Freeway Bike Hike

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by Jonny

Well luckily we all survived the carnage on Sunday and made it to Joondalup unhurt. Not sure if I will do it next year as it was a bit of fiasco at times. We got up at 4.30am as Lennie had arranged to meet Lisa at 5.15am outside QV1 in order to get the first train. I moaned all week as I am not a fan of early starts but I was warned the trains get very busy and if you are not there early you will not get on. At 5.50am the first train came but was packed to the rafters. We managed to squeeze Lisa on as she was doing the race but we decided to wait for the next one. We managed to get on this but again it was very busy. I think everyone had the clever idea of driving to Joondalup, parking there then getting the empty train south. When we got to Kwianna it must have only been about 4’C, definitely the coldest morning of the year so far and I was not too upset that we missed the first train. I also joined the biggest toilet queue ever; 10 toilets divided by 8000 doesn’t really work. Eventually we got to the back of A-group but when we started it was a long long way to the front and already it had split into many smaller groups. I played domestique and helped Lennie stay with the bunch. About 5km to the finish there was a big crash with about 20 bikes and bodies spread across the road. Lennie was also very close to ending up in another one and narrowly missed it. She was quite shaken up and just rode slowly to the finish after that. I got a bit carried away at the end and had a gap on the group we were with at the top of the off ramp – I managed to then hold off the chasing pack of about a hundred riders but boy did it hurt ! Before the last 5km things were going quite well and we did comment about how it was not as hectic as previous years. Five minutes later lennie had bodies flying in the air next to her ! Great to see many other South Perth Jerseys and congratulations to the SPR racers on there results. Next year….hrmmmh maybe not.

Freeway Bike Ride – any survivor stories

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Putting a call out to all SPR riders who braved the Freeway Bike Ride, just to check if you saw any of the carnage on the tarmac. Or at least to ensure you still have all your bits. I know of two major injuries, if you include the one on Inside Cover.

For journalistic integrity I’d love to even the ledger (not heath) with the Great Bike Ride’s safety emphasis.

Nick

sunday 22nd mar – welshpool & observatory & kalamunda

ride report by peter.

 

welcome to the last daylight savings sunday hills ride.  on my way to the carpark i missed a call from ryan.  it seems that he and jerry were both having trouble getting to the start today because the freeway was closed for some damn bike ride.  those inconsiderate bastards, taking up our roads.  as we sat around for a while waiting for them to arrive, stu realised how cold it was and took off home to grab his vest.  i knew that we had a couple of people waiting for us on the way and didn’t want to delay the start too much.  jerry and ryan fronted up so we took off sans stu.  he had the bike setup as a time trial bike, so i was sure that he could catch up.

we headed towards orong rd, which is not a usual route for us, as it would take us straight to the welshpool rd climb.  there were about 20 riders all up with a couple of new faces.  a young guy named sam was looking for a sunday ride so bella and sam (girl) had invited him along.  he had a talent identification jersey on so it would be interesting to see how he went today. 

we lucked out as we turned onto orong rd as a group of 4 guys managed to turn in front of us.  they all had local team jerseys on and looked like they could be “a” graders so we caught up to them and let them draft us all the way along to the climb.  on the way we picked up mark and sharon who were waiting on the flats before the climb started.  stu had rang up to see where we were but had still not caught up to us yet.  it looked like he would miss out on the fun.

the hill started and our 4 escorts were not in a fighting mood, so we had to go around.  i am always wary of passing a rider who you don’t know as they could come and smash you later on the hill.  these guys didn’t seem too worried though.  as the memory fades from a long week at work, i cannot remember exactly who did what, but i got to the front at one stage to set the pace.  i wanted to see how the young bloke went and the answer is – very well. 

it all became too much for me and i fell off the pace allowing ryan, sam, mike and a couple of others to head up the road.  i think that mat was in the group too, but eventually fell back from the pace.  by the time we reached the lesmurdie rd intersection the three front guys had a decent gap on mat, lindsay and myself, who were chasing hard. 

chasing mountain goats in mountain country is never going to work and i was sure that we weren’t going to catch them.  i started to concentrate on the other 2 as we were still in the points and i wanted to maximise mine.  another attack a bit later on was too much for mat and this left lindsay and i to fight it out for 4th and 5th.  local knowledge goes a long way and i managed to jump at the right time to stay ahead of lindsay for the points.

ryan was too much for sam and mike and they finished in that order.

ryan – 10, sam – 7, mike -5, peter – 3, lindsay – 1.

