Report by buy cheap viagra Lorraine

A lousy weather forecast had many riders writing off any cycling even before the weekend had started! I had even bought a fancy rain jacket on Thursday in preparation… no excuses for me!

While up in the hills getting dressed the first text arrived before 6 am… “are you riding?”…  “yes” was the answer (with a smiley face 🙂 added for enthusiasm). Driving out of Darlington the next text came… “will meet you at coffee”.  As I stopped to send a quick reply a mysterious 4 wheel drive stopped in front of me! Oh no…  not another stalker (as per Dardanaup)… This stalker I recognised however… It was Russell! We drove in convoy down to Coode St to find ourselves the first riders there.   But who was that huddled in their car?… Jerard! He was seriously contemplating not setting foot outside the car  let alone getting on his bike.  He even had conveniently left one of his gloves behind (a tribute to Michael Jackson apparently)…  How incredibly lucky for him I had brought 2 pairs with me!

A few hardly souls had gathered by 7  (sorry I never count heads)  but not enough to split up considering the weather (which wasn’t really that bad).  We rolled out led out appropriately by the president Pete and vice president Brendan.  As we rode along Riverside drive and a few drops of rain started a hardly soul (wearing very familiar gloves) rode up next to me and whispered sweet nothings in my ear…. “shall we just stop for coffee now?”. “No” was the answer…  🙂

As we kept up a comfortable pace along Mounts  Bay Road it was becoming evident that the wind was going to be more trouble today that any rain.  Up though Thomas and down Hay Street over the speed humps into Subi.  Further on ahead we turned off onto Perry Lakes and then onto to Oceanic Drive where the rolling hills spread the group out for the first time. We hadn’t split much at all though and not much of regroup was needed as we made our way onto West Coast Highway.  The cross winds buffetted us nicely all the way along until we finally turned a sharp right onto Marine Parade.

Along the coast the cross wind lashed at us blowing the hardiest of riders back and forth with it’s strength. My violent swearing must have been audible above the wind and Pete came up beside me to do his best to stop me being blown half way across the road… Thanks  El Presidente!  Back through Swanbourne and Claremont and over Stirling Highway saw us maintaining a comfortable pace and keeping everyone together.  The attack points in Dalkeith were completely ignored and I found myself in conversation rather than fighting for breath as we cruised along “Gumnut Alley”.  Down onto Mounts Bay Road…. would anyone be in the mood for a last effort? Not today… wind, rain and saving of legs for tomorrow’s Cyclosportif meant that there was no one in the mood for anything resembling a sprint!

Back at coffee… no queue and hardly any wait for drinks… at least there was an unforeseen upside to venturing out today! A few people had made it down for coffee and for some pre-Cyclosportif team tactics.

South Perth dwellers and those of us going back to the carpark headed out and back over the bridge deep in discussion about what the Cyclosportif would hold in store for us the next day.  Cruising along the riverside with Mends Street ahead of us I suddenly heard and felt an almighty BANG!!!! My back wheel slid out and before I knew it I was on the ground… “what the $#%@!!!” For a few seconds I could not figure out what had happened…. Then I looked at my back wheel! I had manged to impale an enormous 4 inch nail right through my tire and just about right through my rim as well.  Lucky for me I had plenty of SPR friends to scrape me up and get me and my bike off the road.

Julian “Paparazzi” Johnson had pulled a camera out to capture the scene before I even had my helmet off!!! New SPR guy/white knight Jason immediately headed off to get his van (which by the way is large, spacious, unmarked and could easily hold

4 or 5 bikes!) from Coode St  to come back and pick me up.  Lisa (from whom I was expecting sympathy++) just looks at me in utter disbelief and starts laughing!!! “This couldn’t happen to anyone but you Lozza… You have the worse luck!”.  Jerard joined in with “You know this would never have happened if you’d been riding a Pinarello!”

Damage assessment: Rear Conti Attack tire and tube are history;

wheel is still usable with a bit of rim tape to cover the nail hole (thanks Pete); pedal damage++; shifter caps scrunched up++; hole in the knee of my knicks; hole in the new rain jacket!!!!; various scrapes and bruises.

I won’t be joining SPR next weekend as I am off to Canberra on Thursday to have a go at my first taste of national racing in the Canberra Women’s Tour.

Ride safe next weekend everyone!