All posts by peter

sunday 31st august – kahuna & canning mills

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ride report by peter

a quick look at the current weather on the web this morning showed a nice 9 degrees. i was a bit dubious as it did seem cold in the house when i got up but at least it was not showing something like 2 deg. it was a bit brisk, but nothing to really complain about and i was sure today’s route would get things warm as soon as we hit the hills.

the city2surf claimed a few of our regular riders today with ryan, rob and heiko deciding that they would rather run than ride. we could hear the pre-race festivities from our side of the river while we waited for the allotted hour to arrive. jumping ahead a bit, i did ask mike b later why he wasn’t doing the run today. he said that he gets disappointed that he can’t beat his best time anymore. he came second one year with a time of 36min. that was quite a few years ago though. kind of makes sense now why he is so fast in the hills.

anyway, we still had a good group of regulars and some return riders like josie toe the line this morning. about 15 riders all up i would say, with dr paul and dr greg starting with us, but doing their own thing once we hit the hills. the route today would be a challenging one. up the kahuna and down urch before up the rest of peet rd to rolleystone high school. down brookton hwy and through some back streets before up canning mills rd to join back up with the top of the kahuna, before the usual way to kalamunda via mundaring weir rd. four climbs and some bonus’ for a total of just under 100 kms. hopefully it wouldn’t rain.

so we rolled out and headed towards albany hwy. the pace was pleasant and gave everyone an opportunity to have a chat. as we past carousel shopping centre, steve got a flat, but told us not to bother waiting as he had an issue with his tyre anyway. i was in two minds as we usually wait for flats, but we were still close to the city and he would be right to get home if he was in trouble. we left him to his misery and pushed on.

as we approached the base of the kahuna, there was someone doing laps of the roundabout just before it. it turned out to be clare who was patiently waiting for us to arrive. the road up the kahuna starts off gentle before it kicks up to it’s average gradient and luckily it was the gentle section we were on when my phone rang. it turned out to be steve, who had fixed his flat and was now looking for us. he had not done the kahuna before and i was trying to give him directions while i started the climb proper (gotta love hands free kit). i tried to make it as clear as i could in between breaths, and i also gave him other directions in case he got lost. he said that he would call in about half and hour when we should have got to the second regroup point. i wasn’t sure that we would see him again.

so the group hit the hill and everyone settled into their respective positions according to climbing ability. the kahuna can be quite steep in places but also contains a number of shallower gradient sections (i can’t really say flat) that either give you respite, or break your rhythm. i find that it breaks my rhythm as i tend to spin out more and use different muscle groups that then also start hurting.

mike and stu found their place at the front and i jumped on their wheel to try to hold on as long as i possibly could. it seemed like a long time and i was pretty happy, but in reality, it was probably still on the first steep section on the climb. they began to power away with that slow steady “grind out the hill” style that both of them have. as they got further and further away it was clear that i was not going to be able to catch back on without some type of motor attached to my bike. i began to wish that i was 50 year old. both those guys are well on the wrong side of 40 and we cannot keep up with them in the hills. i hope that i am going that strong when i grow up. however, i am thinking that it probably has more to do with the years of marathon running that both these whippets had done in their earlier years.

so i am drifting back and am trying to set myself a nice tempo. i look back and find that ben is gaining on me and soon over takes me. bugger. i continue my tempo and allow ben a bit more space ahead of me. i am hoping that once we hit the shallower gradient towards the top, i can regain a bit of ground. i manage to up my pace and catch back up to ben. i put in a hard, but consistent effort and manage to shake him from my wheel before we hit the top. mike had dropped stu before the top, and i ended up within 75 – 100 metres of stu by the time we reach the regroup point.

as we regrouped, both the effort of the climb and the increasing daylight meant that it was beginning to warm up. holly (pictured) took off her vest to reveal a fat cyclist jersey underneath that matched her fatty socks. if you haven’t heard of fatty, there is a link on my “other blogs” to the right and even though he blogs mostly about mountain biking, he has many an insight into riding and balancing his passion with his wife’s illness. it makes you realise how good we have it sometimes.

so we headed for the next climb up urch and peet. this at least was preceded by a nice descent down part of urch before the road kicked up again. once it did, a bunch of riders like stan, ben and melvyn took advantage of their momentum and started to smash it up the other side. stu also came past and i was determined not to give him too much head start, so jumped across to his wheel. mike also made his way up through the pack and was on my wheel when we all joined ben. melvyn and stan had dropped back by the time we turned the corner onto peet and ben managed to hold on for a little way before he also fell off the back. the boys must have been kind to me, or i was finally warm after the first climb as i managed to stay with them to the top.

as we crested the hill, mike lead us out towards the high school and to the state champs finish line. after a few turns, mike pushed for the last effort up the climb with stu and i sucking wheels to get a good lead-out. stu eventually went so i jumped on his wheel and waited for the last 50 m to come around for the sprint. i barely had enough to stay in front of him as he also turned it up a notch heading towards the line. it’s good, as we both need practice sprinting for that line as two races this year had already finished there and both came down to a bunch sprint. a couple of riders later, steve also made it to the line. he had come up the kahuna but then across chevin rd and into the top of peet road to meet up with the rest of the group.