 

i got to the top and found that i had a text message from sharon.  she said not to wait for her as she would find her own way to coffee.  not a chance.  if she had enough energy to write a text, she was not trying hard enough.  we waited to make sure she did the next hill.

 

i am running a week behind, so i will fast track the rest of this blog.

 

observatory climb i got blown out and sat up to make sure everyone got the turn right.

ryan – 10, sam – 7, stu – 5, mike – 3, lindsay – 1.

 

rolled back around and did the mundaring weir rd climb to kalamunda.  it wasn’t the last climbs so i was looking for some pb’s on the hill climb times.  it didn’t disappoint.

ryan – 10, stu – 7, sam – 5, lindsay – 3, peter – 1.

stu 7:29, ryan 7:31, sam 7:36, lindsay 7:51, peter 7:52, mike 7:58, jerry 8:12, mark 8:31, julian 8:34, dan 9:03, paul o 9:22.

 

down the zig zag and back up kalamunda rd.  a few went straight to coffee and the girls went down kalamunda and back up again.

ryan – 10, sam – 7, stu – 5, mike – 3, peter – 1.

 

it’s been a busy week so sorry for the delay.  not really used to this whole work thing after so long on holidays.

saturday 21st mar – autumn breakfast

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ride report by peter

 

well a slightly busy evening as we needed to get the house ready for the onslaught of lycra that was to descend in the morning.  moving tables and chairs, finding an esky, um…actually that was about it as lorriane was doing everything else.  i went to move the cars out of the garage and found sharon waiting on the drive way.  pretty soon jerry and melvyn also rocked up so that they would not have to ride all the way home after a belly full of brownies.

img_4827officially the sun was not going to rise till 7:20am but what is known as “civil twilight” meant that it would be light at 6:56am.  lots of time to spare before the start of the ride.  being a breakfast ride, the course was going to be a bit shorter than normal.  however, since we had close to 70 riders on the line, we decided to split the group and try to make it more manageable.  we would all head down canning hwy towards freo before the fast group would swing off to attadale while the main group would continue on to stock rd.  after stock they would head back along south st and up banister.  eventually jump onto albany hwy before heading to my place via manning rd.  the fast group would take burke drive before heading up the stock rd hill behind the pt walter golf course.  we would then chase the main group down and then add extra kms once they turned off onto banister.  i envisaged that we would catch the main group on the early parts of south st and would need to split again at banister. 

we got away to a fairly standard start with the group split a few times at the lights.  the pace was pretty sedate and everyone was just chatting away and cruising along.  once we hit north lake rd, the fast group needed to get into the right lane to do a turn while the main group was headed straight.  as the two groups were intermingled amongst each other, this got pretty messy and traffic would have been confused (pissed off) that the bike were now taking up both lanes.  we eventually got it sorted and headed off on our respective ways. 

a slight easing of the pace allowed the pack back together as the  fast group headed along burke drive.  it is amazing the number of other riders that use that stretch of road as we must have passed 6-7 groups heading the other way.  we rolled through till stock road and tackled the hill.  as usual, it split the group up lots, but by the time we reached the top, the pace slowed significantly and allowed everyone back on before we crossed canning hwy. 

we tried to roll through again, but lights, hills and traffic made it hard to find a consistent pace although it was anything but sedate.  we soon reached south st and i was surprised that we had not even caught a glimpse of the main group.  i thought that we may have seen them cresting the first hill on south street, but they were not to be seen.  either, they had to stop on canning for an incident, or whoever was running that group was doing an excellent job.  i was hoping for the latter.

img_4832we continued to roll through and the traffic was now not an issue as the road was three lanes wide.  the hills made life difficult for some and the roll through continued with just the front half of the pack.  as we continued along south st i was beginning to worry that something had happened to the main group.  we eventually caught sight of a couple of lonesome riders that had fallen off the back so we knew we were on the right track. 

as the day was progressing, i made the decision not to take the fast group along the second split point and rather, if caught them, just do banister rd with the main group instead.  at the multiple lights around roe hwy, we finally caught up to the main group.  i shouted some instructions so that the fast group can safely get passed the main group and heard a “no worries” from beside me.  i look across to the small truck that was in the next lane and there is this big grin from the guy in the passenger seat.  i tell him he can drive in front of us as he would make a good draft.  “then slam on the brakes” he exclaims.  a bit nasty, but it was all a bit of fun.

