saturday 16th august – collie-donnybrook

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race report by peter

the collie-donnybrook is another of those races that always sits high in the calendar of the perth race community. i think the main reason is similar to the menzies-kalgoorlie race – money. when the first prize for a race is counted in the thousands of dollars rather than the hundreds and there is a chance that anyone from a, b, c or d grade can win it, people all think that that have a shot at it. hence the 103 entrants to this event.

as the name suggests, this race heads from collie to donnybrook. however, as the name doesn’t suggest, it then returns the way it came for a total of 104kms. the reason this race is open to anyone to win is that it is a handicap race. a bit different to menzies where it was a graded handicap (i.e. a, b, c & d all set off at different times) this was a more spread field. basically you just entered and the handicapper looked at your previous results and gave you as much a headstart as he thought you needed. this varied from olympic track gold medalist peter dawson starting from scratch (no headstart) through to some of the girls getting a 33 min headstart. all up there were 13 starting groups

we didn’t know what group we would be in until we signed in and it is always a point of contention as to where people are placed. ryan was an unknown last year and was given a 25min handicap. that group went on to win the overall, but a flat tyre cost ryan any chance of victory. after his string of second place results this season there is no way that he would get that advantage again.

so after the menzies experience, i was still a bit dubious of doing a handicap event. but, as most things this season, it has been a learning experience and i thought i would have a crack at it just for the experience. the one thing i did learn at menzies is how easy it was for me to dehydrate and what a dramatic effect that it could have on my race. just like the pinjarra race, i started drinking the day before to make sure i was hydrated. with the race being on a saturday, i didn’t have the usual saturday afternoon to check over the bike to make sure it was all ticking along. i had stripped it down for the pinjarra race two weeks earlier, and was hoping it would still be fine. the race also started at 12:30 which is very unlike most other races i had done. this meant that i didn’t have to get up too early for the 2 ¼ hour trip down south, but meant that i would be late home even if i left straight away. but i am getting ahead of myself again.

ryan and stu had been convinced to enter this event with me, as the rest of the race crew were washing their blouses… again. the weather report said “bloody beautiful mate” as it was going to be a very pleasant 20 degrees but there would be a slight headwind home. i set off fairly early as i wanted to get a good park and set up the trainer to warm-up on. after leaving the servo i noticed that my speedo in the car read 66,666. was this a good omen as it is one of those speedo multiples that you secretly celebrate, or a bad omen as it seems like a multiple of the beast. only time would tell. i made better time than expected and turned up almost 2 hours before race time. that was even with at least two unscheduled stops for a nature break. between this and the pinjarra race, i think i have marked my territory along most of the south west highway.

so, i signed in and had a look at the start list for my handicap. 14 mins. not particularly good for me as i knew these groups would be overhauled by the a graders following behind. ryan was off 12 mins and brendan was going from 10 min. i scanned the field for stu’s name and was slightly confused. there was a stuart in the group with ryan, but not the right surname (similar though, so i thought they had stuffed up). but then i saw it way down in the 24 min handicap. here is a guy that finished exactly the same time as me in the pinjarra race, and he has a 10 min head start on me. he even had a couple of minutes on some of the female riders. no idea how that happened, but he needed to take advantage of the situation and try to get a win.

i had a bit of a wander around some shops in collie as i had already finished one water bottle and also needed some panadol to ease the persistent headache i woke up with. soon, however, it was getting close enough to think about a warm-up so i dug out the trainer and got kitted up. between getting up and starting the race a total of 6 toilet stops meant that i should have been pretty well hydrated. i would now need something else to blame if my race went balls up.

ever on time (not) ryan turned up with just enough time to roll up the street and back as a warm-up. i was already getting ready to line up and this guy was asking if we were in the 14 min group. i was, so he introduced himself (can’t remember now) and said how he wanted to work the group. we only had five riders off 14 min as one hadn’t turned up so i was a bit dubious of wanting to work too hard. ryan and i were looking at this guys bike. cervelo slc-sl with a lightweight rear wheel and zero-g brakes. we were sure it was well and truly under the uci weight limit so i will refer to this guy as weight-weenie. next thing we know we were off.

the pace was not too hard, but we were definitely pushing it. as we hit the rolling hills out of collie there were signs of struggling in the group. at about the 5km mark we lost our first rider. big tall guy with a grey farm frites jersey on who would feature later in my race. we will call him farm-guy. i should really learn some of these guys names as i have seen this guy in many races this year.

after the 10 km mark we had lost our second rider and were now down to three. i was trying to work out weight-weenies strategy as we still had over 90 kms to go and i was sure that i would not be holding this pace. by 15 kms we caught the 16 min group and picked up three riders as we blasted past. it was all “downhill” from here to donnybrook but we had a crosswind as soon as we turned the corner. this made the roll through difficult.

