Report by Heiko
Julian nominated me on Saturday to lead the group out. I never looked more often at the ride routes page than on that Saturday evening! Make sure you know the route well, Peter said.
When I arrived at the car park that morning there were already about 20 people there. Brad explained the route to Lisa and Davina so even if I wasn’t too sure about the route he would hopefully help me out. A few Cyclemania guys were with us as well this morning. A quick head count came to 28 riders this morning who wanted to tackle Ridgehill Road as a bonus climb, Kalamunda Road, the Observatory from the shallow side and Lawnbrook Road up to the coffee shop.
I was a bit nervous that the group wouldn’t go the right way towards the hills as there were a few new guys as well who haven’t been out with us before. Luckily all was fine and peachy and no one got lost on our way out of the city. Ridgehill Road was first on the ride as a warm up and I tried to attack right from the start. Unfortunately whilst I was going flat out the young Cyclemania lads overtook sending me right back into the bunch.
After the re-group just before Kalamunda Road and some refreshments we headed off towards Kalamunda with the fast boys attacking pretty early and taking off out of my sight. All I could do there on top was writing down the KOM points (Kalamunda Road): Karl, Adrian, Nick, (who came in 4th here), Michael B.
To get to Pickering Brook we took the unusual decent down Mundaring Weir Road this time. The rolling hills through Aldersyde and Glenisla Road are actually worse from this side than they are from the side we usually used to ride them. We re-grouped just before Canning Road. Johnny and I were riding at the front towards the base of the climb to the Observatory. The Cyclemania guys and Michael B. took off and everyone else didn’t really seem to make any progress on them.
Observatory points: Karl, Sam, Adrian, Michael B., Nick
Down the observatory we went trying to take as much speed with us as we possibly could. It’s great to come down the Observatory as you ride down this really steep last bit of the decent and you think you can take that momentum up Lawnbrook. Just as you finish that thought though you almost come to a certain stop and need to put on the smallest gear there is (well, I had to, I think…). Luckily the climb flattens out towards the top which gives the opportunity to catch up a few which might have gone to early…
Lawnbrook KOM point: Karl, Sam, Adrian, Nick, Matthew
We should have had a tail wind on the way back in, but as it usually happens during a ride the wind direction changes, so that you ride out with a head wind and ride back in with one as well!
Thanks for the ride guys! And thanks to Brad and the rest who kept us on the right track and re-grouped at the right spots.
My pleasure (Brad = Brett) – you’re forgiven. 😉 It was a fun morning out – nice to get back before it was too hot. Not liking the reverse side of Glenisla Rd at all…
Sam was the guy in Atomic kit who was 4th up Kalamunda Hill.
thanks jonny
Thanks Jens. Guess the only bit missing in the report was the near-catastrophic first 50 meters on Coode st where a mentally-imbalanced driver on a van deliberately tried to run us over.
He was driving opposite direction from us on Coode St, trying to get into a driveway on the left hand side. His first attempt was to shout “get off the f* road!!” repeatedly. Then he decided he couldnt wait anymore (as he obviously owned the street!) and he proceeded to actually DRIVE through (us), without regards to anyone else sharing the road. I was ahead and couldnt see properly, but I undertand that it came really close to actually hitting someone. He got off the van and continued to shout “get off the f* road!!”. He was also carring a young child with him which no doubt will take example from his fine father and run over cyclists for generations to come.
Fortunately, noone was hurt.
A scary start to the sunday ride….
Thanks for the ride guys. It was great to get some miles in the hills for a change.