After reading the Thursday ride report I got fully dressed up to fend off the frost but by the time I had ridden the 11 klms to the carpark and with the milder 7 degs, I ended up stripping off a few items whilst the hordes gathered for the pre-ride briefing in the carpark. Pete in civvies and presumably saving his legs for the 25k Dardanup TT was organising groups and leaders and had allocated my fluro yellow shirt to lead out the 3 Developers sitting on the tarmac waiting for take off. But Carol arrived just in time and with a knowing smile gave me the nod and the wink so it was instant group transfer to join the Transitional ride.
Nice to see that Tracy was back on the Sat ride after a couple of weeks off and so we decided to do the joint leader thing – it had worked well with Jorgy last week particularly in controlling the roll throughs. This week, even though I had studied the map & thought I knew the way, I was a bit dyslexic with road names and the order they came in – well hey it is south of the river so what do you expect. Luckily Tracy (being a south of the river girl) was there to thwart any of my attempts to lead the group astray and we transitioned our way through the official route with no deviations this week (managed a quick tour of the Galleria carpark last week as Jorgy & I were happily chatting away on the front and not paying enough attention to road names).
Nine of us heading out from Coode St; Tracy sitting on the front with Jay, and with a bit of tail wind, hauled the pack along Canning hwy at 35 + she was determined that the group needed to do some work & was going to put in a fast time for her first ride back. A couple of times I slid to the back to pick up a backmarker or two, but mostly the group worked out who to pair up with and stayed nice and tight together with the ‘ease up’ calls only really coming through on a few of the rises.
When it came time for the roll throughs – they were good and big improvement on last week; possibly due to a more even matching of the groups ability, running at a higher speed and everyone concentrating on riding as smoothly as possible with no gaps forming on the outside line. Ronnie would have been proud.
Back along Nicholson Road when Mtb Scott from the main group joined us; he and Tracy sat on the front and the pace picked back up to the high 30’s for a good few klms with an easterly cross wind not slowing anything down.
Nice fast turn into Albany Hwy / Shepperton Rd and then after a klm or two the leaders of the amalgamated main group came past, but couldn’t get away with a red change in the traffic lights ahead. Not to miss an opportunity a couple of us hooked onto their tail to join in the fun across the Causeway and back along Riverside Drive. Never really sure which road sign signals the end of the sprint so I sat up too early, and had to drop back down onto the bars and crank it up again for second time when a couple of the others motored past.
My computer recorded an ave speed for the ride at just over 30 kph, it was a good effort from the Transitionals – a nice safe ride, no abusive utes and great weather – who could ask for more ?
Cheers Mark_S