we continued smashing it along the road and any debris from the earlier groups we came across could not jump on board. weight-weenie even said to us that we should smash past them to make it hard for them to get on our wheel. i didn’t understand this as the more we had the faster we could go. as we kept pushing hard we managed to drop couple more from our little group. at one stage we had only four riders and weight-weenie kept pushing on. i didn’t want to seem like i was holding up the group, so i kept working as best i could, but was really starting to feel the effects of the pace. we picked up another group and this time a couple of guys managed to jump on. about 5 kms from donnybrook, there was a small rise that i got gapped on. i didn’t bother chasing and sat up to recover.

after doing so much work, i was so buggered that i was sure that my race was over. i dreaded the plus 50 km ride home by myself and was kicking myself for the decision to even racing another handicap. i just hated the pace from the s
tart. it was over 100 km of racing and why the hell did weight-weenie think that we would not get caught.

i cruised along the road and looked back to see when i would get caught. there was no-one there for a while so i tried to take advantage of it and get some fluids and food down. next thing i know i see quite a big group coming around the corner. it looked to be at least 15 or so riders and i could see ryan’s spr jersey flash to the front occasionally. as they approached i got up and sprinted to make sure i didn’t get left behind. it was clear the ryan’s 12 min group had been caught my brendan’s 10 min group and they had picked up almost all the rider debris that litter the road in between.

i jumped into the group and realised that it had already split into the have’s and have not’s. there were a group of riders that were still rolling through and working and a group that was just sitting on. i moved to the back to become another passenger. we past stu and his group coming back from donnybrook and it looked like they had quite a strong group working hard together. their gap was quite good too, so i thought that there was a chance that they would not get caught.

as we came into donnybrook i was chatting to young ben who was in our small group of five that had to chase to get back on to the group at the last race in pinjarra. he was picked up when we caught the group at the 15 km mark, but had not held on but was picked up by this chase group. he mentioned that he had run out of water as his parents were meant to hand him another one along the way. i got him to open his bottle and i squirted some water of mine into his bottle. whether i would regret this later i would have to find out.

we turned at donnybrook and i was content to sit in for the rest of this race. as we came up the rise out of town, the scratch bunch was coming the other way. it was clear that pretty much the rest of the groups, from the 8 min down to scratch, were all together and pushing hard.

as we raced along the flats i noticed that farm-guy was in this group. he was talking it up a lot and barking orders to people, but not really doing anything. he would come up alongside the group and let us all know how far behind the scratch group was. like it mattered as he was not really doing anything to stop it from happening. i noticed that coffee-boy was also in this group as he started with brendan today. however, he was back with me and looked to be suffering a bit.

pretty soon the scratch group was upon us and they started to move past to get to the front. as the group was already quite big, the scratch men were moving up on the wrong side of the road. as the wind was coming across our left shoulders, it was continuing to push us to that side anyway. there were a few moments of mad scramble when the call of “car” rang out and the group had to merge back into the correct lane. the commasaire had insisted that people would be disqualified if they were caught crossing the centre line, but i didn’t expect anything to happen.

the pace increased and a few little surges made it difficult for me at the back as i couldn’t get good protection from the wind. i looked up the road and it seemed that weight-weenie was still out in front. good on him, but i didn’t think i wanted to be in his position once that hills came again. a couple of the other guys that were picked up initially by our 14 min group also came back through the pack as they were swept up.

the dreaded corner finally came and i knew what was going to happen next. the road started to point upwards and my legs did not want to play. a combination of minor cramping and just damn tired from the initial effort meant that i now watched the group disappear up the road. i wasn’t the only one though and the pack basically spread itself wide and far along the climb.

it was now just a matter for survival and i had 20 kms to get through before i got home. i was not racing it anymore and i knew that i could get home ok as long as i paced myself. farm-guy fell back through the group and he managed to jump on my wheel for a bit. the next climb saw him off as another guy and i climbed on ahead. he eventually dropped me too, but the whole “pick up a rider and drop another” continued pretty much the rest of the way home. i managed to pass a couple of plan b and atomic brooks guys as well as they had spent themselves in the scratch group. there was a lot of rider debris left on the road.

towards the end of the race, i was pretty much on my own. as i came down the last few hills, i looked back and saw another rider chasing me down. as they flew past i noticed it was farm-guy again. he was chasing hard on the downhill’s and managed to pass me at speed. as the road rolled up again, he slowed down and i came around him so he settled in on my wheel. as we came into collie, another guy had managed to get on and came around for a turn. farm-guy jumped on his wheel and just sat there like he was saving himself for the sprint. we took the final turn towards the line and i was sure that farm-guy was going to sprint to 80th place (or whatever we were). sure enough, up out of the saddle and across the line he went. congratulations. i just rolled across the line and went to find ryan and stu.

