sunday 13th april – peter clark memorial part 01

peter clark memorial
race report by chriswith much cajoling several of us had agreed to enter this race, our loose “team” went in with good intentions. things weren’t looking to great; with bruce’s recent form not really up to much due to the little annabelle, peter complaining of flu symptoms, stuart thinking the course wouldn’t suit him and my heavy legs and a sleepless night, ryan was never really going to get much support from us lot. anyway with a nice field of 65 riders there was going to be plenty of places for the rest of us to hide.

so my aim was to complete the race with the bunch and if at all possible give ryan a hand for the finish. i completed the race but was of no real help to ryan unfortunately.

peter was far too professional, warming up on his rollers. i like most of the others would rely on the tried and proven method of using the first 10-15km or so to warm up. my experience in perth has shown me that typically the bunch takes the first lap reasonably steadily and then the fun begins.

things went according to the script and unfortunately for me this usually means i suffer from about a third of the way into the race until the continued surging abates. today it was impressive to see the bunch strung out as we chased breaks, 65 guys hammering along at 50km/h stretched over 100metres.
anyway my legs came good after about the fourth lap when peter made an attack to get onto the back of a couple of guys. he didn’t stay there for long rejoining the bunch a little while later. i maintained my position in the rear of the bunch and figured i’d see how things went on the last couple of laps.

the work done on the front, including a fair portion by our own pool boy, brought the break back. i had already told him don’t go near the front and to save himself for the sprint but i guess he wanted to do a bit of work before we got to that point. after several attempts to get around the bunch but getting foiled each time by the pace of the bunch or the double white lines, i gave up.

i was expecting the pace to pick up on the last lap, particularly over the last climb at the south of the circuit. i prepared my self for one last push with the aim of getting closer to the front of the bunch. mission accomplished i settled in to hear guys crying out that some guy was going to stay away.

at this stage with one corner to go and an uphill sprint finish i didn’t think my position or legs would allow me to accomplish anything flash. as usual though

there were the usual bunch of guys who thought they had something but didn’t have anything. so the last 200m were littered with guys rolling for the line. i still had some gas in the tank and like peter had to find a path to the line. i was pretty happy that i had managed to look after myself and have the legs for the sprint. a quick head count of riders in front of me over the line had me in the top 15. no money, but i hadn’t expected to finish.

whilst peter got back on the rollers to spin his legs out i shot the shit with michael and bruce whilst we all enjoyed a coke and a sausage in a bun.
a great event put on by the ndcc and lets hope the numbers continue to improve.

next week, the b grade trophy race.

sunday 13th april – darlington & mundaring

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ride report by darren.fast forward: le paris brest cafe 9:45am – “so who is going to write the blog”
i guess failing english in yr 12 makes me the most qualified.

rewind carpark: 6:55am i was running just on time as usual – a benefit of living close to the shop.

as i arrived, lindy was pulling her bike out of the car and josie and rob were sitting on the pavement near the stairs. where was everyone else? the day was magnificent with a light easterly wind, but you could sense that the turnout was going to be less than average.

today would see us take on darlington and mundaring weir, if only someone knew the way.

most of us stood around thinking – “is that it” until about 7:05am, rob lifted his sore hungover head for a moment to ask who was going to lead, to which every one replied – “you are!” but alas his gps was left in the last pint he shouldn’t have had the night before.

doug piped up (luckily) “i know the way”.

famous last words. doug led the group of eleven on a mission down great eastern hwy, etc. for 17kms, putting in a strong turn into the morning easterly, chewing through a few partners, until he realised (at bushmead rd) that he could sit at the back and just yell directions, which left me at the front to ride the next 5km’s to marriott rd.

marriott is one of those nasty climbs that comes out of nowhere and bites hard. i got a little excited and gunned it as the usual sunday mountain goats were either racing at gnangara or snoozing. apart from the first section, it is a nice climb with some flat sections for getting your heart rate back under control. i was first to the regroup point on darlington rd, followed by ben (who was gaining rapidly) and dr marc. we didn’t have long to wait for the others.

the short descent down darlington was uneventful, but having ridden this before i knew that the climb into rycroft is nasty, and whilst tempted to stay in the big ring you need to get into your easy gears before you hit the climb. starting at the back of the climb i could see several quickly realise that they wished they were in a lower gear. the crunch of changing gears at 20rpm seemed to be a common sound and eventually (english) mike couldn’t grind anymore and had to step of and find a more appropriate gear.

by this time i passed a few and saw and ben far ahead. another rush of adrenalin to bridge the gap but ben still managed to hit the glen forrest rd regroup first. at this point rob took the opportunity to have a pit-stop and josie, who was on a “recovery ride”, turned for home.

