ride report by peter.

 

a long weekend sunday ride will always produce interesting results as far as the composition of riders.  sometimes more people turn up because it is a free day for them, other times less people turn up because the long weekend brings other plans.  this weekend was a bit of a mixed bag.  some new riders to our group, some others that don’t usually come and some regulars that didn’t appear at all.  so we celebrated the birthday of our queen (apparently a different queen to the eastern states) with a nice ride in the hills.

 

the morning was pleasant and not as brisk as it has been.  a very light shower was moving in from the west, but we got moving before it set in as it always seems worse when you are sitting still and getting rained on.  the course today would take us down south towards armadale and up mt nasura via carawatha rd and carradine.  a quick descent along solidiers rd before heading up peet rd and the rest of brookton hwy.  heading towards kalamunda we would take in the observatory before heading to coffee via lawnbrook rd.  all up five main climbs plus the usual bonus ones.

 

so around 20 of us headed along albany hwy to the first climb.  two of the new riders, rick and blake, were at the front and setting quite a strong pace.  probably a bit higher than we would normally do, but that is because they didn’t know what to expect today and would probably save their legs next time.

 

we hit the first hill as a group and blake jumped up the road with mike chasing him down.  i am not really sure how that one turned out as i stayed back with lisa who was venturing out on the hills ride for the first time today.  this is a bitch of a hill to do first up and i wanted to make sure she got up it alright.  the steep section was a bit testing, but she made it in the end and we headed down the other side to go and tackle carradine.

 

we rounded the corner and blake was out in front early on.  i sprinted up to join him as i wanted to see how he was going as a climber.  he has only been riding for a year and a half and know that he has work to do on the hills, so davina recommended to him to do our sunday ride.  i sat on his wheel for a bit before he noticed me there and pulled over to ride side by side.  we chatted for a bit while i upped the pace to test him out.  his breathing began to get heavy and eventually he slipped back to sit on my wheel.  i left him there for a bit and listened to his breathing before slowly accelerating away.  i looked back to make sure i had broken him before slowing done to ride with him again.  as i have always said, cycling is about trying to make other people hurt.

 

we continued up the hill and were soon joined by mike and steve.  they were not racing it and we kept a good pace to the top.  at the last 50 metres or so, steve and i sprinted it out for the line and both threw the bikes at pretty much the same time.  too close to call. 

 

a regroup at the top and we headed along to churchman’s brook road which become the great descent down soldiers road.  steve and i rode back with lisa to make sure she got down the descent well as some of the corners can get a bit hairy.  at the bottom, dr mark dropped his chain so we waited for him to make sure he got going again. 

 

after the regroup, lisa and melvyn headed straight up brookton hwy and would meet us at the gull servo at karagullen.  the rest of us would have fun going up peet road into rolleystone.

 

my aim was two-fold.  firstly i wanted to see how blake would go on the steeper climbs and secondly i was going to try to stay with either mike or stu, depending on who was going to be in front of me.  usually it was both of them. 

 

the hill started and blake moved to the front pretty well straight away.  i sat on his wheel as we tackled the first steep section which would average over 10%.  mike soon came by and i swapped blake’s wheel for his and held on for dear life.  i thought i was going pretty well as we had made it up the first pinch and had gapped the rest of the pack.  we just hit the second steeper section when mike stood up and put in a solid attack.  i had nothing and could not respond at all.  i just tried to maintain my tempo and hope like hell that his heart condition kicked in and he had to slow down to recover.  i kept the momentum up as we veered right past urch road and tried to keep the distance between us to a minimum.  as the road steepened up again, he put more into me and i was really starting to suffer.  i looked back and could see stu gaining on me too.  by this stage i was about 100 metres behind mike and 50 metres in front of stu.  the road gradient evened out a bit and i started to accelerate. 

 

the trick to hill climbing is to make sure that whatever effort you put in to the steeper sections, you do the same for the not as steep sections.  a lot of people relax when the gradient relaxes, but this is the time to go faster.

 

i started to gain ground of mike and lost sight of stu as he was still further down the hill.  i chased for a while but had a lonely ride from the top of the climb to the finish line at rolleystone high school. by the time i started that last little climb, mike was already crossing the finish.  close but no cigar.  it made me think about a mountain points table for the blog.  i was talking to jeff from cyclebuzz the other day and they have sprint points on their saturday morning ride that people accumulate for both winning sprints and also just turning up.  maybe we could have designated mountain and sprinters points for the sunday ride.  we all try to race to the top and we all know where the sprints are on the way home, so this would just be verifying the winners each week.  something i might think about anyway.