it turns out that stu’s group did not get caught and he managed to take out 4th for the day. claimed himself more money than ryan’s second place at pinjarra just to rub it in. ryan and brendan stayed with the scratchmen all the way to the end and managed to sprint it out for whatever place they came. hopefully all three of the guys can write up a few lines on their perspective of the race, as it was very different to mine.

so my second handicap event comes to a close, but at least i finished this one. i still don’t like the format and would rather be doing a normal scratch race. not many races left in the year, but the next one should be interesting. it is a grand fondo cyclo-sportif event. basically this is run more like a road race than a normal cyclo-sportif event, so teams do not have to stick together. i think it is a good opportunity for any of the south perth guys out there that want to give racing a go to jump on board. if you are interested and want some more info on when, where and how much, drop me an e-mail.

saturday 16th august – river ride


So, Pete asked me if I’d look after the flock as he was away racing. Wasn’t really sure but
since impending doom (aka fatherhood) had already meant I was missing the Collie –
Donnybrook I figured what the hell.

Another beautiful if a little cool start to the day meant a reasonable turnout.Nice to see the Barista boys joining us, meaning a little added heat to the ride, particularly with the absence of the young Mr Fynn.

So pleasantries over and done with we headed off on the intended route, a lap of the river with the added bonus of a trip via mosman park. A little more challenging than the usual trip down the coast.

A nice quick start with the headwind, along by Kings Park I asked James how quick we were going and 38km/h was the response. Whoops! It seems this early pace was hurting a couple of our less strong riders. The roadworks behind UWA meant a little rest at the temporary lights. Soon however young Lisa was suffering and without Ryan to offer his special kind of assistance Lisa was happy for us to leave her and with the group not waiting up I chased to get back on. Mr DH this morning met us at the end of our run through Dalkieth, nice Range Rover mate perhaps in your next life you’ll develop some patience. At least it was over and done with early in the ride.

So a brief regroup along the highway before we turned back along the river and since I hate the nasty climb behind the bowls club I hit the front in order to minimise my losses. The carnage after this climb was pretty bad with riders spread all down the road. A brief regroup at the water tower and off we headed towards Freo.

So at about this point I started thinking about the sprint along the Attadale foreshore. With no Ryan I figured I had a fair chance however Poulidor having joined the group was conspicuase by his absence. Jerard had been doing a Ryan and hiding down the back of the bunch.

Anyway we hit Freo and headed for Pt Walter at a steady pace pushing back into the breeze. I was happy to have done my share earlier and save my legs a little.

Things got split up pretty quickly along Attadale and the pace at the front was being maintained by a few of the suicidal gang. Six or eight or so were swapping off turns, I hung back at about 8th wheel looking to hit things hard with a couple of hundred metres to go. Things worked out ok and I managed to gap the bunch and stay away.

Another quick regroup but we had dropped a few by a fair margin, the usual end of ride mania meant we weren’t waiting for them. We kept rolling back up the Canning Hwy headed for coffee and breakfast and the pace was held at a consistent effort. Interestingly there were a couple of breaks off the front but with the head wind these guys were just testing themselves. The group was well together once we hit the Causeway and things started heating up. I was again hoping to get amongst it in the coffee sprint and new that this time Poulidor would not be hiding. It seems our banter from earlier meant that he was also watching me. We were both smart enough to avoid the front and with the Barista boys helping to keep the pace up this was easily done.

With a couple of hundred to go Jerard launched, I was caught behind a couple of wheels and had to wind things up a little too late to catch him. I was happy that I was able to close the gap if not catch him. So a good solid ride for me playing the sheep dog role and getting amongst it for the first time in a while. Happy to be feeling good again on the bike and use my brain to focus on and achieve some positive outcomes.

Good to see Mr Bonner out with us after his hiatus, if only we could all have two trips to europe per annum. And who was the young fella with toe clips? Props to you young man.

Coffee was fine, I have to recommend the bacon and eggs on toast, don’t know why more people don’t have a feed after the ride.

A bit of the usual bike talk after the ride but mainly James and I were tied up discussing the impending end of our cycling lives due to rapidly approaching fatherhood for us both.

Finally something to ponder; Did Jerard order his Cervelo S3, will he go for the Super Record? If so what wheels will he get to go on the new steed? For all this and more turn up next week and ask him yourself.

ride routes 16th & 17th august

ryan, stu and myself will be down at collie this saturday for a leisurely 104 km handicap event to donnybrook and back. should be a fun day. as for the rest of you, i am sending you around the river.

sprint points are at the climb past the mosman park bowling green with a regroup under the water tower further up the hill and around the corner. again on burke drive along attadale with a regroup before you get back on the hwy for the run home.

make sure someone looks after jens as he still doesn’t know his way around perth. stick together and generally look after one another.

sunday will be a fun day too. we are keeping it tight and looping around the same area. a strong will is necessary to pass the coffee shop and head down the zig-zag, but i am assuming peer pressure will keep the group together again.

sorry, the orginal post had the maps that were wrong. i thought they were fixed.