as we ventured onto glen forrest the group noticed a few elderly runners, jogging on the roads around darlington. as we headed up thomas/phillips rd we noticed more people shuffling slowly up the hill. this continued until we hit a road closed sign at mahogany creek, which strangely had a guy holding a stop sign. all was revealed as a guy in grey with a number on his chest, came belting on foot toward us, clearly on a mission followed by a few more greyhounds. we had ridden into the middle of the wamc darlington half-marathon.

we were forced onto the run course and rode carefully in the middle of the double lane road. runners left and right did not stop one turkey in a workmans tray cab trying to pass us at every opportunity. fortunately, this was the only agro we received all day (all the other the rednecks must have been tucked up, warm and cosy in bed).

back onto phillips/mundaring weir rd, i took the opportunity on a slight downhill to overtake the group, only to be passed by ben and todd looking to race to the roundabout. like a red rag to a bull i took off and managed to recapture my pride but destroy my legs.

the run down toward mundaring weir was uneventful, but a little chilly in the shade, with doug, stan and rob showing that they were the most daring. the climb out of mundaring weir is always hard. dr marc, attacked past the weir carpark with stan, ben and myself in tow. i lasted about a kilometre and realised that i hurt myself enough today and it is a long way to kalamunda. by the time i reached the top of the climb the few in front were about 500m ahead. (english) mike joined me through a downhill section, overtook and managed to make up the gap to the lead group (nice work) just before the descent to the hairpin and the final climb to the coffee shop.

sitting down waiting for coffees at the cafe i found out that dr marc took the kom honours in and was first to the cafe. service was very fast, but i couldn’t help noticing that everyone was contemplating caffeine and the hard ride out of mundaring weir. awkward silence for a minute or so led me to exclaim “ahh introverts come out to play”, which broke the silence and got some banter going.

the descent down welshpool rd was always going to be fast with only a slight breeze and very little crosswind. a few cracked 80km/h, with stan taking the honours of being first to the bottom. i managed to find a second wind and paced the group to over 45km/h along welshpool through queens park to the leach hwy lights.

following a brief stop at the rail crossing, ben took off in an attempt to get the bonus sprint points. i chased after him and managed to pass him at the 60k sign. i turned off along berwick but don’t imagine to many made it to the shop.

in summary – an outstanding day for a ride, moderate pace, no rednecks, interesting scenery, fast coffee, easy descents, no real incidents to speak of – where were you !

well done to tom boonen for winning paris-roubaix and keeping me up until well after 1am.

saturday 12th april – freo & cott

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ride report by chris

well, my legs felt like crap after a tough couple of weeks training and i was hoping for a nice easy roll around the designated route. the weather was fabulous, a little cool to start but it was clear it was going to warm up.

so formalities out of the way we set off for freo at a steady pace down the hwy. i was on the front and joined by young nick, we chatted about the usual stuff bikes, racing etc. once we hit the river side along by attadale things quickly heated up. the usual kick off came with cade winding things up, he was quickly joined by the rest of the guys (and no i’m not being sexist, there was a distinct lack of the female gender on saturday).

as i mentioned i was looking for an easy one and reminded a few of the guys as they passed to regroup at pt walter. i didn’t have a lot of confidence that they would as once things heat up and the testosterone kicks in you never know what’s going to happen unless someone gets up the front and takes things in hand. this wasn’t going to be me today as i intended to save my legs for sundays peter clark memorial race. so things got a little messy from here on to the café.

i’m pretty sure we dropped a few before we got to pt walter and there were a few of us then struggling along past the left bank hotel. we kept the main bunch in sight but i was personally just limiting the damage and controlling my work rate. a brief regroup was forced by the changing lights but this all went pear shaped once we hit the beach. i’ll never understand why some of the guys want to hammer along the beach, particularly past cottesloe. the scenery is great and since we don’t get down this way often personally i’d rather take it in.

well, i worked harder than i wanted too and chased back onto the front guys dragging a few along with me. once again we regrouped, sort of, as we headed for the blast through dalkieth. now this is where i normally would have a bit of a dig and i managed to control myself for a little while. in the meantime a bunch of guys went off the front and from what i heard afterwards it was only the lights at mounts bay rd that brought the leaders back to what remained of the faster portion of the bunch. i did learn later that for once the pool boy was beaten for the sprint but he claimed to have spent a significant amount of time on the front. little did he know this was going to come back to haunt him in sundays race.

i was with the second bunch and hoping that things would be steady-steady to the finish, keep dreaming chris was the prompt response from the group. nick and i were back on the front again for a while until a tall fella on a trek came by. i figured that would do me and jumped on for the free ride and so things went. i didn’t bother trying to chase as others started to roll through until le kuan began his acceleration. again i grabbed the wheel and off we went, jerard came by and i yelled at le kuan to keep it going. a struggle ensued but it came down to jerard and i pushing into the breeze for the points. we are still awaiting the official judges decision, given jerards no-show for sundays race, i’ll be claiming the moral high ground.

