ride report by heiko/jens

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…

Happy Birthday!