Today we were left leaderless!!! Though apparently after last weeks ride all over Perth with many wrong turns maybe being leaderless wasn’t such a bad idea 🙂

It is now our 6th week ( I think) of riding in the Novice Group and we felt quite confident trundling off on our own, after all there was only three of us so it couldn’t be too hard could it? Off we went with Scott leading the way and setting a cracking pace along the side of the river with myself and Carol dragging along behind. Really were just wanted Scott to do all the work while we tagged along! What a beautiful morning with the sky still pink and not a breath of wind, it was so pretty and such a change from other weeks where the wind threatened to blow us over.

We chatted happily as we pushed out hard and said how much better it would be if there were more people to help us learn the bunch riding skills… hint hint… we are a lot of fun to ride with guys!

Anyway as we came up the Canning Bridge we scooted off into Applecross barrelling along with what appeared to be a small TAIL wind… unheard of I thought… haven’t experienced many tails winds since moving here.. What a treat. As we headed towards Majestic Hill I said to Carol not sure I have the legs today, after doing two heavy PT sessions the last couple of days just on legs, I thought I might just go the short way and avoid the hill. So we made the decision to do that and let Scott turn and head to the hill. Our justification was that while he was doing one tough hill, by the time we met him we had cycled three hills so it evened out… however Scott was not convinced.

Back down we zoomed to the Canning Bridge and we could see that a Rowing Regatta was on so we took it slow under the bridge and as we came around the corner there was about a 100 screaming teenagers forming a guard of honour on either side of the path cheering us on as we slowly went through. We got into the spirit and waved and said thank you and how nice it was to be appreciated.. only to find out the guard of honour was actually for a team that had just won a race .. not for us…oooooohhhh. Scott was most disappointed!

Scott zoomed along telling Carol and I to shake a leg and we stretched out to 35kms and did have a half hearted attempt at changing the lead every now and again. But it was such a lovely morning and there was gossip to catch up, and pelicans to look at in the lakes and butts to admire as many male groups zoomed past us.

By the time we got to the end Scott had had enough and said ‘girls we are going to average 30kms all the way back” so of course being obedient Carol and I did just that and we had a great ride back to the Bell Tower. Carol suggested we do some sprints on the way back which I was definitely up for, but oh those pesky pedestrians kept getting in the way and in the end we gave up.

We arrived 60kms later ( well in our dreams) only to find everyone there and a queue for coffee, but some welcoming faces and a clap when we told them we had ridden 60kms! Think in reality it was 42 kms and a brisk speed but Scott may disagree with that!

All in all another great morning. For those of you that would like to lead a ride for us… here are a few tips…
Push us hard and we will work
Teach us and we will learn
Laugh with us to stop it hurting
Pass on your superior knowledge and we will think you are gods
All in all a great morning, see you all next week