First Saturday ride back after missing the last two. Maintaining the trend we had around 25 riders today.  No Shaw though. I know you were planning to ride 200kms last Sunday. Did you get lost we haven’t seen you all week. Maybe tomorrow.

Due to the fact we were following the same route as the intermediate group this week we held back for a few minutes and let them get off down the road. This week everyone got out of the car park without a flat.  Good work all 🙂

Doubled up we headed down Mill Point Road towards Canning Hwy. Today the wind was quite gusty however the group was maintaining a pace of around 28km/hr. Over the causeway and past Burswood. For some reason virtually every set of lights we came across this morning went red or amber on our approach. So was a lot of stopping and getting clipped back in once rolling. Left off Great Eastern Hwy and onto Stoneham St past Ascot and over Garret Rd bridge. Another red light before the right turn onto Guildford road. Finally a green light as we rolled through the crossing of King William St and Guildford road. Home again already but no such luck. From this point on the traffic seemed to be in a bad mood this morning.  I think too many drivers had missed their Muzz Buzz coffee. Peter signalled for the roll-through to start. In all honesty for this section up until the left turn onto Lord St the roll-through was a bit of a joke. The gaps were large. People missing the call for last wheel (myself included, as Michael made me well aware. Enjoy the sprint 🙂 ) Maybe this had something to do with the wind as it just wasn’t anywhere close to how well it had been the last few weeks.

Once onto Lord St back to single file as the traffic was really poor. Double white lines means no over taking. However some Perth drivers seem to think this rule only applies when there are no cyclists. WRONG. Pace here was still up in the high 20’s and touching low 30’s.

Left at the round about and onto Benara Rd. This is where we picked up a tail wind and the roll through. The pace quickly picked up to low 40’s. The roll through was still a bit messy and after a reminder from Peter about working together on the roll through then things finally started to work well once the lights went green.  Everyone kept the gaps tight and we quickly made our way to the end where we went left onto Camboon Rd. Single file down this stretch. Another red light before crossing Morley Dr onto Wellignton Rd. I hate this road in the car because its so rough and its no nicer on the bike. Just as bumpy and full of man hole covers and the like. At the lights we doubled up in preparation for our short journey down Walter Road West and past my office. Bummer its still there. Left onto Coode St for the run down to Whatley Cres. There are a couple of hills on this stretch, Well they aren’t all that bad but some egos got awoken here and seems to been a sprint up and over the crest.  This group was quickly caught on the roll back down the other side. At the lights right onto Whatley Cres we got split so was a slow roll down until the others caught up. This was basically the home stretch. because of the lights the group was split into three groups. For those that got ahead earlier they were re caught going up and over the hill past the East Perth police station. Thanks to the lights got a clean roll all the way down to river side drive. As I pulled right onto river side drive I was waiting for the break and the sprint to the cafe. However only Steve broke free and took off 75meters or so ahead. I sat behind one rider before pulling along side. We pulled about a 25 -30 meter gap from the rest of the group but this week there was no sprinters. Maybe the wind had taken its toll. At the cafe had recorded an average speed of 28.2 which I thought was decent considering the wind this morning.

Tomorrow we have a 76km ride planned.  It is all flat. See here.  Hope to see you there. I have made the deal with Peter on my facebook that if we get an average speed of over or equal to 30km/hr tomorrow I will shout the first round at the pub. I think I’m safe however Peter reckons we can do 45km/h. So much for taking it easy and recovering from being sick 🙂 I think he just wants the beer.

Least I ended this rather un-eventful write up with a laugh.

By Nathan Rzepecki

PS Side note still waiting for some people to sign-up and Join me on the HBF Freeway Bike Hike. Currently I’m gonna be a loner in a team of 1. So I look forward to having a few additions to this SPR team before the team entries are cut off on the 12th March. See here for details.