tour de perth support race – stage 03

an interesting day greeted us for stage three. it was kind of wet but kind of wasn’t. there was a fog hanging around kalamunda with a slight drizzle dampening things, but definitely better than yesterday. an unsettled night’s sleep as i kind of had a feeling of what today would bring and it wasn’t going to be pretty. my legs were feeling heavy after the efforts yesterday as they were not used to backing it up.

i registered for the stage, put my wheels in the spares ute and went to warm up. my crank felt a bit funny and on closer inspection, the little bolts that hold it all together had worked loose a bit. good job i spotted that before rolling out. anyway, i briefly saw jerry, mark and todd who were doing the hills challenge that morning too. it goes from kalamunda to mundaring to kalamunda to mundaring to kalamunda and covers 100km. i did it last year and cramped so bad for the entire second half that i had to get off and stretch a number of times.

all the opens and supports would roll out together today and roll under a neutral flag to the start at carmel. this gave us a bit of a warm-up and a preview of the hill to the finish. however, a combination of pre-game nerves and over hydration saw no less than thirty guys stop somewhere along the way to have a pee before the start. i must admit i was guilty of this too.

as we waited for the start, i commented on how hot it was especially compared to the day before. The sun was out and sitting around, you could feel it burn into you. the open men were off first followed by the support men then the open women. i had taken up my usual position at the back of the field and was talking to the open women lined up behind me. josie was wearing the leader’s jersey after making up enough time over davina in the time trial. she was also complaining about the heat, and i said that i was surprised that she hadn’t already cut the arms off her new jersey. she seems to do it to most of her jerseys to stop the tan lines. anyway, the open men were off and we didn’t have long to wait till we rolled out too.

the game plan for me today was just hang on as long as i could and hope that i did not get dropped to embarrassingly early. the first stage was a confidence booster for me so i thought that i may be able to hold on. however, the legs were telling me a different story.

we had rode the course the previous weekend and did three laps around plus welshpool and mundaring weir rd to complete the package. i knew the course well, but it was the pace that i was worried about and how soon the attacks would come. i thought that i would be more worried about the hill to the finish rather than the climb up patterson rd to the observatory. the observatory is a long climb, but with no real steep sections, so you can set yourself a nice pace to the top. the climb to the finish is short and sharp and just steep enough to really hurt. we would have to see which one would be my undoing.

we rolled out at a decent pace and as soon as we were on canning rd a couple of guys decided to break away. as it was a five lap 84km race, i thought that they may be going a little early in the day. they had a bit of a gap but no-one seemed worried as there was no way that they would be able to hang out there all day, not with two climbs per lap.

unfortunately the gap was big enough for a small truck to think that it had enough room to pull out onto the road and travel along in between the break and the main pack. it was one of the trucks that service the orchards in the area so was no surprise when it also turned up patterson rd with us. so now it couldn’t get around the break guys as the road had a couple blind corners and the break guys were now also slowing down.

so we traveled up the first part of the hill behind the truck, before the road straightened out and it could pass the two riders ahead of it. the main field then swallowed them up and continued at a reasonable pace over the rest of the climb. i was not too surprised that the pace was not on early as i think that everyone was just testing their legs and seeing was damage was done by the previous day.

over the top of the climb and then into a fast descent. there were a few guys out sweeping some of the sections were the gravel had washed onto the road, which was a smart idea, as the rain from the previous day had deposited quite a bit of crap. up past hill to the finish line for the first time and again the pace was not too high as i found it manageable and made it to the top in one piece. however, by this time i was wondering if i could even hold on for another four laps.

as we rocketed down towards pickering brook, a few guys tried to go off the front. i wasn’t sure how many as being at the back does have it’s disadvantages. i am pretty sure that there was two groups that had gone and by the time we hit patterson rd again, the pace was on. the field immediately became strung out as guys started to chase the break away bunches. the other disadvantage of being at the back was the fact that there were a lot of riders that i had to get around to find my rhythm. stu and brendan were also caught with me and strangely enough we managed to get away from the guys behind but end up in no-mans land on the climb. stu set a nice pace to the top and brendan and myself managed to hang on till the decent. just before we crested, chris was up there taking pictures of our misfortune. i dropped off a bit on the last bit of the climb and now began to have doubts over my ability to complete three more laps. i managed to bridge back to stu and brendan, but so did a group of about 7 or 8 riders. we now had a decent size group that we could benefit from if we decided to chase.

the hill to the finish was done at a reasonable pace as i don’t think that anyone wanted to be on their own if they got away. darryl one of the wais coaches was doing running commentary at the finish line and commented that we would need to work together if we wanted to catch the guys up the road. this spurred us on a bit and we started to try to get a roll through happening. not everyone wanted to play and some were just looking for a free ride to the end. this made the chase a bit harder, but we managed to catch a few of the others that had been spat out the back of some of the leading groups. there were also a few of the open men ambling along the road quite content to finish their day with a training ride.

