Tag Archives: ridge hill

SPR Saturday Main 1 ride 14/11/2010

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Not the best preparation for this mornings ride. Beer & pizza. Can’t eat pasta every night. Woke up feeling fine.

After being weak and going back to bed Thursday and not even attempting to get on the bike Friday morning I had plenty of carbs to burn off.

Was assisted by a nice tailwind on the way to Coode St but knew it would come back to bite me on Hale Rd. Felt confident of keeping with Main 1 today so again rolled out with them.

We soon caught the back of the fast group. Fast and Main 1 seemed to kind of join together. So we had a large group rolling down Welshpool Rd.

As expected the wind on Hale road was punishing along with the pace. When I dared look at my speed it was in the high 30s so I stopped looking and focused only on the cluster of the wheel in front sucking the thing for dear life. I didn’t want to lookup, did not want a bearing of how far more this pain was going to hurt or how it would make me suffer later. Finally we rounded the bend and saw Kalamunda Rd. I think I then discovered I had Jen following me all the way. Thought he went with the fast group.

Passed three or four mountain bikers with all but the kitchen sink on their bikes. I thought they are totally mad if they plan on going up Gooseberry Hill Road.

It was about now I discovered I had not restarted the timer on my Garmin. So Coode St to here had not been recorded. I don’t know why no alarm exists for this it is so frustrating.

Seemed to have fallen a fair way back on Ridge Hill Rd. Shaw was suffering so I got in front and he sucked my wheel. On the descent he was right on my back. That is the last I saw him for a while. Feeling good I put some more effort in and was hovering around the 45kph mark. Yo yoing with another spr kit rider we started to work together to peg back a pack of three including Blair and Michael Roper.

Felt like I was doing all the work on the front but was enjoying it. Short recovery for a few hundred meters and on it again slowly slowing cutting the gap. About 1km or less from Guildford Road the gap was just meters. Few more hard pushes and we were now on the back. Instantly the relief of a draft was felt and time for a drink.

Guildford Road was great fun with the tailwind. Didn’t really look at the speed but it was fast. Small WTF moment when three riders took the right lane at some light then were stuck there for a while with cars and trucks backed up behind them. Couple splits along the way but due to some lights the group of around 7 or 8 were all together at East Perth and finished together.

Enjoyed the ride and hope I carry the form into tomorrows long hills ride.

saturday 28th nov – hale rd (fast group)

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ride report by peter.

 

a predicted max of 32 degrees is a good sign that summer is bearing down upon us.  actually it is only a few days away.  it also is a good chance that we will have a good turn out and this didn’t disappoint with around 70 or so turning up.  i had driven over to the bell tower so that i could set up a kit and bottle stall during coffee as there was still over 100 bottles stacked in my house.  on arrival i found lorraine also unpacking her bike from the car so we trundled over to coode st together.  on the way we picked up jason and julian so had begun our early social part of the ride.

once we reached the carpark, there was already a bit of a crowd milling around but most noticeable was the car and trailer parked in the middle of it all.  in the back was a bunch of malvern star oppy bikes so we weren’t sure what was going on.  after a while a couple of people got out of the car and told us that they were there all day promoting the new bikes and giving people test rides.  there was a free draw to win a  bike so a few people took up the offer and entered.  apparently, phil anderson was going to be there tomorrow to help promote the bikes as well.  now there is someone that we should try to get out on the hills ride.

with a quite big group and a big novice group as well, we all set off in search of cycling adventure.  well, set off anyway.  the route was a tried and true one with both groups heading out shep rd and onto welshpool rd before heading north along hale rd.  the main group would then head home via kalamunda and guilford while the fast group would take on ridgehill rd before returning via helena valley rd and guilford.  all nice and simple.

it was a pretty uneventful trip out past welshpool with the group being split at lights as expected.  all together along hale rd and the aim was to get the fast group to the front by the time we hit tonkin hwy.  after that we would put the pedal down and split the two groups apart.  russell volunteered to act as the paceman for the main group and would ensure that the groups split cleanly. 

after tonkin, to enforce the split, ryan and myself went to the front and started to up the pace.  russell kept the main group together so if anyone wanted to do the fast ride they had to come around and make the break.  it seemed to work well from what i could see as there wasn’t as much interaction this time around.
after a while we started a roll through, but due to the wind, had to roll the opposite way.  this always causes problems with the group and there were a few times when there was only the to few doing turns.  is soon sorted itself out and everyone rolled through well.  jarrad, after spending a week up north, had to blow some cobwebs out of his legs so shot off the front.  no-one chased him down so the group stayed together well.

