Here’s my take on my second real race since Joondalup at the end of last year…

Three of us decided to take the middle sized option and enter B grade for this event. As mentioned earlier, James and I did a quick reverse reconnaissance of the circuit which seemed pretty straightforward; without any hills the real challenge we thought would be the easterly heading up Flynn Road. Pete, Stu and I lined up with 57 other riders and before I knew it we were away. Given how Peter was feeling I was impressed that he turned up at all – always thinking of the other Rouleurs at least he was able to donate James a pair of socks!

It took me about half a lap to realise that I was actually riding at the back of the field – now I don’t know too much about race tactics but have an idea that it is not the best place to be, especially with a big bunch like this. As I learnt one of the problems was that I had no idea until quite late in the piece that there was a breakaway group that had a minute on the main bunch by the last lap. So the first few laps I basically tried to work my way through the group to the front 1/3 without getting into any trouble. Unfortunately lost track of Stuart and Pete early on.

Most of the laps seemed pretty uneventful from where I was, with the main challenge being not expending too much energy getting back on a wheel out of the turn from Flynn onto Yanchep – coming out of the headwind into a cross wind. The tailwind leg was usually fairly high paced coming out of a corner with a nasty bit of sand on the inside which as far as I know didn’t catch anyone out.

The pace picked up on the last couple of laps when there seemed to be some interest in attempting to catch the breakaway (always ahead of the game this was about when I realised there was a breakaway!). Feeling OK I started doing some work at the front and, having heard Pete talk about this phenomenon before, realised that there are always a couple of guys that yell out “roll through” or “keep working” but they never seem to actually be taking part physically! Well I don’t think we would have caught the front guys anyway, but the roll through was pretty half arsed and short lived.

Disaster finally struck on the last corner of the last lap, turning left from Pederick into Mather drive. Most of the riders took the corner very wide leaving a big area of unused tarmac on the inside. I didn’t feel the corner was that sharp and managed to stick to the inside. Anyway was pretty glad to be in that position at this time, with several riders coming unstuck – hearing the noise of expensive bikes hitting the road I glanced over my right shoulder and saw someone rolling through the sand at pace!

With the finish in sight the riders who got through this safely took off for a sprint to the end. I grabbed the closest wheel and made it across the line in less spectacular fashion than James at the Bentley crit. My goals for this race were to get a bit more experience and not crash so was pretty happy with the result. I have no idea how far ahead the first guys across were, so will wait and see the results. Mental note for next time to take more notice of what goes on at the front and at least know there is a breakaway even if I can’t do anything about it! Look forward to the next race and hope to see more SPR colours out.