By Dr Ronny

I thought I would write this up as I haven’t seen a ride report from the Novice group for a while and I was pleasantly impressed with the ride this morning.  Firstly, I must apologise for not knowing everybody’s names but I will try harder next week. That is, I intend to actually make the briefing to introduce myself. Anyway, after arriving at the carpark just as the main groups were leaving, we (Emma and I) caught the Novice Riders and set off.

Not more than 2 minutes into the ride it began to drizzle and I began wishing that I had gone East with the main group where the weather looked a lot brighter. Fortunately, the “rain” stopped and before long the drops on my stem and handlebars were gone.

The ride down the freeway bike path was easy going with the tailwind. We turned off at the Canning Bridge and I was informed that we would skip the one “hill” today and head straight for Shelley as we had a newbie in the group (sorry, name unknown). By now, it was turning into a beautiful morning and once we got to Shelley, we began our roll through. It was pretty good (at least, better than I expected and certainly not the worst I have seen) and we made good time to get to the end of Shelley. We had a quick stop and decided to head back with a similar roll-through. As expected, the roll-through with a cross-headwind was a little less pretty and there we often gaps and riders going at different speeds within the same paceline. I began pointing out the gaps and trying to get a more constant speed in each line going. This seemed to work well and the ladies were fast to pick up on any tips. By the end of this short section, the roll-through looked much better till we got to the slight uprise before the finish and we split up a little. It was at this time that Emma told me her bike wouldn’t shift down. At the regroup I tightened the rear derailleur cable and we headed off only to find that I had made it worse. We stopped briefly to loosen it a quarter turn and headed off after the group which were now 75 metres ahead. Once again, no luck with the shifting so I sprinted across the gap and gingerly asked the others to pull over for a second.

It took about 2 minutes to sought it out and I’m pleased to say that the shifting was fine after that. We got back onto the bike path to find a strong crosswind and as a result, rode steadily back. I was especially pleased with the sensible riding of the ladies when we got near the Mill St onramp to find an ambulance helping a man who had fallen off and cut his face and elbow. We stopped for a second (enough time to see that a trainee radiologist and paediatrician were of absolutely no help) and then headed for coffee.

Thanks to all the ladies for the great ride. Not as much “juicy” gossip as I would like but I will be sure to join you again for another outing. The relaxed pace is a nice change for anyone who wants to join.