By Ainsy

A great turnout Sunday morning with our prez counting 55 riders over the 3 groups. Great to see a few of the girls we don’t see much any more out today. Bec with her new set of wheels which I didn’t get to compliment her on and Anna also made an appearance. Both resplendent in SPR kit which was nice to see. Good to see Davina, Lisa and Lennie there as well to add a little class to the testosterone charged group. Apologies to any omissions in advance as I probably don’t know your name but do know your bike.

You definitely get a feel for the changing season with arm warmers and vests starting to become the norm on these cold mornings.

Pretty uneventful ride out to the hills with everyone doing a good job of keeping the group together.

The group split into 2 crossing Tonkin Hwy on Welshpool and I was stuck at the back with Jerard which left us a little work to do to catch up to the front of the group and be any chance of some points for the first climb of the day, Welshpool Rd.

Young (NDCC) Nick has been showing some good form lately and was again at the front with some of the usuals Jarrad, Jonny, Heiko, Brodie et al which had managed to gap the main group very quickly. Jonny put in a great effort to get us up to the pointy end with Nick and Jarrad. Nick started surging to try to shell some pea’s and was successful with the front group reduced. Unfortunately Nick nor me found the KOM sign and had already passed the finish line before we could get up and boogy for a sprint as we were too busy talking about how he totalled his Giant frame and replaced with the sexy Look he now has. Nick there are better ways of getting a new bike mate but maybe not as effective!

Climb 1 Welshpool
1. Nick 2. Ainsy 3. Brodie 4. Jonny 5. Dan 3

Onwards we go transitioning to the second climb for the day, Asher. I remember Peter telling me and a few others something like “the finish line is at Asher, near the camel farm” which I translated to “finish Line….blah blah blah…camel farm” so we kind of overruled the president and had our little race to the camel farm. Again Nick was strong and was surging effectively to loose wheels but had spent a little too much petrol to contest the win with Brodie just missing out on the points.

Climb 2 Asher (Camel Farm)
1. Ainsy 2. Brodie 3. Nick 4. Jarrad 5. Jonny

We had a few k’s to recover and enjoy rolling along Mudaring Weir Rd with the next climb being on this Rd.

This is where I started to feel the extra kilos I packed on while in Melbourne. I managed to hold onto the wheels of Jarrad and Nick as we cleared away from the others who were on the hunt for points. Quite a long climb (it seemed like it to me anyway) and was meeting my friend pain having to keep up with the surges Nick and Now Jarrad were employing to try to pop someone. Eventually the climb finished with all 3 pretty much together.

Climb 3 Mundaring
1. Ainsy 2. Nick 3. Jarrad 4. Jonny 5. Dan 3

We had quite a way to go before our final climb for the day including the bonus climb along Ridge Hill Rd. Chasing Nick and Jarrad had totally cooked my legs and I was having major concerns getting up Kalamunda Rd. We managed a re group at Marriott Rd just before Ridge Hill with Peter having to look for a few stragglers (including myself) who had stopped at a shop for refreshments and powdering of noses of the non Tom variety. Ridge Hill was a prick with the legs close to going on strike.

1 more climb for the day so I decide stuff it I will try to hang onto the front guys as long as I can till I pop. Jarrad started strongly with everyone else just letting him do all the work up Kalamunda. He was looking for a little help judging by the intensity and regularity of the arm flick however Nick nor myself had anything to offer by way of support. A gentleman’s agreement was reached to not contest Jarrad for the points but eventually Jarrad popped and Brodie powered away from the small group to take the final points for the day.

Climb 4 Kalamunda
1. Brodie 2. Jarrad 3. Ainsy 4. Nick 5. Jonny

Coffee stop at The Merchant was acceptable but the group is now so big that we struggle to get a seat for everyone. Jason, myself and a few other contented ourselves with a Pepsi (what no Coke!) as we decided to get our coffee fix back at Atomic where the coffee, service and girls…I mean ambience is better.

If I have missed anything glaringly obvious (remember I am a bloke I am not very observant) please feel free to add in comments.

Survival report by Ainsy

5.45 am, meet up with Jerard and ride down to registration where we meet up with Ryan.

The plan…Jerard, me, Ryan and his triathlon mate Dave start the ride together. Sounds great in theory…in practice this lasted all of 5 seconds. Whoosh and Ryan and his mate were off into the sunrise.

Never mind a long day ahead and we don’t want to burn too much petrol early and pay for it later.

Easy ride out and the early lights on Great Eastern Highway grouped teams together. Through Guildford we paced ourselves behind a team resplendent in Garmin kit. Passed a few slower groups through Midland before the first climb of the day, Greenmount.