saturday 16th august
river ride
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/australia/perth/505052704

sunday 17th august
welshpool & observatory & kalamunda
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/australia/perth/404541584

second hand bike

there is another guy at work who is looking for a bike. this time he is looking to buy as an upgrade from his old steel framed ironhorse brand bike. he is 6′ 3″ but has a shorter torso so would probably be looking at a 56cm frame. he has a budget of around $1,500 and would like something with a carbon frame. i said that may not happen, but we will see what is out there. anyone with an old giant or such that has not been touched since they upgraded recently and would like to make some room in the shed, let me know.

southperthrouleurs@hotmail.com

sunday 10th august – carradine & canning dam

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ride report by peter

another fine day was predicted but only if you were looking at the temperature alone. the wind was similar to saturday and was cutting through you to drop the temperature another 5 degrees. the act of riding into the head wind probably dropped it another couple just to make it freezing. so even though the overnight temp was a very pleasant 9 deg we were all waiting for the sun to come out properly to counteract the wind chill.

so, we had around twenty riders on the line this morning and a few were discussing a change to the route as i was turning up a bit late. the course today was a long one but not necessarily hard as there was a lot more riding in between climbs. most of the climbs were not too difficult either. not by the standard of other rides we do. or by the standard that dr melvyn described last week. however, late though i was, i arrived with loads of time to quash any rebellious thoughts of changing the route.

we would be taking the hard slog down albany hwy into a harsh, cold, strong crosswind coming down from the scarp. a quick heart starter up carawatha would thaw out the bones before another ascent up carradine. we would then cross over to albany hwy and tackle the last part of it’s ascent, regrouping at the turn off to canning dam. a nice cruise along past the dam before a final assault out of the valley back to karagulen servo. the normal way back to the coffee shop via mundaring weir rd would follow. that was the plan.

we headed out into the fray and copped the breeze right into our faces. by the time we hit albany hwy the wind had picked up significantly. ryan was again sitting pretty at the back of he pack keeping out of the wind. this is how he always ends up with nice fresh legs for the climbs and the sprints.

anyway, the fresh morning, combined with a hydration regime the night before put extra pressure on me for the first few kms of the ride. i had to duck off in the bushes along the way to relive some unwanted pressure (and about a kilo of weight). as the day progressed, i was not the only one as there were multiple “nature breaks” along the way. a quick sprint into the wind to catch up and i was all warmed up.

as we past by gosnells, we managed to pick up a couple of chicks. i’m sure that they were enticed by the tight lycra and rippling leg muscles, and i am quite sure that ryan probably thought that they were drawn to his charismatic aura. however, holly and claire read the blog and knew where we were headed, so decided to join in to get a bit of hills work. unlike the other type of chicks you may pick up in gosnells, these were actually cyclists.

the first climb of the day was soon upon us and we started climbing the lower section of carawatha. this is where is sits about 7% or so and james pushed hard and put a bit of a gap in us. once we hit the small plateau in between the inclines, heiko came around me and headed up the road. since he had not done this hill before, he wondered why we were taking it so easy. as we came around the corner realisation dawned on him like a dodgy curry at 3am in the morning. ahhh, shit. as we started the final climb at 14 or 15% heiko started dropping back through the riders that had been conserving their energy. ryan, stu, brendan and a couple of others caught and past me on the hill, but we all eventually made it to the top.

after a quick watering of the gardens from some, we where off down to carradine. i didn’t realise that they had been doing road works on the other side of the climb and the surface was not the best when combined with the cross wind. all safely down we grouped together to start the climb.

we stayed in quite a bit group for a while and there was probably about 8 or so riders tucked in behind. the wind was coming down the valley towards us so it was a hard slog for whoever was at the front. after a bit i thought that i would see if i could dislodge a few hangers on, and pushed hard. it wasn’t an attack as i came past ryan close enough for him to grab my wheel, as i thought that i will need some help later on.

the group stretched and split as the pace increased and soon there were only four of us up the road. after i did a decent turn at the front, ryan took off again and i couldn’t keep up. stu and brendan managed to get on, but i looked back to see no-one else on the road. taking a leaf out of thomas voeckler’s book from the 2006 tour, i just kept a consistent pace and managed to get back on the back.

on the next rise, ryan took off again and this time brendan was done. lots of km’s of training were taking their toll and he didn’t have the legs to go with us. i managed to claw my way back on with stu in tow as we approached the final section of road. ryan upped the pace again, and it was all too much for me, but i was happy to let him and stu fight it out for line honours as long as i kept ahead of brendan.

after another nature break, there was an opportunity for a short cut if people wanted but peer pressure kept everyone in line. i basically said that i give the people a choice (democracy) , but let them know that they are a bunch of wusses if they take the shortcut (dictatorship). like anyone really has a choice. exercising their right to a choice, brett and anna turned off to head down albany hwy while the rest of us headed further up the hill.