crossing kalamunda rd at the lights, there seemed to be a reluctance to go to the front as everyone seemed to be wanting to save their legs for the hill.  once we got there it was on.  an early attack from alistar and others was soon pulled back as the hill continued on.  i jumped around the group to find ryan’s wheel but caught it just as bonner and he attacked.  i stayed on his wheel as long as i could but had spent most of my effort finding it in the first place.  i soon slipped back and crested the hill about 11th or so.

now i know with this ride that if you are not on the wheel going over the top then you really have to be chasing hard to make sure you are at the bottom.  i had red-lined on the hill and now couldn’t chase at all.  i watched as the group inched further away from me.  looking back there was a group of about 6 hurtling down the hill towards me.  like any good handicap race, you don’t chase to bridge the gap, you wait for the group behind to catch up so you can all work together.

at the bottom we came together but before i had a chance to work out how to chase, alistar sped past.  well there’s a wheel i thought so gregor and i jumped on board.  after a short while he began to fade so we started a roll through.  there was 7 of us and we all managed to take turns well and kept the pace relatively high.  we were not making much ground on the front group, but pretty soon they were shedding riders and we managed to pick up 4 more.  the tailwind was helping as we were averaging 45km/hr, but the pace was taking a toll and people started to miss turns and gaps were starting to appear.  we rolled into guilford and turned the corner to see the front group stuck at the first set of lights.  we got there just on the change so integrated into one big group and cruised across the bridge into bassendean.

once again the pace was on and the group rolled through keeping it high.  riders were starting to fall off the back even along the flats as the average speed was close to 50km/hr.  by the time we hit the rolling hills we had shed a few riders and would probably loose some more very soon.  there were no real attacks, but the pace did not let up through the hills and we managed to only get one real traffic light.  with an average speed of 45km/hr it was hold on for dear life for most of the group.  we picked up a few riders from the main group towards the end and hit the lights at east parade were we came to a halt.  the chase had ended so the trip to riverside drive was at a pedestrian pace as everyone was preparing for the sprint.  nico was on his tt bike preparing for tomorrow so i said that he and i should lead out.  ryan was playing his usual games and had started to drift back to find a wheel to suck so he wouldn’t come to the front too soon.  there was a bit of a gap from brendan and i to the rest of the jockeys jockeying for position and the lights changed quicker than most had expected.  i rolled through the corner and looked back to see that i had a big gap.  oh well, might as well have a crack.  with 1 km to the next set of lights, it was a tall ask on my own.  looking at the download from the garmin i managed to hold an average of 54km/hr for the first half of the block.  i then steadily declined back to 48km/hr over the next 200 metres and the group started to make some ground on me.  i was riding scared but was running out of legs fast.  up out of the saddle and i managed a small burst of speed but couldn’t sustain anything.  the lights ahead were red and the traffic was still at a standstill by this time.  i stopped pedalling as we were running out of road just as the group sprint flashed past me.  as i was slowing for the lights and since ryan had to actually go around the traffic to stop hitting them, i will claim the sprint victory.  a well deserved win by the yellow jersey.

saturday 2nd feb – ridge hill rd

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well we are into february already. easter eggs are starting to appear in the shops and pretty soon the damn awful day light savings will be over. apparently we are having the hotest summer in perth for 16 years. makes that extra hour of day light just delightful when it is still over 35 degrees with a howling wind. well you may have noticed that i don’t like it. i train in the morning and have family time in the arvo. daylight savings doesn’t work for me.

anyway, that was my little rant. today’s ride would take us back to ridge hill rd which we visited last sunday. however, instead of being a warm up climb, it would be the only one. the main reason that we headed this way was i wanted the group to come home via guilford rd. the wind was forecast to be a ene so it should have been a nice tail wind home. the rest of the route was straight forward. out great eastern, through guilford, over ridge hill, back down kalamunda rd and home along guilford rd. what could go wrong. well nothing. after broken collar bones etc, this was a pretty tame ride. i even had nothing to take a photo of, so i snapped the two waitresses that were serving our table.

again i requested that the group stay together. we would go hard up ridge hill and regroup afterwards, and stay together until bassendean in which we could go hard to get home. it all went magically to plan. steve b and dr nick led us out along the hwy and stayed on the front for a long time, but set a very nice pace. somewhere through belmont, a 4wd on the other side of the road travelling in the opposite direction yelled out some abuse. well dickhead, when you are travelling in excess of 60 km/h and yell something out your window, it all comes out sounding like blah, blah, blah. it doesn’t surprise me any more. there are dickheads everywhere.