I have done this climb once before on a Sunday ride, but only to John Forrest National Park so we were looking forward to doing the whole climb to Mundaring. A lot longer climb than our Sunday climb but a little less intensity thanks to the journey ahead. This time around we had the Garmin twins sucking our wheels up the climb. Up the top to Mundaring and onto Mundaring Weir Rd on they way to the first checkpoint.

Checkpoint 1 Mundaring Weir, top up on water and Staminade, banana stamp the passport and off and away. I actually had time to see the Weir Sunday, usually I am busting my as$ trying to get on Mike B’s wheel. Pretty impressive sight.

Passing some familiar tarmac we had the option of staying on Mundaring Weir Rd up the usual climb for coffee in Kalamunda or staying on course towards dam 2, Churchmans Brook. We took door #2.

Saw some SPR jerseys on the road coming the other way and saw the regular SPR advanced boys regrouping. Thanks boys your support was greatly appreciated.

Checkpoint 2 Churchmans Brook. Took a little longer to get there than I would have liked, legs feeling a little worse than I would have liked at this stage, Jerard looking strong. Should have been less of a lazy bastard the past couple of weeks, should have trained more etc etc. Could have, should have, would have..Oh well have to soldier on. Same as before stamp the passport, fill the water bottles…what no bananas!

No sooner had we left checkpoint 2 we had arrived at checkpoint 3, Wungong Dam and lunch….at 9 am!

Checkpoint 3 Wungong Dam. We were getting into the routine of filling the water bottles with water and Staminade first. We also had an opportunity to fill our guts with some real food (I am OVER bars and gels right now) being half a tuna roll. With stomachs full we set off again, up a 20% incline out of the dam, just what you need after some food and drink stop. This is where I started to have doubts about this whole exercise. I had real trouble getting into a tempo and had to get Jerard to ease up a little. Luckily Jerard’s experience in riding distance came to the fore and offered much advice reinforcing the need to keep eating and drinking.

Onto Albany Hwy, next stop Canning Dam Jerard doing all the work at the front and me just sucking wheels at this stage. Onto Canning Dam Rd and some pretty undulating roads through here. Not doing much for my confidence here, not even half way there and am ready to bonk big time.

Checkpoint 4 Canning Dam. We get there, usual procedure. Not looking forward to staring up again, but this is where things start to look up a little. We push ourselves a little through the rolling hills out of Canning Dam to tack onto a group with several Arbitrage riders. We manage to get on and stay with them back onto Albany Hwy with the Arbitrage boys doing the lion’s share of the work along here. Happy to stay in and try to recover, keep eating and drinking. Passing the halfway mark is a bittersweet feeling, happy to know I can countdown from here but also very aware of the task left considering my physical state. We do a few turns to contribute and are getting along at a nice pace. We make a right into Jarradale Rd and continue to work to get to Serpentine Dam. A left turn onto Kingsbury Drive and we are on the way to Dam 5, Serpentine.

Checkpoint 5 Serpentine Dam. All the boys are relieved to get here and the opportunity to stretch, top up on fluids and cram some bananas. Also a good time to slip slop slap as we have been on the road for some time and the sun is starting to bore into the skin. The 2 minute call is given and we are all up and going again, including our friends in the Garmin jerseys who have managed to stay with us.

I was staring to feel a little more positive after this as I was under the (incorrect) assumption that the hills were behind us and it was (relatively) easy street from here….wrong. The was still a little sting in the Serpentine tail before we could flat land. The legs were pretty buggered but managed a turn with Jerard to get out of the hills and onto the big decent towards the freeway and the autopilot home. Great fun on the decent and regrouping to share the work again. We passed Karnet Prison farm (maybe they should have called it the 5 dams and a prison challenge), not much too see there luckily and would not recommend and a place for a holiday.

Next stop Serpentine and then onto one of the worst parts of the ride…Karnup Rd, or the (seemingly) endless road. This thing seemed to go on and on. All you could see ahead was road, long boring straight road. This was coupled by the fact that the sea breeze was in and we were beating into it. We strung out into a long line with riders doing turns for as long as they could before peeling off the front to the rear for a breather. Finally we saw what we were striving for…the freeway entry, 1 last checkpoint.

Checkpoint 6 Freeway. Again time to fill the water bottles with water and staminade, and a big snake (of the lolly variety) for a sugar hit before the final onslaught. The Garmin brothers had popped on the way to the checkpoint and were only arriving as the group were preparing to leave. We bode them farewell and headed into South Perth and a well earned breather. At this time weary legs abounded and everyone was looking forward to the finish. With the slight assistance of the sea breeze we tried to keep a steady 35 km average in groups of 2 doing approx 2 k stints each. Pretty uneventful with the exception of the few rollers and blind turns on this most uninteresting stretch of bike path. Once we were back into familiar territory you could sense the relief in the group that there was enough petrol in the tank to get to the finish.