we hit patterson rd hill and no one wanted to lead. i went to the front but was soon overtaken by stu who has always been a better climber. the group strung out behind him as he set a rally good pace. he would occasionally pull over to the right and look behind him, but no-one really had enough to come around him so he just continued up over the hill. once at the top, i yelled at chris to “shoot me, shoot me now”. unfortunately he only had a camera with him.

the decent gave a bit of a reprieve, but i now seriously doubted my legs ability to get through two more laps. well two and a half, if you count the fact that we still hadn’t finished the third lap. i told stu but he said that he felt good and if he could do it then so could i. yay. two more laps. my heart wasn’t in it though.

as we tackled the finishline climb for the third time, brendan and i dropped back a bit from th
e rest of the pack with another guy stuck in between. we managed to push hard once the road flattened out and catch the other guy to get a draft for a sec. we all realized that we had to go hard to catch the others or it would be all over for us. brendan commented on how far the rubber band would stretch before we were totally gone. he stood up and sprinted up the road to manage to get back on, while i resigned myself to the embarrassment of riding be myself for a while.

the other guy didn’t make it back on either and was stuck in between me and the back of the pack. once we hit the patterson rd hill i tried to set myself a decent rhythm to grind my way up the hill. whenever i turned the corners on that hill, i could just see the pack ahead disappearing around the next bend with the other guy still hanging off the back. he looked around a few times, trying to judge whether i would be catching up to him to give him either a hand or some company. unfortunately i would be doing no such thing.

i set myself a goal earlier that i would be happy if i just finished the event. it was always going to be jumping in the deep end with my first race being a three stage tour, but i thought that in now can’t get any worse. sucking down carboshotz and making sure i kept drinking, i made my way up the climb and onto the decent. i managed to pass one of the open men who was having a worse day than me, and also one of the open women.

i now had two goals.
1. finish the damn race
2. don’t get lapped by either the open women on my fourth lap or the open men on the fifth lap.

i plugged away for another lap which was very uneventful. didn’t come across any other riders and saw not a soul either up or down the road. with no human company and no radio the only song that was on permanent repeat in my head was the last one i heard on the radio this morning. mika – big girls. i don’t like that song so much now. i would say that the most embarrassing thing would have to be crossing the line at the end of the fourth lap with quite a crowd there, knowing that i had one more to go.

anyway, with my legs shot, my brain fried and my bike now making crap noises after the crap weather on saturday, i finally rolled over the line. a quick look behind me and i saw no-one so i ducked over to the footpath where stu and chris were. as i got my breath back the open men flew past and continued on their final lap. i only just got my lap in before them. as this stage finished a fair distance from the start, i had to scab some money off chris for pepsi as i really needed sugar and caffine to get me back to the car.

a quick check of the speedo’s and it seemed that stu had put 12 minutes into me over the last two laps. it sounded like a lot, and it probably was, but i was just glad it was over.

in the women’s event, josie had broken away with a girl from queensland and took the stage win and a couple of minute’s advantage, with davina taking the bunch sprint for third. so at least someone had a good stage.

i rode back with stu to kalamunda and headed off to get changed. the opens had a criterium in the afternoon and i was so glad we didn’t as i don’t think my legs would have been able to back it up especially out of the corners every lap. so it was off to chicken treat for a carbo injection before settling down to watched the crit.

with a clear advantage in the open women’s event, it was going to be hard to beat josie for the overall, but davina managed a big sprint at the end to take the stage with mel second and josie third. this wrapped it up for josie, but it was good to see a couple of our sunday regulars taking two stage wins each.

as for my cycling race career, it was a good first attempt and i intend to keep it going with some more events during the year.

tour de perth – hills challenge

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race report by mark

i won’t go into details of the lead up to the race, but jerry and i cajoled each other into entering, and i’m glad we did. after a school camp-over with my boys on friday night, and a wet and lazy saturday during which i felt very sorry for pete and stu, the real hard core riders, sunday morning found me driving up to the start in kalamunda.

i arrived at kalamunda at around ¼ to 8, and met jerry who was still umming and aahing about whether to ride. “no question” i reassured him, it would be good, and the weather was clearing.

registration was painless, and complete by 08h15. race to start at 08h50.
we ambled around a bit, then jerry went off to find a toilet, and i went back to the car to fetch my race number.

we met back at the start line at 08h47, and mingled in with the crowd waiting to start.
jerry remarked that they all looked a bit too relaxed and asked if they were doing the 100km ride.
“oh no” came the answer, “we’re doing the 50km. they 100km group left a little while ago”
what the f???

that was it. no time to stretch, gulp a drink of think about it. clip in and pedal like there’s no tomorrow.
the first 100m is up a hill (nice!), to the roundabout, and then down.
jerry stayed on my tail most of the way, but downhill is one of my favorites, so i waited on the uphill section.

