ride report by peter.

just as predicted the sun was shining brightly at 7am this morning.  also as predicted there was a crowd waiting for me as i turned up late…again.  however, it was a pleasure not to have to put on three or four layers of clothing before leaving the house.  i quickly did a ride briefing and we headed out as i had already put us back a couple of minutes.  there would have been close to 70 riders as we stretched out for the length of the block before we turned onto mill point rd.  due to the expected big numbers i planned a course that would take us onto double lane roads until we split quite early.  this would hopefully calm any traffic issues.  unfortunately we had our first two on mill point road.  a guy coming the other way screamed abuse at us to get off the road.  a bit further up the road we saw the bikeforce crew on the edge of the road so maybe he got held up by them and wanted to vent at us.  then just before we turned onto canning a car tried to squeeze past us and got to within about three riders from the front before having second thoughts and slowing down.  the traffic islands were approaching fast so i motioned (in not a friendly manner) for them to get past.  i ended up on the footpath just to make sure they had enough room.

so we were finally away on great eastern hwy and had not trouble all the way to ascot.  there the group split and the main group headed towards guilford road while the fast group continued up the hwy.  at the entrance to tonkin hwy we had our next brain fade of a driver.  overtaking the group and then realising that they weren’t going to get around before they needed to turn left to get to the tonkin onramp.  we had to slow for the lights but they ended up pushing in and cutting the group in half to make their turn.  the rest of the trip up great eastern was pretty low key.

we turned towards guilford before spurring off to the right to cut past the golf course and onto helana valley road.  the group was still all together at this point but with the wind directly in our faces, it had started to string out a bit.  ryan was doing a good job of setting the pace with some other guys rolling through as well and it was starting to splinter a bit.  we then turned to run parallel with roe hwy and back through midland.  back on great eastern hwy meant that we had a nice breeze on our backs and were ticking along at 50km/hr.  a number of traffic lights slowed us a bit but the pace was so nice in between that everyone felt good.

a quick turn onto a guilford back road and we started to cut across to west swan road.  this is were we encountered the rudest old wanker that should never have been given a licence. 

the road was narrow here and the is practically no shoulder as the “traffic calming” islands cut in and out so frequently that you wouldn’t get a free run.  so anyway we are riding along and i am close to the front when i here this constant honking of a horn.  i look back and see this van right up the arse of the group and this old fart shouting abuse and honking his horn.  i slow down to drift to the back of the group and gesticulate a basic “where do you want us to ride”.  he starts shouting abuse saying the we should be riding single file.  i yell back that we are allowed to ride two abreast, he keeps yelling so i keep yelling all the way to west swan road where he is also turning right.  he revs the van hard to try to intimidate us as we are turning but the road here also has no decent shoulder, double lines, oncoming traffic and a bridge to stop him getting past.  the road finally widens out and he speeds past but makes sure he keeps honking abuse as he goes.  the funny think was he threatened that he has called the cops to let them know that we are not riding single file.  good luck with that since the traffic code says we can ride two abreast.  for the sake of the few minutes that we held him up i really hope he develops a very painful ulcer.  i really need to put my camera back on the bike.

so we head up west swan road the the group starts to split a bit as the cross wind makes it hard for some people.  we turn onto benara road before long so i don’t think we lost many. 

the pace was on straight away and the group soon split.  i put in a big effort to close a gap and managed to get on the wheel of the back of the front group, but the previous week of ignoring a cold has meant that i was really struggling.  i maxed out at 188bpm and suddenly couldn’t hold a wheel.  i watched as the group rolled away from me.

i was picked up by the next group back and sat on the back as best i could.  up ahead the group splintered again and at the lights the front boys got through while we caught the back of the split.  a slightly bigger group now meant that we could keep the pace high, but we pretty much got every traffic light and the heat was also taking it’s toll.  at almost the last traffic light the group was split by a red and as the first guys came to a stop brother dan went around them and through the red.  now this got a lot of discussion the other week as a number of riders did it.  i don’t particularly want to be scraping someone off the road or have to tell there partner/family that they were stupid.  so do we as a group enforce a penalty on riders that blatantly break the rules.  maybe a week suspension from riding with us.  i don’t know but add your feedback via the comments.  dan, add your feedback via half a page of the consequences of running a red light.

the trip back was pretty uneventful.  we tried to stick together through the suburbs and along whatley crescent.  at the end we were just happy to be finished.  i couldn’t stick around as we had some family stuff to do so i missed the coffee shop banter.

no idea what happened to the front end of the group or the main group so hopefully someone can fill us in there.