The York campaign didn’t start off well . . . . lying in bed at 3.00 am on Sunday; listening to the howling wind and belting rain backed by the music and laughter from the party revellers next door & on top of that, was feeling a bit of stressed having been railroaded into doing the 100 + klms, when I thought I would only be good enough for the 50.

Alarm jolted us awake at 6.00am, kicked out of bed to make tea & staggered into the kitchen to put the kettle on with large doses of no enthusiasm. Three hours of sleep and the thought of a ride in cold driving rain conditions is no way to start any day. As the kettle boiled, mused over options of how to pull a ‘sicky’ without letting the team down.

Loaded the car and happily nothing critical left behind this time (like helmets water bottles bike shoes or energy bars). Driving up the Gt Eastern Hwy, the dawn lifted with little patches of blue sky pushing their way through the grey and heavy cloud cover. A few splatters of drizzle on the windscreen but nothing too threatening and then the adrenalin kicks in as we join the convoy of cars and utes loaded with bikes & heading in the same direction. ‘Yeah’ maybe its going to be OK after all.

Arriving in York and as with all adrenalin attacks – have to desperately find a toilet; climbing out of a warm car into the 12 degs outside doesn’t help either. Big queue outside the ‘boys room’ but ‘Yeah’ again as Carol pointed to the adjacent disabled toilet which no-one was using . . . . ‘Morning lemmings’ I chuckled smugly as I went straight in and drained precious body heat into the porcelain. Have always wondered why bib knicks don’t have velcro fasteners on the shoulder straps to enable quick removal in a hurry; having to stretch them beyond their natural resilience or alternatively firstly remove a tight SPR jersey with rear pockets loaded up with spare tubes, sunglasses, gloves and energy bars just doesn’t seem that clever either ?

We’d parked away from the main rabble, down a side street adjacent to the Town Hall lunch venue (forward planning in case it was raining after lunch and only needed a short dash to the car). Coincidently so had Neville and Doug who were just unloading their bikes – so no worries about having to hunt down team mates – clearly a good omen.

Milled around for a bit, Carol had organised a couple of lifesaving hot coffees; caught up with Jonny, Libby, Carlos, John and a few other SPR’s riding for non SPR teams. Gwyn headed off to join the Developer team girls as I tracked down Dr Wally & Greg who had signed us in as the ‘SPR Mainliners’. The five of us grouped up and a quick team tactic discussion was a one line item – “let’s try and hold it above 30kph” and that was it. We were 9th on the grid and our “go” time was 9.04.

15 mins to go and the adrenalin and cold conspired to replenish my bladder. Re-joined the ‘1’ person queue outside the disabled toilet, he went in and I waited and relaxed – surely had plenty of time . . .yeah right ! I have no idea what sort of curry and beer combination that “1” person had the night before – but the door stayed tightly shut with the red indicator locked in place for the next 14 mins & no sound of activity on the other side. The queue was still out of the door to the adjacent ‘boys’ room. One minute to go and I had to retreat back to the start line without relief – critical error No.1.

Critical error No. 2 followed soon after . . . sitting at the head of our group of five, the countdown was on, the starter said ‘go’ and we were off. I accelerated straight out of the blocks and around the first sharp turn left . . . shouts of “Maaaaark WTF” as the rest had (correctly) turned right. B*ll*cks – a rapid ‘U’ turn and back onto the tail of the ‘Mainliners’ and greeted with guffaws of laughter (would have to work extra hard on the front to live that one down).

Wally on the lead out of town as I sat in at No 2 and happy that the pace wasn’t full on, giving me time to get the legs warmed up. Still had that nagging pressure in my midriff which started to play tricks with my mind . . . . . was it my imagination, could I ignore it, would it go away after a few klms,. . . . answer was “No”, “No” and “No”. What if I ignored it – would I explode with unpleasant and steamy, sticky consequences, and if so would anyone notice . . . answer “ Yes” and “Yes.”:.