i saw the first stragglers going up the other side as we approached the hairpin at the bottom of mundaring weir rd, and we caught them on the way up. i asked how far ahead the bunch were. “far already” was the answer. my heart rate stayed in the high 170’s to 180’s from there on. i psyched myself up for a long hard time trial – not my favorite event by any stretch, but at least i have a reasonable understanding of my body under race conditions, having done around 150 – 200 races between 1995 and 2004. unfortunately i’d only done around 5 social races after that!

i knew we had to ride smarter than the others to have a hope of catching them. that meant sharing the load, taking the race line through corners wherever possible, never dropping more than a foot behind the wheel in front, and always being in the drops when you’re in front on the flat or downhill. it’s all the little things that add up and make the difference in time trials. any wasted energy just meant we got less out for all our hard work, and we’d just be chasing for longer. i relied heavily on the fact that the real smart riders were either in the real tour de perth, or with pete and stu in the support race.

as we approached the descent to mundaring weir, i saw a few small bunches totaling maybe 20 or so up ahead. i knew i could catch them on the downhill, so backed off the chase a little.

around that time we caught another bike, who stayed with us and shared the load a bit for 5 km or so.

then the descent into the weir, and i cruised past several on the way down, and caught the first few of that bunch near the start of the climb on the other side.

we passed quite a few on the road up from the weir towards mundaring, although jerry being a doctor, is not such a risk taker, so i took it easy on the climb while he bust his guts to catch up.

it’s amazing how useful it can be to descend quickly in races. not so much by cornering fast (though that does help), but just by gaining on the fast straight downhills. around that time we caught the young riders choice guy who i stayed with till the end. He was strong and when i asked why he wasn’t with the front bunch, he replied that he was too slow on the downhills to stay with them.

that decreased our efforts in front by 30%, and meant that we could up the average speed, which we did. our new comrade hadn’t been chasing that hard till then, so was on fresher legs. we fixed that quickly.

it was fairly uneventful back to mundaring weir road; we passed a few more here and there, and the climb out of the weir was as horrible as always.
at least the conditions were perfect – about 20 – 25 degrees, little or no wind, and ok roads. somewhere along the way my polar monitor died, and reset itself, so i never established my actual final time.

another fast descent into the hairpin at the bottom or mundaring weir rd, then the very familiar climb up to kalamunda. but no incentive of coffee and ham & cheese croissant this time. just the thought of a u-turn, and more chasing. at least we’d soon find out how far back we were. about half way up we saw the leaders on their way down. i counted exactly 21 of them, spread over maybe 1km.

jerry took a split and estimated that we were 9 minutes behind the leaders at that point. we stuck together up the hill, at a moderate pace (i measured almost 10 min for the climb, that i’ve done in 8m20 on a good day). but at least then we’d been able to quantify the problem. i always tell my guys at work, a problem well defined is a problem half solved. i knew we wouldn’t catch the very front few, but a top 10 finish was possible. this race was not going to end in a bunch sprint, so the final climb would be crucial in gaining or maintaining positions.

another fast descent, and then waited for jerry and our newfound riders choice partner, before settling into a rhythm chasing the group. we saw them often in the next 50 km, but it took us until around 5km from mundaring before we caught them. the last 4 or 5 km were spent watching our riders choice mate doing all the work. He was a real legend and i did thank him profusely after the race.

somewhere at this point jerry got left behind, and ended up turning right at mundaring too early by mistake. this meant he inadvertently overtook the group at the u-turn which confused the hell out of me when we caught him up again. at the time i blamed the confusion on my mind playing tricks on me due to extreme overexertion (i’d averaged over 170 heart rate for about 2½ hours which is not good when your theoretical max is 175). once in the bunch of 12 or so i vowed to do as little work as possible from then on; and i’m pleased to say i stuck to my arrangement.

the pace was moderate but ok. we were not going to catch the front 8, so best to conserve to be able to defend any attacks, and save the rest for the final hill.
on the climb out of mundaring weir, i started to hit the wall, and fell behind the front of the group as it split up. i had to make one of those decisions which i hated doing; “how badly do you want this?”

i decided i wanted it badly. i called out to my friend called pain to stay away for a while, sucked on another carbo shot, stood up and pedaled hard to bridge a 100m gap. but i got there.

from there to mundaring weir rd climb to kalamunda i hid in the bunch, till the descent to the hair pin.

i gave it stick on the downhill, and pulled a gap of about 150m on the bunch. the legs did not feel good as i started the climb, and a chase group of five caught me after a few hundred meters. we stuck together sharing the load up the hill till the false flat where one guy broke away. i was in 5th place and shouted for the others to close the gap, but only one did. that created a gap of 50m very quickly. i made the mistake of hesitating, and then going. i closed to around 20m but then cramped in the calf, and fell back to the bunch immediately.