after a regroup we headed down brookton hwy to give the legs a bit of respite. we don’t often climb up brookton and i remembered why as we were descending. it is not really that hard as we had to pedal quite a bit to maintain speed on the descent. we turned just before the road joined back up with albany hwy and took a couple of back streets. steve asked whether there was a house down here i was looking at buying as it did seem a bit off the beaten track for us. unfortunately, no, we were on the right road and soon we were at the base of canning mills rd.

this is the steeper side of the kahuna and averages about 9% for the steep section. it flattens off towards the top and is not as long as the kahuna, but much, much harder. however, it is fairly consistent and does not contain many “flat” spots that break the rhythm when climbing. you can set yourself a nice pace to the top, but it is when you want to chase others that you will get into trouble and blow-up.

i know that stu headed up the road pretty early in the climb and i had nothing to go with
him. ben caught and past me about halfway up after i started to fade. steve surprised me with how fast he came past, and i expected him to blow up as he had never done this climb before and didn’t know what was around the corner. luckily for him, and probably more testament to his ability, he maintained a good pace to the top and didn’t pop. after that, my memory gets a bit fuzzy and i remember there being another rider up the road. it was probably mike, but i can’t be sure as i know that stu stayed away from everyone on the climb. i just ground my way to the top and was happy to be there.

this climb took a bigger toll on the group and we had to wait a bit longer for all the riders to come in. it is a really challenging climb so we don’t do it that often. but to do it as the third climb in a set of four is just cruel. but sometime you have to be cruel to… get a laugh… i mean be kind. it will make all the riders stronger in the long run so it can’t be that bad.

as we turned to follow the rest of the kahuna rd back towards pickering brook, josie took off back down the hill to head home. her knee was not feeling 100% so she did not want to risk it with another climb. the rest of us ambled our way through the back blocks of canning mills and on to pickering brook. holly had said that she was going to skip the final climb and go straight to coffee. peer pressure made sure that she came with us in the end.

on the little rolling hills (that seem big by now to your legs) stu managed to get away a bit and headed into the final climb with about 50 m or so. jerry went hard as soon as the hill started and thought that he could get some advantage that could be whittled away. in reality he just caught and past stu and paid the price to get there. mike came up from behind and i jumped on his wheel as he moved up behind stu. the four of us started the climb together but it would not stay that way for long. jerry was first to step off after mike moved to the front and set the pace that he was comfortable with. i hung onto stu’s wheel as long as i could and thought i was doing really well when we reached the part where there is a fence and wall on the right. after doing this climb a hundred times, i know that it is not far to the “flat” section on this climb. unfortunately, i also know that the road pinches up ever so slightly more that what we were climbing.

the pace and pitch was too much for me and i also had to step off the train. i tried to set myself a tempo with the hope that i could catch back up when it flattened out. i looked back and saw jerry not that far back and thought that we could work together to catch stu and mike. i eased up my pace and let him get on before starting to wind it up along the “flat”. i thought that if i could out in a hard effort, then jerry could smash the last bit of the hill and maybe catch them as they were still in sight. jerry had the same idea and came around me early and set a high pace. i went as the road got steeper again and realised that i really didn’t have that much left in my legs. i made it almost to the top before jerry came back past me within 10 metres of the kom line. we were probably 100 metres behind stu and mike.

as the rest of the group came into the coffee shop i was surprised to see bec finishing to high in the pack. she said that she finally was feeling good and managed to go hard on the last climb to beat in half the guys. the coffee stop was good today and soon we were off and running again. a nice descent down welshpool and we stayed together for much of it. i pushed hard on the last bit of hill to make sure the speedo clocked over 80 km/h and came past the rest of the group. it did cost me dearly as i then had nothing when jerry and stan headed up the road together. i jumped in behind the others and sat in for the majority of the chase. as we approached the curve in the road, i found my legs enough to do a cancellara and time trialed across the gap to come past the boys at the front. by the time we got through the lights at the highway, the group was all back together.

no sprint at the end of welshpool and we had it saved up for the final push up berwick. i was on the front (again) leading into the sprint when brett and anna came flying past on the slight rise before the lights at george st. i didn’t react as i was sure that they would get stuck at the lights. as they were waiting behind a left turning car when the lights went green, i jumped into the right hand lane and sprinted past them and up over the hill. i looked back and saw jerry closing fast but thought that i had to keep going to stay away. i did ease back on the descent to conserve as much energy for when he jumped, but realised that i probably didn’t have much left in reserve. as i started to run out of puff he came along side and we both looked at each other. i shrugged indicating that i was done, but he didn’t go as he thought that it was mean making me do all the work to just take out the final 100 metres. i was cool with that so we ambled towards maccas. however, when i looked back i saw bec coming off steve’s wheel and heading towards us fast. we didn’t really have enough time to react and she had way too much momentum so overtook us for the final sprint win of the day.

