ride report by peter.

 

with a absolutely stunning day predicted, i expected a bumper turnout this morning but was left a bit under whelmed.  around 15 or so decided to toe the line but we did manage to pick up a few more on the way.  with the usual suspects like ryan and stu absent, i thought that i would have the mountain points all wrapped up.  unfortunately for me, one of the riders we picked up on the way was mike.  there was even a general murmur of “no points today” coming from the group.  yes, it was true but on the other hand, having mike there meant that i would have to work a whole lot harder which will get me a whole lot fitter. 

steve and i lead the group out and onto albany hwy at a leisurely pace.  “fresh” from his 300km melbourne to warrnambool race a couple of weeks ago, he was also backing it up from a session on the track where he got the honour of being smashed by the likes of cj sutton, graeme brown and cam meyer.  he was unsure on how he would go on the hills, but i thought i better keep an eye on him regardless. 

the first climb of the day was up the kahuna.  as we approached the foot of the climb, clare was doing circles around the roundabout waiting for the group to arrive.  my aim was to stick with mike for as long as possible and see where it left me.  i had my new “dr paul’s custom wheelset” on the bike which saved me a hundred grams overall.  unfortunately as it was a rush job to get them on yesterday, i also managed to forget the speedo magnet and now realised that the derailleur could not access the easiest and hardest gear.  well it could access the easiest, but that pinging noise that the spokes make as the rear derailleur brushes past them was not what i wanted to hear. 

the climb got underway and the pecking order was quickly sorted out.  i made tempo until mike came around me and then i latched onto his wheel, determined to hang on.  steve was on our wheel for a while but detached somewhere along the first main pinch as the field really thinned out.  i was watching my heartrate and listening to my breathing, but was really starting to struggle.  as the road flattened out for the first “plateau” mike kept the effort up and rode away from me.  i have talked about the same thing before and knew that i should also keep the effort up but my body said “no” as it had been abused for too long. 

i rode tempo but looked around me to make sure that the gap was not reducing to the riders behind.  mike’s gap was increasing ever so slowly as he ground his way up but i was more worried about the fact that riders were approaching from behind.  i wasn’t sure at first, but a couple more looks confirmed steve closing fast.  i was paying for my efforts to maintain mike’s pace and steve come past me and started chasing down mike.  he came close to catching him too, but the road pitched up again and he didn’t quite make it. 

the road flattened out again and i managed to recover enough to increase my pace to begin to chase down steve.  no other riders were gaining from behind, so i just had to concentrate on catching him.  another thing i notice about the new wheels is just how quiet they are.  i scared the crap out of steve as i came past him and i tried to stay ahead.  there was not far to go and it came down to a sprint for the line.  the effort of catching him had me spent and my spew-meter was in the red.  i fell a few metres short and came third.  gregor the scottish mountain-biker from texas was back to show his climbing skills ans too fourth while clare was impressing some of the boys by kicking their arse to take out fifth.

mike – 10, steve – 7, peter – 5, gregor – 3, clare – 1.

 

a regroup had us at max numbers as we had also picked up doug on the climb.  we had a nice fast descent down urch but soon the road pitched up and those with fast descending skills soon deferred to those with fast ascending legs.  again the plan was to stick like glue to mike and see what happens.  steve was fastened firmly to my wheel and we let mike set the tempo up the climb.  luckily for me, the steepest part of peet rd is the section below the urch intersection and i managed to hold onto mike’s wheel till the top.  we kept the pace up and did a couple of turns as we headed over the top and towards the school.  the section past the fruit place always gets me as it is just steep enough to be painful especially after you think you have finished with the climbs.  i dropped it back to the small ring while i noticed that steve and mike were still grinding away in the big. 

mike hit the front again as we made the final run towards the school climb.  steve and i were content to not help him as we were pretty sure that it would come down to a sprint.  about halfway up the hill, steve started to come around with me on his wheel.  the finish is deceptive and i made sure that i didn’t go too early (like the state champs race).  i waited till the last moment and then started my sprint.  steve stepped up and soon we were going side by side along the road seeing who could sustain the longest.  after doing less time in the wind (ryan style) i had the fresher legs and he conceded.  the spots for fourth and fifth also came down to a sprint with clare out gunning gregor for the points.

peter – 10, steve – 7, mike – 5, clare – 3, gregor – 1.