i was already in the big blade, but dropped down 2 gears and ground away, as this is the only thing that helps me with cramp.

that left four of us at the end of the false flat heading into the final sting of the hill.
i stayed behind till the next upward kink about 300m from the top and then kicked. fortunately the muscles behaved, and i pulled a comfortable gap of around 100m which i kept to the finish.

so i won my mini sprint up the hill, but i missed a top 10 by one place. oh well; shit happens.

nevertheless, i will remember it as one of the best races i’ve done, even though i’ll always wonder what might have been, if only ….

tour de perth support race – stage 02

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well with the first road race over and the rain continuing to fall, the time trial was looking to be an ordeal. with four corners and a roundabout to negotiate, you really wanted some grip on the road. i had brought a second riding kit with me and had stuffed newspaper into my shoes to get them to dry out so at least i would feel dry to start with.

the initial info had told us that the time trial would start at 2:00pm but the registration told us that we would start at 1:23pm and go off in 30 sec intervals. people began to warm up and get ready, when the first guys came back up from the start line to say that it wouldn’t start till 2:00 as originally advised. there were a few pissed off people around especially the opens who were already into their warm up routine. it didn’t worry me that much as my warm up consisted of riding down to the start line.

so with a bit more time to kill it was back to the car to stay out of the rain. by this time i was concerned about getting my car off the oval as it was very, very wet and the exits were muddy and slightly uphill. not much i could do about it, so i didn’t let it worry me too much. anyway, by the time my race time approached, the rain had totally stopped and the sun had come out. in such a short amount of time it had warmed up so much that it was hot in the arm warmers.

the order was reverse number with the support men and women leading out the opens. the cantankerous but funny old guy that was calling out the race numbers as riders needed to line up was a source of amusement for all who were watching. he would call a number and then keep yelling it if they didn’t show up. then when they did and tried to get to their position in the line he would yell at them for trying to come past the start line. funny all round.

well brendan was a few spots in front of me and justin was directly behind me. i was pretty sure that in just 5 km i would not be catching brendan, but i was hoping like hell that justin would not catch me. i didn’t bother with the time trial bike as i didn’t think that the course warranted it enough. it was mostly hilly with 90 degree corners that were still a bit wet. there were only two sections that i could see where you could really benefit from being down on the aero bars. the rest of the time you would be climbing or cornering.

i was given the count down and too off. it was only a short distance before the corner and i was worried about putting it on the deck, so eased off a bit to take the corner wide. as i accelerated out i realized how much my quads hurt from the morning’s effort. i kept pushing through to hope that i could squeeze something more from them. damn, it was only the first side of the rectangle course. another left hand turn, with a bit more confidence this time, and i felt like i was in a better rhythm. i guess that this was mainly because the road was kind of heading down hill.

this was the section of road that we had ridden to the finish earlier in the day but it sure felt better when i could draft behind someone else. the road eventually kicked up and i tried to maintain a steady pace without blowing it all so early. the ride was going remarkably quick in my mind, but i was still worried about being overtaken.

another left hand onto peet rd with a bit of a downhill reprieve as the road only went up after that. a last left onto raeburn rd and a sharp pinch past the fruit guy and you can just about see the finish line in the distance. it is deceptive though as it looks fairly flat but is a steady rise to the roundabout before it does flatten. this is the calm before the storm as the last couple of hundred metres are climbing to the finish.

by this time my legs were burning and my lungs were screaming, but i didn’t want to be overtaken so kept going. panting like a dog, i managed to get myself up the last section and cross the line, not knowing whether it was a good time or not but just happy to be finished. i caught up with a few of the other guys before wandering back up to get changed again and pack all my stuff into the car.

all fresh again i came back down to watch the open women and men do their times. eventually all our times were posted and i was around mid pack so i was happy that i wasn’t last. stu and justin managed better times then me but i managed to get ahead of brendan by a few seconds. josie, though, blitzed the open women’s field to get a time that was only beaten by three of the support men. results here

davina also managed a good time to come in third in a time that was also better than stu, brendan and mine.

so, with stage two down and my legs questioning me at every step, i made my way home to have two dinners and hope that tomorrow would be a nice day.

tour de perth support race – stage 01

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saturday april 5th

what a weekend. my first real bike race in around fifteen years and i was absolutely crapping myself. the tour de perth support race is held in conjunction with the open events but has a reduced race distance and one less stage. it consisted of a 104km road stage on saturday morning, followed by a 5km time trial in the afternoon. sunday then finished with a 84km tough hilly road race. luckily we didn’t have the criterium in the afternoon.

