ride report by peter.

i was scheduled in to take the novices this morning so i decided to cut a lap of the river beforehand.  with the state time trial championships the following weekend, i took the tt bike to do some efforts.  unfortunately my young lads conspired against me and delayed my start by about 15 min.  this meant that i was running hell late by the time i reached freo so had to go to plan b and ride straight back up stirling hwy.

i had pushed fairly hard so was looking forward to the nice easy pace on the novice ride when dr ronny came up to say that he would take the novices for me.  my brain said yep, my legs screamed wtf.  my brain promised my legs it would release some more endorphins and so we were off to chase the fast boys.

both the groups stayed together along canning hwy and stock road where we managed to get split a number of times by the lights.  a small group got ahead at the lights at leach hwy so managed to stay ahead as we turned onto south street.  luckily, they kept the pace down until the group was totally back together and i announced that the fast group could then take off.  the pace picked up immediately and group split into their respective speeds. 

the fast group started to roll through to keep the pace high and we started to drop one or two riders.  not a lot of time to catch up but at least the option to join back into the main group would be available until we past banister road.  our next challenge was to encounter another group ride heading in the same direction.  we were catching them but being on a busy road i didn’t want to take over a second lane so we had to single file it past at speed.  i think we may have lost a couple more who latched onto that group for comfort and security. 

we reached the turn to banister rd and few turned off to ease the pain a bit.  we continued on with the group rolling through up to nicholson rd a where we turned left to skirt past livingston shopping centre.  i was starting to miss more and more turns by this time as my legs were pretty much over the promise of more endorphins and were filling with sweet, sweet lactic acid.  we managed to reach the end of nicholson rd and swung left to head towards albany hwy.  julian commented to me that he thought that we were supposed to go straight.  no, i thought we were on the right track as this was the way we always went.  then my gps started flashing up on the screen that we had gone off course.  ah, maybe julian was right.  didn’t matter.

we past by the end of banister rd to find the main group waiting at the lights, so we managed to sneak past them.  we had a lot of trouble when the two groups got caught up a while ago, so i am keen to keep them apart as long as possible.

coming back in along albany hwy the pace was still on but we managed a few lights to catch our breath before swerving onto shepperton rd.  no big attacks so on the last rise i managed to just surge when i was on the front and got a gap which brendan and lorraine bridged across to.  once back on the flat near the causeway the group had caught up but we had also caught the early escapees that had not been caught by the main group when they turned off.  i jumped back onto the front and did some more time trial training across both bridges and onto riverside drive.  i was so buggered by this stage that i needed to change down gear to negotiate the minuscule rise that the road takes to cross the bridge.

i continued to lead out, knowing that i had no sprint and needed the tt practice.  no-one was coming around so i just kept the pressure on as long as i could.  once we crossed the lights the first set of lights i felt a rush of air as ryan took off with brendan fixed on his wheel.  the rest of the group then also took flight in dribs and drabs according to their ability and remaining fitness.  i was pretty buggered by now so cruised the rest of riverside drive.  ryan managed to hang on to the sprint, but not without a major rub of wheels from brendan, just so he knew he was there.