so a good day but a tough one with the number and severity of the climbs we tackled. i can’t say that we will do an easy one next week, as we must punish those that had forsaken us to go running instead. also, since it is fathers day, the blokes should be allowed to stay out longer to do a big ride. i know it doesn’t work like that, but it is worth a try.

when is enough, enough or is it too much

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so i got told that my posts may be too long and that they may not get read properly cause i tend to crap on a bit. though this may be the case i tend to use it as therapy and i do enjoy it most of the time.

however, if you think that i should shorten my reports let me know as i can save a lot of my time by not going into as much detail. on the other hand, if you enjoy the detail and think that it helps you understand what is going on better, also let me know.

i do this so you all have something to read, not cause i think i will get a pulitzer prize or anything.

saturday 30th august – shelley

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ride report by peter

i really don’t know where the year has gone. it’s the end of winter tomorrow and we spring into spring again. besides the cold starts, we can’t really even complain about the weather. it has been excellent from a cycling point of view with one of the driest august’s on record. but i guess there are repercussions and water restrictions will be one of them. even with nick’s sparkling new desal plant ticking along, we will still be up against it.

so, anyway, it was a cold start but just over 30 managed to brave the conditions and meet for a ride this morning. we were headed for a sprint-fest today so there was a good chance that we wouldn’t stay cold for long. after a short hop down canning hwy to riseley, we would come back along leach hwy to have a crack at one of perth’s special sprint grounds, shelley. after this we would head down to south st and sprint back along banister rd before home via albany hwy and a sprint along shep rd. if you had a crack at all three, then you deserved your coffee today.

we started out fine and caught a couple of sets of lights as per usual, which split the group. it was pretty low key and so the slower pace did not seem to worry many. heading up riseley, brett made a surge to the front as he said it felt like they were about to step off at the back. i was happy for him to do a turn so i slinked back to the midpack. it was all pretty cruisey along leach hwy and just as we came to the road from mt pleasant, we happened across the bikeforce group. we actually split the pack as some of them turned just before we got there, while the others had to wait for us to go by. well it gave us some rabbits to chase anyway.

as we turned onto the shelley course, i was at the front with ben and we were waiting to see who would make the first move. it took a while, but eventually christophe took off. ben waited a bit then decided to chase him. it was pretty much all on by then. there were continuous attacks and chases and the group was clicking along at a fair pace for the entire length of shelley. about halfway along, i took off, but was chased down almost straight away by christophe and the rest of the group. it did have the desired effect and started to stretch the group a bit. can’t have it easy all the time.

i was pretty much spent by now and just sat in the group till the end. i was not impressed with the heavy feeling in my thighs and was wondering where my form had taken off to. i put it down to the cold morning. yeah, that was it. cold, not unfit.

we regrouped at the end of the road and i doubled back a bit to see if lisa was still coming. we waited a while before deciding to keep moving before we cooled down too much. a slightly convoluted trip through the suburb of parkwood (who knew it existed, i’d never heard of it before) found us out on vahland ave and heading towards south st. we didn’t hang around on south street for very long as we turned onto banister almost straight away. this was the beginning of our second fast section, but no-one was keen to start the ball rolling. eventually jens and one of the barista boys turned the pace on, but did not attack so we all just hoped on board and made them do all the work. as we came to the lights at willeri drv, the group came back together for a brief moment as we were slightly held up. once the lights changed, it was all on and pretty much everyone threw an attack in to try to stay away. i made a move then james and christophe came around me. next thing we know, mike has taken off up the road. by then there were quite a few people in front of me so i have to fight hard to come around to the front with rob in tow. we manage to break free of the bunch and rob shows off his new time-trial bike by putting in a big pursuit to catch mike. i was fading fast by the time ryan came bursting out of the pack with a string of riders trailing behind and overtaking me. i managed to hold on to a few wheels to get me to the end.

as we turned onto nicholson, the aim was to slow right down to allow a regroup. i wanted us all together by the time we hit albany hwy as the trip past carousel shopping centre is always a busy one. the group did slow, but it also lane sliced along side some cars waiting at the lights. this is a no, no and the boys deserve a major spanking for that. the group is too big so we need to hold our position in the lane and not piss off the cars more than necessary.

quite an uneventful trip along albany hwy which is the best kind in my books, but soon we were on shepperton rd and the final sprint section. everyone was nervously looking around waiting for the first attack to go. i was content to sit in for a while as you really needed a small rise to launch on or it is too easy for the group to react. we approached the set of lights just before the rolling hills and it is usually my cue to attack. however, i was beaten to the punch this time by ryan with barista boy hamish in tow.

i jumped out of the bunch with jerry in tow and caught and past ryan. we had to keep the momentum going if we were to stay away. ryan eventually came past me an graciously didn’t smash my legs off on the next rise, but looked back to make sure i still had his wheel. you have to be pretty lucky to pull off a move on shep rd as the lights just before the causeway will pretty much always catch you out. no luck this time and the four of us were caught at the lights.

