by Jonny
Well luckily we all survived the carnage on Sunday and made it to Joondalup unhurt. Not sure if I will do it next year as it was a bit of fiasco at times. We got up at 4.30am as Lennie had arranged to meet Lisa at 5.15am outside QV1 in order to get the first train. I moaned all week as I am not a fan of early starts but I was warned the trains get very busy and if you are not there early you will not get on. At 5.50am the first train came but was packed to the rafters. We managed to squeeze Lisa on as she was doing the race but we decided to wait for the next one. We managed to get on this but again it was very busy. I think everyone had the clever idea of driving to Joondalup, parking there then getting the empty train south. When we got to Kwianna it must have only been about 4’C, definitely the coldest morning of the year so far and I was not too upset that we missed the first train. I also joined the biggest toilet queue ever; 10 toilets divided by 8000 doesn’t really work. Eventually we got to the back of A-group but when we started it was a long long way to the front and already it had split into many smaller groups. I played domestique and helped Lennie stay with the bunch. About 5km to the finish there was a big crash with about 20 bikes and bodies spread across the road. Lennie was also very close to ending up in another one and narrowly missed it. She was quite shaken up and just rode slowly to the finish after that. I got a bit carried away at the end and had a gap on the group we were with at the top of the off ramp – I managed to then hold off the chasing pack of about a hundred riders but boy did it hurt ! Before the last 5km things were going quite well and we did comment about how it was not as hectic as previous years. Five minutes later lennie had bodies flying in the air next to her ! Great to see many other South Perth Jerseys and congratulations to the SPR racers on there results. Next year….hrmmmh maybe not.
glad you survived. lady here at work broke both collar bones, and slid on her face for a length of tarmac. ouch.
Another question to ask yourself when you may be contemplating this free for all next year – Is it possible to ride your bike when you are shivering so much that you cant ride in a straight line……….
Answer is YES (just!)- you soon forget about the cold when the pace kicks off and your wondering if your lungs might explode because you have done no warm up whatsoever and your frantically trying to get a draft!!!
thats why I rode down 🙂 so when we took off all well 🙂
Congrats to Lisa and to everyone that made it to the finish in one piece. The hill ride was a lot more civilised – no getting up before 630, no worries about crashes and broken bones..just your mind and body playing games with each other up every hill 🙂
Congrats to Lisa on her outstanding 4th place – well deserved!
Not so good for some: as previously mentioned my poor compadre is really messed up, broken cheek, broken collarbone (in 2 places), and maybe a couple of ribs not to mention ALOT of bark down one side. Apparantly she hit the ground unconscious so didnt try and save herself. Poor love 🙁 Someone took a photo of her face down unconscious on the road!
Lisa, you mad speedy woman, congrats on finishing 4th – wicked effort! Now, tell me your secret … did it have anything to do with scoffing all the choc you won at Pete’s saturday ride breakfast???
secret ninja cycling chocolate!
anyone think the reflectors on the road might have played a part ?
couple times i got pushed onto the reflector and managed to just save it.
also heard a couple people in the bunch asking what hand signals meant ….
I think the cyclists on the road played a part !
take fast easy road….a heap of novice cyclists (mixed levels) and a big meandering bunch and it is inevitable someone will get squeezed…tap a wheel and bring down 10 to 20 riders….it happened last year, this year and will happen again next year.
we need to remember that we are actually riding close quarter conditions with heaps of crew who think a big bunch is rolling around the river with 4 of their mates. They are certainly going to get nervous when everyone pushes forward with 5km to go…they are also less likely to recover if they tap a wheel…
the impending crashometer light is flashing for this ride I’m afraid….(I chose a hills jaunt instead)
It was Lorraines Brownines on the Saturday – I totally loaded up and on the cycle home was wondering if they would make another visit 😉 YUMMO
I rode with Mike and we didn’t see any carnage, but there was one just behind us in the same group. My wife Deb came in about 10 minutes behind us and said she saw 3 big falls. The comments about the danger were certainly right. I saw a lot of stupid moves and near misses. We’ll be skipping this one next year.