30 degrees saturday and quite a big turnout.  fast forward 24 hrs,  add in a couple of rain showers and the numbers certainly diminish.  in fact, when i turned up to the start, i couldn’t see anyone.  mainly because they were all hiding from the rain that had just pelted down.  i was caught in it so i was pretty much saturated by the time i arrived, but luckily it wasn’t cold.  there were only four of us at the start.

so we gathered together and decided that we would forgo the planned route and just stay close to kalamunda.  this way if the rain didn’t clear, we could make an early exit.  luckily we had decided to head out douglas ave, which was the same was as planned, as we picked up mark waiting under a shop awning. 

so there we were, the furious five.  jamie, mark dc, ndcc nick, danny boi and myself (i’ll let the boys all decide which character they are).  it didn’t really rain again, just sprinkled a bit, so it wasn’t too unpleasant.  we had decided to do welshpool first then maybe a few of the other closer hills.  on the way out i pointed out that we would all be getting points today as there were only five of us out. 

as usual, the climb started innocently enough but it was soon clear that nick and danny were going to be climbing better.  jamie held on with them for quite a while and basically stayed in contact for most of the climb.  mark and myself were off the back but were keeping the others in sight.  mark managed to claw back on to my wheel a few times, but lack of riding recently took its toll by the time we past the servo.  as we passed lesmurdie road and the hill kicks up again, i saw up ahead that nick had kicked and dropped danny.  jamie was still trailing not far behind and i seemed to be getting my second wind.  i knew that there were two more pinches to this hill so tried to measure my effort to be able to drag them back in.  the road heads downward momentarily before kicking back up for the final crest.  i put it in the big ring and, using the momentum from the downhill, sprinted up the last climb.  i managed to pass jamie, but danny saw me at the last moment and put in two or three hard pedal strokes to stay 2 bikes ahead of me by the time we crossed the line.

welshpool – ndcc nick, danny boi, peter, jamie, mark dc

a quick regroup and we headed towards pickering brook.  we were going to do the easy side of the observatory along patterson.  the climb started well enough, with no attacks coming in the first section.  the pace stepped up a bit towards the top and jamie and mark were discarded from the rest of us.  just before the last pinch to the top, nick attacked and got away.  it was funny as i was just thinking that if i was fit, this would be where i would go.  danny took off after him, but didn’t really put a dent in nicks advantage, just managed to keep away from me.  that is how it finished on the line.

observatory – ndcc nick, danny boi, peter, mark dc, jamie

our next climb was to be the camel farm, but since no-one in the group had done it before, we decided to just ride it rather than race it.  this made the pace a lot nicer, even though it didn’t stop us hitting the early slopes at a decent pace.  it was the turn into fern road and the subsequent roads that people were confused about, so we regrouped and took it easy through there till we came out at the camel farm. 

we then headed back down mundaring weir road towards kalamunda.  the pace on the final climb was not that fast, but i was just running out of legs by that stage.  we formed into a couple of little groups; danny and nick, mark and myself and jamie off the back.  it seemed that jamie had burnt all his matches early trying to stay with the front boys on welshpool.  a teacher at my high school (not that is going back over 20 yrs) had a sign in his office.  it said “old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill.”  i have been riding for longer that jamie has been alive, so my old legs just seem to remember what to do. 

nick pulled away from danny before the false flat and mark and i worked together to try to gain ground.  once on the flat, i went to the front and started to time trial along, just like the good old days when i used to bring the tt bike into the hills.  the aim was to slingshot mark into the last part of the climb so that he could catch danny.  unfortunately it didn’t go to plan, as mark ran out of legs just before the last hill.  i had burnt mine out by then so just worked my way to the top.  mark was far enough in front by then to stay ahead till the end.

wier rd – ndcc nick, danny boi, mark dc, peter, jamie

so, it was actually a really nice ride.  yes, it had rained, but it wasn’t cold at all.  service at the coffee shop was good as the rain had kept many away, so all up a good ride for all of us.  remember, don’t check the weather report to see if you are riding, check the weather report to see what you will be wearing while riding.