the climb is not too difficult and the group was managing to stay together well. dr melvyn was setting the pace early on before ryan got impatient and came around for a turn. after a bit he got even more impatient and shot off the front. it was all on and stu, brendan and i managed to latch on behind him. we swapped off turns for a while over the rolling hills and managed to put quite a bit of distance in to the rest of the group. by the time we reached the turn off for canning dam, the road behind us was empty as far as we could see.

the riders rolled up in little packs and claire managed to hold onto the second group. she is climbing well considering the issues that she has had with her back recently.

another toilet stop and we were off towards canning dam. there were a few rolling hills and one bonus climb that split everyone up. ryan and i were just discussing climbing techniques and how i preferred to climb standing while he is trying to sit more. next thing we know we had gapped the rest of the field. we slowed a bit and said that we would wait at the bottom of the descent into the dam. the wind luckily didn’t cause too many problems and we had a nice descent clocking up over 70km/h. the road surface past the dam is usually shocking but it looks like they were halfway through resurfacing it. it wasn
’t perfect, but to me it looked like they were preparing to put a hot-mix top coat on it. that would make this route a lot more pleasurable.

an orange ford focus past us about three times on that road. not sure if they just got their licence or thought that they were a rally driver, but he just kept popping up all the time.

a regroup at the little bridge and we lost a few more riders. the girls and mike decided to call it a day and headed down brookton hwy as the rest of us climbed up via gardiner. it was a nice climb and we took it fairly easy for the first section. ryan hadn’t done this one before so asked me how long it was. quite long I said, just so he wouldn’t take off on me just yet. it started to steepen up but I managed to hang on to ryan and stu while the others fell back. as we turned at the fork in the road, i was spent and had to let them go. i paced myself up the rest of the hill until jerry and james caught up to me and rode the rest of the way with them.
we regrouped at the karragullen servo where a couple of people had to refresh supplies. it was a long ride and energy levels were low. we were soon off and heading for pickering brook. james and i set the pace from the gun and kept it up until that first hill. we didn’t push too hard but some people felt the strain and dropped off early. once we hit the rolling hills ryan took off up the road with stu not far behind. the rest of us just seemed content to ride the hill at pace without straining too much. once we hit the false flat, we noticed that ryan and co was not too far ahead so we upped it a bit to try to catch them. they stayed away, and i was pretty much done by then anyway.

after a regroup, dr mark decided to call it a day due to family commitments, and was heading straight home. the other mark was going to go with him, but peer pressure forced him to stick with us for one last climb up mundaring weir road. heiko didn’t know where we were so i was reluctant to leave him behind so a stuck with him over the rolling hills through bickley valley. by the time we reached mundaring weir road, the other guys were too far ahead to warrant a chase from me. i left it in the big ring and rode a 53 x 14 to the top while staying in the saddle. my cadence was under 40 rpm for the majority of the climb, but my knees actually felt ok.

we rolled into the coffee shop and sat for a well deserved rest. as it was a longer ride, we turned up quite late and were expecting a bad service day. fortunately for us, the cold wind must have kept the punters away and we were served promptly. bruce made an appearance on the sunday ride, but only in civvies as he was meeting his brother for brunch. we said that he should at least been wearing his spr vest to show his support.

coffee’s sculled, as mark still needed to get home and james was on the phone explaining why he was late. we headed down welshpool road with mostly a tailwind, but a few swirls on the descent made for some interesting times. stu apparently had the speed wobbles again and reckons that his heart rate download pinpoints the exact moment he thought he would die.

the tailwind continued to push us home and it gave us a good run. dr melvyn made his early charge as usual and set off the boys a little too early and we were soon spread along the road. the lights at leach hwy soon got us back together and we headed along the last stretch of welshpool rd. the call went out to box ryan in and we had him set on the inside second wheel. dr melvyn went again, and we thought we were safe to let him go, but ryan had been tricky and slowed down to manage to slip out the back. soon everyone was sprinting up the road again.

the final run along berwick rd had ryan doing his usual tricks. slowing down to force others to come to the front so that he can conserve himself for the final sprint. i told him that it will make him stronger if he does all the work and then still contests the sprint, but he wants the easy gold medal. i ended up on the front for the final stretch but managed to get a bit of a jump at the last set of lights to gap the field. by the time i was on the descent, ryan had bridged to my wheel so i just coasted to try to recover. as we paced along the flat, he jumped and i could not hold his wheel. so had to settle for second. or i would have until brendan also past me before the macdonalds drive thru point.

so, over 100 kms by the time i got home and 5 main climbs “conquered”. hopefully this puts me in good stead for collie-donnybrook this coming saturday, but i think it will all come down to who i get in my handicap group. we have three of the team entered with ryan and stu also heading down to play. ryan was in a good position to win last year until a flat with no spares played heed to his grand plans. hopefully this year, team spr can come away with… something. aim for mediocre, and there are less chances of getting disappointed.

