“Default! The two sweetest words in the English language! De-FAULT!” – Homer J Simpson.

I came home and told my wife that I am now joint B grade State road race champion (by default). Let’s start one year ago…

My first road race was last year’s state champs up in Chidlow. I had a great day in C grade… made the three man break but ended up coming third after stuffing up the sprint (went too early). It was also my first race as an SPR rider. I had previously ridden on Saturday’s but didn’t really know anyone. I bought my membership the week before, but didn’t even have a SPR kit.

Naturally I have fond memories of the state champs. A lot has happened in the last 12 months for me on the bike. I’ve moved up to Fast group, got a new bike, got a little more race experience and found Strava. Most importantly, by riding and racing regularly, I feel like I’ve really become a SPR member.

Given all of that, I was pretty keen to have a B grade hit out at the state champs as a final fling before tapering for ToMR. I knew SPR were in with a shot of taking home the goods. After all we had 12 riders in the group. Sam Luccitti and Paul Bakker were there to flex some muscle. If they didn’t break away I knew that Matt Wardynec or Des Mullins would have sprinted over the top if it was a bunch finish.

My preparation was a little more serious than last year. I didn’t drink any red wine when my wife and I went to her parents for dinner the night before. Usually my father-in-law and I tuck on in, so they knew something was up. I had been loading up on the magnesium tablets and had cooked beetroot for dinner. I even used Tom Barratt’s tip of sleeping in my Skins to help ease the aches from Saturday’s fast group. As I was going to bed, my wife said “I think you’re taking this cycling thing too seriously.” I comforted myself by thinking that’s probably what all wives say!

Pre race we talked tactics… Getting someone in the break was the general consensus. Let everyone else chase and when they get caught, someone else go again! If that didn’t work, line up Matt or Des for the finish. Paul told us about the hill 1km before the finish. If we got to that situation, I know Matty hits reverse on an incline, so I decided to back Des.

I’ve developed a good pre race routine. Register, poo, pee, eat, caffeine tablet (too serious?), warm up, pee and race. This was also the first time I’ve had spares to put in the van (thanks Heiko). I felt very pro. We lined up and after a short neutral zone were off and racing.

Except we weren’t really off. The pace was… leisurely to say the least. Nobody wanted to work into the howling easterly, so it felt more like a spin to the shops. A few people tried to stretch their legs out the front, but didn’t make much of an impact and after toying for a while got swallowed by the bunch again.

At the far end of the course Sam L was on the front and opened a break after a corner with a few others behind him. I jumped up to get on the back and yelled “Break’s formed!” but nobody heard. Sam just kept on like he was in Main 1 and the rest caught up.

We completed the first lap all together and it looked like lap 2 was going to be similar. Some bloke slipped off the front but was hanging 100m in front not going anywhere. I was taking turns pacing things when I heard “Let South Perth do work!” He thought that given we had so many, we should be doing the work.

I didn’t necessarily agree. I knew the lone leader wouldn’t last long on his own and the real action was still a few laps away. Despite being on the front doing my turn, I retaliated by sitting up and somewhat rebelliously sucking down a gel. Still no one else came around to do anything else.

A bit later, the lone leader had stretched out a bit further into the cross wind. Once again came the call from behind “Let South Perth chase”. Earlier, we had agreed that the best way to avoid missing the break was to make the break, so I jumped off the front, burnt a match and went for it! “Chase this” I thought!

Turns out, it wasn’t such a bad move. The crosswind was pretty bad on that spot of the course and I managed to solo over to the leader just as we turned to have a tailwind. I told him that they weren’t going to chase and we settled in for the long haul. I don’t know who he was, but I’ll call him Trek Madone 5.1, or Madone for short.

Slowly Madone and I got away. We were rolling turns well and I was feeling strong and not in the red too much. After another lap, we were out of sight! My excitement of being in the break was quickly swallowed by the thought of TTing 60km as a pair with this wind. I found out later that Paul and Des got to the front of the chase, sat up and started chatting letting us slip away. So far so good for SPR.

Halfway in the third lap, we were coming up the back straight with the tail wind and I overcooked the s bend in the road. I figured the commissaries hadn’t seen but a km up the road the lead car pulled over, out comes the judge and pulls us over. “What’s your race number?” he yelled. “Oh bugger… they saw me cross the middle and I’ve been disqualified” was my initial thoughts. No… they were halting the race due to the marshaling problem and wanted to time us so we could resume ahead.

The group got pulled over again and after Matt’s call of nature (prostate problems at such a young age?) we all cruised around to the start. I was basking in the glow of a 1min 30 upcoming head start. Unfortunately, we were unable to restart and the rest is history. It was a little disappointing, but realistically I know there was no way we would have stayed away.

I feel for the people at SPR and RCCC who put a lot of time and effort into the ride. I know El Prez Pete Mah did, as usual, more than his fair share of behind the scenes work. I hope people don’t complain too much about it. After all, whinging about having to stop riding bikes worth more than cars around and around a lake is an A grade first world problem. Lucky for me, I get to have another crack this weekend at ToMR. But I’ll still claim the joint B grade state title… by default!