Twenty people showed up to celebrate Australia (aka Invasion) day with an SPR ride. Everyone seemed to find the alternative/secondary/secret meeting point up the road from the usual Coode St carpark without a problem. Committee members, Brendan and Lorraine were there to make sure we all behaved. Without a posted map on the blog, it was decided that we would make a counter clockwise loop of the river except no-one actually knew how to do this (translation: I thought we would be getting lost). Some people volunteered knowledge of certain sections of the vague route we had in our minds (“I know how to get to Shelley”, “I can get us to Point Walter” etc etc).
So we took off and it was an uneventful ride out to somewhere. I had vague memories of the Boxing Day ride where I learnt about a magical place called “Shelley” where the road was fast and curvy and the sun shines on your back through the dappled light of the leaves. I recognised the bike path near this place which we navigated without incident, keeping to the left and avoiding the array of walkers, other riders and a dog. When we reached the magical road, Brendan called that we would go fast along this section and that the regroup would be at the top of a hill.
The pace lifted and a small roll-through began. The speed was the fastest I’ve seen the SPR group go and we passed more than a couple of smaller groups (3-5 riders). By the end, Brendan was the only one fast enough to keep it there for that long and drove the pace to the finish. I don’t think anyone got dropped but we all stopped in the shade of a tree at the top of a small hill to catch our breath and drink some water.
We negotiated more bike path to find our route blocked at Point Walter for the Invasion day triathlon. We had suspected that this would happen and were waved right. Brendan led the way via a less scenic detour and managed to find some steep, short hills along the way for those of us who missed the Sunday ride. We managed to find our way to the Southbank foreshore in Freo and the pace picked up again. Once again, a well organised, safe but speedy train developed. Dan magically appeared at the finish of our little run by using some sort of shortcut. We turned left up the hill and over the bridge into North Freo and onto the coast road where I decided to test my legs out a bit and went to threshold. I found a willing partner beside me (sorry, I don’t know your name) and we pushed through from the North Freo lights to the south end of the Cottesloe strip. Mercifully, we heard Lorraine behind us say “Are you alright guys?”. “Yep, we’re fine.” About 40 milliseconds after this came out of my mouth, my legs had something to say and they said something like “Actually, we’ll pull off.” And that’s what they did. No one sprinted in Dalkeith so I didn’t get dropped. Cruising along Matilda Bay at ~27kph, Dan zoomed up the right, his bike clacking away. No chase ensued. In the distance we saw him cut the red light (naughty, naughty…). We stopped, waited for the lights and then got organised for a roll through. As we began to hear his drivetrain over the sound of the traffic, we slowed down a little to give him a 30m gap (yes, his bike was that loud) and left him out there a little longer. When we went past we dropped him thoroughly. Cheaters never win…
