ride report by peter.

it has actually been a while since i have written a ride report as i have had so much on lately.  we have 28 people registered as authors to the blog so i am sure that you can probably do an entry once in a while.

anyway, after last weekends atrocious conditions, it was good to see a few clear days open up for riding.  it is now predicted that it will start raining sunday and not stop till next weekend.  i suppose it is expected as it is two days off being winter.  the other thing i have noticed is how dark it is in the morning and how soon the sun is going down at night.  luckily with our 7am start, there is normally no need for headlights on the bikes.  a back flasher is usually advisable as it will help in getting to the start of the ride.

i think we had about 40 odd riders at the beginning this morning.  it never seems really big until we start moving and you see how much road we take up.  the course was one to sort out the men from the boys and i added a fairly hard hill in to the middle of it.  gooseberry hill doesn’t sound that frightening, but it is steep and hell deceptive if you haven’t ridden it before. 

the group snaked it’s way out through belmont and cut through maida vale to come out at the top of hale rd.  well we would have if julian hadn’t got a flat front tyre.  the group pulled over onto the footpath and proceeded to wake up the neighbours while julian tended to his wheel.  we were soon on our way and heading up gooseberry hill rd.

at the roundabout before the climb starts proper, we bid adieu to the main group as they headed across to ridgehill rd.  it surprised me how many we had coming along on the fast group even though they new that they would suffer on the hill.  i would estimate the ¾ of the group decided to tackle the hill.

i had started dropping back to make sure that everyone knew which way to head at the roundabout so was a fair way back as the climb started.  i put in a bit of an effort and managed to get around some of the guys.  the combination of the pre-ride lap of the river and the stop to help julian meant that my legs were not firing well at all.  we weren’t even at the top of the first section and i felt like i was going to be happy just to make it to the top. 

the slight reprieve that we get in the middle section didn’t do it’s job for me as i felt like i was still pushing just to keep the bike moving.  the road then has two left hand kinks in it.  each time it turns the road pitches up steeper and steeper.  i was already in first gear by the time i hit the steepest section, so it was a matter of sucking it up and just keeping the bike moving.  i was well pleased when i finally saw the sign for the roundabout.  one final push saw me shed a few fading riders and finish the damn hill.

we regrouped at the top and allowed the back markers to catch up.  we usually don’t wait for anyone once the group splits, but i wanted to make sure we didn’t kill anyone on that hill.  down the zig zag for a bit of high speed free-wheeling. 

about halfway down, i noticed that gaps were beginning to appear and thought that we would be split from the front of the pack if we weren’t careful.  i came a round a few riders to try to gain position, but by the time we reached ridgehill road, there was a group with a definite advantage.

once we got onto helena valley rd it was important to organise a chasing pack or we would never see the front runners again.  after our experience a few weeks back were we never chased properly, i barked some orders and soon we were doing 10 – 15 sec turns on the front of a single file.  this meant that we soon picked up some of the riders spat out the back of the front group and were making up some ground.  after we crossed the bridge at bassendean we saw them ahead at the lights of lord st.  unfortunately, there was a quick change and we were held up again by the lights asthey made well their escape.

this allowed a number of other riders to jump back on our group so we now had more helpers to do turns.  we continued with our strategy along guilford rd and our luck and hard work paid off as we caught the front guys just before tonkin hwy where they were stuck at the lights.  as they were caught, the incentive was not quite there to work as hard so the pace was a bit pedestrian.  i moved to the front to do a turn but managed to gap the group without even attacking.  as we approached the start of the rolling hills i decided to attack and sped ahead.  i was soon bridged by mike with paul in tow and thought that we may be able to get something going.  the lights took care of that for us and we were back together again.  a few more attack on the rolling hills but nothing really stayed away.  even ryan’s big push at the end was eventually chased down along east parade.

this meant that we were together in a fair size group for the sprint.  even better was the fact that i was actually their for the sprint.  although it didn’t help me much as my legs were pretty much shot by now.  james took the lead out and set a nice pace along riverside drive before some other guys made a late move.  ryan sat in until the last moment and just sprinted over the top in convincing fashion.

i couldn’t stay for coffee as we had to hit the shops today.  it was as struggle though after 4hrs in the saddle, the last thing i wanted to do was chase a 3yr old around a busy shopping centre.  and now, almost 12hrs from finishing, i am seriously having trouble keeping my eyes open.  should have had a nanna nap in the arvo.