saturday 9th august – sth lake

ride report by peter

so a good turn out this morning with over thirty riders ready to go. i was running a bit late so turned up to find a sea of green awaiting departure instructions. it is good to see and makes me feel good about this group. there are still quite a few riders without out new kit as we have picked up a few more since we did the initial order. hopefully we can get them all kitted out at the end of the year.

anyway, it was a crisp morning and even though the official temp said around 8 degrees, the wind made it feel much colder. when you were standing still (like at the lights) it hardly felt like any wind at all. however, once you were moving, it felt like it was a headwind. the official website said that it was 13 km/h easterlies, but gusting to above 30km/h. we must have had the gusts all morning.

with the cooler mornings i used to just put a wind jacket on. with the new kit i now don’t want to cover it up and have started experimenting. this morning i had on two jerseys and it worked a treat. brendan rocked up in his aussie crates sponsored kit and they provided him with a fully sponsored wind jacket too. it might be something that we look at in the next order.

the course today was one that we experimented with about a month and a half ago. it went down canning rd and onto nth lake rd all the way to berrigan drive. last time we crossed the freeway on armadale rd and it was very busy and not a very wide road. after that we would head home via nicholson rd and albany hwy.

i introduced heiko, our german vacation student, to the rest of the group and talked him up so everyone thinks he is a young jens voigt.

the roll out was pleasant enough. nice easy pace all the way down canning hwy. i was playing sheep-dog again and would roam from the front to the back occasionally to bark and sniff butts and nip at heels or whatever it is that sheep dogs do. we turned down nth lake rd and kept a very easy pace. i managed to find myself on the front again so that we could turn at the right spot. this time we were turning early onto berrigan drive and it was a corner that could creep up on you.

as we turned to cross over the freeway, the wind was fair howling into our faces. when we stopped at a set of lights, it seemed to be hardly a breeze at all. a very confusing and strength sapping day. we turned again and i began to doubt we were on the right road. the map had said turn right onto mason rd but the street sign said we had just turned onto jandakot rd. i had checked the satellite view earlier and i knew that we turned at the roundabout next to the shops and we seemed to be heading the right way. it was going to be a wait and see.

a bunch of guys all did turns on the front to ease the load in the wind, and pretty soon we came to the end of the road and turned onto warton rd. we were on the right road after all, just google maps had named it wrong.

the wind had not abated and we were now coping it as a head cross, which makes it harder to hide from. a few kilometres more and we turned onto nicholson, but the road hadn’t become double lane yet. this meant that we had to stay close to the edge and couldn’t hide offset from the rider in front to avoid the wind. i dropped back to find a number of riders struggling to hold on and a few of us drafted them back to the group.

we managed to catch up just as the group was about to be released by the traffic lights near livingston marketplace (home of livingston optical, for all your optical needs). this marked the start of the sprint section and i was trying to keep the group together before that point.

as the fast boys took off, nick came back through the group sporting a flat rear tyre. carl had commented to me earlier that both nick and himself had forgotten to bring any spares today. fate was teaching nick a lesson. i started slowing down but was in two minds as the group was racing up the road. they were too far gone to pull back now, but i needed to make sure that the didn’t take the wrong turn. luckily i saw chris dropping back to help him, so i pushed on ahead.

i was now stuck in no-mans land. the main group was up the road and around me riders were struggling to fight into the wind. i helped bec get back onto carls wheel and moved on up the road. there was a small group of about 3 or 4 riders off the back of the main group and i managed to bridge across to them. i came around the front to do a turn and pretty soon it was only rod and myself left from that group. we swapped off turns a few times, but could not make any ground on the main bunch.

we picked up a few more riders as we came closer to the finishing roundabout, but then the front guys anti-navigational skills saved us again. not sure who was leading, but nicholson road actually turns to the left at the roundabout and the guys kept going straight. the rest of us turned the corner and we could see them looking back to see which way we were going, before back-tracking themselves.

once they caught up to us, i had to really settle the group down to make sure some of the back-markers managed to rejoin the group. the field was spread pretty thin due to the wind and i know we lost quite a few. unfortunate route selection on my behalf today and we would have been better off doing benara rd instead. oh, well. whatever doesn’t kill you will make you… weak as a baby crying for your mamma. and later hopefully make you stronger.

as we cruised along the remainder of nicholson road, we didn’t actually see that many more riders coming up the road. not sure what happened, but sorry if you didn’t make it back on. we kept the pace to a minimum and i though about stopping, but by then we were on albany hwy going past the carousel shopping centre where there were cars everywhere and not much room for us to pull over. we pushed on ahead, but i made sure the pace wasn’t too high.

when we hit the albany hwy shep rd intersection it was all on to the end. dr melvyn made one of his trademark attacks from too far out and a bunch of people made their intentions clear, by taking off as well. the next set of traffic lights paid heed to their early move.

