Around 30 people showed up to this year’s Queen’s Birthday recovery ride. Although Michael explained the route to us, but as I still don’t really find my way around Perth, I just knew that we would go around the river. (You gotta love that MapmyRide feature on the blog!) On our way towards the first river crossing everything was cruisy and there was time for a chat. As we followed the river along Shelley and Rossmoyne the pace picked up and we were rolling along with the speedo hitting almost 40 km/h. Still there were people taking off at the front which kept the pace pretty high. I happened to find myself at the front with young Alistair through Mt. Pleasant along the river.
The first re-group point was after the small climb, or should I rather call it bonus climb, in Attadale. I think that one was taken out by Michael, Michael (wearing the Giro de Italia Climber’s Jersey) and Jerard, with other words the usual suspicions. However, there might be some irregularities to the actual arrival on top of that bonus hill, as I was getting hold up on the left side of the group when the smash fest started. Some of us were already thinking about the recovery of this ride by then. Despite these comments from almost everyone of us we just took it easy the first few kilometers after the re-group. The speed picked up again as we were getting closer to the turnaround point in Fremantle. Our group seemed a lot smaller now compared to the beginning of the ride, but no one really knew who was missing or if we were still complete in numbers. It might be really a good idea to introduce the buddy system.
I reckon the real split of the group came when we drove north along Cottesloe towards Swanbourne. I decided to go to the front and keep up the speed. I figured it might be a good idea to train my time trial capabilities. Right when I started to suffer a bit that small hill, well it doesn’t really deserve the name hill, came up and Michael rushed by with a few other guys on his wheel. I was really tempted to jump on the end of that group, but I was really destroyed, and no one else was really in the mood to go to the front. And by the way: did I mention the head wind?
The ride back home was quite uneventful, but still at a moderate pace. The usual attack at the hill in Crawley and the sprint along Mounts Bay Road (We need a line here!!!) ended the ride. To sum it up: I suffered quite a lot for a recovery ride, I don’t know what you guys thought…
a long weekend sunday ride will always produce interesting results as far as the composition of riders. sometimes more people turn up because it is a free day for them, other times less people turn up because the long weekend brings other plans. this weekend was a bit of a mixed bag. some new riders to our group, some others that don’t usually come and some regulars that didn’t appear at all. so we celebrated the birthday of our queen (apparently a different queen to the eastern states) with a nice ride in the hills.
the morning was pleasant and not as brisk as it has been. a very light shower was moving in from the west, but we got moving before it set in as it always seems worse when you are sitting still and getting rained on. the course today would take us down south towards armadale and up mt nasura via carawatha rd and carradine. a quick descent along solidiers rd before heading up peet rd and the rest of brookton hwy. heading towards kalamunda we would take in the observatory before heading to coffee via lawnbrook rd. all up five main climbs plus the usual bonus ones.
so around 20 of us headed along albany hwy to the first climb. two of the new riders, rick and blake, were at the front and setting quite a strong pace. probably a bit higher than we would normally do, but that is because they didn’t know what to expect today and would probably save their legs next time.
we hit the first hill as a group and blake jumped up the road with mike chasing him down. i am not really sure how that one turned out as i stayed back with lisa who was venturing out on the hills ride for the first time today. this is a bitch of a hill to do first up and i wanted to make sure she got up it alright. the steep section was a bit testing, but she made it in the end and we headed down the other side to go and tackle carradine.
we rounded the corner and blake was out in front early on. i sprinted up to join him as i wanted to see how he was going as a climber. he has only been riding for a year and a half and know that he has work to do on the hills, so davina recommended to him to do our sunday ride. i sat on his wheel for a bit before he noticed me there and pulled over to ride side by side. we chatted for a bit while i upped the pace to test him out. his breathing began to get heavy and eventually he slipped back to sit on my wheel. i left him there for a bit and listened to his breathing before slowly accelerating away. i looked back to make sure i had broken him before slowing done to ride with him again. as i have always said, cycling is about trying to make other people hurt.
davina doing it easy
we continued up the hill and were soon joined by mike and steve. they were not racing it and we kept a good pace to the top. at the last 50 metres or so, steve and i sprinted it out for the line and both threw the bikes at pretty much the same time. too close to call.
