climb has been used as the perth hill climb championships as it is a fairly consistent gradient to the top. it basically heads up for around 2 ½ kms at just under 9 % before flattening to 2.5 % for a further 2 kms.

i was on the front as we started the climb as people did not know where to go and managed to gap the field a bit. after the previous efforts i was not sure how i would go, but i preferred to be chased rather than chasing. i held off the boys for quite a while but was caught by ryan, robbie and mat. i still managed to hold wheel for a bit as ryan was still grinding big gears today so was not out to sprint off on everyone. stu caught up with us and came around. robbie chased him down and took off up the road. stu held a gap to us, but mat, ryan and i all kind of stayed together for the majority of the climb.

once the road flattened out, ryan and i stepped on the pace to catch up with stu. matt was spat out the back and had to fend for himself, while robbie was long gone. the climb really sorted the field out as it took quite a while for all the riders to filter back in for the regroup.

we headed across to canning rd through the windy track that is the extension of canning mills rd. mr dickhead was driving a old crappy sedan today as he sped up to pass us only to turn right into a driveway just after. he couldn’t have waited that extra 5 sec. as we waited to regroup on canning rd, the “mid-life crisis harley Davidson club” came past with about 50 or so riders. apart from that, it was a fairly uneventful trip with just the usual attacks on t
he rolling hills heading towards pickering brook.

on our final regroup, a number of riders opted for the straight to the coffee shop route or straight down welshpool rd and home. the rest of us were going to head back up mundaring weir rd. as we went to turn onto glenisla rd, we were held up by the “mid-life crisis huge 4wd club” as about 50 of the damn things were coming the other way. this gave stu and doug a headstart as they managed to get through the turn beforehand.

we didn’t really chase and they held their advantage as we came down the glenisla hill at 70 kmph. mel the daredevil flew past me as i must have been holding her up.

when the climb started up mundaring weir rd, ryan took off like a scalded cat in a bid to try to catch stu. a paced myself up with robbie and rob and we caught ryan who had eased off once he caught stu. no lead change for the majority of the climb as we all sat in a line behind stu. as we came towards the top of the steeper section, ryan started dicking around with his gears. he was trying to get it into the big ring, but it wouldn’t go in. in the meantime, stu was continuing to grind away up the hill and had started to gap us again. i yelled some abuse at ryan, and told robbie, who was on his wheel, to go around him as he was slowing us down. rob, who was behind me, thought that i was talking to him so he came around all of us to chase down stu.

once we hit the flattish section i came to the front to lead out the group into the final climb. when we were just about there, ryan shot past like a bout of gastro (very fluid, but not much substance). the rest of the guys came around me to try to chase him down, while i was left to complete the climb on my own.

a nice pleasant coffee stop today as it was not that cold sitting outside. there were lots of groups of riders also replenishing their carbo and caffeine supplies at kalamunda and a few familiar faces were seen. we set off for the run home and i had a good descent on welshpool rd. i had to come around ryan towards the bottom and topped out at 79km/h. bella beat everyone hitting about 81 km/h.

as we turned onto welshpool proper, ryan informed us we had a few passengers. the glenn parker group that jordan had left us to meet up with had caught us after the coffee and was now attached to our group. we started rolling through to share the load and made our way back to albany hwy. the glenn parker boys turned off there and we made our way along berwick.

ryan led the pack from kent rd lights along berwick where we were heading towards our final sprint. i said to him that he should lead out and then sprint to make sure he had to work hard. we got caught at george st lights and he started dicking around with his gears again. his usual tactic to force someone else to lead out. screw this i thought and took off from the lights hard. i managed a gap quickly and pushed hard over the small hill. maxing out the heart rate at 188 bpm i eased off a bit as i crested and coasted down the hill a bit for recovery. i put the power down again and kept looking back to see if i would be caught. the only riders i could see were a fair way back so i guessed that i was safe. sitting up and cruising in i was past just at the end by a 4wd. sucking along behind at 60 km/h was ryan who claimed line honours. unfortunately he received too much outside assistance and has been relegated to last place. shame, ryan, shame. it’s almost as bad as doping.

so a good ride but definitely a tough morning in the saddle. just over 100 kms by the time i got home and over 1300m of climbing. my form seems to be coming back slowly but surely, however, the late night tour de france coverage is still playing havoc.