well, the race started at 8:30 for us, which is a later start than most of my rides. however, it was starting at rolleystone high school at, well, rolleystone which is a bit of a drive away. nerves kicked in a hell of a lot earlier and i was up well before dawn for breakfast and a quick (but pointless) shower. while eating my porridge with extra extra sugar on top (if it doesn’t crunch, there is not enough) i checked the bureau of met website for an update of these expected overnight showers. a pleasant 20 degrees with no rain reported in the last 24 hours. great, should be a good day for riding. then i checked the rain radar. what the??? there was a huge rain storm moving in across perth and was just about to hit the city. i checked the longer range radar and kind of calculated that the main front should pass about 8:30 so maybe, just maybe we would not be starting in the rain. what i failed to calculate was the fact that the radar doesn’t really pick up the rain so far out and although it “looked” clear, it really wasn’t.

so, driving down to rolleystone, in torrential rain, didn’t really fill me with confidence. there was so much water on the road already, that i thought that even if it did stop (and i still thought it would) the roads would be holding so much water that we would be soaked anyway. i drove up part of the course, which we have often used for our sunday rides, just to get a last look at the finishline and the crap hill we would have to come up. i was not under any illusion that i would still be near the front by the time we reached the end, as my goal was just to finish the three stages.

i signed in and caught up with brendan and stu who are regulars on the saturday and sunday rides, and also with justin who had come out with us over easter. we were all in the support race so would be either against each other or looking out for each other depending on your view of the world. davina, josie, mel and camille from the sunday ride were also there but competing in the elite women’s race. the continuing crap weather meant that most people had grabbed their stuff and had set up camp around the verandas of the school’s multiple buildings. it was still raining, but at least it was not cold and there was next to no wind.

as we approached the roll out time, josie commented on the fact that i looked nervous. i asked her how old she was in 1993 and she said three. well, that was the last time i did a proper bike race and it was a ‘c’ grade race back in ballarat whilst i was at uni. i eventually stopped racing as the early mornings in the rain, sleet and hail kind of wore me down. so here i was again, still crap weather, but at least a lot warmer than ballarat.

the start was delayed by about thirty minutes as i guess the organisers hoped like hell the weather would clear…it didn’t. we rolled up the line regardless and i had arm warmers and a vest still on. i was worried about overheating if the sun came out but it didn’t and i was “comfortable” for the duration. as we waited for the gun, some of the guys were commenting on the prize money for the support race. there were 55 guys all paying $95 to enter and if you won a stage you would get $50. with the total entry fees totally over five thousand dollars they would hand out $575 in total prize money. hmmm, sounds like there is a profit in there somewhere. i wasn’t too worried about recouping my entry fee, but more worried about a long 100km ride by myself if i got dropped early on.

so, off we went into fray. i had opted for low tint sunnies as i thought that they may protect me from direct rain drop to the eyeball attack. it wasn’t dark or humid so i thought that it may be the way to go. as we approached the turn onto brookton hwy, the group started slowing. i grabbed the brakes and nothing happened. there was so much water everywhere, the pads were aquaplaning on the rims. after a small “oh sh_t” experience i realized that early braking and generally being on guard would be the order of the day.

the rain kept the pace low but it was still springy at the back of the pack where i had taken up residence. the little accelerations and brakings made life interesting when combined with lack of visibility and a mouthful of whatever the guy in front was spraying off his back wheel.

as we rolled down the hill towards karragulen, only a kilometer or so from the start, one guy had such bad speed wobbles that he had to pull over and check his bike as something may have come loose. well, it was either going to be a hard day for him, or a quick exit from the tour as no-one was going to be waiting.

unlike the regular sunday rides, i have no idea who was attacking or what was happening at the front of the group. i rode very conservatively right at the very back of the pack, content to be in the slip stream as well as everything else that was streaming off the bikes in front. there was an attack within the first thrity km’s that took about five guys with it. the pace in the rest of the pack quickened and they were eventually caught. this was pretty much the way that it went all the way to the turn around point.

along the way the things of note were as follows:
glasses came off when they fogged a bit, but then back on when my eyeballs took a direct hit from the rain.
lots of impatient redneck big f100 style utes.
me discovering that i need about 35kms before my hamstrings don’t feel tight anymore (maybe this is why the elites were warming up on rollers).
brendan copping a coke can in the ankle from a pissed off motorist heading the other way. didn’t hurt as much as the guy whose knee it ricocheted off in the first place.
rain, rain and more rain.
then when it looked like it was easing back to a drizzle, more rain.
me looking down and just seeing water running off my bike like i was washing it.
i had a chat to stu who was also stuck on the back of the pack. he said that he was bored. i guess it was, but boring probably meant that i would survive.

so, as we headed back into rolleystone, a few more attacks went and were brought back in. no-one really gained much ground as the roads were not steep enough and the pack could easily maintain a draft.