i was content to sit in a while and wait for the last hill before launching, so that if i made it, i could recover on the descent. a further surge went and everyone was moving around a lot, trying to be near the front. as we had swung around, we now had a tailwind into the finish and the guys were not as reluctant to be on the front.

just as we crossed an intersection where the lights were changing, i attacked and managed to get a bit of a gap. ben had sat on my wheel and was holding fast as we approached the next set of lights. everyone may have eased up a bit thinking that the lights would hold me up, but luckily they changed quickly so i took off again. i managed to get over the last hill in front, but now had ryan and brendon baring down on me. i recovered on the descent, but they kept pushing on and started pulling away. the traffic lights meant that we were soon back together as one group, although some of the guys slid up the side of the cars which is a no, no.

as we crossed the causeway, it seemed that brendan was doing most of the work and no-one was coming around to help. ryan had resumed his position a little way back to avoid the wind and get ready for the sprint while jerry assumed his normal position on ryan’s wheel. as we turned onto riverside drive, john took off like a shot. “too early” i cried out to the group as there is still over 2 kms to go before the finish. some of the guys didn’t listen and headed up the road only to be overtaken with
john less than halfway down the drive. ryan eventually went and took jerry with him. i tried to latch on, but the earlier effort had sapped me and my quads didn’t like what i was doing to them. i had to let them go and roll into the coffee shop a broken rider.

ryan took out line honours, with jerry bridesmaid again. i wasn’t stopping for coffee, so am unsure how the backmarkers faired on the way home. heiko, held his own well today and showed some glimpses of jens voigt with some strong riding. i think he will do ok.

i was off to take the young lad out on the bike and managed to make it up mounts street with him on board, but was a quivering mess by the time i reached the top. next week the collie-donnybrook race is on the saturday, so i will miss the morning ride, but will try to give you a good course with a tailwind the whole way around.

ride routes 9th & 10th august

ride routes posted by peter.

so we will have another crack at the sth lake route that we tried out almost two months ago. i have taken out the section of armadale rd and we now turn onto berrigan drive instead. hopefully this is a better choice.

on sunday, we will try the canning dam route that i posted a few weeks back. due to the weather, we didn’t make it all the way out there so will try again this week.

the mapmyride maps are still not working as an embedded map so you must click on the link to go to the actual site.

saturday 9th august
sth lake
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/australia/perth/222757718205

sunday 10th august
carradine & canning dam
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/australia/perth/93434412

olympics tipping comp

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ok as the olympics is starting this weekend i have organised a tipping comp for the men’s road race. so as not to make it too hard all you have to pick is the order of the countries that will take the medals.

i.e.
gold – spain
silver – australia (runner up again)
bronze – spain

this comp will be free and i will organise some prizes for 1st, 2nd & 3rd.
go to the blog linked below and have a look at the details.

http://tourtipping.blogspot.com/

sunday 3rd august – gooseberry & kalamunda + extra

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“coming from behind” – ride report by melvyn (deliberately missing out capital letters)

i was inspired by the first warm weather forecast to drag myself out on sunday to do the ride.i was pleased that this would be a shorter ride, and not a “special” new tryout ride that pete dreamed up for those who are not racing. the first real climb would be gooseberry hill rd which always is a test, but the rest would be manageable (i hoped).

i even got to the meeting point early, having given the bike a bit of a clean the day before to find no huddled group of lycrans surrounded by flashing lights like some exiled extraterrestrials waiting for the mother ship to pick them up in the dark. i knew i was early, but really??? moments passed and i thought – what if no-one else turns up? do i do the ride by myself? it would be a bit of a boring blog with all this “i looked back to see myself pedalling furiously, so i attacked to just win the hilltop sprint against myself by barely a wheel…” thankfully john rolled up to join us (and provide someone else to write about). unfortunately as we eyed each other we still did not have the critical mass to qualitfy as a group ride. i’m sure we were both thinking if we could cheat a little if no-one else turned up and modify the course (perhaps doing gooseberry twice then kalamunda a couple of extra times?)

it was all academic when more joined in just after 0700. darren arrived with “greased lightning” (his bike must surely be inspired by the hot-rod that john travolta and his gang do up in the movie “grease”), ben (to give some credibility to the overall pedalling ability of our group), schneiderman (uneasy in his winter mankini), nev (who i cant recall coming out on a sunday before – poor befuddled boy must have his days mixed up), ronan, and a newcomer bronwyn who has chosen perth (!!!) to settle down in for a while after finishing a round the world trip. must have been lured by the vibrant cafe culture.

