By Nathan Rzepecki

As I walked out the door without my wind jacket I quickly decided this would be a bad move and went back inside and got it. This proved to be the smartest thing I did all morning. Was a wet morning, not from rain but the rain that had already fallen had covered every square cm of earth in water. By the time I made my way from home to Coode street the bike was covered in sand and other gunk.

At the carpark Blair was already doing laps and a couple others were hiding in cars. Lenny soon rolled up so that made three. Few other dedicated people like Steven and Peter rolled in. About 7:05am and was not enough to make five groups. Surprise, so Peter decided we would all do the main group ride. So I reset the Garmin then realising it was already correct. Oh well.

We rolled out of the car park and must have picked up a few others on the way down Mill Point Rd. When my turn came on the front I seemed to blow up in not too long and pulled off and fell to the back. Peter suggested I should go get a bike fitting done. His not the first to suggest this recently so I think its something I am going to need to organise for next Saturday. We navigated our way round the route and up Cresswell Rd. Nice short hill. Pushed heart rate to a new max of 176 here and felt it by the top.

This area always seems to get a little fuzzy on directions and Peter yelled out to check the map a couple times. The group managed to follow the route to Herdsman Lake. The pace picked up around here and Steven and I both got dropped. We were still rolling over 30kph trying to keep 35kph but just couldn’t hold it. Steven blames his age I said I’m just weak.

Peter had dropped back and said the rest were waiting at the round about. Yes they were but wasn’t stopping here. Kept rolling they can catch me now. Peter joined me up front and we lead the group through Shenton Park and Claremont. Yuppies are getting a David Jones on East Tce.

Got over taken rolling past the Tennis courts in Dalkeith but grabbed Peters wheel and held it until the top of the rise after the tennis courts and decided to drop back. Fell to the back and just gave myself a short 5 second rest and the pack had pulled 50m already. I was like What the… Got back onto the rear again by the time we turned right at the Uni. At the lights onto Mounts Bay Rd pulled up next to Shaw to say hi as Peter said no sprinting today because of the weather. Group kept together and got a good tow at the rear. 🙂

While the rest ran to the counter to order a coffee Shaw Jamie Blair and I talked trash outside. Was an ok ride not cold just wet and sandy.