Saturday at 4.30am I looked out the window and the weather looked pleasant.  The tree in front of the house was not moving a single leaf.  After a shower and change, usual triple shot espresso, I opened the garage door faced with howling wind and very ominous looking clouds.  A quick check on weatherzone and it looked like I better change plans.  Checked with Nathan and he confirmed a few are going to pull out of the earlybird ride.  Having had my caffeine I thought I might as well keep going.

I got to the Narrows and there was a lonely figure on a bike.  Nick from Wales suggested we do Kings Park instead.  On the 6th lap around, I suggested we take the long way back to South Perth.  This proved to be a time trial against head wind back to the carpark as we were running late.

Mark S turns up right on time (6:59.55 am) and had the change of route as well as the T1 / T2 split all voted on and agreed before Pete could even get a word in.  He had even organised the Development riders.  It was a solid dozen of us in T1 and we rolled off.  As the main group caught up to us at  Canning Highway, we showed them some respect and went single file to let them pass.  Only thing was that we were on their tail all the way along Canning Hwy till the turn off.

Knowing there were legs wanting punishment, I called for a fast roll through on Bourke drive and final sprint up the hill at the end.  I positioned myself 6 riders away from Steve who had been helping out with directions and instructions and the roll through was a sight to see.  From where I was, everyone was at the right speed/cadence/effort on every turn.  My timing was just right towards the hill when I had the turn up up front up the hill.  But someone else came pass me to take the climb.

Just onto the descent on Riverside Road, I told the group that the sprint upto Left Bank was on.  Herbie (John) jumped to the front and I was 6 inches from his back wheel when he had a major rear blow out at 40 kph.  Thankfully he did a great job of holding his line whilst trying to brake.  Nick and I tried to fix the 2cm slit on his tyre with his $5 note without success so had to abandon him after being assured he has a phone and a not-so-happy partner to pick him up.

Another time-trial with Nick and I to get back to the group who had been waiting on Canning Hwy bus stop and must have been quite anxious by now.  The T2 had passed us a few minutes before.  By the time we got to the bus stop, the rest of T1 looked like they’ve had a picnic and were bored waiting.  I asked for volunteers to take the lead and Andrew proceeded to lead everyone all the way to Claremont!

At the lights before Dalkeith, I let the group know that there will be no sprint on Mounts Bay Road, so we will have our sprint from here onwards till the memorial at Waratah.  The pace was on as a few people didn’t realise that the end point was 5 km away.  We overtook the T2 group and I heard a comment from them that said “nah, that is just the T1”. Sorry, but I don’t know the rider who won the sprint as I was too buggered trying to get some air into my lungs.

The ride home on Mounts Bay Road was nicely co-ordinated with the dozen of us in perfect pairs.

Overall, it was a great ride.  I think many of the riders in this group should consider joining the Main group.