a regroup at the top and we headed along to churchman’s brook road which become the great descent down soldiers road. steve and i rode back with lisa to make sure she got down the descent well as some of the corners can get a bit hairy. at the bottom, dr mark dropped his chain so we waited for him to make sure he got going again.
after the regroup, lisa and melvyn headed straight up brookton hwy and would meet us at the gull servo at karagullen. the rest of us would have fun going up peet road into rolleystone.
my aim was two-fold. firstly i wanted to see how blake would go on the steeper climbs and secondly i was going to try to stay with either mike or stu, depending on who was going to be in front of me. usually it was both of them.
the hill started and blake moved to the front pretty well straight away. i sat on his wheel as we tackled the first steep section which would average over 10%. mike soon came by and i swapped blake’s wheel for his and held on for dear life. i thought i was going pretty well as we had made it up the first pinch and had gapped the rest of the pack. we just hit the second steeper section when mike stood up and put in a solid attack. i had nothing and could not respond at all. i just tried to maintain my tempo and hope like hell that his heart condition kicked in and he had to slow down to recover. i kept the momentum up as we veered right past urch road and tried to keep the distance between us to a minimum. as the road steepened up again, he put more into me and i was really starting to suffer. i looked back and could see stu gaining on me too. by this stage i was about 100 metres behind mike and 50 metres in front of stu. the road gradient evened out a bit and i started to accelerate.
the trick to hill climbing is to make sure that whatever effort you put in to the steeper sections, you do the same for the not as steep sections. a lot of people relax when the gradient relaxes, but this is the time to go faster.
i started to gain ground of mike and lost sight of stu as he was still further down the hill. i chased for a while but had a lonely ride from the top of the climb to the finish line at rolleystone high school. by the time i started that last little climb, mike was already crossing the finish. close but no cigar. it made me think about a mountain points table for the blog. i was talking to jeff from cyclebuzz the other day and they have sprint points on their saturday morning ride that people accumulate for both winning sprints and also just turning up. maybe we could have designated mountain and sprinters points for the sunday ride. we all try to race to the top and we all know where the sprints are on the way home, so this would just be verifying the winners each week. something i might think about anyway.
john at rolleystone
the rest of the group made their way to the regroup and doug commented that he didn’t even realise that there was a high school behind all the trees and bush land that skirt the road side. he said that he has always been to buggered to look at the signs whenever we have ridden up here before.
we jumped onto brookton highway and kept heading towards the servo. a few of the riders wanted to test themselves on the run into karagullen and sprinted off for a nice fast descent. toilet, water and food stops all taken care of and we were off again.
the group was spread along the road with little packs forming as riders found their rhythm or more than likely and nice wheel to follow. i hung back with ronny to help melvyn and lisa along. it was a pretty uneventful stretch of road.
at the regroup quite few riders turned off and headed either home of to the coffee shop. the rest of us headed towards the observatory but with a detour to take in part of the next cyclo-sportif course which will be held in a few weeks. repatriation road has a short sharp hill in it which can make things interesting when you are trying to hold a group together in a cyclo race. i just wanted to make sure i remembered how crap it was to be ready for the race.
once we hit patterson road and started the observatory hill proper, the group began to find it’s pace. no-one was attacking and there was a lot of talk amongst the front of the group. jens and stu were on the front and we were trying to egg jens on for an attack to break things up a bit. he declined the offer and fell away as stu upped the pace a bit. pretty soon it was stu, mike, blake and myself and i was happy to be sitting behind the old men as they drafted blake and i up the hill. at the last moment, blake sprinted around to get to the top first while the rest of us just watched him go. this could be even more incentive for a mountain points tally. we may not have been so complacent.
the group then headed down the fast descent and towards the final climb of the day up lawnbrook. a number of riders swapped it out on the front as people were keen to go fast down the hill. i was just keen to try to gain some ground on mike and stu before the hill started in earnest.
i changed gear and began to tackle the hill. steve commented on me being a bit too keen, but i said that wanted to get ahead of mike. too late. he quickly came up behind me and put in a big effort to make sure i was not on his wheel. i tried to tempo up to cut my losses, but i was losing more ground than i was gaining. pretty soon stu and steve caught me as well so i sat on their wheels unto the road swept left past the carmal primary school. i was pretty much spent by then and let the boys go play. by the time they left my sight, steve had already made a move on stu and was in the process of trying to catch mike.