we took off at the lights and like a well oiled machine, the main group merged into a single file on the left, while the fast group became the single file on the right.  as right overtook left, the roll through upped the pace to allow the fast group to start to break away.  unfortunately the lights allowed everyone to merge back together and this fact may have made it hard for some of the riders at the back.

the usual suspects forced the pace along the rest of banister and the combination of roll throughs and attacks kept the pace high.  a final push by ryan and a few others blew things apart once nicholson rd was in sight, but the group was still quite substantial by then.  i jumped to the front and rode with michael for a bit to set a slow even pace.  i then pulled over to the side to make sure that we had everyone. there were a few struggling groups, but people like mike and nev were leading them back to the main group as quick as they could.  once we hit albany hwy, there were only a handful off the back and we caught up at the next light change.

i made my way to the front to find that dan and jules had taken off and lisa had chased them down.  they were somewhere up the road and the comment was made that we hoped they knew where to turn.  too bad so sad if they didn’t want to play with the group.  there was a split at the lights again and i waited for that group so they knew where to turn.  the lights at leech allowed a complete regroup and we gently cruised along manning road.  at some stage we saw a couple of bikes milling around an intersection looking quite lost.  it was out trio of escapees and i am guessing that they were not sure whether they should have turned or not.

i allowed one more sprint once we turned past curtain uni and half the group took advantage of it.  some others, like myself, were content to sit in and take the last few k’s into home easy.

yes, my garage always looks like this
yes, my garage always looks like this

there was a lot of milling around at the front of the house as some people were not staying for the breakfast and were having a quick chat.  a couple had arrived early but lorraine, mel, jody and kate pretty much had everything under control.  ben was there to greet everyone with his spr t-shirt on and pretty soon the garage was full of bikes and the house was full of lycra.  the girls had outdone themselves again and there was plenty of food and coffee/hot choc for all.

the raffle was drawn by ben who kept the crowd entertained with his smashing of one of the chocolate prizes.  he also kept everyone on their toes by announcing the winning raffle ticket number – “nummer for” um no ben, that’s number 21.  i feel sorry for the person that had ticket number 4 as he announced it for more than half the draws. 

we signed up a couple more members for the club and jody will let us know when the online facility is available.  the bike weigh in presented some interesting results and i saw my bike slip further down the leaderboard as more weighed in at the low 7kg mark.  brendan topped the day with his bh weighing in at 6.72kg with tubulars on.  this toppled mike t’s uci legal 6.80kg with his tubular zipps but neither came close to darren’s uber light bike.

all up a very successful breakfast.  our next social event will be the family day to celebrate our 1 year anniversary of forming spr.  there are a couple of races in between that i hope we can get a good turn out to and show off our spr colours.  especially as we are now an official club.

ride routes 21st & 22nd mar (spr autumn breakfast)

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this saturday will be the fourth spr breakfast since we formed last may.  it’s the third one at my place, which will be a disappointment to some, after having the last one at jerry’s in city beach.  the ride will be fairly sedate but looking at the route, we may split and reform a few times just to let the fast boys stretch their legs.  breakfast and coffee will be supplied by lorriane and will cost $10 which includes entry into the raffle.  if you are fairly new to spr, don’t worry, this is a good opportunity to get to know the others in the group.  afterwards there will be a bike weigh-in, but i don’t think that anyone will get close to darren’s bike as it just checked in at 5.78kg.  a few home-made carbon fibre parts helped out there, but i will report on that later. 

anyway, breakfast.  be there.

sunday will see a few spr riders tackle the fun (insanity) that is the freeway bikehike.  for those of you that have experienced it before and want a more relaxed ride, then we have a pleasant day in the hills planned.  four climbs with a exit for an early coffee for some and the chance for a good hill time as it is not the last climb this time.

south perth rouleurs saturday breakfast ride

south perth rouleurs sunday ride 06 (welshpool & observatory & kalamunda rd)

 

UPDATE

if you are after a licence or need to renew your old one, jody from cycling wa will be bringing the eftpos machine so that you can use your credit card to pay.  i have all the forms that we need to fill out, and will just need $20 cash for your club fees.

