ride report by peter.

 

what a busy weekend.  after watching the crits on friday night at northbridge, it was a bit of a struggle to get to the start on time for saturday morning.  but then again, me running late would not be a new concept for any of the regular attendees.  the weather was generally fine, but slightly overcast with some menacing looking clouds hovering overhead.  it didn’t look like it would bring rain, but we would have to wait and see.

pretty good turn out for the morning and i would say that there would have been around 50 riders.  the predicted wind would normally see us return via mounts bay road, but with road closures due to the tour de perth, we headed east instead.  this meant that the return journey could be a lot harder that usual.

the group headed out along great eastern hwy and towards guilford.  i got a chance to catch up with gregor who had just got back from the usa.  lots to tell as i had been cyber-stalking him via facebook to see all the interesting places he had been mountain biking over there.  the main group split off at kalamunda road and would loop around avoiding ridgehill rd to return to guilford.  the fast group continued on a bit further before cutting across past rosehill golf course and onto helena valley road.  it was there that we pretty much came to a standstill for a good 5 minutes while we waited for some roadworks.  russell had warned us of the hardpack gravel but it was actually a pretty good surface and no worse than some of the sealed roads that we have been on.

once we got moving, the pace started to pick up a bit with judd on the front pushing along.  i was sitting at the back with ryan discussing what the tactics would be once we hit the hill.  the group was still quite large so we needed to get closer to the front before the hill started.  some of the boys started to wind up well before we turned onto ridgehill road and the group began to splinter a bit.  this made moving up a bit more difficult as you had to deal with not only the change in pace but also the riders that were now coming backwards towards you.

once we hit the roundabout, ryan was a lot closer to the front and managed to get around with some clear air.  by the time i started the climb there were still about 10 – 15 riders in front of me and they started spreading out as people settled into their climbing rhythm.  i had spent the first three days of the week up on site and didn’t manage to get out on the bike on the remaining two days either.  the last time i was on the bike was the golden spokes race the previous sunday.  my legs were either going to be fresh or stale and this climb would be the deciding fator.

i managed to find a gap and seemingly effortlessly came around the group and caught ryan.  i instantly came around him and put a gap into the field.  damn my legs felt good.  i continued to dance up the first of the three steps of the climb and made it to the first plateau with no worries.  ryan caught up with me and pushed on up the second step.  i sat on his wheel and followed his lead.  whoa.  those fresh legs suddenly didn’t feel so good.  suddenly i felt as though i had burnt all my matches and was sucking in air just to hold ryan’s wheel.  i made it up the second step on his wheel, but had to back off as i felt the bile rise and the hotness of reaching well into the red zone.  crap, crap, crap.  i eased off and tried to get my heart rate back down from the 190 bpm i had maxed out at.  the rest of the chase group was slowing pegging me back and soon i briefly had some company.  about six or so riders past me by the time we reached the crest and started the descent.

i had significantly recovered by now to begin chasing so that i didn’t get left behind.  there were a number of riders in the same boat and we had a decent size bunch by the time we reached kalamunda road.  ryan had managed to get across the intersection with a couple of other riders but by the time we hit roe hwy lights we managed to amalgamate into a decent group of around 12.

there were some roll throughs that i didn’t participate in as the group headed through high wycombe.  the pace was high enough to make just sitting in an effort for me now.  the stop start of the multiple intersections that we had to negotiate made keeping the group fluid quite hard.  we finally reached guilford and turned for home.

i was sitting on the back when we hit the main intersection in bassendean when the lights changed.  there was a bit of indecision at the lights, but the group kept it’s pace on and slipped through.  that is everyone except stu, schneider and myself.  while we were waiting we were joined by mike who is quite new to the group.

stu was not in the mood for chasing so fell off the back while the three of us did turns at the front.  the wind was not as bad as predicted so i was hoping like hell that the lights would slow down the front pack.  as we turned past bassendean station, we could just see the group ahead of us while they clicked in after being held up by the lights.  the combined firepower of around 10 riders meant that they stayed ahead of us and pulled away into the distance.

just at the tonkin hwy overpass, we managed to have them in sight again, but the lights didn’t play into our favour and they were off again.  we continued to roll through and got across the rolling hills of maylands but never saw the group again.  stu managed to catch us at the lights so we all continued onto the coffee shop.

apparently there was a disqualification in the final sprint as ryan managed to sneak through a intersection ahead of the group, so jarrad claimed line honours ahead of the rest of the field.

i was off home straight away as i was taking the kids to watch the tour de perth stage around kings park.  a bit of bad luck by brendan and steve meant that they had a harder time than they needed to in quite a relentless stage.  matty continued to fly the spr colours right to the end and gave us a focal point for the spr base camp that we set up halfway up the final climb.

the women’s race saw ruth corset breakaway early but all the spr regular girls hung with the main field right to the end.