ride report by peter.

after 2 weeks off the bike, and number 1 son giving me a cold in that time, i was always going to struggle on a group ride.  we had flown home on monday and i managed to slip a few rides in during the week but they were nowhere near the pace that i used to ride at.  a constant push was fine, but any surges tended to hurt and i didn’t have the capacity for them. 

the other big change over the 2 weeks is how damn dark it is again.  it is time for me to complain once again about how daylight savings sucks.  i know how i am voting come referendum time.  the street lights were on as i was riding to the start of a 7am ride.

anyway, as i approached the start point i did a quick head count and only saw about 35 riders.  within this was a severe lack of girls (i.e. none) and with some of our regulars down south for the race at pemberton there didn’t seem any point in splitting the group.  a few new faces on the ride today too and it is good to see more people wanting to come out riding with us.

so the route without the split would take us along good old south st and onto banister rd.  the aim was to make it as easy as possible until we got to banister then give it some stick.  i lead out with jack and i managed to get all the way to the hill before stock rd before i had to drop off the front.  a quick scurry to the back to see who was struggling and we managed to get everyone onto stock rd.  the last climb between leach and south managed to unhinge a few riders but most jumped back on once we were on south st.

as expected, the rolling hills along south played havoc with the back markers but mike and myself managed to pull a few of them back to the group.  the occasional stop light certainly helped us as well.  doug decided to join us along south after thinking that he missed us on canning hwy.  we had a delayed start due to a flat tyre so he thought we had already passed by so rode up to south st and caught us coming the other way.

once we hit banister the pace was on from the start.  the field lined-out almost straight away and i was content to just sit in and hold a wheel as best i could.  a few of the barista boys were in attendance today and were mixing it up at the front along with the usual suspects from the rouleurs.  it got a little messy towards the end as people were surging around the sides as traffic was in the other lane.  we need to keep that in check and at least look before you stray too close to the centreline.

once we hit nicholson rd, the call went up to ease the pace back.  jack and a couple of others were already up the road with ryan chasing them, and so we just let them go.  maybe we should have split the group today, but we would have ended up with two small groups.

anyway, the pace varied a bit along nicholson but most people managed to get back on.  gregor slinked to the back to look for his mate who he invited out for the first time, only to find that he was off the back on banister.  the indecision of whether to wait for a mate, or hang with the group.  once we told him some regulars were back there with him and should know the way home, he decided to ditch his mate for the protection of the peloton. 

the pace seemed to steadily increase along albany hwy and the group started shedding riders early.  we were supposed to wait for the shep rd intersection and this is another reason why we will probably split the group every saturday.  the first set of lights and the group was halved as some managed to get through on the amber while the rest of us contemplated the chase.  as usual the long delay at the lights meant that any chance we had of catching was going to be up to how many sets of lights they caught and we didn’t.  it didn’t really play into our hands too well and our group was split again before we reached riverside drive.  with only 4 of us left, there was no sprint, just survival to the end.

the highlight of the final sprint came from brett who decided to be sneaky and slip through the t-intersection lights at victoria st.  unfortunately he was spotted by and unmarked police car who flashed his lights and pulled him over.  after a very stern talking too, and a threat of a $400 fine plus 8 demerit points (double this weekend) he was let off with a warning.  probably a good reminder about rolling through red lights for the group.  it happens sometimes, but you know we will wait, so just do the right thing and stop.  in brett’s case, all he had to do was head onto the bike path and he would have ended up at the coffee shop.