Onto the final stretch of the freeway from Como to South Perth we were left to ride the group to the finish. Jerard was feeling strong and I think had ambitions of blowing the group off and sprinting to the finish, but this may have caused a few discussions judging by the voices of discontent behind so we slowed and led the group to the finish.

Very happy to have finished and we were the first main bunch home with only 2 other teams arriving before us, with that freak Ryan Fynn and Dave smashing us by near an hour taking the chocolates on the day with the second team over 20 minutes behind! Great effort boys, well impressed!

We found Ryan near the finish sitting down unable to stand and his partner Dave crashed out big time.

I learned a lot from this especially regarding the vital importance to EAT AND DRINK EARLY and not to stop doing this. On a ride of this size you are going to go through bad patches. You have to push through this and you will feel better as long as you have the foundation of proper hydration and calorie intake prior to this. When you do come good and feel stronger try not to push too yourself too much as you may find yourself on the fast track to bonktown.

All in all a great experience and would be something I would recommend for someone who really wants to challenge themselves.

Thanks to Jerard for talking me into doing this and for his experience and strength on the day.

Report by Ainsy (Chris)

Hopefully Julian can chime in with a cameo for the ride out and climb 1 (Greenmount) as I don’t have the results.

After the first climb we had the pleasure of riding through John Forrest National Park having to hike our bikes over the gate about 30 seconds before the ranger came to open it.  Once in the park some lovely scenery to behold….and some pretty average road!  I could hear the devaluation of the carbon frames with every ping from the loose gravel shotting up into the frames.  After a little game of dodge the potholes we found ourselves at the locked exit gate, having to hike our bikes over again before the helpful ranger came to unlock this gate as well.

Through the park and onto the second climb for the day, with a few of the boys hungry for points trying to get a quick getaway.  I got onto Mike B’s wheel and soon we were near the pointy end passing Alistair and big Jens (Heiko) who was over geared big time and trying to cause pain to himself rather then the rest of the group in his usual style.  I tried to help him with a little motivation to get him up the hill and into the points.  Mike B soon was in the lead and well onto the way to the win.  I was trying to summon up a last ditch effort but Mike was too strong and was over for the win with Alistair, Jonny and Mark O showing some good form by filling the remaining points scoring positions.

Climb 2

1. Mike B  2. Chris  3. Alistair  4. Jonny  5. Mark O

 

After the second climb we stopped at a general store for some refreshments and a bit of a breather.  I think Jerard was well impressed with the price of the bananas there and would not be surprised to see him do his fruit and veg shopping there from now on!

With some minor bonus climbs in between we came upon climb 3, the first of 2 along Mundaring Weir Rd and by far the biggest climb of the day.  I have only ridden this climb once before and that day I dropped my chain and caused myself over 500 bucks in pain (AND NO POINTS) so was keen to make amends and get some on this one.  Again a few of the hungry boys led by Jonny flew out of the box to get a head start.  I started to make some ground on these boys and was joined by the usual suspect Mike B who soon took the lead and I happily grabbed his wheel.  After a while I pulled out in front and Mike suggested we could stay away if we worked together.  This is what we did and worked really well for us.  I saw “super fit” Stuart about 100 M behind showing the great form he has been carrying but our combined efforts ensured he would not get on and had to settle for 3rd.  Behind Stuart there was a big group swapping turns at the front basically smashing each other for the final 2 point scoring positions.  In the end the banana was the difference and Jerard went on to take 4^th ahead of Brodie in 5^th

Climb 3

1. Chris  2. Mike B  3. Stuart  4. Jerard  5. Brodie

 

Only 1 climb left for coffee, the usual Mundaring Weir Rd climb.  Mike B and I started out of the blocks early and got a bit of a gap trying to work together to increase it.  I looked behind to see “super fit” chasing us down and before long Stuart was with us and pushing us along.  We swapped a few turns but it was evident to Stuart that he had a little in reserve from the last climb.  With about 400 m left Stuart and Mike B dropped me like and anvil and battled out the final hill for the day with Stuart prevailing with Mike a close second.  I hear that Jonny pinched a couple of points out of Brodie’s pocket at the last minute so points as follows.

Climb 4 

1. Stuart  2. Mike B  3. Chris  4. Jonny  5. Brodie

Onto coffee (well half a one anyway).  I think I should take Brodie’s lead and order a short mac as I never seem to finish mine by the time Pete gives the order to go.

Pretty uneventful ride on the way back.  With Mark D off the bike for 5 weeks we got a reprieve from the usual smashing he gives us on Welshpool Rd.  Onto the sprint and I think a few weary legs abounded.  All I was good for was a lead out for Jerard and Alistair with Alistair just having the better of the good doctor.

All in all another happy day in the life of SPR!