so after a week off the bike travelling (following 2 weeks off sick) i decided to head off with main 1 today.  carol is away on holidays so shaw was taking the development group.  however, they had 12 turn up today so mark left the transitional group with ruth to give shaw a hand.  i said that i was taking main 1, but as it kicked off julian was guiding the group along, so i left it with him.

i drifted to the back to talk to yas about getting some wheels built as he had done such a good job on my current pair, and this is when the trouble started.  as we took off at the lights to get onto canning, yas, sato and i were left behind.  worse than that, our bikes didn’t trip the sensor so we had to wait for two cycles of the lights before we could head off again.  by then main 2 had ambled up behind us.  sato and i took off and looked back to see yas give us a wave showing that he was staying with main 2.  we time trial along and managed to get main 1 back in sight, before the lights stopped us in our tracks.  as we sat there waiting and panting from the effort, main 2 just cruised up behind us.  the lights changed and we chased again.  got caught at the next set and main 2 cruised up again.  lights changed and we were off again.  at the next set of lights, i gave up and went to sulk at the back of main 2.

i told russell that i would look after the guys at the back and left the group under his guidance.  we made our way to north lake road and i stayed back to help scott on some of the rollers as we headed south.  about half way along we picked up a couple of stragglers from main 1.  it turns out that is was julian and another guy who had slowed down to try to help sato and myself back onto the group.  they then got split out of the main group and were left to fend for themselves.  probably another good reason for the three groups doing the same course.  you don’t have to worry quite so much when people get split out.

so anyway, the cruise towards sth lake and around the back of jandakot was quite pleasant as i remembered the last time i did this route with the fast group.  cross winds, split groups, fighting to stay in contact and being blinded by sweat on a cold morning.  yeah, good times.

so we kept the group together and made it to warton which is the only tricky bit where we needed to go single file.  they are in the process of widening it though, so it should be all good soon.  once we got onto nicholson proper russell started a  roll through to get the average up.  at the lights i asked jenelle how she was going as she has been out with glandular fever for a while.  main 2 seemed the best place as even i didn’t manage to keep up with main 1.

we continued to roll through pretty much all the way back into town.  there was a couple of small splits at the back of the pack, but we managed to bring it all back together before we crossed the causeway.  the sprint started  on riverside drive and i wound it up from the back of the pack.  the first thing that goes on me when i get sick is my endurance.  i can still punch out some good numbers, but just can’t hold it.  today i hit 190bpm on the sprint and still didn’t manage to catch doug who was off the front all the way to the end.

so an interesting ride for me.  i think it has been a while since i have ridden with main 2 (if ever???) so it was good to see how it all goes.  i was very impressed by the way that russell controlled the group and looked after it as well as tested it out by pushing the speed up for the second half.  it is good to know that each group is getting looked after.