 

we were all present and accounted for and ready to rock and roll when we noticed that melvyn hadn’t arrived yet.  he eventually turned up after suffering a bit of chain trouble when his quick link detached and he was riding sans chain.  luckily the two pieces didn’t fall off so he could reattach quite easily.  we headed down brookton hwy and onto the foot of canning mills rd.

as we turned onto the road leading to the hill, there was a call of “flat” so we passed it down the line.  after the debacle of last week, it was good to see the group looking out for each other.  after gregor fixed his flat we were off with the base of the climb starting only fifty metres away.

i was following my same game plan again but found myself boxed in a bit.  mike was starting to move away from the front and i couldn’t get past.  i quickly sprinted around to catch his wheel, but was not sure at what cost my legs had paid.  this is a particularly steep and brutal climb but it is fairly consistent the whole way up.  it makes it easy to get into a tempo and stay there.  unfortunately it was easy for mike to get into a tempo that was obviously faster than i could handle.  i lost ground after staying with him for a short time.  gregor had been on my wheel just before the road steepened up but had slot ground when mike “took off”.  i found my rhythm but was surprised when he caught back up to me.  mike was surging ahead, and we were all losing ground, but i didn’t think that i was going that slow.  no disrespect to gregors climbing ability, but i just don’t like being caught.  soon steve came up beside us too.  pushing a big gear doing strength endurance efforts, he ground his way past us.  as the pitch of the road changed a bit he slipped back and gregor and myself began chasing mike down. 

the last part of this climb really flattens off and is in stark contrast to the first section where trees and curves in the road give way to long straight open roads.  quickly changing up the gears we tried to increase the pace to make up some ground on mike.  it was a bit of a wasted effort in that respect, but i also wanted to distance myself from any other challengers to the points.  about halfway to chevin road which was the rendezvous point, i put it in the big ring and put in a big effort to shake gregor.  i didn’t want it to get to a sprint situation so managed to distance myself from him and maintain the gap to the end.  mike was nowhere to be seen as he had finished the climb and just kept going to keep the legs moving.  after a short wait, steve came in with clare and paul on his wheel, but managed to keep it in that order and maintaining paul’s 6^th place just out of the points for the third climb in a row.

mike – 10, peter – 7, gregor – 5, steve – 3, clare – 1.

 

we rolled towards pickering brook but had lost three riders before we got there with various people having early commitments.  after a regroup at pickering brook a split formed and five more took off for an early mark, opting for a quick descent down welshpool instead of a climb up the weir road.  across the rolling hills before the main climb, john managed to get a bit of a break, but i was mainly concerned with hanging close to mike and steve.  by the time we started the climb, there were a few guys already up the road.  paul and steve said that i should probably go hard now, but i looked back at  how close mike was decided to wait to see what he did.  i didn’t really have a choice as he took off like a rocket and i had to sprint to get on board. 

we passed the others on the climb like they were standing still and i was only just holding on for dear life.  i started to wonder how long i could hold this pace for, but soon got my answer.  we had just passed john who had the early break, and i started to slip off mike’s wheel.  a couple of efforts to stay on really just buggered me up rather than kept me on and i slipped back.  i tried to get into a tempo, but struggled under the weight of the previous effort and was not going as well as i could.  i made my way up the bottom section of the climb, but looked back to see that john was gaining on me and soon grabbed my wheel.  john has never been a climber and i can still remember his first saturday ride with us.  a combination of new bike syndrome and some good training (maybe epo) has seen some god improvements lately. 

we continued up the climb with mike nowhere in sight.  we came to the last little pinch before it flattens out and i urged john to stay on my wheel.  he dropped back a bit as we hit the flatter section, but a bit of yelling forced an effort out of him to get back on.  as we started that long straight, i could just make out the figure of mike disappearing around the bend up ahead.  we hammered along the “flat” and entered the last pinch of the day.  i knew that john would not hold my wheel here after all the efforts he did on the bottom of the climb, so i yelled some encouragement at him before he dropped back.  actually, i said “keep looking behind you and ride like you stole something.  don’t let him catch you”.  i made my way up the final climb and onto the roundabout.  john managed to keep fresh air between him and the chasers, but it seems that steve caught gregor near the end and relegated him to fifth.  i’m pretty sure paul took sixth again.

mike – 10, peter – 7, john – 5, steve – 3, gregor – 1.

 

by the time we hit coffee the numbers had dwindled dramatically.

steve, peter, paul, lorraine, mike b, anna, john & gregor – 1.

conversation ranged from what to eat while riding, to bec’s crash at the track last night, to davina riding with a broken arm, to lance’s comeback and what contador will do, to what brendan and steve’s partners got up to last night at the track.  coffee’s, cake and coke (the non-tom boonen kind) devoured we were on our way.

quite a uneventful ride home as the smaller group means less egos to stroke.  john broke away for the sprint at the welshpool rd maccas only to discover no-one was chasing.  steve and i made a move on the hill heading into the final sprint but sat up once we rolled down the other side.  this allowed paul to wipe the voodoo of the 6^th place away to take the sprint at the lights.

so, not the best turn out but this allowed the points to be spread around a bit more.  i had been told today that the state crit champs are actually on saturday next week, not sunday like most races are.  this means that i will be missing the saturday ride, but will probably be available for sunday mountain points, to defend my lead.