ride report by peter.
welcome to the last daylight savings sunday hills ride. on my way to the carpark i missed a call from ryan. it seems that he and jerry were both having trouble getting to the start today because the freeway was closed for some damn bike ride. those inconsiderate bastards, taking up our roads. as we sat around for a while waiting for them to arrive, stu realised how cold it was and took off home to grab his vest. i knew that we had a couple of people waiting for us on the way and didn’t want to delay the start too much. jerry and ryan fronted up so we took off sans stu. he had the bike setup as a time trial bike, so i was sure that he could catch up.
we headed towards orong rd, which is not a usual route for us, as it would take us straight to the welshpool rd climb. there were about 20 riders all up with a couple of new faces. a young guy named sam was looking for a sunday ride so bella and sam (girl) had invited him along. he had a talent identification jersey on so it would be interesting to see how he went today.
we lucked out as we turned onto orong rd as a group of 4 guys managed to turn in front of us. they all had local team jerseys on and looked like they could be “a” graders so we caught up to them and let them draft us all the way along to the climb. on the way we picked up mark and sharon who were waiting on the flats before the climb started. stu had rang up to see where we were but had still not caught up to us yet. it looked like he would miss out on the fun.
the hill started and our 4 escorts were not in a fighting mood, so we had to go around. i am always wary of passing a rider who you don’t know as they could come and smash you later on the hill. these guys didn’t seem too worried though. as the memory fades from a long week at work, i cannot remember exactly who did what, but i got to the front at one stage to set the pace. i wanted to see how the young bloke went and the answer is – very well.
it all became too much for me and i fell off the pace allowing ryan, sam, mike and a couple of others to head up the road. i think that mat was in the group too, but eventually fell back from the pace. by the time we reached the lesmurdie rd intersection the three front guys had a decent gap on mat, lindsay and myself, who were chasing hard.
chasing mountain goats in mountain country is never going to work and i was sure that we weren’t going to catch them. i started to concentrate on the other 2 as we were still in the points and i wanted to maximise mine. another attack a bit later on was too much for mat and this left lindsay and i to fight it out for 4th and 5th. local knowledge goes a long way and i managed to jump at the right time to stay ahead of lindsay for the points.
ryan was too much for sam and mike and they finished in that order.
ryan – 10, sam – 7, mike -5, peter – 3, lindsay – 1.
i got to the top and found that i had a text message from sharon. she said not to wait for her as she would find her own way to coffee. not a chance. if she had enough energy to write a text, she was not trying hard enough. we waited to make sure she did the next hill.
i am running a week behind, so i will fast track the rest of this blog.
observatory climb i got blown out and sat up to make sure everyone got the turn right.
ryan – 10, sam – 7, stu – 5, mike – 3, lindsay – 1.
rolled back around and did the mundaring weir rd climb to kalamunda. it wasn’t the last climbs so i was looking for some pb’s on the hill climb times. it didn’t disappoint.
ryan – 10, stu – 7, sam – 5, lindsay – 3, peter – 1.
stu 7:29, ryan 7:31, sam 7:36, lindsay 7:51, peter 7:52, mike 7:58, jerry 8:12, mark 8:31, julian 8:34, dan 9:03, paul o 9:22.
down the zig zag and back up kalamunda rd. a few went straight to coffee and the girls went down kalamunda and back up again.
ryan – 10, sam – 7, stu – 5, mike – 3, peter – 1.
it’s been a busy week so sorry for the delay. not really used to this whole work thing after so long on holidays.