once we got to west parade, dr nick swung off but mike b and ben came to the front. i was just about to do a turn but they insisted so i wasn’t complaining. there was a headwind too, so i was happy. we set a nice pace out to helena valley, but mike and ben were occasionally looking over there shoulder to see if anyone was going to help. i was there and was ready to take a turn, but if you have had enough on the front, peel off. we don’t have any hard and fast rules when it comes to doing work. you can easily sit in our group and not do any work at all and no-one will care. we don’t roll through unless we have to, but if you are tired, then just drop back as there will always be someone else ready to work.

so, we hit the hill with mike and ben having done a good 6 or 7 km’s on the front. good, i thought. it might wear mike out a bit. we started to up the pace as soon as the climb started, but i noticed that most of the pack was still holding on. mike set the pace and ben held his wheel. i just sat on to see what would happen. mike stepped it up again and ben dropped off, forcing me to come around to grab mike’s wheel. the pack started to really thin out at this point and i was having to really force myself to stay on wheel. the hill has a couple of steps in it and by the time we hit the first one it was only mike and myself left at the front with michael not far behind. mike kept the pace on and i was content just to hold his wheel, as realisticly i couldn’t come around anyway. by the time hit the second step, michael was on my wheel and i was stuck in a mike sandwich (not one of my favourite fantasies). we stayed that way over the top where we had about 100m on the rest of the pack.

we rolled down the other side and onto midland rd where we stopped to regroup, before kalamunda rd. we had a bit of trouble getting onto kalamunda rd as we had to turn right across 4 lanes of traffic. left hand turns are so much easier to plan for. we used to really turn it on along this stretch and i was dreading it today. however, i have been pleasantly and constantly surprised by the group as we kept it together all the way to guilford. i wanted take it easy along that stretch as it is not double lane for quite a bit of it and i didn’t want to run the risk of pissing off more motorist than we had to.

once on guilford rd and across the bridge, the road widens out and stays double lane all the way back to the coffee shop. with a nice tail wind, this was where it was going to be on. i wasn’t close enough to the front to see who went, but the group started to line out as riders hunted for a good wheel. there were a couple of guys up the road and the pack instinctively started to roll through. this went fairly well, until the right hand line disappeared and we were just in one long line. a couple of sets of traffic lights and most of the pack were back together. everyone was just kind of cruising, and probably more so, watching each other to see where the next attack would come from.

chris and myself were close to the front when the first of the continously rolling hills through maylands started. i stepped it up to see what the group would do and chris came with me. almost to the top and mike b came past both of us at quite a pace and easily formed a gap. i hit it as hard as i could and tried to chase him down. it took about a km (probably less but it felt long) but i finally caught him and thought we could work together to stay away. unfortunately roadworks and a small truck conspired against us, and we had to slow down.

as the truck acclereated out of the roadworks, steve r came around the pack and jumped on the back of it. he got a really good draft and managed to get through a set of lights that we were forced to stop at. the chase was now on to try to catch him before the city. i had to drop back into the pack as the escape with mike b had almost completely buggered me. the boys were doing a good job on the front and we managed to catch up just at the set of lights crossing the graham farmer.

there is one last little hill to go and i didn’t want to expend all my energy on it, so moved to the front to get a head start. i held ben’s wheel to the top and even though some of the boys (mike b) went hard, there were four sets of lights before the final sprint….and we got them all. so i was well rested.

we turned onto riverside drive and the last km and a half of the ride. no-one
wanted to go early, as ryan wasn’t there to do the long lead out. chris and i were on the front and everyone was just looking around. dr emma deceided to have a crack and came around the pack early on. everybody just looked at each other, unsure whether to chase or not as it was still a way to go. bugger it, i thought and went after her. up out of the saddle to ensure chris would not get on my wheel, i managed to catch, pass and then stay away from the pack till the lights turned red at the end of the road and allowed everyone to catch up. as the lights changed, steve r came around everyone and gave a two arm salute for his victory sprint. first to the coffee shop wins.
brett was waiting for us at the coffee again, his arm is now out of the sling, so a few more weeks and he may be back with us. i then spend the afternoon trying to work out how to mount the video cam on the bike. i think i got it working, so maybe tomorrow we can see some faces in pain as we tackle the hills. national olympic distance triathlon champs is on at the foreshore tomorrow, and in a previous life i would have gone down to it. now it is all about the bike.