SPR BREAKFAST – 21/03/2009

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 Don’t Forget the first SPR Breakfast for 2009 at Pete’s place.    The state famous Lozza Brownies may just be making a guest appearance so if you could let me know if you will be attending that would be great :

lwood@claytonutz.com alternatively if you post a comment letting me know if you want to attend that is also great.

Thanks Lisa 😉

City of Perth Triathlon (National Titles)

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Race Report by Rob

So, another early morning start to get to transition on time and get prepared. With the bikes all racked and ready the night before, the morning ritual involved setting out shoes and runners as well as give the tyres their last little bit of PSI treatment ready for a scorching 40 (k’s not degrees celcius like last year!).

The organisers in their wisdom had decided on a couple of changes to the routine. The first was to hold the “compulsory” race briefing at 6:45pm the night before – yeah right – been to enough of those, we’ll be right thanks – rather be home undertaking my hydration strategy of 2 beers and a glass of red thanks! The benefit of a “home” game I say! The second change was the wave start times – 10 minutes to separate each wave. No big deal? Try being the 2nd last wave of about 20 – we all had to be out of transition at 6:45am and the 35-39 wave goes at 9:02am. Brilliant! Rationale for the change was that it was such a draft fest last year (oh, did I mention that drafting [for SPR that =’s “grabbing wheels for a rest”] is illegal!…but more on that later….) the organisers decided to break it up sufficiently that there wouldn’t be any such problems this year….as I say, more on that later….!

The time spent waiting around for our start was actually not too bad – had the chance to catch up with a few of the others – Hunter and his brother Dean + partners were down there and Paul and I even managed to do a bit of a recruitment drive for SPR when we found out that Freo Bike Force is changing their group ride around and there are people out their sniffing around for a quality ride to relocate to – is there any better in Perth???

Anyway – on with the race…

The swim was declared non-wetsuit, meaning the water was above 24 degrees. Does the number 24.1 mean anything to you??! Yep – you read it right – 24.1….not 23.9 (meaning we could wear ‘em if we had ‘em)….24.1. When Paul, me and Dean finally took the plunge into the o’ so special Swan for our start, it was the coldest 24.1 we’d ever felt! No bragging rights for the boys after a swim in this!!

9:02 am and we’re off. Not a bad first 50m as the washing machine of 98 other blokes around you gets travelling and then it really kicks in – literally. I got kicked in the chest and then for good measure took a forearm to the back of the head. My right goggle filled up with water and I swallowed what I estimated to be a good 500ml’s of the Swan. Tasty. No need to worry about popping those salt tablets now!! So, a 1500m swim with a sore chest and one half of my vision cut was going to be just dandy! Trying to sight the first boy and then get a rythym going was certainly a challenge and really makes you question “Why am I doing this again??”Anyway, I think you get the picture – the swim in a tri is never really ‘fun’ – it’s just a part of the race you have to do and it tends to be “kick or be kicked” if you want to survive – especially in the National Titles when you’re out there with all the “big boys”!

Rounding the final bouy to get to the stairs on the way out was certainly a relief and I was pleased to see that upon exiting, I’d managed to swim in 26 minutes – 30 seconds off last year’s time – not bad on the back of no swim training for the last 3 weeks. Heading into transition, I grabbed the race belt and shoes, threw them on and went for my sunnies which were sitting face up in my helmet waiting for quick donning. “MMMM…what’s that on the lens? – Oh, yeh…that’d be bird shit!” Love triathlon. Oh well, on they go – hope there isn’t a big wad in the lid of my helmet too!! It was now that there was a pattern forming – vision through one eye for the swim; vision through one eye (the same one too) for the bike; what may the run hold for me??

Out onto the ride course and I’m off. Would be good to not have massive cramps setting in to my hip felxors right about now!! As soon as I got down on the TT bars they just screamed at me and forced me back up into the more upright position. Great. Where did this come from?? If it keeps up for the whole ride it won’t be pleasant. I then spent the first trip out (5ks) trying to stretch my flexors, take in some much needed water to wash the Swan down with, and get my heart rate under control. Love triathlon!