with ryan pulling his standard trick of not clipping in properly so he is not at the front leading into the sprint, it was left to me and james to take the pack across the bridges and onto riverside drive. i said to him, don’t go too hard so that we can react to any moves that go off the front. as usual, someone went way too early and the group all reacted. i managed to grab a wheel or two to stay in the hunt, but when the pace really started, i had no legs to respond. i sat up and rolled into the coffee shop while ryan took the sprint ahead of dr jerry… again.

ride routes 30th & 31st august

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a three stage sprintfest awaits us on saturday. all flat and fast, but we will regroup after each hit out.
sunday will see us tackle both sides of the kahuna in the same ride which means that there has to be a descent in between. the weather has been excellent for riding, so i hope to see you all on the road this weekend.

saturday 30th august
shelley & bannister rd
Sth Perth Saturday Ride 07 (Shelley)
Find more Bike Rides in Perth, Australia
sunday 31st august
kahuna & canning mills
Sth Perth Sunday Ride 15 (Kahuna & Canning Mills)
Find more Bike Rides in South Perth, Australia

sunday 24th august – welshpool & mundaring & kalamunda

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ride report by peter

as i stumbled out the door just before 7 i reflected on the fact that i was lucky to even be on the bike this morning. we went to the shops yesterday after the saturday ride and from about 11 onwards, ben was totally out of it. constant mournful crying and pretty much inconsolable for the rest of the day. by the time we got him to sleep that night it seemed like a very, very long day. i prepared my bike stuff as usual, the previous night, but i was aware that it would depend on how he woke up in the morning. he woke fine so i was off.

as i turned off my road and onto canning hwy, heading along was dr nick, so i rode alongside and had a chat. she was not heading out with us as there was mountain biking to do that arvo and it was her first love. i rode with her till douglas ave and turn off to meet the others. late as usual.

we had a good size group of about twenty and most were keen to tackle all the climbs today. the course was taking us back up welshpool road and around mundaring weir and darlington, before climbing back up kalamunda rd and on to coffee. all up there was four major climbs and about three or four bonus climbs.

we headed out along great eastern hwy and onto orong rd for a change of pace. it definitely has more traffic, but it is double lane and it was sunday morning, so more traffic really meant more than dead. pretty uneventful start to the day and i chatted with our new guy dr ronnie. he knows lorraine and she told him about the ride so he decided to come out with us. another dr and another cervelo to the group. the more the merrier. riders that is, not cervelos.

as we approached the base of the climb, everyone started to eye off young alistair after his exceptional climb last week. still resplendent in his dunlop sandshoes and toe clips, everyone was keen to see how they would rate against him. it would be interesting.

the hill started and the usual players were straight to the front. the pace didn’t start high and alistair led myself, brendan, stu, mike steve and ben up the hill. we were approaching another large group of mostly triathletes that we had seen up the road previously. they had already started to splinter on the climb and presented a number of targets for us to chase down.

the climb settled into it’s steepness and alistair attacked hard. i was on his wheel and decided not to go with him as expected him to die in the arse and we would pick him up later. brendan had other ideas and took off after him. i jumped on his wheel and took steve up with me. we caught alistair and i think brendan wanted to prove a point so attacked him almost straight away. i managed to hold his wheel, but only just and was beginning to struggle. not sure where everyone really was at this time as lack of blood to the relevant brain functions meant that the only signal out was push pedals and only signal in was pain now.

at some point stu and mike cruised effortlessly up the hill towing either steve or ben. they went past and overtook the group. unfortunately for me, they just kept going at this pace and left alistair, ben and i to fend ourselves, while brendan and steve latched onto the train.

as we slipped further and further behind, i tried to go again and managed to gap alistair but he always seemed to claw his way back on. we ended up riding together after the servo and tried to pull back any ground. my phone started to ring and i tried to answer it via and hands free, but the button didn’t work. after the family issues yesterday i was expecting it to be bad news, but it would have to wait till i reached the top.

as the hill started again ben just kept accelerating and started to gap alistair and i. another expletive erupted for the young lads mouth and i understood where he was coming from. after his efforts last week, we were all keen to attack him just to see how good he was. i sprinted around to get on bens wheel and we gapped alistair again. he clawed his way back again as the road evened out a bit. on the penultimate hill, we picked up steve who’d had enough of the pace men in front. as we crested the top and ran into the last little rollercoaster to start the final pinch, alistair attacked on the downhill.

tactically not the best spot as we all jumped on and were freewheeling behind him as it pushed hard to try to get away. as the road went up again, i attacked and ben also went off my wheel. we sprinted to the top and were soon joined by steve as alistair must have been a bit spent by that final effort. as we cruised down the final hill to the regroup point, i noticed that we were only about 100 metres from the front boys.

