Report by Ryan

Well, after a week of nights ending at approx 2am (I may start sounding like Tomic if I complain about late nights due to tennis), I thought I had to make an effort to get to the start line on Sat morning.  Especially as I had told Nick C I was going and I had not ridden my bike since the previous Sunday…
Well my alarm went off and I do not remember switching it off (a sure sign the body was shattered)..

Next I woke with a start and checked the time…  6:50am… Feck, jumped out of bed, fed the dog, threw some clothes on and grabbed a bottle of water.  Had to put bike in car, shoes and helmet and I was off..

On the road I called Jerard, to find where we were heading and to also alert the group I was on my way (maybe they would wait a minute or two for me).  I was also banking on Pete chatting a little longer than usual as it was his first day back..

Well, pulling up, I saw Pete and his group come past.. Cool, fasties must have waited behind him.  Threw bike together, threw on shoes and helmet and I rode to the carpark..  Feck, noone there, the fookers had fooked off…

So off I started on my solo chase towards Canning Hwy.  Pete had turned left but I thought straight was the go.  Once on canning hwy, I called Jerard again.  They were by the Macdonalds just past raffles and I was coming towards the freeway.  They were just over a minute ahead of me…  Nioce..

Left at Risely and the headwind was starting to make me feel a little tired.  No worries, keep on pushing, there is a hill..  I was thinking to myself, I wish we had to go up a 4km 6% gradient, then I would definately catch them but a group working together into a headwind was going to be hard to catch.

Right onto Leach Hwy (I thought main group was heading towards Freo) I called Jerard again as I did not know where the group would go from here.  Jerard then informed me they were on Murdoch drive heading to South St and were going to turn left and head towards the hills..  Ahh well, the chase had been for nought.  I turned left at the next road, and took some back street which was slightly uphill and straight into the headwind..  Nice,,, I guess a solo ride it was to be..

Turned onto South, then left at Nicholson.  No sign of anyone, not even people who had been dropped…  Left onto Albany Hwy, I looked down at the speedo, just over 30kms, and the main was scheduled to do 54kms, I must have chopped off a huge amount.  I thought to myself, we always come back down Albany Hwy, I will wait here..

8 mins later and still no sign of anyone.. Hmm, then a few cyclists came into view.  It was Melvyn, Carl, Brett and the Avanti man…  So I tagged onto the back of them.  They went into the right lane.. Hmm, this is a new route…  Melvyn said they had gone wrong somewhere they were going to try go a little longer and cut in on Welshpool road where we may have a chance of coming across the fasties..  he also informed me I could ride in their group as long as I did not smash them…  I would try…

We worked together a little, and I endeavoured to take it easy up the rises…  When we were on Welshpool and came to turn right onto Albany, we figured we were still ahead of the fast bunch.  I was going to pull over to wait but looking forward the other four were motoring up Albany, sh*t I better chase them down..  So off I went..  They were going at a fair rate of knots but I knew I should be able to reel them in..

The group started to splinter and Avanti man had broken off the front with Melvyn starting to fade behind him (Carl and Brett had already been spat out).  I pulled infront of Melvyn and slowed to allow him onto my wheel and then started to reel in Avanti man..  Once on Avanti man, I came slowly past him to give him a chance to jump on my wheel.  We were then going up a small rise, so I put it in the 53/12 and upped the intensity.. Sure enough, they all popped and I was going solo…

I stopped pedaling and stretched a little giving others a chance to catch up but they were not going to get back to me so I decided to push by myself for the rest of the trip…  Needless to say there was no explosive sprint but I still won 😉

Ended up with 44kms with an average speed of 36kms/hr.  Not bad for a ride with a majority headwind when going solo… 🙂  So I guess a good hit out.  Still sad I missed the first totally fast ride..  I guess they were running scared from me…  Fair enough, easier to win the sprint that way..  I thought Judd had won the sprint??