Well, I finally got the flexors soughted and settled into a nice rythym on the way back. It was as I was coming to end of the first lap that I looked at my speedo and it tells me 8.3kms. Then I start to wonder – “Are we doing 4 or 5 laps?” – It’s supposed to be 40kms – now I’m worried. What was that smug comment about “Race briefings???”!!! I ride up next to one of the other guys and yell to him “Are we doing 4 or 5??” – He looks at me like I’m mad (or an idiot – not too sure really)….”4” he says. OK. Good….got that sorted. But still the doubt lingers. As I round the bottom turn for a 2nd time, a TO on the motorbike is behind so I wave them up beside me and ask the same question. Same facial expression as the other bloke…funny that! But the same answer too. Good. Got that sorted – don’t do 5 laps; get speedo re-calibrated!

I’d like to say that the rest of the ride was uneventful, but what kind of story would that be?? Last lap; last leg; 3k’s from the end. Had overtaken 10 or so in my category – feeling really happy with an average of 38km/h and HR of 158. Then 2 blokes in the 40-45 category who are taking turns SPR style (highly illegal) overtake me but then just drop in on my front wheel and sit there. Now, the “rules” are, if you get overtaken, you have 5 seconds to drop back the requisite 7m. Trouble is, to do that, you have to sit up, brake and lose whatever rythym you may have had. At the same time, anyone who has been cruising along behind you rolls up and overtakes too – then you have to drop back from them as well! So, needless to say, at this point in the bike, I thought “Bugger That” and just sat there.

“Competitor 850. I’ve just issued you a yellow card for drafting. You must report to the penalty box for 3 minutes once you have finished your ride.”

You are !$*%*ing kidding ME!! For the love of &*%#$ that can NOT BE RIGHT you son of &$@% and your &^%#$ can go and &^#$……or words to that effect…..and as for you two cheats up there in front of me….if I catch you on the run I’ll be having words!!

3 minutes in the “bin” is not good for the head, especially when you see 7 other competitors in your category run past you into transition and heading out onto the run course in YOUR PLACE!! Grrrr. And to top it off, the TO who was timing my “binning” had a sense of humour! Great.

Anyway, time served and I bolt into transition and out onto the run. My mind was no longer with me though, so it was at this point that I just had to suck it up and pull out a ‘respectable’ 10k to make sure I at least put in a PB. It wasn’t a bad first 2, but, like with the OZ Day event, the stitch monster paid a visit and hung around until the 5th km. Love tirathlon. The rest of the run was uneventful – saw Paul out there and he seemed to be enjoying himself a heck of a lot more than he did last year (read: “His tounge wasn’t hanging out and didn’t have a ‘I’m suffering like a kicked dog in the street’ look all over his face!).

Rounding the last turn to finish off was a relief with everything that had happened through the course of the race and I was happy to get across the line in 2:17 – 3 minutes better than last year and that includes 3 mins in the bin. Paul put in an impressive turn at 2:27 – nearly 20 minutes better than last year – so a huge improvement. Hunter nailed it with a final 2:04 and brother Dean rolling across in 2:24. All in all, pretty good results for SPR!

Bring on Busso ½!

sunday 15th mar – kahuna & peet & observatory

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ride report by peter.

 

the predicted top of 38 degrees seemed a long, long way off when i reached the carpark this morning.  a dark overcast day blocked what little light we see before 7am but the temperature did not seem too bad.  a decent field of about 20 odd people with nothing better to do turned up to endure some pain.  with a couple of new faces, some old returning ones and also some prettier ones as we had four girls at the start line.  some regulars like davina and lisa as well as bella and sam.  bella used to ride with the group on saturday years ago.  it was always funny to see a 15 yr old girl beating half the guys in the final sprint along mounts bay road.

the course today was a pretty basic one with a couple of climbs up to rollystone and then the observatory and the final push up to kalamunda.  there were 4 climbs with points today and we would continue the timed climb up mundaring weir road to see how everyone was going.

as we left the carpark, ryan was still getting his bike out of the car.  i told him where we were headed so he could catch up later.  the ride out to albany hwy was easy enough and soon we came across a rider waiting on the side of the road.  it was ryan.  he had taken the “old school” way along berwick rd and out near diesel motors to make it onto albany hwy.  he was quick enough to have to wait for us as we turned off manning rd.  as we progressed along towards maddington, i noticed that mike was not in the group.  i was sure i saw him there at the start, but i was on the front as we rolled out and never saw him again.  i talked to ryan and we were worried that he had slowed down to help ryan, but was left waiting as ryan took a different route.  he is a big boy so we were sure he would have worked it out for himself.