a quick check of the phone revealed all. a message from ryan earlier on saying he wasn’t coming and then the later call was from home. i rang to confirm the i was needed back asap. i waited till the rest of the group had arrived before reminding everyone of the route and seeing who knew their way through darlington. brett said he knew so that was good enough for me and i was off.

a quick run down welshpool and back the usual way which did seem a lot longer and harder when you are doing it yourself. family issues meant that i was needed on ben minding duties, so i packed his bag and headed up to kalamunda. we took the long way and came up kalamunda road to see if the group had made it that far yet. they had just began the climb as i came past, so would be up to coffee very soon. i sat with ben for a while before all the bikes came streaming in. i managed to catch up with everyone that made it to coffee as a few had turned of early, but spent most of the time chasing ben around as he wanted to climb the stairs. the he found the eiffel tower and started to climb that too. fun, fun, fun. as everyone headed off, we stopped the car on welshpool rd and managed to capture the group descending at speed on the camcorder. will post it once i drag it off the video.

so i was there for the start and the end-ish, but someone else will need to blog the middle section for me as i don’t know what went on.

saturday 23rd august – ridgehill rd

ride report by peter

another fine winters day was predicted today. not a cloud to be seen and heading for a top of 20 meant that there would be a freezing start to the day. the official temp said sub 4 degrees as i exited the nice warm house and i had lots of layers on as protection. i was a bit concerned as i approached the car park this morning as i thought another group must have been setting up as well. there were stacks of people all huddled together, but, on closer inspection, it looked like they were all riding with us. a quick estimate put the group at about 60 riders. a massive turn out for a winters day.

the route today also didn’t seem to scare people off. we were heading out to ridgehill rd at the base of the zig-zag in kalamunda before a return trip via guilford rd with (hopefully) a tailwind. we got off to a rough start as is usually the case with a group this big, and split at the first set of lights just near the carpark. we split again at the turn onto canning hwy (my fault for not seeing the lights change), and again further up great eastern hwy. we generally had to take it easy until we got out of the city to ensure the group stayed together.

i cruised up and down the pack a bit to make sure it was all going well and to get an idea of who was present today. mainly for two reasons. firstly, who was going to make my life hard on the climbs and secondly who i needed to keep an eye on when the pace picked up and they may not be able to cope too well.

i moved to the front again as we came through the back of rosehill golf course where there is a small roundabout that always causes navigation problems. it is a funny intersection and it is easy to take the wrong road so i moved up with mike to ensure we went the right way. unfortunately this meant that we stayed on the front for the next seven kms until the base of the main climb. as ryan had been hiding neatly in the pack, i was a bit worried how much pain he would cause me today.

as we turned the corner and started the climb, i looked back at the group and saw ryan, obvious in his bright red knicks, sitting way back with about 50 riders in front of him. great i thought, as the pack spreads out, it will be harder for him to get up the front. mike and i pushed ahead but not at a strong pace as most of the group was still sitting on our wheel. i then heard a yell from chris, i think, that a rider was coming up fast. sure enough ryan came barreling up the hill with hamish (barista boy) and hunter straight to the front.

we stepped up but were still pretty much all together at the first step in the hill. as it kicked up again, i came around ryan and stepped on the gas. everyone jumped to get on, but we pretty much made a break of three with ryan and hamish gapping the rest of them. a redline induced easing off meant that jerry, mike and hunter moved back onto our wheel as we approached the last pinch. mike made one last moved and split our group up again as we dragged ourselves up to the base of the zig-zag.

i stopped here to chase the last rider along as the rest of the group headed down the hill to the regroup point just before kalamunda rd. three of the docs were leaving us at that point as they were going to climb the zig-zag instead, so i bid them adieu. i chased lisa down the hill and gave her a draft back onto the group as they waited for starters orders. we had a bit of trouble getting back onto kalamunda rd but had regrouped by the time we hit roe hwy, less than a km away. it was important that we stuck together along this next stretch as it was back down to single lane and got a bit twisty.

finally back to guilford rd and across the bridge into bassenden signaled the beginning of the end. double lane all the way back to the coffee shop and the pace was on. i had drifted back at the lights to inform everyone that it was fast pace for the rest of the ride and now sat comfortably on last wheel. had a bit of a chat to hunter especially about the forks on his cervelo and whether he was going to replace them. we have quite a few cervelos in the group, so it was a hot topic on today’s ride.

the pace was quick, but no overly so as the group was slowed a few times by traffic lights. unfortunately, the set at tonkin hwy, changed a little to quickly and a group of around 6 of us got left behind. bugger. on the change we were off in pursuit but it would not be easy as just ahead the rolling hills of maylands started to split the group proper. we kind of rolled through on the flats, but as soon as the hill started, it was every man for himself and mike and i powered away with hunter. the group was a long way ahead and it was beginning to leave riders behind, like breadcrumbs as a trail for us to follow.

after a few hard turns and a couple of roll throughs, we saw them stuck up ahead at the lights and managed to catch them at the change. another set of lights at the east parade turn meant that most of the group would be together all the way to the end. we usually try to thin the ranks out a bit before the coffee shop as it gets quite congested, but today was going to be full.

