Nearly a week on and I am slowly coming to terms with the team not getting the fastest time in the Pinjarra sportif, we slipped from 1st in Byford to 2nd in Pinjarra (I feel more comfortable coming 2nd anyway).
The team was almost completely different, with only Brendan and I being common denominators. The refurbished ‘A – Team’ was as follows:
Brendan – Fresh from Grafton, copious amounts of training and a light frame (on his bike too), will be able to hit the hills in Pinjarra at pace. Just need to keep him in check so others survive.
David – I am happy to finally get him on board (I have been trying for years now) as he is always a machine. Got the fastest time in the Menzies classic in 2008 and has gotten the fastest bike time at Anaconda (beating Mr Tim Bennet in the process, although Dave insists it was because Tim was tired from the race he had competed in over the week). I was hoping we would be able to hold his wheel without having to slow him too much.
Joe – I did not know who Joe was, but after reading the write up of the B-Team TTT, it was plain to see that Joe had been a force to be reckoned with as he had tired Jarrad out (and Jarrad has been riding strong). I was confident he would go well and be able to hold the pace for required distance.
Judd – He has recently been hit with the ‘swine’ flu but is throwing himself back into the training. He managed to crest Ridgehill in touch with the front pack and then helped out the most on the trip back into town. I know he is an asset on the flat and was confident he could get over the hills comfortably if we did not hit them too hard.
Julian – Mr Hills man on his new bike. I had no concerns for him in the hills, the problem was going to be, could we keep him under control when he had his turn up front? If we could not, he may go the way he went in the TTT, bury himself early on and blow too soon (apparently not a good thing).
Michael W – Mr Wlasenko is always a solid performer and has not cracked in any events I have been in with him. He also managed to hang on with the fast group over ridgehill and back into town so had faith he could go the distance, despite not seeing him on the bike often (another rider like myself perhaps?
Ryan – Getting back up to speed after time off running. I have had a few weeks of two solid rides a week (either a Thursday and a Saturday, or a Saturday with an event on Sunday). I am starting to feel strong again and I was confident I could hold the pace and last the distance.
Steve – Mr Hedley, coming back after back surgery. He is an ox and looked good coming over Ridgehill road on Saturday (he beat me over, then popped, but he got the mountain points which is what counted). He has been attending Sunday rides and picking up the points (I have seen on the blog, not in person) so no concerns over him handling the hills or the distance.
With 8 on the team we were ready to rock and roll. Arriving in Pinjarra, we found out Steve was cycling to the event (fecing crazy man) and Dave was cycling home (what is wrong with these people?). Let’s hope they had the legs for the event. A bit of a chin wag, a few loo stops and we were lining up to be set off. I had a word to everyone letting them know we would be rolling at a steady pace on the way out to the hill and then we would see what happens. Also pointed out we needed to be strong for the return trip and if people were feeling strong at the end, they would drive the train.
And we were off, Gary Suckling had nothing to hang sh*t on me today, so we were off with no further ado.
Fec, I was thinking, where did this wind come from?? Looks like we were in for more fun in the wind in Pinjarra, at least this time there were 8 of us and no tri bars to contend with.. The B team had set off 1 min infront so we had a carrot to chase. Pete said the hill was 7kms in and that they would stay away till then, we would see..

We started picking up teams pretty much straight away but none of them were the B team, they were going well and picking up these teams as well.. Noice, we should get 2 high placed finishes. A look down at the speedo, 7kms, no hill and no B team?? Hmm, we were rolling well and at a decent pace so on we soldiered confident we would reel them in eventually.. 2.5kms later we caught them and passed them, and then we were on the first ascent..
This was going to be interesting to see who would be the first to crack. We did not hit it hard but rather at a steady pace, then Julian got excited and did a little attack. We had to reel him in, easy does it, we are going up as a team, no mountain points available, even though it is a Sunday. The hill kept on going and we were picking teams off.