the trip to the base of the kahuna was pretty uneventful until we went to cross the tonkin hwy.  as usual for the mornings, the wind was pouring off the escarpment and straight into our faces.  i was sure it was going to push us backward as the group seemed to be at a standstill.  we eventually got everyone across the road and started the climb.

i was pretty happy to just sit in and see what happens, but some other wanted to assert themselves today.  one of our new guys, ian, took off but i was reluctant to chase as i didn’t know how well he climbed.  jerry took off soon afterwards with a case of “new bike syndrome” and he steered his prince to the front.  i knew i couldn’t let him get too far so jumped across to his wheel.  we set a tempo pace and quite a few riders fell into line behind us.  ryan eventually took off but no-one had the legs to go with so he scampered up the road.  i went around jerry to set my own pace and sat their for a while before julian came around me.  i was a bit taken aback.  he has been improving lately but he is now climbing quite nicely and pretty soon i couldn’t hold his wheel.

in the midsection of the hill there was a bit of yo-yoing with alistar and lindsay before i put in a bit more of an effort to shake them.  as the hill progressed, i made my way back onto julian’s wheel at about the koala park entrance.  julian rode beside me and asked how far to go from here,  quite a bit more i told him.  it was probably close to about a kilometre, but it did flatten out a bit.  i rode tempo for a while to recover and to see whether julian was hurting at all.  we had lost sight of ryan by now as the small twists and turns around the top hide the finish line.  i knew just how far to go so put in a few surges to drop julian for good.  a bit of riding scared kept me away from him until the line.  alistar and lindsay filled the remaining places, while davina out sprinted jerry for sixth place.

ryan – 10, peter – 7, julian – 5, alistar – 3, lindsay – 1.

 

there was a rebellion at the regroup point and a small bunch took off for an early coffee.  amongst the group was jerry, who must have been upset that davina beat him and his mega-dollar pinarello princess.  the rest of us continued towards rollystone.

a nice descent to start had the girls showing how to take a hill as bella and sam flew past me in pursuit of davina.  i was more worried about the climb and waited until ryan came past on the uphill out of the dip before i made an effort.  a bunch of us rode the first stretch up to peet rd together and to where the hill starts to really hurt.  not far into it, ryan surged and found a easy gap.  no-one had the legs to go with him, but the change in pace pretty much split the field apart.  i ended up riding with lindsay for the majority of the hill, but still tried to shake him with a few changes of pace.  realising that i couldn’t shake him, we continued to the top but saw that ryan was probably too far ahead to catch now.  i looked back and saw julian and davina cresting the hill behind us and making ground fast.  by the time we reached the final straight, there were four of us all vying for the remaining points.  i was on the front and no-one was willing to come around.  i knew how this worked, but i also knew the finish and just what was needed.  however, davina has won a couple of races on this circuit, so i knew that i had to watch if she made a move as well.  i stayed on the front, but didn’t do any real hard effort to push the pace.  ryan was too far ahead to chase down and there was no-one behind that would catch us.  i had my point on the road that i knew that i could sprint from, but it would all come down to whether the others made a move.  i finally went and went hard enough that the others didn’t follow and were content to fight it our for third.  it came down to a sprint between davina and lindsay, with the latter getting it by less than half a wheel.

ryan – 10, peter – 7, lindsay – 5, davina – 3, julian – 1.

 

we regrouped and chugged along to karragullen for some refreshments before continuing to pickering brook.  a change in the standard route had us entering the observatory climb via repatriation rd. it really just added some variety to the ride and a small hill to negotiate as well. 

the group bunched up well at the start of the climb with john and myself on the front.  the tempo wasn’t too high and people were able to sit in for quite a while.  we made sure that ryan was boxed in behind john on the kerb side so that he couldn’t attack too early.  it was all fun and games until john started to fade and the group split apart a bit.  this allowed ryan a bit of free space, so i thought that i would initiate the move and chucked it up a couple of gears.  a big attack allowed me to get a big gap, but i was running out of steam and ryan was bridging across.  i had to drop back to a tempo ride before i totally popped and everyone past me so eased off a bit.  ryan came up to me and sat on my wheel content to leave it to the end.  i looked back to see who was coming and a small group with julian, lindsay and davina were going to catch us.  i just kept plugging away waiting till the next attack came.  there were the five of us altogether on the false flat before the final pinch when ryan took off.  i sprinted after him only to find myself in serious oxygen debt and fading fast.  julian and lindsay came past to fight it out for second while davina also dropped me to claim fourth.  in my case it was too much with too little in reserve.

ryan – 10, julian – 7, lindsay – 5, davina – 3, peter – 1.