i chucked it in the big ring and decided to smash out some se efforts instead as i might as well use the hill for something. blake eventually caught up to me and we rode the rest of the way to the regroup on canning road. next stop was the coffee shop.
when we turned up, the guys that had turned up earlier where already eating and drinking and had a table set up for us. on another table sitting on his lonesome was cj sutton as he was out training with josie today, but left her to do more intervals while he had coffee instead.
it was a good break for us and well deserved as the number of climbs today certainly took their toll on the group. we took our time at the shop but eventually had to saddle up and head off home. halfway along canning road, michael got a flat tyre so the group had to wait while he changed it. luckily he has new tyres coming this week, so hopefully that will be the end of his bad run.
doug hanging tough in the hills
we kept it together along lesmurdie rd but when we hit welshpool it was all on. the lack of cross winds during the descent meant that it was a pretty tight group as we sped down the hill. as i am still on chris’ bike i don’t have a speedo so have no idea what we were doing. it felt fast though.
once on the flats, it was on t be first to the lights at tonkin hwy. we prettu much all took it in turns to try to smash it off the front but would generally all get pulled backing before another attack would go. it was lots of fun, but i wish i had the legs to cause more damage.
the sprints at the two maccas were both taken out by blake who must be modeling himself on ryan as he hid nicely in the pack and just took off at the last minute. on the final one along berwick i tried to lead out davina, but ran out of legs leaving her too long a run with blake stuck on her wheel. all in good fun though. the points system my make that a bit more competitive.
so a good ride and we got to meet some new people and inflict some sunday pain. the weather is steadily improving and i look forward to the day when we don’t need arm warmers and vests at the start.
after the downpour we had on thursday, i was looking forward to a nice ride this morning and the weather, at least, didn’t disappoint. a bit chilly first thing, but with the predicted max of 20 and not a cloud in the sky, it was not going to take long for the day to warm up. the sun is getting up earlier as well which is making the ride to the start easier… until daylight savings comes along again. thanks for letting us vote on that one.
there was already a fine contingent of riders waiting by the time i arrived (fashionably late) but the numbers swelled to over 50 once we started. the course was an old favorite and was a good one for testing your legs over rolling hills at speed. today would contain three sprint sections with regroups afterwards. a section on scarborough beach road, one on west coast highway and the final one taking in the home run through dalkeith and mounts bay road. the course was set, announcements made and we were set to go. not quite. judd had a flat tyre. a five minute wait allowed even more riders to arrive a bit late to swell the numbers more.
as we rolled out to cross the causeway, we picked up a couple more riders and i am sure we were at about 60 strong by now. it was a gentle cruise along mounts bay and up the hill around kings park. i can remember not long ago we used to start the smashfest about now. someone was always willing to go hard along mounts bay even though it was only the start of the ride. now we were more relaxed and it allowed a bit of social time.
the group managed to get caught and split at a number of traffic lights as was expected when we get it above abut 30 riders, but pretty soon we were on scarborough beach road heading towards the coast. as we approached the sprint section, i was on the front with michael and we were discussing what landmark we need to pick as the start. there are a number of shops along the roadside and i was hoping for something memorable, like the adultshop.com, but the fast section starts at the lights by bunnings. something i will have to remember for next time in the pre-ride briefing. so we were off.
michael and i pulled off the front and let the boys have their head of steam. i drifted back into the pack but may have gone too far as gaps started to appear. i made a move to get back into the front pack and sat in the back while the pace increased. we rolled over the first hill and the group was still quite large as everyone got into a aero-tuck on the descent. we lucked out the lights and managed to get through unscathed and approached the next rolling hill. these are all power climbs and they are pretty much uphill sprints.
as we got about halfway up the next hill i jumped from the back of the group and started coming around the outside to try to make it to the front. ryan also made a move from midway through the pack and the timing was impeccable as we both hit the front with me tucked into his wheel. we crested the hill with a gap on the group and ryan kept the power on during the descent. i was content to sit in as my heart-rate was pretty much peaking by this point. we came up to the final hill and i couldn’t hold his wheel as he applied the pressure again. the group then swept me up as we crested and rolled into scarborough beach. we turned the corner and pulled up on the side of he road to regroup. there were a lot of panting riders and i could feel the blood pumping through my head.