soon it was time to go off! if we waited we probably would have seen every cyclist in perth ride past. i had to lead out and pretended i knew the way. the secret is that really i don’t have to know the way for any of the rides because i always get to ride at the back. the only time i sprint for the front is when i actually recognise the roads and know i won’t get lost. anyway, after a bit of “no, turn left” we got onto great eastern highway to run the gauntlet of cold air, cars and hobos shouting encouragement after passing the casino. As we pedalled east, we were greeted by the warm rays to the sun. however riding into the sun is not to be recommended as mainly you don’t get to see. if you are in the front, all manner of glass and potholes come into your vision all too late. if you are in the back, you are hoping that cars will be able to see your 1/2 watt flashing tail-light against the sun which puts out 368 yottawatts (1024 watts)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(power) admittedly 93 million miles away. You get the picture.

i had not cleared our mind of those thoughts when the next traffic hazard presented itself. it was outside the 24hour macdonald on great eastern highway (who really eats maccas at 0730 on a sunday?), where a green hyundai pulled out to turn right. i’m sure he saw us as he wasn’t looking into the sun to look at us. i could see that his intentions were to pull out 10 metres in front of us. fine i thought, we’ll be right. we weren’t right, as he stopped in the lane in front of us. there were lots of emergency manouevres to avoid this car, but no one fell off. obviously (to give the driver the benefit of doubt) he had thought better of turning into the path of cars that he couldn’t see because of the sun shining from his left. as ronald macdonald says “look left then right and left again before crossing the street”. silly boy, no happy meal for you.

we soon interrupted our ride (near the cement factory) with schneiderman’s scheduled puncture. we usually have one later in the ride which is handy for catching our breath back. its impressive to see schneiderman extract a tube from the mankini (where does he put it), but i think that if he keeps this up, we will have to chip in to buy him a seat bag that fits two tubes. it was about this time that i noticed that mike b had joined in to add pace uphill. i later found out that he was trying to get back into condition after a holiday in europe where he actually viewed the tour from the mighty tourmalet. he obviously hasn’t lost as much condition as myself as he easily outpaced me on the mighty “kalamunda”.

soon we were at ridgehill road which doesn’t count as a climb. the ride played out like it always does with me attacking for the first 20m before running out of steam in the slope. at least it gives me a chance to check out if any others have made new purchases as they ride past. something very unusual started to happen on the flat bit of the climb. i actually started to catch up and pass people. i don’t usually rub it in, but i must say that that does not happen often. was it my new wheels (probably 500g lighter than my previous set), or was everyone taking it easy? the reality was that i probably don’t ride up that well, and there was not very much going up by that stage. evidently i had run out of power-ups as that was the last time that happened on any of the climbs that day.

the regroup point was the base of the zig-zag, and then it was down (yay!) before the left turn at the roundabout to gooseberry (boo!) we had egged newcomer bronwyn on about how steep this one was going to be but it was only half joking. in any case being a ex mountain biker from new zealand i don’t think many hills scare her. soon it was reverting to the familiar tempo of breathing and pedalling (two breaths for every pedal stroke) when before you knew it the hill stopped. really after several european experiences, these hills don’t come close to he definition of pain. these are just the light dripping of hot wax type of pain, and not the chained to the bedpost with a red ball in your mouth before being whipped by a cat-o-nine-tails by a suspiciously masculine lady in a leather mask named steve sort of pain. you get the picture.

bronwyn chose a good day to come out on a hills ride as the next stage was down the zig-zag, which truly made it worthwhile. the sun was out and warming, birds were singing, the air was clear and most importantly dry, and the scenery was breathtaking. I can see why people live in the hills. best not enjoy the view too much though as gravel can make the hairpins tricky. I wanted to push the cornering properties of the wheels a bit as that is apparently one of their strengths, but woosed out a bit, not wanting to do an oscar pereiro. it was over however all too soon.

a short transport stage found us at the base of kalamunda road which i find terrifying sometimes. mainly because of the honky nuts that often cover the outside of the road, and the hoons who insist on driving at full pelt. we planned to keep going past the coffee shop (sacriledge!) and regroup at the coles roundabout. i spent about half the climb thinking of excuses to shorten my ride and retreat to the coffee shop, but was disappointed to find everyone full of energy and enthusiastic for more. the power of peer pressure again pushed me down mundaring weir rd and up lawnbrook. at least this was a good form of peer pressure, as it usually ends up with poorer consequences in other instance. we rode single file as traffic was increasing, and had time to wave at russell and ian(?) coming up the other way.

by the time we got to the coffee shop it was already quite full. they obviously were short staffed that day. the conversation was considerably
cleaner that day as we were not up to our usual compliment of urologists. by then a few of us had elected to go home early, and after making short work of the food and drink it was time for us to head back. but that is another story for another day (a day which you are not doing very much because basically nothing exciting happened).

……………………and so children ends the chapter on the exploits of this small band of intrepid cyclists who went out to conquer far lands over infrequently travelled roads, laughing at what destiny would serve up to them (and still making it home in time to avoid getting in trouble with their wives).

the end

The website for the South Perth Cycle Club