no real attacks on the last hill near the police station in east perth and it wouldn’t have mattered as we hit the lights again and again before we got to riverside drive for the final sprint. i was sitting in on jens’ wheel and thought that he would give me a good lead out, but things started getting messy. chris was egging me on from behind and so i took off with way, way too far to go. i moved up around the aussie crates boys and came teo the front for a final effort. when my legs finally gave out there was still a couple of hundred metres to go and so boys started their sprint in earnest. all i saw was brendan and ryan heading up the road with a group in tow only to get stopped by the final set of lights. how very appropriate.

so a brew was on the cards and it was very crowded today as the bikeforce guys were still in attendance when we arrived. service was as expected with such a large group and we are still making moves to change coffee shops.

collie-donnybrook – stu’s report

race report by stu

Registration for the annual Collie-Donnybrook was much the same as any other race, except that on this day it brought dread and excitement to bear at the unveiling of handicaps! Would all the preparation be wasted or would it stand in good stead? Whatever the case, 104km has to be ridden – it doesn’t just happen. Scan program; Where’s my name, where’s my name, ah, there it is in the 24min group. Wow, fantastic, great! – not many other names I know though, but at least it’s a big group – extra good! Painful memories of my only previous Collie-Donnybrook experience in 2006 in which my tiny group (19min) disintegrated barely into 104km of torture were washed away with anticipation of a good result this year. Further scan of the handicaps showed Pete at 14min – jees, he’ll be pissed’, and Ryan at 12min suggesting that we wouldn’t be seeing much of each other on the road that day.
Ahead of my bunch were the 33min and 28min groups. I had recognised a few names from South West Cycle Club (SWCC) and considered that a couple of them might have a winning chance if they could stay away.

As we waited at the start I made small comment to ‘coffee boy’ who looked withdrawn and a little flat (duh), and my comment went unresponded. My group’s start was un-awesome, we missed the first turn to head out of town and had to double-back – no idea what the marshal was doing. The pace for the first few kilometres was very Sunday strolling-like, despite my verbal harassment and gesticulations. Except for a few riders, there appeared to be a general lack of will to ride hard and take a chance to win. Disappointment and frustration so early in the race was not a good sign. However, the first significant hill just 7km out of town created a break by the only four riders of the group who had showed any willingness to work in the first stages. We soon formed an informal alliance, and rolled through toward Donnybrook in tight formation and shared workload, gaining good time ahead of our 24min remnant group. The only distractions along the way were dropping my first Carboshotz tube, eliciting a few tasty words (and the amusing thought that somebody in a following bunch might ride over it and squirt against adjacent rider – hoho – the things that amuse), and the panting and clunking from the No 83 rider/bike combination.

Exhortations to the group that our 24min handicap ‘must not be wasted’ and is a “chance of a lifetime” may (or not) have been a little dramatic, and may (or not) have had some effect on the group, but we had “jelled”! We were riding well and we certainly had a chance! We glimpsed a big group in front of us, about 8km from Donnybrook, and although we expected to catch them soon, it wasn’t until the turn-around at Donnybrook that we finally latched on. I don’t know what other groups thought about our big group’s lead margin as we crossed paths on the return journey out of Donnybrook, but the time gaps seemed pretty good to me! Unfortunately I couldn’t catch sight of Pete, Ryan or Brendan, so hoped they were going OK.

Within the newly formed big bunch, the predetermined informal plan of ‘see how we go when we catch the front markers’ brought back the frustrations of the first kilometres out of Collie. Few riders were willing to work, so once again it fell to the four of us, plus Craig Kimpton (nice work Craig) from SWCC and 1 or 2 others to push the pace along and avoid being caught by the back-markers. The generally flat terrain near Donnybrook meant that it was difficult to break away again from the bunch. Somehow, by thought osmosis, the ‘new plan’ to make a break on the hills out of Mumballup was broadcast to the strong and willing. If only somebody had broadcast to me that there was prize money and trophy on offer for the first rider returning to Mumballup. I think I just rolled around the corner in 2nd or 3rd wheel, without any idea of the lost opportunity. Damn.

Anyway, other opportunities presented themselves soon enough. Hills! I just rode nice and solid up the Mumballup hill at the front of the bunch, and before too long, one of the few remaining riders called out that there were only 6 of us – we were it! Woohoo!The six of us included the four original 24min breakways –me, Chris Roberts, Michael Martin and Tom Bakowski (#83) plus Mike Vanduijnhoven (aka Dutch Mike) and Tony Canzurlo from the 28min group. I knew Dutch Mike from my days in Bunbury and was pleased to see him there. Once again the group I was with worked strongly and evenly, although Dutch Mike looked like he was on his limit to stay in touch. Eventually Dutch Mike disappeared, and thoughts started to turn to how to win this thing!