 

the final climb of the day approached and i explained about the timed hill climb.  where the start and finish were as well as what the current record was.  as the time depended on when you crossed the start line, the mountain points placing were not a good indication of the timing.  especially when half the group had to give way to a 4wd as we went to turn onto mundaring weir rd.  ryan and i started the climb together and i was determined to get a better time than last week.  i set a tempo that i thought i could hold for the entire climb and started to pick up those that managed to get in front of the car.  ryan decided that even though it was a nice tempo, he could do a faster one and took off up the road.  when i came past a small group, davina, alistar and julian jumped on behind me to get a tow for a while.

i continued at my pace and kept looking back to see if there was still a wheel behind me.  for the majority of the bottom part of the climb the three of them sat in but pretty soon only davina was holding on.  after that brick wall that signifies not too far to the flat section, i looked down to see no wheel at all behind me.  i continued along but was cognisant of the fact that i was starting to run out of reserves.  i hit the flattish section in the big ring, but by then alistar and davina had battled their way back to be with me.  alistar set the pace but i soon took over as i still wanted a good time.  we hit the last pinch and i tried to keep the pace high, but was soon forced into the small ring.  knowing that i would be jumped before the line, i ploughed on ahead until they both sprinted for the speed sign and finish line.  it was close, but davina managed to take alistar on the line by about half a wheel.  i struggled on watching my time tick further past my pb until i crossed the line.  julian brought it in for fifth.

ryan – 10, davina – 7, alistar – 5, peter – 3, julian – 1.

 

we turned up to coffee just as jerry and the  “princess” group was leaving so we secured their table.  i was feeling like crap after such a sustained effort but managed to down most of my chocolate croissant.  it was good to see the girls riding so well with davina fighting for the points and lisa climbing so well lately.  they both have the same coach, so he must be doing something right.

the ride home was quite uneventful with some fast descents on welshpool adding to the fun.  a couple of breakaways on the sprint to the first maccas saw ryan and alistar take off with lisa having enough energy to try to chase them down as well. 

the expected high temperature did not affect the ride as it didn’t peak till almost 5pm making our part of the day quite pleasant.  with the freeway bikehike next weekend i expect that the sunday ride will be just as popular with those that have endured the chaos that is a few thousand weekend riders that all think they are a top pro sprinter.

saturday 14th mar – canning vale & welshpool

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ride report by peter.

 

after a day trip up to the pilbara yesterday which included 3hrs of flying and about 3hrs of driving and about 3hrs of meetings, i was keen to expend a bit of energy today.  i managed to get out early enough to be the second one to arrive at the carpark and sat around in the dark waiting for the nominated hour.  there was a chill in the air which belied the expected top of 33 today and a number of riders were wearing vests.  the dark and the cold made it seem more like winter than just leaving summer. 

i didn’t think the numbers were too large today but decided to still split the group anyway.  it has been a bit of a mess when we don’t so i think we may have seen the end of the one big group.  maybe next week for the breakfast, we might stick together and take it easy.  especially since it will be raining.

the common course took us out canning hwy down to risely and up past garden city shopping centre.  we made our way to south street and the group was generally taking it easy and getting a good conversation in.  a bit of a lane change mix up had us dodging a few cars near where we normally hang a left into banister, but all up not a bad start to the day.  as we approached the intersection of ranford and nicholson, people began to move into their respective groups.  this would be our split point and the main group would go left up past livingston marketplace shopping centre (home of livingston specsavers – for all your optical needs drop in and see sharon (i will invoice you for the advertising later sharon)), while the fast group would go straight.  hopefully someone will enlighten us to the adventures of the main group for that was the last we saw of them for the day.

as soon as we headed through the lights i knew we were in trouble.  there wasn’t much wind when i was tucked in the back of the pack during the ride out there.  now we seemed to be riding straight into it.  i got the roll through happening and got to have a look at who was riding with us today.  most of the usual suspects but some others that were giving it a crack today. 