the good regroup allowed everyone back on before we headed off down west coast highway. we took it pretty easy and generally stuck together until the small rise coming towards oceanic drive. the group had already started to splinter as we crossed the intersection which indicated the start of the next sprint section.
nick was driving the group hard and the first ten or so riders had already strung out. john was in front of me but there was no-one in front of him so he was coping the full brunt of the wind and pulled into the line. “bugger this” i thought and powered around the group and past nicj who was still pushing hard. i held the front for a while before james came around to lend a hand. we had cleared the first rolling hill and i came around again to do another turn. on the final rise the whole group (whatever remained) came barreling past and left me to fend for myself with the other dropped riders. most of us managed to catch up at the turn into swanbourne.
as i was too far back, i couldn’t get the group to stop for a proper regroup, but the pace slowed significantly as we rolled towards claremont. by the time we crossed stirling highway, i would estimate that we were probably down to 30 riders with the others still playing catch up. but the pace was on again as soon as the lights changed.
as we scooted up through the first hill into dalkeith, i looked up the road to see steve and doug had broken away and had quite a good gap on the chasers. a lack of real coordination on the chasers part meant that they stayed away till after the left hander into jutland parade. a number of the guys were doing work on the front to force the pace, but most were waiting till the final undulating climbs on birdwood before showing their hand. when it came i think jerry was on the front, but i saw ryan pull out and around as well as jens made his move. i was content to sit on wheel and watch everyone else try to match the pace at the front.
as we rolled past steves and onto the uni, we picked up young nick who was out riding by himself. he used to go on the other south perth ride, but was by himself today. i chatted to him a bit and told him what the go was for the final run along mounts bay. he was heading that way so was keen to join in.
we didn’t have to wait for the lights at mounts bay and started the final run with some speed. i got trapped on the left hand side and just had to sit and watch as guys made moves to get to the front while big nick pushed the pace along. as we got closer and closer to the swan brewery, i didn’t think that i would ever get out when a gap appeared and i indicated that i was moving. it was a bit early, but i was committed now so checked the right lane and started my run around the group. judd and another rider had already broken free by the time i got to the front and i was chasing to get onto them. as i started to fade a couple of riders moved around and it turned out to be young nick with ryan in tow. they shot up the road and i resigned myself to just getting home. event this was interrupted as a bus pulled out and slowed the rest of the group down. we then had trouble getting into the right hand lane to take the turn to the coffee-shop as there was a long line of traffic to negotiate first. but we got there in the end.
the rest of the group dribbled in and we managed to take over the café again. this won’t be a problem next week as we will be having our second group breakfast at my place. for $10 you get food, coffee, raffle prizes and a chance to reweigh the bike to account for any modifications you might have made. if you are coming please let us know (southperthrouleurs@hotmail.com) so we have an idea of numbers for the catering. thanks.
Well I guess I cannot deny the race was tough but as I haven’t done a lot of other races Australia wide I will confirm it has been my toughest ever race to date!
Brendan in Grafton
After flying home from work at 9pm on the Wednesday and quickly organising bike etc Jody and I arrived at Quantas for the infamous midnight horror flight and as per usual the flight was delayed.
After finally getting on board I quickly fell asleep and woke up 15mins prior to landing in Brisy much to Jody’s disgust who couldn’t get any sleep. After a quick chat to Davina and Luke at the Airport we got our hire car upgraded to a new Holden sports wagon so worked well with all the gear we had. We drove 20mins to have Breaky with my cousin in Brisy for and hr or 2 and headed down to my sisters house on the gold coast and dump excess equipment like my bike box and a quick hello all round and hit the road to Grafton which was at best uneventful. Finally in Grafton after a stressful week at work and lack of sleep we quickly unpacked Jody went shopping for food while I set up the bike.
Other friends from WA would arrive later in the night and on the Friday so we grabbed a afternoon nap which was overdue especially for Jody…Mates Greg and Ryan arrived and we caught up and had tea and pretty much went straight to bed as still so tired it wasn’t funny.