Then Michael popped and we had to slow a little so I could give him a gentle hand up the hill. We kept the pace reasonable and even with us pushing, we were overtaking teams. Michael was very apologetic, saying he was not usually this bad (a young woman can be ‘draining’ or so I have heard ;-). Hill evened out and I headed to front to ensure pace picked up quickly (easy to lose time taking time to get up to speed, no rest for the wicked and all that).
On next undulation, Julian dropped his chain and the call went out to ease up, Michael kept going, Dave turned back to help Julian and I stayed back to wait. Once he was on and getting up to speed again, I told them to hurry up (as I could see a team approaching) and we were soon together with Michael and working as a team. The approaching team yelled out very loudly when approaching and Nico was a little upset with the volume and tone used but I guess we were in their way and they wanted to be heard.. The team was Broad Warriors, slightly weathered warriors by the look, stearn faced they marched by. Perhaps we would get them later I thought to myself as I slipped back down the line to see how Michael was faring on the hill.
We continued to work well, getting pace up on descents (never seemed to be any flats??) and being safe whilst passing other teams and other cars who were not passing slower teams, till we got to the half way mark. We turned to come back home and on the next hill, the call when out from Judd to ease up.. Turns out the hills were taking their toll on him. I offered him a slight push but he declined so I went back to push Michael back up the pack. Judd kept on pushing on, gritting his teeth and managing to grab the wheel in front of him.
And so the story went on; very fast downhills, safe over taking, pushing Michael, Judd not accepting pushes ;-). Eventually on one of the rises, I gave Judd a little push and said it would give him a breather and make him feel stronger when the roads flattened, he said nothing but I think deep down he was grateful.
On the final descent, we were flying down when there was a 4wd stuck behind a slower group, we were going 60kms+ and they must have been on 30kms, what to do?? We eased up but then committed to passing single file around the 4wd and slower pack. Onto the right hand side of the road we went only to see another 4wd coming the other way. Shout went out there was a car coming and we hugged the white line. We were passed with room to spare before the 4wd arrived. Still a little scary.
Well, now we were on the final flat, 10kms or so with a tailwind… Time to crank it up (well as much as legs would allow and mine were starting to feel heavy) and we started rolling through quickly. Dave was looking really strong, as was Joe, Brendan had found his legs, Steve was trucking along, Julian had a huge smile on his face, he was loving riding at 50km+ on the flats, Michael and Judd were not looking so happy but were hanging in there.

We then came across a CRT team who latched on behind for a little while, till it was my turn to roll through and they guy said ‘all yours’, did not see that team again. We also passed the Freo peleton which was the group which chased us for awhile in Byford but they did not chase today (sweet). Next team in our path was CRT team OO, well these chaps who started a fair time infront of us thought it was fine to jump onto our tail for over 5kms. I was not fussed as long as they stayed out the way. I rolled up our train and told people to sit in if they were not feeling strong as I wanted to pick things up till the finish.
The CRT OO team did not want to stay out the way and attempted to roll through, we blocked them a fair few times as we were riding as our team, they could go roll through alone behind us if they wanted to feel like they were contributing. A call went out from one of them that ‘They do not want any help’, for fecs sake a 17 man train is not the way forward. None the less one of their chaps managed to break into our line and rolled past me and out the front of the train. Fair enough I thought and I let him sit there for awhile, till he looked a little fatigued and started to fade, we then rolled through past him. We did not see team OO again.
The 1km sign came up and I was aware the timer was on my leg so I had to stay up front to ensure team got as good a time as possible. 500m, came up and we pushed harder for the line, no stand up and sprint but managed to roll through past David and Joe who still seemed rearing to go.
Another great team ride, we may have missed out on the top spot but we were 4 minutes up on the next team (who was the CRT OO team, so we helped them with their 2 minute gain over the Freo Peleton, who knows without our aid, Freo Peleton may have caught them up??). A shame the B team had so many hold ups as they would have definitely been well in the top 10 (finished 13th out of 56 with two punctures and a hold up by a train, impressive).
I look forward to next season as it appears the SPR talent pool is getting deeper and we will be making our marks in many events, not just sportifs. We will have A, B and C grade representation, we have strong females in the fold and we also have very strong Masters. Exciting times.