ride conclusion by ryan.

as pete peeled off to go home, i was thinking to myself ‘one less person to drag across the finish line’ but as it turned out, we lost many people along canning highway, including bruce who had been looking spritely on chris’s mavic carbones (i was looking forward to a decent show down in the sprint).coming over the last rise on canning highway before we go past berwick st, cade pulled off the front with his friend in tow, i decided to let him go to assess if anyone would follow. sure enough, peter dawson picked it up a little and started to bridge the gap on cade and his mate (who had now dropped off cade’s wheel i think), so i decided it was time to catch up so went past peter dawson close enough to let him on my wheel (just to seem sporting) but he kept going straight anyway.

i then caught up to cade who was beginning to fade, i told him he was not allowed to fade now as we had to keep on going. unfortunately the lights where canning meets the causeway were red and cade and i had to stop allowing the others to catch up. i took off slowly and let everyone go past. some people picked it up at the front and people started to drop back going over the causeway. i was watching the front and keeping my distance at the back, none of the real threats were left in the pack but i did notice a shadow following me as i rode around people getting dropped.

a look over my shoulder confirmed my suspicions as there was jerard watching my wheel closely (well i hope it was my wheel, lucky i did not have my white knicks on today as jerard was looking special in his white pinarello get up and people may have started to ask questions) and keeping nice and close behind me.

coming down riverside drive, we were doing a decent speed and i noticed cade had gone off the front. i decided to go just after the first set of lights, i changed down into a heavy gear, stood up and engaged my whole body into a few seconds of acceleration which saw we passing the field at a good few kms faster than they were travelling, i was then bearing down on cade at a rapid rate of knots and when i past him, i heard him make some sort of moaning sound but i feel he knew in his heart of hearts he was not going to stay away this time.

after passing cade, i sat down, kept the gears heavy and kept on powering along, focusing on a strong round stroke to keep me moving forward. then about 100m from the lights, they went red (everytime coming down riverside drive this happens), i looked behind and there was noone within at least 30metres, so i sat up put my arms in the air (stretching, not gloating, i promise) and continued rolling towards the lights, just before i came to a complete stop, they went green so i took off after the car in front of me (which took longer than i would have liked to get going) as i did not want someone who had just reached the lights to come past and claim the hollow victory as we past the 60km sign (there was no steve r in the group today so should be pretty safe).

i past the 60km sign, still in front, changed into an easy gear to spin the legs a little before getting to the coffee shop. melvyn came up along side me just before we turned into the coffee shop (did melvyn take second place in the sprint?). Upon arriving at the coffee shop mickey’s group was still there (a decent size group of beginners which was good to see), so i pulled up an extra table and went off to get my coffee but upon returning mickey had taken all his people and vacated the premises. my efforts to pull up an extra table (thus putting me further back in the coffee queue) had been for nothing.. grrrr..

i was looking forward to the freeway bike ride the next day but because i had no bike, i could not do it.. i was very disappointed. short version of the story, i left my bike at a friends house for an hour whilst we went to breakfast. after breakfast we decided i would come back to watch the force play at 1:30pm (a good time to collect my bike as well i decided) but my friend was then invited to watch the game at one of the injured force players houses and decided it was a more exciting opportunity than watching it with me. i was not phased, it gave me time to have a snooze and clean my race wheels anyway. i informed my friend to let me know when there was someone at his house so i could collect my bike. well at 1am, i gave up and went to bed, i guess at least i got a sleep in on sunday, it has been a long time since i have had one of those.

it has started to get a bit cold in the morning. i actually had to go back in the house and get my arm warmers out of the drawer before i took off today. on the way to the shop i was shivering so much that i wished that i had put on the vest too. luckily it didn’t last too long, and my poor little body was warm once i arrived at the shop.

there were many a bike with lights on this morning. again a curse on daylight savings. and i’m not alone on this one, with the totally unbiased and politically neutral “the west” newspaper also highlighting the fact that the sun is not up at 7am. overall numbers seemed low, but maybe it was that i couldn’t see very far in the dark, as once we got started, i saw that the group was around the thirty mark.