The next day Greg and I rode out towards Casino on relatively flat roads for a few hours and finally relaxed and the legs felt great, bike was running smooth and looking in the far distance The Great Dividing range was looming if almost teasing us. After checking the town out which seemed to be packed we caught up with the other WA people Chris, Megan and the Michael’s we walked down to rego to find out that the Michaels (Verheyen and Dowd) and myself had been placed in Division 1 with the teams, Greg (Bayley) had B grade, Chris had C grade. Chris (our WA Cycling CEO) quickly sought out the NSW counterpart and argued our case for change, so with a quick call over west to our state handicapper John Smith we ended up with the 2 Michaels wanting to try their luck against the teams in Division 1, Myself, Chris and Greg all rode Division 2. Registering was straight forward after that so we found a local pub with some awesome size pasta meals and went home to try to settle the nerves and get some sleep.
Pre-race
Race morning had arrived and although knowing I had trained extremely hard for this and the nerves/thoughts were up to the usual pre race things…
After sorting all my feed station bags for Jody and packed everything and fitted the timing chip and numbers.
We cruised down to the start on a extremely foggy morning but by no means cold as the humidity was creeping up. After watching Div 3 take off (some 100 plus riders) we wished the other WA guys luck including the SA.com boys and lined up with the 3 of us forming a pact to try to keep the race together until the climb and re evaluate after that climb (18km at 6% at the 80km into the race).
After the neutral zone no one seemed to interested to push the pace but some of the rolling hills prior to the main one were proving quite a struggle as they seemed steeper and longer than I had anticipated but none the less I still felt good and stayed in the top 10-15 of the bunch until the first feed zone and man I was warned to be fully aware at the feed zones and they didn’t disappoint! It was a nightmare everyone darting for position some people actual didn’t get anything and surged to the front that caught half of the bunch out I quickly grabbed what I required and darted off with the leaders. The Climb started immediately looking up and the looming range made me feel uneasy but tried to ignore that and focus and what was happening now. First corner a rather sharp surge came, a rider tagged a wheel on a silly inside passing manoeuvre and came crashing down so hardright next to me I saw his face eating asphalt and figured he wouldn’t be finishing today.
The pace was relentless and averaging up to 26kmphr on a 5-7% climb I thought it would have to slow, which it sort of did, but hairpin after hairpin the surges and speed were quickly forming a breakaway of around 15 riders by only about 2 km the climb. I briefly looked behind to see the carnage of riders spread down the previous 2 km. I surged myself to second wheel as we were about 2-4 abreast on the climb, the humidity was as high as I have ever ridden in and couple that with no wind and a 18km climb you can get the picture, most had their jerseys undone and flapping about water was being poured over the heads and we still had over 12km to climb! I had settled into a nice tempo and trying to surge too hard to destroy my rhythm, the mountain was filled with locals supporting and the feeling of people yelling and cheering was spine tingling and makes you wonder how amazing stages in the tours must be. By now every corner hairpin somebody surged trying to dislodge others and everyone predicted it so we all stuck together. Up till about 5km to go to the KOM someone put in an attack and we dropped a couple more and my lungs were burning like never before, the legs were surprisingly ok but I was getting worried as that last attack had catapulted my heart rate to over 190 and I knew I was in trouble. I was now on the back of the bunch and knowing only 3km to go but yet another surge saw me hit 200 BPM and I had to slow amazingly still we were doing over 25kmphr, no wonder I figured but no matter what cursing and riding position or gears would allow me to hang on to the top so I slowly saw them ride off knowing I would have to recover and smash the first 10km after the climb if I had a hope of catching them. So I drank and ate and rode tempo up the climb but with all the cars following the race I couldn’t cut the corners and with me now angry I had been dropped so close to the top I was now in foul mood until Jody and etc came past yelling out I gritted my teeth to the top.
West Aussie boys
I have never ever been so glad to reach a summit or KOM in my life! I was destroyed and wondered how in the hell I was going to race another 130km, I was stranded by myself and at the water station at the top took on heaps of water and I ate and drank all I could until another couple of riders caught up. I was starting to get my legs back and the 3 of us started swapping turns to catch the bunch. That lasted a couple of kms and 1 of them dropped off as it seems he couldn’t recover after the climb. SO the 2 of us kept on going and we could see them up the road and by now we were in the motorcade, after one of my turns the other rider I shall call him a prick as he attacked me and I had to chase but I couldn’t match his speed and had to settle to ride by myself and low and behold another climb of about 1km and I knew my race was over the cars slowly crept passed me and watched the bunch rode off, After letting out quite a few expletives and settled into a tempo ride into a string headwind after the climb.