we turned up warton rd and immediately got hammered by the fierce cross-wind.  we continued to roll through but i felt we were doing it the wrong way as the wind was on the fast side of the line.  however, in a non-race situation, rolling the other way while trying to keep out of traffic can be hard as the group seems to migrate across the lane.  thankfully for some of the riders, there were enough sets of lights to allow a regroup along the way.  we continued on and the wind seemed relentless.  after we passed albany hwy the distance started to take it’s toll and the group really splintered into little survival packs.  i had only one or two riders around me and we were trying to bridge across to a pack of four containing judd, jerry, davina and james.  the rest of us continued were just trying to keep them in sight, but big judd and his diesel engine just seemed to power through the wind.  i really have no idea who was riding around me at this time as i was sending all my blood to the legs rather the head and was just trying to survive.

judd in full time trial mode
judd in full time trial mode

as we hit tonkin hwy the lights allowed us to catch the front group which had now shed james who was back training after his fall in renae’s race.  as the lights turned green, everyone did a “ryan” and seemed to have trouble clipping in as they didn’t want to go to the front.  this allowed judd to take off and gain a big gap.  davina tried to chase him down but he is a big strong boy and was setting a nice pace.  the rest of us caught up and jerry and myself came around to help out at the front.  even though there were at least three of us doing turns at the front, we just couldn’t put a dent into the gap judd had over us.

the pain finally ended when we turned onto crystal brook rd and gained the full advantage of the tailwind.  quite a few of the group had caught up back at the lights and we now had a fairly solid group to chase judd down.  we were pushing 60km/hr along crystal brook and onto welshpool, but unfortunately for us, judd was going just as fast.  he managed to get the lights as we crossed back over tonkin and that was the very last we saw of him.

with our bigger group we tried to start to roll through again, but it just didn’t seem to work.  everyone wanted to go faster than the last person and this meant that the pace just went up and up until the group started to splinter.  we also tried to single file and pull off the front when you were done, but this also proved fruitless and we just seemed to go back to a couple on the front and a little bit of roll through when we could.

the rail lights were flashing along welshpool and we slowed to get behind the traffic.  suddenly a ute in the right hand lane put his indicator on as he wanted to turn left after the rail crossing.  he just started to push his way into the line of bikes.  jerry banged on his window and asked what he was doing.  he pointed that he wanted to turn and so therefore that was excuse enough in his mind to try to cut us off.  as the traffic got going again, a few choice words and some single finger waving from both parties had us happily on our way again. 

we turned onto shepperton road and made our final approach into town.  the rolling hills always provide a springboard for attacks but not today as the group pretty much stayed together.  the main split came at the lights before the causeway as some of the group ducked into the bus lane to get ahead of the traffic while the rest stayed behind the traffic.  as far as our group riding etiquette is concerned, we really shouldn’t run up the side of traffic at the lights when we have such a big group as the cars just have to try to get past us again.  in this case, the risk was that if there was a bus coming the lights would not have let you go, but you would have cut the bus off.  anyway, the lights changed and i was in the group behind and didn’t make it through the next set.  we watched the front group head across the causeway and out of sight while we just made our own way to the coffeeshop.

not really sure what happened as when we got there, most of the main group had already gone.  it was rally busy as there were triathletes everywhere for the national series tri that was in perth the next day.  some of our group headed around to south perth for a brew and others endured the long wait for theirs.

ride routes 14th & 15th mar

a new route for today and one where both groups go exploring.  we will split again, and you will notice that i have put both maps on the same page.  this is so you can easily see the differences between the two routes and what potential shortcut’s may get you from the fast group back to the comfort of the main group.  with about 8kms difference, but only 25kms to make it up, i doubt there will be a catch, but it is really more about allowing the fast group to stretch their legs.  both groups need to take careful note of some of the roads that you will need to take as there are some changes from the norm.

sunday will take a nice tour around the hills in the predicted 37 deg sunshine.  make sure you have lots of water and food, but the route passes by the karragullen servo, so at least bring money.  as mentioned previously, we have started a hill climb page, so make sure you check out the start and finish lines on the page so you know where to time from.  as you can draft off each other, form an alliance with another rider of similar ability and work together to get a good time.  you very rarely race on your own, so this will be good race day experience and allows those that are not always in the mountain points an opportunity to see how they are going.

south perth rouleurs saturday ride 18 (canning vale & welshpool)

south perth rouleurs sunday ride 03 (kahuna & peet & patterson)

The website for the South Perth Cycle Club