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Sunday 3rd May – Darlington – Hell – Mundaring Weir – and back

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(Warning, the cycling content that you read about is only about ME. If you want to read about someone else you may need to convince someone who can keep up with the group to write a blog entry)

Sunday started like my weekdays actually. I didn’t want to wake up. What really gets me up is my obligations to others that I don’t want to let down. What keeps me up is another matter – today the riding was going to be good.

I didn’t want to let Jerard (who was giving me a lift) down, so I got into my bike uniform and packed my bike lunch on my way to bike work (you see just like a weekday except more bike=fun).

I’d programmed the ride into the Garmin and actually checked it was the right route to avoid any fiasco like yesterday, as I knew that many of our usuals were absent and we actually had a high chance of getting lost in the hills. A month or so back we had done the same ride and I got superdropped (embarrasingly on a flat transport stage through Darlington on the way to Mundaring). I didn’t want to get lost today (I’d read that the 000 people still cannot track your mobile phone, so you have to try better than “under a Commodore ute” when giving directions to the ambulance).

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,27574,25411921-5006009,00.html

Jerard was keen for a ride, having missed it yesterday while avoiding a mjor foreign affairs incident. Having got to Coode St in the comfort of the CRV, we unloaded the bikes to find a core of (quite) hardened individuals, the superstars having racing duties (or sleep duties). The route we left on was familiar as we had done it yesterday for practice. We found the missed turn off past the golf course and were happy that the usual howling headwind had taken a lie in. It was only when we approached Ridgehill Rd that I started to feel less confident, as the leaders were not sure which way to go. You can always depend on someone to know on sight which route to take and I think it was Mark D. this time. After some backstreet manouevring we arrived at the bottom of the first climb. I wished everyone well as I engaged the lowest gear for the climb (Shimano are so clever to design reverse on my bike).

After some huffing and puffing I knew I was near the top. For those who don’t come on a Sunday, you know you are near the top when you see other riders circling around looking bored and doing the last 100m of the climb again and again so they don’t cool down too much while you struggle over the crest. It’s a bit disheartening but it reminds me of a story book I read as a child.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Engine_That_Could
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Engine_That_Could

Having conquered the climb, and seen a lot of the road surface on the way up, it was time to move on. I gobbled down a weight watchers bar (less fat) and enjoyed the scenery. Those were pretty much the only things I enjoyed for the next 30 minutes or so. We had to take a detour around the roadworks which ended up being significantly more challenging as it headed up more steeply and for longer than the conventional route. No doubt it will soon become the conventional route when Punishing Pete finds out about this. Furthermore, after the regroup (more of the fast riders buzzing round), we (meaning they) set a cracking pace to Mundaring. I was however quite satisfied with myself to actually hang with the group until Mundaring and the descent part.

There was a bit of traffic around as there was a market on in Kalamunda that morning. As we were whizzing down the initial part of Mundaring Weir Rd one had wanted to overtake. By then we had strung out a bit but a nameless rider had made a move onto the opposite (oncoming) lane to overtake on the descent. The car had overtaken the back half of the group and narrowly (seemed to me) missed the rider. We don’t need more doctors on the ride it seems but insurance salesmen may be helpful. I took the descent quite easily as I knew that there was a bit of a climb out of the weir. Russel had joined us by this stage and I was following to check out his swerving. He seems to do OK for someone with sich a high centre of gravity. It felt like I was drafting his rear derailleur.

On the climb up, it was bye bye again to everyone else. I stuck behind Russel because I couldn’t ride faster, and his back wheel gave me something to look at besides the road surface. I learned that his hub was made by Tune, and that he has a long cage derailleur that still doesn’t have enough chain capacity if he is on the smallest chainring and on about the 15 cog. He also has quite a clean chain, but I couldn’t pick if it had 114 or 112 links.  Luckily I also had my power meter to distract me from the work at hand – pegging my output to a sustainable 230W. Mundaring Weir Rd is actually a spectacular climb as it goes up round curves, popular to motorbike owning organ donors. Not too soon the bit that goes up turned into quite a flat bit that goes up occassionally. It allways amazes me that this stretch always has some road kill on it. Today eyes came before nose in identifying it.

Russel really did a good job pacing us back to the unofficial regroup point. I say unofficial, because there wern’t the usual guys on bikes riding around. They were having a rest. We rolled past, and I knew what was happening – the preparation for the final timed attack of Mundaring Weir Rd. It was interesting to see the lengths that people took to gain advantage, like emptying their drinks before the climb on the descent. May not be very safe to have a puddle of cytomax on a bend however. All good things must come to an end however, and it was again time to fly up the road  (or flap about in futility). I was going to time it, so I chose a relatively sustainable 240-260W to sit on and actually was not being dropped the way I usually do. There is comfort in the familiarity of the turns of the homeward stretch so close to coffee and it seems easier than other climbs (also probably because it is). With a bit of a puff, I got on to the quite flat bit and continued the pressure. There obviously must be a bit of psychology involved because sustaining higher wattage on the flat seems mentally more difficult than when going up which seems absurd. The time speaks for itself – 10:28 (room for improvement), but in reality I don’t think there is much more without losing significant weight, or improving the power.

