by dr ronny

First of all, apologies for the tardiness of this report.

I accompanied the T2 group for my first time on Saturday. There were 8 of us and I learnt a lot of things:

No 1. The pace in T2 is what I consider “social”. Everyone could manage a conversation for the entire ride and some actually did! But for what the group lacked in speed, they made up for with socialability and skill.

No 2. We made our way without incident to Bannister and the roll through began. The roll through would give any group a run for it’s money and put several groups’ recent roll throughs to shame. It was smooth and there was absolutely no braking I could see in the left lane. Riders communicated and it worked like clockwork.

3. As you make your way along Bannister the wind direction changes and we had a cross wind from our right when we got stuck in the middle at some lights. Seeing as the group’s roll through had been so good till then, I told them we would roll through clockwise with the fast lane on the left. I saw a few worried looks as the lights turned green.

4. The first few turns were conservative. People tended to move quite far right when they got to the front. After 3 or 4 turns I could see the group talking and signalling to each other to make the lines tighter and within a minute or two, I saw one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen on the bike – 7 riders rolling through with clockwork precision inside-out. The lines were close and there were no gaps. The pace was even and there was no braking. I was seriously impressed.

It was a good ride back with the tailwind until we lost Bushy off the back. He headed down Albany Hwy and caught up with the rest of the group before the causeway.

So in the end, I’m giving the T2 group 5 stars. What they lack in speed, they make up for with their consistent, socialable riding. They may not be the fastest group, but don’t let that fool you. These are some of the best riders in SPR, bar none.