I had no great confidence in winning a sprint to the line, despite that I felt strong and maybe looked stronger than the others appeared to be. Alternate options were necessary. I had noticed a small descent about 5km from Collie on the outward journey and had previously considered that it might be a possible place to try to make a break. However, as the hill approached, it looked small, and the prospect of time-trialling into Collie endeavouring to maintain a 10 second break were not appealling. We stayed together. A small bout of cramps with about 4km to go caused internal alarm. I had drunk plenty, and eaten plenty – hence my general lack of fatigue – but now this – I didn’t need it! A little rest at the back of the group and drink of water provided some relief, but I felt trepidation at recurrence under hard effort of sprinting, especially out of the saddle.

The new new plan was to ‘go’ at the tiny little ascent before the final left turn to the finish. If I could be first at the corner, get a good clear line around the corner – that presented as my best option, I thought. Well, I got it half right. I was first round the corner, and first for much of the final sprint to the finish, but was pipped right near the line, to finish a very close 4th.

On reflection, there are bitter / sweet thoughts. Perhaps I could have done better, but in reality, I just wasn’t good enough. I had scored a generous handicap, and without that ‘head start’ I would probably have never had the opportunity I had. All 3 placegetters ahead of me were ‘day licence’ riders, and there may be a good argument that such riders should not be given such generous handicaps – but in my situation, without them I would never have got as close as I got. We worked really well as a group, and that gave me lots of satisfaction. A good day in the saddle.

ride routes 23rd & 24th august

ride routes posted by peter

to counteract the ride from two weeks ago when i made everyone sprint into the headwind along nicholson rd, i am getting us to come home via guilford rd with (hopefully) a nice north-easterly tailwind. however, we will need to negotiate ridgehill rd first.

sunday we will tackle welshpool rd again and hopefully i can redeem myself against young alistair in his sandshoes, before we tackle mundaring weir and kalamunda rd. this week we will be doing all the climbs before coffee and if i start to wuss out i need someone to step up and call me a blouse to pressure me into completing the circuit.

embedding the maps is still playing up so you will have to click to view them.

saturday 23rd august
ridgehill road
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/australia/perth/482888159

sunday 24th august
welshpool & mundaring & kalamunda
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/australia/perth/629109743611

sunday 17th august – welshpool & observatory

ride report by peter

i knew i was going to be struggling today. after the collie-donnybrook yesterday and the late return home, it was always going to be hard to back it up. i was running a bit late again today and it was a family effort which delayed me. my sleeping in combined with ben’s early wake up combined with kate going back to sleep all meant that i didn’t turn up till a smidgen past seven. i had dressed appropriately for the cold start, but was concerned that i would be caught out later in the morning as we were headed for another beautiful day. i had double jerseyed again and also had leg warmers on. it was a brisk morning and i was happy with the extra layers.

i knew that ryan and stu would not be coming this morning as stu was probably staying done south after the race yesterday and ryan had a bucks night to go to as soon as he got home. i was hoping for not too much competition as i was not sure how i would cope with the climbs. brendan had turned up after yesterday race but he is training up for a pretty big race over east in a months time so is doing 1000 kms a week when he is on break. our sand-shoed friend from the saturday ride had turned up again, but i had not met him yesterday, so had no idea what to expect. there were a bunch of other regulars for a total of about 15 riders. brett was out for a change and i asked him how he got a leave pass. he said that jerry had left a message to his wife saying that he’d had a hard week so should be allowed out to play on sunday. she did not want to seem like and ogre so let him come and play. i think everyone is going to get jerry to leave some messages now.

the route today would be a looping affair with a trip up welshpool before climbing the harder side of the observatory, up mundaring weir rd to kalamunda, before heading down the zig-zag and back up kalamunda rd for coffee. that was the plan, anyway.

as we headed out, brendan remarked to me that he was so buggered after the race yesterday that he didn’t even bother to change his race wheels. he was on his tubular shod zipps and did not have any spares. if he got a flat today, he would have to ring the missus to come and pick him up. as we came along mill pt rd there was quite a bit of glass and brendan managed to collect a bit of it. he ran his gloves over the tyres and tried to shed as much as he could. we were hopeful he got it all. we picked up mike b as we headed out, so at least i knew who would be pushing on the climbs.

as we came through east vic park and were about to cross shep rd via hill view, brendan felt his front tyre going down. he took off down shep rd to try to get home before the tyre completely flattened. we continued onto welshpool rd and towards the hills. before we got to the welshpool/orrong rd intersection, we picked up holly who lives very close by. she watched us warily as we rode past before joining us as she had already joined the wrong group once this morning.

as we approached the base of the welshpool climb i was still unsure on who would be setting the pace today. the young lad with sand-shoes, alistair, headed to the front and had mike on his wheel. the young lad kept looking back to see who was going to go with him and a group of us were sucking onto mike’s wheel. mike was definitely feeling better than last week and soon came around alistair to up the pace. i was trying to hold wheel but my legs just didn’t want to play. i indicated for the guys behind me to come around as i was losing the wheel, but no-one did. i looked back and there was no-one behind me. i maintained my rhythm and tried to see if the guys would tire and allow me back on. we were passing lots of triathlon chicks on the hill as there were a few groups taking advantage of the nice weather.