I couldn’t see anyone behind me so I kept on going and was managing a respectable 40km ave over the undulating hills, but I ended up riding like this for another 30km before feed station 2 and was starting to slow and the wind just kept getting stronger and stronger. Least I had a stress free feed stop and after some encouragement from Ryan and Jody I headed off. Shortly after Division 1 came smashing past me well part of it Ben king was there so yelled all my encouragement left for Ben wishing him luck. Shortly after that the others well all over the road attacking each other trying to keep up with the breakaway.
By the time the remainder of the bunch caught me I had covered 60km solo and wishing I were on my TT bike! SO now in the bunch tempoing along with 25 odd riders I realised Greg was there and after catching up on details I realised he was dropped in the madness of the feed station at the bottom of the climb, so we all chatted and drank and eat and pretty much had an un eventful ride back into Inverell or so I thought. 15km out from the finish some dropped Div 1 team riders caught us and our bunch sped up rather quickly but we all starting working turns and a few attacks over the remaining downhill parts and the final 1.5km climb saw a few of the div 2 dudes get dropped as we started racing towards Inverell. I positioned myself as best I could near the front and hit out with approx 300 to go and managed 5th in the sprint and that placed me 20th and some 30mins down on our winner…
So overall an excellent run event (as you would expect) some awesome uphill (and downhill) like I have never encountered before. While very disappointed I had missed the breakon the top part of the climb I had finished with the bunch (many didn’t finish at all) and felt very good after the race with no cramping or ill effects but I couldn’t have completed this without Jody helping me along the way with feed bags etc. Will I be back next year?…more than likely!
As for Others as you probably know Davina won which was an awesome effort, Chris managed 2nd for Div 2 missing out by the barest of margins, Greg finished next to me.Michael D pulled out 160km into the race, Michael V finished with a small remaining A grade group behind us and Ben managed 6th in Div 1. So onward to a few drinks and food at the presentation and back off to the Gold coast for a well deserved holiday!
hopefully this weekend sees the return to the nice riding weather after the downpour we experienced over the last couple of days. saturday we will tackle scarborough beach rd to see who has the legs over the rolling hills to the ocean. sunday we will head south towards armadale and monday being a public holiday ride will follow the usual public holiday recovery ride route.
saturday 27th september – scarborough beach rd
sunday 28th september – carradine & peet & observatory
after the success of the launch breakfast, we have decided to hold one every three months.
the spring breakfast will be next saturday 4th oct after the morning ride.
it will be held at my place and there will be coffee, hot choc and food. cost will again be $10 and some of this money will go towards raffle prizes on the day.
everyone is welcome but if you can let us know if you are coming beforehand (for catering purposes) via e-mail it would be appreciated.
with the world champs starting this week we will be running two tipping contests free of charge. the first will be the elite men’s time trial on thursday and the second will be the elite men’s road race on sunday.
head to the tipping blog site listed above and check out the rules and the provisional startlist. tips must be in by 12 noon thursday for the time trial and 12 noon sunday for the road race.
I could already hear it when I was still in bed. The probably most horrible weather for cycling, well apart from -5 °C and snow outside, but that is unlikely to happen here in Perth.
So rain and gusty wind it was. I was already drenched when passing the Narrow’s Bridge. I was already out here in the horizontal rain so I thought there might be still two or more brave ones who decided themselves against crawling back under the blanket.
Arriving at the car park around seven I saw that I was the only one out here. It stopped raining as well now, but still no one else was here. Would I be able to find the way out to the hills? Are there still some people to come and I should wait? Am I too late? All these questions could be answered with a no, unfortunately.
So I jumped on the cycle path down the river and did a short round between the bridges. The sprint at the bell tower against myself wasn’t as fun as usual and also not as competitive. As I rolled back home the next clouds came crawling in…
I guess it wasn’t that much of a cycling morning! Should I bother getting up early the next rainy Sunday?
when you think of a team time trial you think of the old team postal boys in the tour de france. all power and grace and all working together like a well oiled machine. and then… there is the wa state champs. i’m not saying that there were no well oiled machines out there today. the plan b men’s team smashed the course and looked to be doing it well as they flew along the other side of the road from us. however, there were a lot of teams that didn’t look too oiled and i am guessing that ours was one of them.