Outwardly we were going OK: nice echelon & humming along at 33 kph with the bit of crosswind not causing too much grief. 5 klms out & I thought I was well in control of my inner urges, concentrating on sitting on a rhythm, feeling good as we had already overtaken a couple of other groups that had started ahead of us. 10 klms out and the doubts set in, 12 klms out and mind made up – had to break the bad news to the boys that I needed to urgently find a tree. They hid their disappointment well and very good naturedly cruised along slowly as I dissipated more body heat into the atmosphere, whilst the groups we had just overtaken, passed behind my turned back. Dr Wally being the understanding gentleman he is, waited behind to help me get back onto the pack and we sat on 40 + to catch them a klm down the road. Settling back down & sitting on 30+ we fell back into the rhythm. Taking short or long turns on the front with Doug and Neville regularly pulling us up to 36; the bunches of coloured jerseys of the ‘target’ groups ahead slowly crept into view and we reeled them in.

Half way through the first of the two 54 klm laps, Greg started to slow a bit – result of a recent holiday in New Zealand keeping him off the bike; we changed formation with pairs on the front and him protected just behind in an attempt to keep the pace up above 30. Seemed to be going ok and then our first puncture as Wally’s rear wheel was down to about 30 lbs. Couldn’t find the culprit, but with the new tube in & pumped back up, all appeared ok as we headed into the sharp left hander and commenced the first of the climbs.

Neville and I worked together to top the crests with Wally backing up and Doug and Greg setting their own pace behind. Doug may have been a little slower on the ‘ups’, but he certainly made up for it on the descents and we were consistently all back together half way down the other side. The circuit had an initiakl three main lumps one after the other; the first was a low gear climb but once at the top and with enough downwards momentum, I managed to take the others in the bring ring.

With the cross winds picking up and turning into a head wind for the final section, coupled with the rough & dead road sapping strength from the legs; it was so good to finally turn left, then right & we’re back in York to close off the first 54 klm lap. Courage and bravado boosted by the cheering faces and clapping hands at the finish line and Greg being the determined stalwart confirmed he was ok to go on – well if he can commit then so can I. The bell went and so onto round two . . . . . .

Again Wally lead us out of town, the windspeed was picking up, so back into a single file echelon to find protection in the cross wind. 5 klms later and Greg, cramping up called it a day and we were now down to four. My turns in the lead averaged around 30-32, with Doug and Neville taking it up to 36 as they pulled like horses at the front. Neville and Dr Wally both put in a few good long turns along this section, and following a change in direction we finally had a tail wind with Wally taking it up to 40+ for a solid 4 klms or so. Had to drag him back into the pack so that I could have a go – he was clearly having far too much fun on the front!

At this point I discovered the joys of energy bars – never used them before and each bite was an instant kick which lasted about 5 klms before the speed started to creep back down and the legs got heavy again.

Time for that left turn again and into the climbs. A bit strung out at the first one with a re-group at the top and same for the second, but half way up the third I heard the distance cry from behind. Looked around to see the others slowing to group up around Wally’s 2nd rear puncture. No way was I going to head back down the hill so I finished the climb and stopped at the top waiting . . .waiting . . waiting . . . . Rearranged my water, finished off my fruit cake, admired the view and said ‘Hi’ to the passing riders, even chatting for a few seconds with friends from my ‘old’ team as they rode through. Waiting . . . . waiting until one of the passing riders reckoned my lot had stopped off for a barbeque back down the hill and I was missing out on the snags. Finally the SPR jerseys were back on the road and climbing up towards me – they’d be suffering, as at least I could get my stiffening legs spinning again on a downhill section.

Back into formation taking it in turns on the front and finally the last 20 klms to go when the road surface roughened up. The head / cross wind seemed even stronger the second time around and Neville spoke for everyone when he confirmed he was digging as deep as he could. At 12 klms to go it was time to start the count down of the klms left until finally at 2klms to go, we could see the left turn into town and with the final effort we managed to hang together and form up to cross the finish line four abreast, with Greg waiting to provide the lone cheer and hand clap as we crossed the line.

This was the hardest ride I’ve done for a year or two and the really positive and solid team work for the whole way played big dividends. A great effort from the SPR Mainliners bearing in mind that for the final lap, the four finishers run at an average age of 54. We did OK.

My computer calculated our average riding speed at 29.7 kph which allowing for the punctures and comfort stop gave us the official result of 27.37 kph & nearly four hours on the road.
The mutterings about the Swan Valley Sportif in a month’s time have already started. . . and maybe a few more green, white and black jerseys will team up for this one . . . . . just need to start the good weather prayers early, seeing that for the past few years the weather has been ugly on the Swan Valley ride.
Cheers Mark _S