By Jonny

First thing to note today was how bloody cold it was. Base layer, wind vest, arm and leg warmers for me plus long fingered gloves. OK I admit I am soft and surprisingly I do feel the cold after living in a ski resort for 7yrs before coming to Perth. The cold didn’t seem to deter anybody though and we had another great turnout. It also seemed that not as many were racing this weekend so the fast group was the largest it’s been for a while. Many of our regular racers were out such as Steve, Matty, Brendon, and Bec all sporting SPR club kits. Cyclists are a funny bread, you would think the inclusion of the Mur de Gooseberry would have put a few off; in fact it seemed the opposite with a few riders I spoke too coming especially due to the climb being included.

The ride out was fairly uneventful and gave everyone I chance to catch up. The traffic lights also gave me a chance to get rid of a few items of clothing as I was sure I wouldn’t need them for the Mur. When we got to Dundas Rd after around 15km and a quick chat with Pete I decided to start a roll-through. Thanks to John, Bec, Matty, Melvin, Pete and a few others for your efforts but after rolling through three or four times is as many minutes it was obviously the bunch was not interested in working too hard before the climb and the attempt ended.

Daniel H and Pete led us up the start but with a howling headwind it wasn’t going to be easy. I soon found myself on the front but was very happy when a few others including some new guys took up the pace. I followed Ryan for a while noticing how he seemed to be at the opposite end of his cassette to me. The big sprockets make it easier mate !!! or did you just want to make Gooseberry hill more challenging ? True to form Mike Bonner took the honours at the top from Ryan and a fast moving train of Steve, Matty and Joe who all flew past me on the last steep section. I was happy to pass over 7^th or 8^th behind Julian and not too far away from the leaders.

A re-group took place at the top and when it looked like we had everyone we turned left for the descent down the zig-zags. This is always a nice place to ride and the pace down was fairly relaxed even if we did scare a few riders riding up the other way. It was also very smoky apparently due to a “controlled burn off”. I fail to see how it was controlled……make sure the wind is blowing strongly…..check……make sure the wind direction is towards Perth…..check……make sure it’s the day before every poor war veteran with breathing difficulties is taken out of every nursing home in Perth……check.

Gus led us down Ridgehill Rd but when we turned on to Bushmead the pace picked up with Ryan doing a big turn on the front at around 50km/h. I went and helped for a little while but when I pulled off discovered a very long single line of riders and it seemed a long way before I was able too get back in. I couldn’t see the front too well now but was pretty sure I could see Brendon driving the bunch with Ryan and keeping the bunch stretched out and the speed high all the way to Guildford Rd.

I used the stop at the junction to move back to the front and did a couple of efforts on the front swapping turns with Julian. This didn’t last too long as 43km/h obviously wasn’t fast enough and a surge took the pace up to 47-48km/h. I think we started loosing some of our big bunch here partly due to the accelerations, the uphill drags and riders getting caught at traffic lights. Matty, Ryan and a few others proved strong here and got gaps only to be caught by the lights. I’m not sure how many times it happened to them but I’m sure it would have been very frustrating.

By the time we rolled onto Railway Pd there was still about 10 of us together. Again a surge went and again Ryan et al got away only to be caught at the lights. Just before the East Perth climb Bec indicated we had a small gap and we gunned it; we weren’t expecting to pull away but with the luck some of the guys had been having we were hoping the lights would go Red and give us a break. No such luck though and on the climb Ryan and Matty again proved too quick. Julian and I were next up and could see the lights  were on Red for the two leaders; however when we got there it was only Matty waiting, seems it was one Red too many for Ryan to cope with. He did however pull up and ride back to the group before Riverside Dr.

Turning onto Riverside Dr after yet another Red I was surprised to see Pete, Daniel H, Dav and a few others we had not seen since the top end of Guildford Rd appear and ready to contest the finish; after the numerous splits and escapes the group was amazingly back together.  The sprint was too fast for me and I was a spectator as Ryan led a few others over the finishing line.