ride report by brendan

Well after getting to our backup meeting place right on 0700 I expected a few more riders but after waiting another 5 or so mins we had swelled to around 20.

Dr Paul and a couple of others decided to go and do a shorter ride so headed off in another direction while we decided who knew the way (Pete warned me the day prior he might not make it), hah being my first Monday ride with SPR (I seem to be always at onsite when these public holiday rides are on) I was a little sketchy but Julian put his hand up and between us we lead the group off for Shelley Beach to stretch the legs.

While mainly uneventful and general chit chat seemed to be the way of the group we sat on a steady tempo. With numerous detours and roadwork’s we tossed up which way we could go in case of closures etc we thought all would be well as we hit Shelley beach.

I did a little roving of the pack of 15ish riders saying go for it and we would re group at end of the Shelley Beach run. Was sort of like letting dogs of a leash everyone was straight into a higher rhythm and started rolling through quite well as the pace climbed higher and higher, while I was doing the “Pete thing” making sure all were happy at the back through to front I finally managed to get back up onto the front and upped the pace again to see who really wanted to get a little hurt going.

We quickly passed a couple of smaller groups as we were averaging around mid 40’s with a few smaller surges by Ronny and Co I decided to stretch the group right at the last Km to finish off, which reminded my legs  of yesterdays effort in the hills (note to self recovery ride is Monday!).

After the regroup we continued through to Applecross over a short section of roadwork’s under Mount Henry bridge which turned out to be only sand and pretty smooth so no punctures and new bitumen heading through to Canning bridge made quite a enjoyable ride. Several Boats/People were starting to get prime positions around several key spots on  the Swan River but overall the traffic was generally well behaved towards us. Once under Canning Bridge we settled into a relaxing pace and made way to Point Walter which of course due to the Ozzy Day Triathlon had the road closed we detoured around the edge and came back not far down from the Point Walter golf course and continued on our way.

On heading down around (can’t remember the roadJ) heading towards The Left Bank the pace picked up and with a few little attacks ad surges the pace picked up and I’m pretty sure everyone came through for a turn which was pleasing as the speed was mid 40’s and goes to show how everyone is ever improving on these rides, on coming to the end we had a slight wait to make sure we had everyone and heading off up towards Cott.

With the change of direction came a rather nice tail wind blowing us along rather brisk pace right up into Cottesloe with Ronny and Co seeming to holding the pace high for quite a while we suggested that they can go off the front to have a break back in the group which they quickly took up on. The pace continued to stay high straight through Cott and for a change there was hardly any traffic which always  makes riding in a bunch more enjoyable… Going up over the crests (I refuse to call them hills, many might disagreeJ) heading back up to West Coast hwy we for my first time ever scored a green light and the whole group made it through and headed up towards Dalkeith. As we were nearing where one of our Saturdays sprint spots the pace was increasing higher and higher and never one to back away I added a few km’s an hour to that as Ronny made a surge passed me Dan and a few others went for the sprint while I sat back and watched which is a nice change and great seeing other people slogging it out for gloryJ , making sure everyone turned right heading back around to Mounts Bay road we continued through to the back of UWA where Dan on his squeaking Specialised took off, pretty sure everyone in the neighbourhood heard him go as he defiantly gets the noisiest bike award for the dayJ With no one too keen on chasing we let him get a few hundred meters up the road before we upped the speed and held him at that distance and as Murphy’s law 8x out of 10 the lights will get him and sure enough we had a laugh when the lights got him, but on a big SPR no-no he jumped through the RED light to get as much advantage as possible heading for our run into the coffee shop sprint, we yelled DQ to him and generally hung you know what on him, when we took off (from the GREEN light) and chased him down, everyone rolled through until the pace moved up into the high 40’s and a few started to fall off and hang on as the speed kept on climbing, Dan was looking back and starting to think the worst and is speed was fading fast as the Train caught him with around 600 to go to the sprint line, we all hung a few passing words of encouragementJ on him and powered to the Swan Brewery where I was offered a lead out (sorry missed your name) and not one to pass those up we shot off and I powered away for a nice finish with the group relatively intact.

Due to several blocked access ways we made our way unconventionally to the coffee shop (don’t think I will elaborate on that any more) so after ordering food and drinks and sharing a few laughs mainly at Dans expense for his cheeky move and noisy bike, Lorraine took a few piccies of us all and Dan as she wanted to post him up on the blog some name and shame feature haha.

So overall a most enjoyable ride with pace and recovery sections and quite a few good laughs had by all…Till next time watch this space….