Well after flying home a day early from site I was keen to see some sunshine. After hearing the rain the night before I was a little worried but on waking up was pleasantly surprised for it to be dry so off to the start to see who else was playing today.
I picked up my mate Stu who was out for his first ride since the freeway bike hike which was great to see.

After Petes spiel and catching up with some of the gang we headed off only to see ryan walking his bike back to his car minus one helmet… dare I say that will teach you for driving to the start Ryan 😉 wouldnt happen if you rode there hehe.
Ride up to Canning Hwy was very chatty with everyone and most in high spirits with the break in wet n wild conditions. Only a few little breaks and traffic lights were not too unfriendly (that changed later).

We arrived at stock Rd and the lights just dont stay green long enough these days while we have the group all as one so back it off prior to the rolling hills and re group and head back off, we didnt go too hard and kept a steady pace right around the loop until a few thought we were too slow and over took us and headed off towards Bannister Rd. I wasnt to keen on chasing so let them go, once we hit Bannister the main group waved us goodbye and we began our trip up to Nicholson. Pretty uneventful with no one really smahing it so with some gentle encouragement (read yelling) I managed to get everyone rolliing through quite well and with the pace reasonably high and keeping things fairly tight we turned onto Nicholson and opened up the throttle, a few seemed to want to hold teh high speed at the front but we gently reminded everyone again to start and maintain teh roll through and a) we would go faster and b) be allot fresher for the finale on Albany Hwy.

Once we hit the roundabout where we used to turn back to town I double checked with Melvyn on his GPS that we still keep going to Spencer st. Only a couple turned off early (that I saw) and we continued up to Spencer still rolling over and turned for Albany, only every now and again people needed the gentle reminder to keep the roll through going 🙂

The closer we got to town the more started to sit in wether by sheer exhaustion or waiting to pounce later on…
Once in Vic Park Mr Fox illegally used an external drafting source (read Big truck) to get away from the fast moving Gruppo, we let him mosy on,well no one seemed interested to chase much faster than we were. we made a group decision he was a DQ for illegal drafting purposes 🙂
and readied ourselves for the quick finale up over the smal hill in Vic Park and the series of lights that seem to get us 90%. About 10-15 managed to get away from the pack there and once onto the causeway Steve went to the front keeping the pace reasonably high. I decided to sit in and see what fire works opened once turning onto Riverside Drive. John powered through but seemed to sit up once through so Steve and another powered back to the front and they opened up a smal gap just prior to starightening up for the drag race to the cafe, no one seemed intent on closing the gap so I had a rush of blood and frustration with my high heart rate so attacked the group with everything and no one seemed to catch my wheel coming through so thought all good and quickly caught the front two.

Once I was there I decided to go again and hoped the 2 were allready smashed and quickly opened up a gap and managed to hold 50+ for most of the drag home but my heart rate hovered on 200 for the whole time and apon reaching the cafe the head was spinning but saw no one closed the gap down was a little chuffed at that and ordered my drink but had to do a little diversion to the toilet and emptyed my stomach and started to feel better straight away..

Service was mediocre, My Hot Chocy was nearly last I think and as it wasnt even Hot it was more like a cold Chocy.
So ride was good, didnt catch the front group but we were close so not a bad effort by all by everyone concerned. It was also good to see (by me) no red lights getting ran and the way our group worked their turns on the way home. Great stuff guys!

Pinjara Cyclo Sportif tomorrow seeing us have 2 teams in the long one, so what ever rides you do tomorrow, ride safe.
Maybe we could do with some of these:)

Nico