Ride Report by Paul ‘dropped in dalkeith’

Since I enjoyed the experience of racing in Collie a few weeks back, I decided to do Men’s Support B at Dardanup. Support B was to be a 60km loop of what is best described as rolling hills, nothing of the gradients we do on the SPR Sunday rides, although they definitely took it out of your legs.

So unlike Men’s C grade at Collie, I was racing as the only SPR rider and as such my tactics would have to be different.  My main aim was to avoid any crashes and finish. Being a solo rider I would have to hope there are two or three teams that attack each other and I would hopefully be able to kind of hide in the pack. Of the 19 riders in Support B there were two teams with 3-4 riders each.

It was a perfect day for racing – sunny, no wind and around 15 degC at start time. We started off at a slow pace – and I mean slow – doing about 28km/hr for the first 5-7km with the occasional fake attack. Obviously everyone was conscious of the hills and were holding back. As soon as the group started up the first major incline then one rider decided to attack. The peleton let him go which was a mistake as he ended up riding alone for 40-45km on his own and took 1^st place. Once we got to the longest of the inclines (a climb of 5^o gradient according to mapmyride.com) the pace increased and it split the group. I managed to latch on to the front group of 4 riders, one being Bob Addy (Mike Bonner informed me pre-race Addy had competed in Le Tour de France in the past).

We rode together swapping turns on the front for the next 30km trying to bridge the gap on the front rider. A young guy in our chase group managed to escape from us up another incline and he stayed away to hold onto 2^nd place. So we were now 3 in the chase group. With 10km to go we were caught by another 7 riders which included 3 Avanti guys and 2 from Southwest Cycle Club. They were determined to chase down the two escapees and were doing all the work on the front. So Addy and I just sat in until the final 500m when I decided to attack in the final sprint for 3^rd place. Addy came with me and pipped me at the line by ½ a wheel length to grab 3^rd.

At first I was disappointed to have missed 3^rd but then it dawned on me that I had managed 4^th so I was really happy with my day, especially when I found out that they were awarding the first 4 places. So I got my first cheque from road racing J.

So a fantastic day, I learnt heaps and it was great to be there with the SPR crew.