ride report by peter.

 

rain.  every time we schedule in a breakfast it decides to rain.  even the christmas ride in december was held in a absolute downpour.  well this was scheduled for the middle of winter, only one day before the shortest day of the year, so cold and wet was expected.  the forecast was for strong winds and showers.  they were predicting over 10mm so the house was set up accordingly.  there were towels on the floor, towels on the couches and a basket for wet socks by the door.

on checking the radar first thing in the morning, i was pleased to see that even though there were showers, they were very sporadic and quite light.  this meant that it would be a hit-n-miss situation where we would either come through unscathed or be dumped upon.  the rain and clouds had one benefit though as the morning wasn’t as cold as the previous few days.

we still had a decent turnout despite the weather and there were over 40 riders waiting at the carpark as i rolled in late…again.  at least i had an excuse this morning as there were some last minute preparations before our house was invaded.

being a breakfast ride, we were sticking together to make it a bit more social.  no splitting meant that we needed to be a bit more careful especially on the hills along stock and south streets.  however, we rolled out nicely in one big group with three novices braving the weather to do their course separately.

the trip was quite uneventful along canning but the hill leading to stock did manage to break things up a bit.  i hung back to keep an eye on scott who was making the step up from the novice group today.  up over the hill and we were a way off the back off the group.  i had a chat to dr paul and he said that he would look after scott and probably take a shortcut to get home.

i chased to catch up with the main group and found that it had been split at the leach hwy lights.  the “escapees” weren’t pushing hard though and by the time we hit south street we were all together.  a few struggled with the hills, but by the time we turned onto banister the group was pretty much intact.

i went to the front to sing out some instructions to let them know the we would be going hard along banister rd but would regroup afterwards.

ryan and brendan were close to the front and started the pace up.  neil manning from the plan b team was out with us today and as the current state open road champion, he was going to give them a run for their money.  i was drifting back though the group to make sure that everyone knew what was going on.

once i reached the back, i then started pacing up and jumping between groups to make my way forward again.  there were a few strong groups caught up at the back and i used them as much as possible.  working with stu and some others we managed to almost get back onto the what was left of the main group.  unfortunately i ran out of legs by this point and had to sit up and cruise in the last couple of hundred metres.

along nicholson rd the pace slowed significantly but there were some riders who definitely struggled with the pace and were still making their way back.  by the time we reached albany hwy the group was all together again.  this made for a nice cruise the rest of the way along manning rd and up into como ready for breakfast where dr paul and scott where also just turning up.  at the end of the day we never really encountered any rain but the wet roads made for some soggy socks.

with bikes in the garage and socks in the washing machine, it was inside to see what gastronomic delights lorriane had provided this time.  some people had the smart idea of parking their car near my place so that they could quickly get change after the ride and not have to stand around in wet knicks.  others skipped the ride altogether but still turned up for the breakfast.  it was all about socialisation after all.

there were a few announcements and we had a quick general meeting to vote on some minor constitution changes before moving onto the all important raffle draw.  with some extra prizes donated by cycling wa and perth integrated health clinic, we had quite a few to go around.

mike b took out the major prize of a torque wrench and drink bottle, while russell, yas, brendan, sandra, brett, stu and ???(i will check later) grabbed the minor prizes.  thanks to ben and aiden for drawing the raffle tickets.  ben has improved his number recognition in the last 3 months, so didn’t say that every ticket was “nummer four”.

so after another bike weigh-in (no sneaky surprises), the winter breakfast was over until springtime.  thanks to kate, jody, brett and rob for their help and, as always, thanks to lorriane for donating her time and energy to provide such a excellent breakfast.