by Ben

After enduring incredulous comments during the week from non cycling friends that I would be driving to Collie to go for a bike ride, I headed off early Sunday morning for a pleasant trip along SW highway. Left plenty of time to stop off at a bakery to stock up for an early lunch and arrived in predictably cold Collie with almost a couple of hours to spare. Came across Bruce at registration, where I got the bad news of the day that Peter was unwell and I had B grade all to myself.

Bruce and I went out for a short warm up ride on the first part of the course, with me worriedly checking that he was not intending on doing a full lap to warm up! What we saw looked like a nice scenic course, no wind and a couple of small hills to keep things interesting. Back at the start/finish we met up with the rest of the SPR riders, including the tough guys Rob and Paul fresh from their “warm-up” in Busselton the previous day.

After stuffing down some more food, we lined up on the start and rolled out on time 5 minutes after the A grade boys. The main rules from the briefing were: “keep away from the solid white line ($100 fine) and “no victory salutes crossing the line”! I didn’t think there would be much risk of breaching that one anway. The race was to be 4 laps of the 21km circuit and conditions were perfect with not a breath of wind – a feeling most of us riding in Perth are unaccustomed to.

The only familiar face really was Matt in the Kalamunda cycles kit who rides with us on Sundays, and he took the lead around the first part of the circuit, with everyone happy to sit in behind and warm up. I tried to stay near the front as much as possible, which has the bonus of knowing what is going on, the downside being that when you get on the front it is difficult to get anyone else to come past and help out. There were a few half-hearted attacks on the first lap, with everyone getting a feel for the circuit. There were 2 undulations/hills on the home stretch back into town before a fast crossing of the bridge and railway, and a small uphill toward the main street and finish.

Sitting at 3rd wheel at the end of the lap and feeling OK, the pace started to increase into the second lap. The “squadra pirata” team seemed to have an unlimited supply of riders and their team tactics came into play throughout the remainder of the race. They would send an attack off the front, let one or two of us chase them down, then launch another rider just as the main group caught back up. It showed how having a few numbers in a team can really help you manipulate the whole field, and wear down those riders who are on their own. This continued fairly consistently for the rest of the race.

Nothing much seemed to have changed coming into the 3rd lap, except that looking back we seemed to have dropped a few riders off the back by this stage. I remembered to have something to eat although unfortunately got caught out by an attack with a mouthful of muesli bar which had to be stowed in the sides of my mouth while breathing through my nose to avoid an embarrassing choking episode! I managed to hang on to the bunch, swallow, have a drink and not fall off by the time the action was all over. Was disappointing to see some people throwing their wrappers etc. into the bush on the side of the road though.

Into the 4th lap and the “pirates” continued their attacks in earnest. By now a few other faces that I had not seen earlier had moved up and it looked like the main players were establishing themselves. The main driving group had shrunk significantly it seemed. A couple of local riders, some Cyclemania boys and a few others started to string out up the road as the pace gradually increased. Coming around the last corner before the long home stretch and hills, my left calf suddenly cramped – not sure what was going on here as had never had any cramping problems before, but it seemed to settle with a few stretches as we headed into the business end of the race.

3 or 4 km before the end, one of the pirate boys launched an attack on the first hill, and it seemed no one was willing to follow. I decided to try and go with him, and we started swapping turns with the main group about 200m back. Coming over the hill I saw the C grade escort up ahead, and thought that if we got past them at least it would be a psychological advantage. By the time pirate guy and I had passed the main C grade bunch we were almost at the bridge just before town. Looking back now it was impossible to tell who was in C or B grade, and then the C grade boys started to sprint for the finish at the same time. Understandably it was instant chaos as I felt myself being forced back as the bunch surged around me. Seeing a gap open up I slipped through to the front of the bunch again which was now a definite mix up of B and C riders. On my right I saw 2 guys lock handlebars and go down, with the rider on the left and his bike skidding across the road into the path of the remainder of the bunch. Just as I thought I would be going over the top of him I was past and sprinting for the line. We all crossed pretty close together, and I thought I had managed 4th or 5th, but with the mix of B and C graders it was pretty hard to tell.

I was hoping that the rest of the SPR guys in C grade had gotten through the carnage OK, and rolled around the corner to get out of the way of the rest of the finishing riders. There were some words exchanged between a couple of B and C graders arguing over who was in the way of who but fortunately it did not eventuate into any physical exchanges! The instruction came to go and claim places so I went over to the marshal to try and work out where I had crossed. 1St, 2nd, 3rd and 5th were all accounted for so I figured I must have been 4th. Pretty happy with this as the aim for the day had been to finish with the bunch.

Managed to track down the other south perth riders and watched the womens finish with Lorraine featuring high in the standings once again – well done. Paul seemed pretty energetic still considering just completing the half IM, while Rob had treated the race as a bit of a warm down by the look of it. Fantastic effort to do both events! After a quick bite to eat we went in for the presentations and I was surprised and happy to be announced for 3rd place so there must have been a bit of shuffling about with the final standings. All in all a great day out and am definitely getting hooked on this racing business.