the conditions today were nothing short of atrocious. the only thing that would make it unbearable would be a lot more rain. basically the wind was so strong, it tried to blow you off the road at every opportunity. the closest weather station that i could find on the net was mandurah which reported 61km/h average winds with gust up to 87km/h. as you expect the coast to be a bit windier, drop about 10km/h of those numbers and you still get crap riding conditions. what made it worse was the course was three sides of a square, so you didn’t just get a headwind/tailwind combination, but rather a very bad crosswind/headwind/tailwind/crosswind combination. i know i put crosswind in there twice, but it played such a big part to the day.
so, in the lead up to the event we had a choice to make. which division would we race under. as ryan is the only one in our team that does not qualify for masters, it would depend entirely on whether he wanted to race. in the end it was stu, mark, jerry and i that formed the team and we signed up under the masters 35-49 division.
the course, as previously mentioned, was loosely the three sides of a square. see attached. the first part started straight south before heading in a se direction. back south again before turning directly west to the turn around and back the way we came. the course was pretty much flat so was ideal for a team time trial and ideal to get those well oiled machines all working together. as i said, the wind through all of that out the window.
we were scheduled to start at 09:51 and would be the fourth masters team off. the open women’s riders would already be on the road before us and the open men would be following behind. there were only seven masters teams so we only had to beat four teams to get a medal. the aim was to at least get a medal of any colour.
as we prepared our gear, the rain began to fall. hard. everyone just left the bike against the cars and jumped inside to wait it out. the rain wasn’t too bad and i could live with it. after the rain stopped, however, the wind really started to blow. we kitted up and headed out for a warm-up ride. in the process of borrowing chris’ ridely road bike, i managed to also get his cosmic carbone deep dish wheels. being a time trial i decided to give them whirl to try to grab whatever advantage i could. as mark and i headed out for a warm-up, i decided that i had made the wrong wheel choice. we got as far down as where the road swings to the south-east and the crosswinds really came into effect. i found that i was having trouble keeping the bike straight and really had to fight it. we turned around and made the tailwind assisted run back to the car. i had bought my real design wheels with me which had a lower profile so swapped out the front wheel to try to gain some control. during the warm-up we could see lots of guys running full disks on the back and deep dish rims on the front. i hoped they had better control than me.
our start time approached and we discussed team tactics. basically we would straight line it doing 30 sec turns on the front. we would all stay together till the turn around but then could drop a rider on the return as we only needed three to get a finish time. if anyone got a flat they would be left behind, except if they were the third rider remaining. all good we thought. just a matter of staying in formation.
our time came and we got our count down to go. i was on the front and had trouble clipping it and had to give it a second go before it clicked. not a good start. then as we wound up the pace i went to put it in the big ring and it didn’t want to shift up. not good at all. it was working fine before, and now i was worrying about a broken cable and whether i could do the whole thing in the small ring. i eased the pressure off the pedals and tried again. this time is shifted smoothly, but i really didn’t need the extra stress.
the first couple of k’s down to where the road swung around were ok. we had a head wind, but you could get a good draft on the wheel in front and we were swapping out turns often enough for everyone to get a rest. as the road turned, we came up over a railway crossing. this is where i got my first real fright. as the bike lifted over the crest of the crossing, a gust came in from the right and gave my bike a thumping. i now was wishing i had even lower profile wheels on.
this stretch down to the right hand turn was pretty bad. we managed to organise ourselves so that we echeloned across the road with the lead rider as close to the centreline as they could be. however, we were still being hit by gusts that would move your bike to the left and everyone had to be extra careful as we were now overlapping about half a bike in order to get a draft. i found that most of the time i could not actually get down on the tri-bars as it was too unstable in the gusts. i just grabbed the bullhorns and hung on for grim death. the wind had also spread lots of dead branches on to the course and we also had to avoid them to save us from getting a puncture.
we hit the right hand turn at the 10 km mark and i was glad that we now had a headwind. before we reached the turn we could see two teams in front of us and we knew that we could make up some more ground now. one was the masters team that started 2 min ahead of us, while the other was one of the women’s teams from about 10 mins earlier. i looked back and could not see anyone after us so i guessed that we were doing alright.
i was now pulling longer turns at the front as i didn’t have to fight the crosswinds and could get into a better rhythm. unfortunately this section only lasted for 5 kms and we turned right again to cop the full brunt of the crosswinds.