The shop was packed out as every cyclist in Perth had taken advantage of the weather and chosen to visit the market. After an all too brief break, we made for home.

(The story will now be retold in point form to cut down on employee slacking, reading the blog during work – and I have to get to sleep).

1) Ride back notable for an (Whinging English) pensioner in a Magna with a screechy wife who need to read the road rules regarding riding two abreast on dual carriageway. We appologise for making you 47 microseconds late to your pressing engagement. However you probably made up that time when the wheelspin form your tyres settled down.

2) Nev and myself inadvertantly leading the paceline down Welshpool Rd East. I don’t know which one of us was hurting who, but I’ll call it a tie until….

3)Timetrialin’ Mark had enough of going at 35 and made us go at 45 down the rest of Welshpool Rd until Leach Hwy – does make you tired following him round.

4)Always time for a sprint at the end (when everyone else has turned off home) – watch the traffic though.

5)My goodness – back in South Perth by 1130! Room for another cafe stop! (Must stop complaining about pace of ride)

LeKuan

sunday 30th november – soldiers rd and canning mills

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ride report by peter.

 

after a successful outing on the bike yesterday, i decided to have a run at the hills to really test out how bad this cold has affected me.  dr ronny’s big brother kenny was in town from over east and ronny wanted to make sure we took him out to see some hills.  there were a number of our current routes we could have followed to show him the hillier parts of perth, but instead i mapped out a new one that meant that we had to go exploring.  this is always dangerous as sometimes google maps does not exactly match the real world.  i tried to add in a number of climbs that we generally have only done as descents.  solidiers rd being the main one as this is one of the best mid-ride descents that we do when we head out to ride around rolystone. 

about 20 or so riders toed the line this morning and dr paul and mark kicked things off with a couple of jokes.  if you have every shared a table at the coffee shop with dr paul, you know that this can be a very dangerous thing.  but always very funny.  we headed out to albany hwy for a pleasant and uneventful trip to the base of the kahuna.  we were not headed up the kahuna, but this was the back way into kelmscott and kept us off the main roads.

we then headed towards the base of canning mills rd which loomed large above us.  i was saving this for later so we turned off just before the climb started.  a slight detour and u-turn and we were soon on brookton hwy and going up our first categorised climb.  this was a short section of brookton and was only to get us to the start of soldiers rd.  it was only a cat 2 climb as the grade was not steep and the distance short.

stu set the pace from the start and i sat on his wheel.  a couple of looks over the shoulder and the group was still pretty much together.  it was going to come down to a sprint and when we saw the turn off, stu, kenny and i wound it up.  it was a short sprint and then we had to negotiate a right hand turn to get into soldiers rd.  i will be changing parts of this route soon.

stu – 5, peter – 3, kenny – 1.

 

i cannot remember the climb up soldiers rd.  we have done it before, but it was probably well over a year ago, if not longer.  i can remember coming down it so many times, but the grades and distances are deceptive when you are descending.  we took off with mark and john leading the charge.  it starts with a quick descent followed by a sharp uphill before leveling out for a bit.  by the time we hit the main part of the climb, a group of 5 had established themselves at the front.  stu was on the charge again with brendan marking him close by.  kenny was climbing alongside and seemed to be doing it easily while jerry and i sat at the back hanging on as best we could. 

the lower slopes with the nice hotmix surface were not too steep and no-one could really get away easy.  as the road wound its way past churchman’s brook dam, it steepened up somewhat and the corners made it hard to know what was coming next.  the corner where scott came off ages ago was actually quite steep when tackled form this direction and this is where brendan made a move.  he said later that he had a look at stu’s heartrate monitor and thought that he was almost at max, so to hit him now.  kenny easily went with him and i had to chase to try to get on. 

i didn’t quite make it but kept the pace on as best i could to stay ahead of stu and maximize points.  i was losing ground to brendan and kenny who were engrossed in their own tussle with little attacks on each other to see who would crack first.  stu made up a bit of ground a couple of times, but i was constantly looking over my shoulder to see where he was and make sure he didn’t creep up on me.  on the last few pinches of the climb, brendan managed to shake off kenny and had a nice gap at the top.  a flattish section to the line provided a nice run for me to time trial up to kenny and pass him within about 50m of the finishline.  sorry, but i needed the points.  stu dropped jerry but he managed to hold on to fifth place.

brendan – 10, peter – 7, kenny – 5, stu – 3, jerry – 1.