i pushed on, marveling at the fact that this young guy was smashing us with just sneakers and toe clips on. i would hate to see him if he got some proper shoes and pedals. or i probably wouldn’t see him as he would be too far up the road in front of me.

anyway, closer to the servo, jerry and mark caught up to me so we pushed on together. we did a few turns but it was clear that we would not catch the two up the road. funnily enough the old man, mike, had put quite a bit of distance into the young lad, alistair. quite a bit by the top of the hill. we regrouped and headed towards the base of the observatory via glenisla rd. bit of an issue with quite a few gum-nuts scatted on the road during the fast descent near the sanitarium school, but no crashes luckily.

mike turned off to head home via lawnbrook as he had a previous engagement to attend, so i was left to deal with al on my own. mark went out hard for the first part of the climb but mainly to get to the top of the steep section as quickly as possible and we had all caught up by the top. as the gradient eased off i was not willing to attack but wanted to see just what al would do. i was on the front pacing up the hill and was happily to do that for a while as i was not pushing hard. al finally made his move and came around me to up the pace. i jumped on his wheel and sat in for the ride. we gapped the others quickly and pulled away from the pack. i thought i would test his legs out and as he backed off the pace i came around to stretch him. he sat on my wheel for a while but i eventually pushed him so that he dropped off. he clamboured back on so i attacked again and this time when i looked back he was looking behind himself to see if he could find another wheel. the rest of the pack was down around the corner so he made the decision to try to get back on. i was hurting by now and so had backed off the pace. he thanked me for letting him back on, but i said that i didn’t really have a choice. we continued up the rest of the climb together and waited for the rest of the group.

we took the descent down the observatory at a nice pace, always wary of that corner at the bottom which also had some broken glass on it this time. it was like there had been the national bottle breaking contest on during the week as there was glass everywhere. once we hit the bottom, there was a call to stop as dr mark had broken something on his bike. it turned out that he had thought that he had dropped his phone so had to stop to check. during that time, brendan called up to find out where we were. he had changed wheels and climbed up welshpool rd and was on glenisla waiting. i told him the direction we would be heading so he would reverse that and meet us along the road.

we headed down glenisla again avoiding the gum-nuts and headed towards mundaring weir rd. i had asked that everyone stay together as i wasn’t sure everyone knew the way but we would regroup at kalamunda. mark took off once we turned towards kalamunda and brendan, al and i started to chase hime down. my legs said no and i eased off and watched them head up the road. by the time we hit the second corner there was a clear split with brendan and al ahead of jerry and mark with dr mark and myself trailing behind.

a couple of corners later and i decided that i needed to make an effort. i said bye to dr mark and started chasing down jerry and mark as i could still see them up the road. it took a while and i picked up jerry before the false flat and he jumped on my wheel as i headed towards mark. i picked him up just on the corner before the flat and came around him. i put it in the big ring and ground out a plus 40 pace to the next pinch in the climb. i signaled for them to come around and i was done for this climb.

a regroup in the carpark and we had lost stuart a friend of brendans. he went searching and gave him a call but came up empty. we were concerned that he had turned right instead of left and was now heading towards the weir. we tried, so not much more we could do. he was a big boy after all.

a brief discussion and all in favour of m
issing the final climb and heading to the coffee shop say i. “i” was the call, with my legs being the loudest voice as they were screaming. the race yesterday had not been kind to me.

during coffee, stuart rang brendan to say that he had turned up lawnbrook and had to head home anyway, so he was fine. we broke bread as is the tradition on a sunday and enjoyed a coffee in the nicer weather. i should have taken this time to take off my leg warmers, but as we were sitting in the shade, i wasn’t reminded too.

we headed off and down the hill through lesmurdie with little incident. a smidgen under 75 km/hr for me on the descent, but the time trial along the flat took a lot out of me and i had to ease off. clare had joined us at the coffee shop after missing the start and was on the descent with us now. as she and holly lived just off welshpool rd they turned off early and would miss any of the sprints.

there was a big acceleration along welshpool, but i was not able to go with it, so not sure what really happened. i was happy to be still riding. the final sprint along berwick saw brendan unintentionally leading out as he needed to turn off just after the last rise, but couldn’t get out due to traffic. he just shrugged it off and kept pushing the leadout. i was biding my time and waiting to see who would go and when. it was getting later and later but then jerry started his move so i came out to jump on his wheel. i cut brett off by doing so, but apologised afterwards for doing so. jerry wound up but i managed to come past him as we approached macdonalds. shame i had no reason to sprint yesterday.

so a good ride if not a tad abbreviated due to lack of legs on my behalf. sorry to anyone who wanted to do that last climb, but the option was still open to do it if you wanted. coffee seemed like a much better option at the time.