the 6 kms along this stretch to the turn around was the worst conditions that i have every ridden in. i hardly got down on the tri-bars as i found the bike uncontrollable. and even when i did, i was watching up the road to see where the bushes acting as a wind break finished, so i could get ready for the gusts to hit us again. most of the time we were riding so close to side by side that we hardly formed a line at all.
about halfway down this stretch, i noticed my polar speed mount had come loose and was now precariously hanging at the end of my forks against the quick-release lever. if it swung around it would go straight into my spokes and would probably make quite a mess of either me or the bike. i kept a watchful eye on it and tried to work out how and when i could rectify the problem. as we approached the turn around i told mark and he said to sprint ahead so i could fix it without losing the team too much time. i ended up just stretching it around the skewers as well so the it could move anywhere. unfortunately it meant that the end of the cable ties was now playing a delightful tune on my spokes as they turned past. it didn’t matter. you could hardly hear anything over the wind.
we now had the same problem with the wind but now from the other side for the return trip. big gusts and hard to hide from it. being an out and back we also got a view of some of the teams that were in front and behind us. some were all over the road and others were just powering along. i was hoping the powerful ones were all in the open men’s division.
about halfway along this stretch, we lost jerry. he didn’t lose too much ground and he said that he almost made it back on, but the wind was too much and resigned himself to riding home on his own. he was not he only one to do that today. up ahead i saw an aussie crates rider who turned out to be steve, who often come out on the sunday ride. he had been dropped by his team and was now finding his own way home by turning around early.
we took the left hand turn and now had the wind on our backs. again the turns got longer as without fighting the crosswind, you could spend more energy going forward. i was very disappointed to come to the end of this stretch. we turned left again and started to negotiate the last crosswind section.
i was starting to struggle now and was having trouble holding position in the line. i couldn’t get on the bars and power along, so didn’t feel like my riding was very fliud. we echeloned to the right and as you were overtaken you had to swing down and all the way around the others to get back onto the right hand side out of the wind. we now also had steve and another lost rider hanging onto our draft to help get themselves home.
we battled along, but both those lost riders eventually passed us to act as a carrot for us to chase. unfortunately, we weren’t that hungry and i think it was actually harder to ride in formation that it was to rode solo. on your own, if a wind gust hits you, then you can easily just drift across the road and back on track. in a team time trial, you really needed to control the bike at all times as there was someone relying on your position.
finally the road swung north and we hit the final tailwind stretch for home. stu and i were stil powering along, but mark was starting to struggle a bit. i guess this is where the triathlon background of the two of us comes to the fore as mark recognises that it is an area in which he has not done much training. we powered up to the finish and mark was calling for us to ease off as he was losing the wheel. we were yelling at him to go harder as it was only the last km and he needed to give it everything. stu and i rode side by side to try to give him a bigger draft area and we managed to cross the line in 1:08 for the 42 kms. i was so glad that it was over. the wind and the openness of the course made it one hell of a tough day.
we waited for jerry to finish before we headed off to the cars. a team from bikeforce southern river was behind us and a couple of those guys were the ones doing all the work at last weeks cyclo-sporitf race. they said that they got 1:10 or so, so we knew that we had at least one team down. three more to get a medal. we got changed but left the spr gear on just in case we actually reached the podium. unfortunately the presentations didn’t start till about one o’clock after there was some delays in getting the timing for the juniors organised. this gave us an opportunity to wander down into pinjarra and grab some food etc before hand.
after a two hour wait we still didn’t know if we got a place or not. i was already over my expected home time and had to ring and explain that there was a good chance that we got a medal. i was hoping that we didn’t all just sit around and wait for a fourth place.
state team time trial silver medal
in the end our time was good enough for second place and my second state masters silver medal for the year. we were pretty happy about it but would have a lot of work to do to make up the 6 min the first place guys managed to get. the first open men’s team managed to clock it in under 1 hr and blitzed the next team by six minutes as well.
steve’s team came in third to get him a bronze medal in the open division, while mel, josie and sarah managed to narrowly hang onto first place by about 10 or 15 sec. bec’s team took out third in the open women and took home a bronze.
so, a good result for an absolutely awful day on the bike. we were all pretty happy to get a medal and it made getting out of bed this morning worthwhile. i doubt we would have made the effort for just a sunday hills ride.