as we past karragulen servo and headed up the hill, one guy got off the front and looked like he may stay away. no-one really reacted but the group maintained a strong pace. i actually entertained the idea of trying to catch him, but seriously filed that away in the crazy department under “don’t be stupid”. i moved up the inside trying to make sure i didn’t get caught behind once we hit the small circuit that we would take to get to the finish line. the water was coming so hard down the road that the bike in front looked like a speedboat cutting a wake in the ocean.

we turned off brookton hwy and onto chevin rd for the last five or so kms. we have ridden this way before so i knew that it would be undulating and gave people a good opportunity to attack. again, i was happy to just make it up the hill with the group. a few hairy corners and we were on the final stretch up peet road. there was a gentle climb up to the roundabout where it flattened for a bit before a steep but short climb to the finish.

some of the boys were starting to flag after hitting the previous pinch too hard and were dropping bac
k. the pace quickened as we approached the last climb and about halfway up everyone started going for it. i didn’t have much left by then so didn’t put in a big effort but tried to stay with them for as long as possible. suddenly the was a touch of wheels and someone was on the deck in front of me. not close enough that i had to stop, and luckily for me the carnage went to the right side of the road. unluckily for justin, he got forced into the curb and basically came to a stop. i continued to the line where stu had enough in him to stay right to the end and come in around the top ten or so.

no idea where i finished or my time or anything, as the organization wasn’t the best at posting anything past the top three. some guy with a name like a coffee won the stage (mattiaccio), but beyond that i have no idea. i was off to get changed out of my totally soaked kit, stuff my shoes with newspaper to help them dry and get some food into me before the afternoon’s time trial.

i did manage to get back to the finish line to see the end of the open women’s race. with a tough uphill sprint to the line i expected josie to whip everyone, but davina managed to sprint past and take the stage win over one of the queensland girls with josie taking third. it was good to see our sunday ride girls going well, as the talent pool is getting a bit old and tired amongst the sunday ride boys.

time trial next and i will have a crack at writing that up tomorrow night with the sunday stage.

saturday 5th april – hale rd

ride report by chris

the morning rain was always going to limit the numbers and both bunches totaled about 11. hey, i ran out of fingers alright and i wasn’t taking my shoes off ‘cause it was raining.
nick thought he was saved due to the small numbers for his bunch but there was 1 or two so he was committed. anyway, they elected to tag along with us guys.

given the shear volume of rain things were always going to be relatively controlled and the amount of water on the roads ensured this was the case. we set a steady pace out to hale rd and explained to nick and his group the planned route, where we would wind the pace up and the various regroup points.

normally on this ride things heat up pretty quickly as soon as we hit hale rd, so i took it upon myself to ensure this remained the case. sadly for me after a tough few rides this week and a day off crook my legs really weren’t up to much. all i succeeded in doing was firing up cade and sending bruce, ben and christophe down the road with him. with bigger numbers i wouldn’t have been too worried but given my crap legs i just got myself into a tempo and figured i’d catch them at the regroup.

unfortunately cade had a mechanical problem with what was apparently a slipping chain as he attempted to change gears and went down at speed. luckily he didn’t bring anybody else down and with the wet roads slid and didn’t lose too much bark. still no fun for anyone and a reminder that it pays to be sensible when it’s raining. once we gathered up the various bits and sorted cades bike out we were back on the road. ben headed off with cade back the way we had come whilst the remainder of us followed the planned route.

this little accident put paid to any further shenanigans and christophe and i set a steady pace down kalamunda rd. the remainder of the trip was relatively uneventful, but christophe did comment that there was no abuse since people had to keep their windows wound up in the rain. we didn’t even get one honking horn today which makes for a change, shame it had to be bucketing with rain for this rare non-event.

bruce did the right thing and headed off home once we got back to bayswater whilst the rest of us headed for the café at a much more casual pace than usual. once over the plain street hill from my perspective it’s always a mad panic to hold onto someone like pete or the pool boys wheel in the vain hope of having something left for the sprint. today however i wasn’t up for any of that and suggested to the guys that i would be the lead out man. so off i went hoping to just be able to hold it together to the finish.

i can’t have been doing too badly as will was the only one who managed to hold my wheel and didn’t have enough or couldn’t be bothered to come around at the end. so that was it, with only half a dozen of us stopping for coffee and a feed, prompt service was assured and delivered. poached eggs on toast for me, very nice.

ride routes 5th & 6th april

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i will not be able to make it this week as i have decided to have a crack at the tour de perth support race. after having not raced since about 1992-3 my body should be in for a rude shock. doing the sunday ride means that i know the hills, but am used to stopping and waiting at the top of each climb. don’t think i will get a chance to do that this week.

saturday 5th april
hale rd
Sth Perth Saturday Ride 03 (Hale Rd)
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sunday 6th april
kahuna & peet
i would skip the observatory and just got straight to kalamunda along canning rd as the tour de perth will be on the other roads. if you do see me, don’t forget to wave.
Sth Perth Sunday Ride 03 (Kahuna &amp Peet &amp Patterson)
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