 

we regrouped and headed down canns rd another road we usually do the other direction and this time it made a nice change.  at the bottom we turned into carawatha but the other side from which we usually tackle.  the descent is always fast so i expected that the climb would be hard and it was…a bit.  it wasn’t as hard as the f_ckenberg and it certainly wasn’t easy, but overall it was a bit short to really cause any damage.  everyone is usually panting when we come up the other side, but this side didn’t seem as brutal.  kenny had shot up the hill like a rocket and brendan took off after him.  it was a bit too steep for me and stu and jerry also left me behind.  as it was not that long, there was no time to make up any ground and that is the finishing order.

kenny – 10, brendan – 7, stu – 5, jerry – 3, peter – 1.

 

we changed the route somewhat and headed down the other side of carawatha and onto albany hwy.  as we turned onto brookton and about to head towards the base of canning mills rd, there was the depressing sound of air leaking out of a tyre.  michael had another puncture.  i think starting next year we will have a page of the most punctures during the saturday and sunday rides.  i’m sure michael will “win”.  as we pulled over to watch him change it, someone wondered out load where melvyn was.  he was definitely with us a the top of the last climb, but had managed to disappear.  i rode back up to the base of carawatha but didn’t see him.  as i rode back to brookton, i heard him yell from a side street.  he had got a puncture and had rolled around the corner to change it.  i was lucky to see hear him as i didn’t see him at all.  i rode back to the group to let them know what was going on and so we could wait for him.

we headed towards canning mills rd and to the dreaded climb.  this is not a favourite of mine as it is just too steep for me to get into a proper rhythm.  kenny and brendan took off up the road again and left me to my own world of pain.  as i kept them in sight for a while, i watched kenny put in a number of attacks on brendan to try to break him, but he just set tempo and pulled him back each time.  i eventually was past by stu but tried to keep him in sight to not concede much ground.  i was starting to struggle a bit and found holding the effort for a long time a challenge.  i started slipping back but it wasn’t till hugh caught up to me that i thought i better pull my finger out.  a few hard pedal strokes and he was off my wheel.  i kept the pressure on as best i could and eventually caught up with stu.  it was close to the top of the climb so i continued to push to make sure he didn’t come with me as the hill flattened out.  i saw brendan and kenny in the distance and i thought that i may be able to chase them down.  however, they were playing a chase game of their own so were pushing a big gear as well to stay away.

i eventually made it to chevon rd and the official finish line but brendan and kenny were nowhere to be seen.  they had continued up the road to the end.  stu kept plugging away and stayed ahead of hugh till the end.

kenny – 10, brendan – 7, peter – 5, stu – 3, hugh – 1.

 

we took off along chevon rd and headed towards karagulen servo for a quick stop.  the chevon rd used to be used a lot by us but back in the old days where we would only do one or two hills on a sunday.  those days are long gone.  a quick refill and we headed to pickering brook.  a truck was held up as we climbed one of the bonus climbs but provided a nice draft for a couple of us as he slowly came past.  nice to climb a hill with no effort.  quite a few turned off as we headed through bickley valley as some were headed home while others were looking for a quick way to the coffee-shop.  michael and mark managed to get a nice break on the rolling hills through bickley and started the last climb with a buffer.  this has worked in the past for some riders and they were a dangerous pair to allow to escape. 

as we climber the last little pinch before the mundaring weir climb, kenny changed down from the big ring wth an almighty crunch.  chain off and he was stopped.  bad timing, and this put him out of contention for the climb.  i was also just off the back as the days efforts and lingering sickness were taking their toll on my energy levels.  by the time i started the climb, brendan, stu and jerry were up the road.  i couldn’t push my cardio up for an extended period so thought it best not to chase.  being a sadomasochist (cyclist) i put it in the 53×14 gear and pushed a 40rpm seated cadence all the way to the top.  i picked up and past a few riders but john managed to stay just ahead of me the whole way.  just as we reached the last pinch, we saw another rider up ahead.  it was mark hanging on to fifth spot and he was nervously looking over his shoulder to make sure he held it, which he did…just.  in retrospect if i had pushed a descent gear at a constant tempo, there wasa  chance i may have caught him and grabbed a extra point.  unfortunately not the case.

brendan – 10, michael – 7, stu – 5, jerry – 3, mark – 1.

 

at the end of the day this meant that brendan was now 1 point ahead of me on the total november mountain points.  that one extra point would have been good, but as he has “won” the weekly overall for two weeks, he would have still been ahead on a count back.

i’m getting tired and running out of time so i will summarise the return trip.

  • coffee shop was good if not a bit busy.  there was a table booked where we usually sit.
  • no land speed records today on the descent as the wind was not favourable.
  • mr dickhead was in a small 4wd and decided that two lanes were not enough and passed us very close which made mark comment on the apparent small size of the drivers manhood.  he took offence to that and words were exchanged.
  • no sprint along welshpool but john and melvyn did the work along the entire stretch.
  • a pretty messy sprint along berwick as traffic was everywhere and taking up both lanes.  either melvyn or brendan got there first.

 

so, i made it to the end even though my top end is still a bit clogged up.  a week off the bike didn’t heal me, so a week on the bike is planned for this week.  see if i can blow it out of my system, or just blow up my system.