About 20 riders were present for the 2nd transition ride. I thought I was well prepared, having carefully studied the map the day before, then creating a schematic of the route on a post-it note which I then taped to my handlebars. Kimbo dubbed it the “Garmin 101”. However, I had not realised that we were actually heading clockwise round the route which made my annotations of the cross streets before each turn totally redundant. Having little idea how to get to Shepparton Rd and Albany Hwy, I took the group the scenic way onto Berwick Rd – at least I knew that would take us to Albany Hwy – and everything turned out fine and we were onto our 2nd task for the day – merging 3 lanes right to get onto Nicholson.
Pete came up the front to tell us that he would call when it was clear to move over. Sure enough, with 100-200 meters to the turn, the call came and the group made it safely and co-ordinatedly over to the right.

We crossed the Canning River and then started a roll through into the headwind. The group’s roll through is definitely getting better although we still have some way to go before we see two solid lines of riders smoothly transitioning from right to left.
Onto Leach Hwy where the pace suddenly dropped off. I went up the front to crack the whip a bit and Tracy and Josh’s wife (sorry, I have a memory like a goldfish) kindly obliged.
We made our way towards the right hand turn onto Riseley. Unfortunately, the guys at the front didn’t wait for the call from the back to move over and initiated the move themselves a few hundred meters too early. This resulted in us riding in the middle lane for 30 seconds too long with trucks and cars passing us on both sides. We made our way one more lane to the right and got to the intersection safely, when we heard that Pete and 2 others had been caught behind with a mechanical.
We soft pedalled along Riseley and everything was back together just before the Canning Hwy when Linda got a flat. Pete stayed back and we made our way towards home. I moved to the back to make sure nobody got dropped and after a few minutes, noticed that the pace was too variable for my liking. We seemed to be going fast then slow then fast then slow without reason. I made my way to the front as we stopped at some lights and the group responded well with a nice even pace to the Causeway.
The pace picked up along Riverside Drive but everything came back together at the last set of lights.
The ride pace will increase in the next few weeks, there were many times when the pace dropped off and I’d like to see an average pace of closer to 30kph than 25kph. In addition, we need to remember that lane changes are initiated from the back of the group and that the call to do so needs to be passed up the group. Lastly, the roll through will get smoother (and faster). I will be away in Adelaide next Saturday but should be back the next week.
Dr ronny