 

the rest of the group made their way to the regroup and doug commented that he didn’t even realise that there was a high school behind all the trees and bush land that skirt the road side.  he said that he has always been to buggered to look at the signs whenever we have ridden up here before.

 

we jumped onto brookton  highway and kept heading towards the servo.  a few of the riders wanted to test themselves on the run into karagullen and sprinted off for a nice fast descent.  toilet, water and food stops all taken care of and we were off again.

 

the group was spread along the road with little packs forming as riders found their rhythm or more than likely and nice wheel to follow.  i hung back with ronny to help melvyn and lisa along.  it was a pretty uneventful stretch of road.

 

at the regroup quite few riders turned off and headed either home of to the coffee shop.  the rest of us headed towards the observatory but with a detour to take in part of the next cyclo-sportif course which will be held in a few weeks.  repatriation road has a short sharp hill in it which can make things interesting when you are trying to hold a group together in a cyclo race.  i just wanted to make sure i remembered how crap it was to be ready for the race.

 

once we hit patterson road and started the observatory hill proper, the group began to find it’s pace.  no-one was attacking and there was a lot of talk amongst the front of the group.  jens and stu were on the front and we were trying to egg jens on for an attack to break things up a bit.  he declined the offer and fell away as stu upped the pace a bit.  pretty soon it was stu, mike, blake and myself and i was happy to be sitting behind the old men as they drafted blake and i up the hill.  at the last moment, blake sprinted around to get to the top first while the rest of us just watched him go.  this could be even more incentive for a mountain points tally.  we may not have been so complacent.

 

the group then headed down the fast descent and towards the final climb of the day up lawnbrook.  a number of riders swapped it out on the front as people were keen to go fast down the hill.  i was just keen to try to gain some ground on mike and stu before the hill started in earnest. 

 

i changed gear and began to tackle the hill.  steve commented on me being a bit too keen, but i said that  wanted to get ahead of mike.  too late.  he quickly came up behind me and put in a big effort to make sure i was not on his wheel.  i tried to tempo up to cut my losses, but i was losing more ground than i was gaining.  pretty soon stu and steve caught me as well so i sat on their wheels unto the road swept left past the carmal primary school.  i was pretty much spent by then and let the boys go play.  by the time they left my sight, steve had already made a move on stu and was in the process of trying to catch mike.

 

i chucked it in the big ring and decided to smash out some se efforts instead as i might as well use the hill for something.  blake eventually caught up to me and we rode the rest of the way to the regroup on canning road.  next stop was the coffee shop.

 

when we turned up, the guys that had turned up earlier where already eating and drinking and had a table set up for us.  on another table sitting on his lonesome was cj sutton as he was out training with josie today, but left her to do more intervals while he had coffee instead. 

 

it was a good break for us and well deserved as the number of climbs today certainly took their toll on the group. we took our time at the shop but eventually had to saddle up and head off home.  halfway along canning road, michael got a flat tyre so the group had to wait while he changed it.  luckily he has new tyres coming this week, so hopefully that will be the end of his bad run. 

 

we kept it together along lesmurdie rd but when we hit welshpool it was all on.  the lack of cross winds during the descent meant that it was a pretty tight group as we sped down the hill.  as i am still on chris’ bike i don’t have a speedo so have no idea what we were doing.  it felt fast though.

 

once on the flats, it was on t be first to the lights at tonkin hwy.  we prettu much all took it in turns to try to smash it off the front but would generally all get pulled backing before another attack would go.  it was lots of fun, but i wish i had the legs to cause more damage.

 

the sprints at the two maccas were both taken out by blake who must be modeling himself on ryan as he hid nicely in the pack and just took off at the last minute.  on the final one along berwick i tried to lead out davina, but ran out of legs leaving her too long a run with blake stuck on her wheel.  all in good fun though.  the points system my make that a bit more competitive.

 

so a good ride and we got to meet some new people and inflict some sunday pain.  the weather is steadily improving and i look forward to the day when we don’t need arm warmers and vests at the start.