today was the standard river ride loop. past the uni and through dalkeith, claremont and a bunch of other suburbs i can’t afford to live in. past freo, and pt walter then back via canning hwy and across the causeway. pretty standard loop for anyone that has ridden around perth.

we had predetermined three sections where we would increase the speed and then regroup at the end. the first came up quicker than my legs were ready for and i really felt it. but i am getting ahead of myself a bit. we cruised neatly along riverside drive and mounts bay rd before turning past the uni. these are usually sections where we take advantage of the nice flat wide road on the way home, but not this time.

the small hill after steve’s pub was the start of the tempo section and we had to get all the way to christ church grammar. i had pull off the front earlier on and was about mid pack when the pace went on. being a single lane road with double white lines, i decided to wait till the pack dispersed a bit before trying to head around. once at the top, there was the rare occurrence that we had to wait for traffic so this split the pack up a bit. worst of all it was bike traffic, so we weren’t going to cut them off.

however, it did allow cade and rob quite a bit of a gap once we finally got underway. i was in the third group with bruce and we worked to catch the second or main group that was being led out by mike b. we jumped on the back, but then saw how far ahead cade was getting so had to push the pace again. i said to bruce that i was going to chase them down and was he coming with me. we headed off to the front of the pack and started to split that group apart too. it was bout this time that my legs started to complain about the lack of warm-up. as i am getting older, my legs need longer and longer before they start firing.

anyway, bruce came around and then mike b and a bunch of others, so we began to chase. the undulating hills around dalkeith make it hard to keep a good rhythm, but a group of 10 or more that we had in the chase group meant that we caught cade and rob soon after the old hospital. the pace stayed high and as we approached the end a car decided to reverse out so we all had to slam on the anchors. bruce managed to scoot around in the other lane so the chase was on as we were close to the end. cade had his rhythm broken by the car and had enough by then so ryan and I chased down bruce. the last two corners before the end and ryan flew past bruce who hung on to stay in front of me by the roundabout.

a couple of minutes to get our breath back and allow the stragglers to catch up and we were on our way again. a pleasant cruise through some very expensive suburbs but before we knew it we were at the base of the mosman park hill. this was our next pace section and the plan was to hit the hill and the next rise before regrouping at the water tower opposite rose hancock porteous whoever’s now vacant block.

again it was a matter of getting position as the climb started as the pack spread across the lane. as it thinned out i managed to get ahead, but a couple of the boys were already bolting up the hill. from memory it was mike b and ryan. i thnk that cade and jerry was in there too, but i was busy concentrating on getting up the hill myself. the main climb and subsequent rise thinned the pack considerably and it filtered in to the water tower in dribs and drabs. a couple of minutes wait and we were off again.

the remaining route to freo was nice and gentle and the pack kept together well. even over the climb up preston point road fron canning hwy was very contained. as preston point road continued along the flat through bicton, it was suggested that we roll through as the wind was not really favourable. as a group we do need more practice at this, so we took advantage. the pace stepped up, as you would expect, but not to an unbearable rate.

turning up point walter road, the group was still fairly well together, and i wanted to keep it that way till we hit the bottom after the golf course. however, cade started up early and took off before we reached the roundabout. a few others gave chase and i eventually gave in and went with them. the rest of the pack seemed to keep together but upped the pace as well.

as we hit the flat on burke drive the pace jumped up again. we started rolling through but so had the main pack which closed up down fast. we continued that way the whole length of attadale and it was good to see the group moving through. at some point along the way we picked up peter dawson and a mate. for those in our group that don’t know who he is, he has won olympic gold in the teams pursuit and world records in the same. riding in a full “rock racing” kit (the team that mario cipollini has made his comeback thorough) i had to warn nick not to give him crap about riding in a full kit. he had previously made that mistake when cj sutton came out with us in full cofidis kit. he was only wearing it because he rode for them in the protour.

anyway, the group slowed down as we hit canning hwy allowing the others to get back on for the ride home. now the bug must have bit a few people as we started to roll through again. i wasn’t complaining as i had promised that i would be home early and miscalculated by a long way. as we cruised up canning hwy, i peeled off into my home street and onto taking my young lad to the zoo for the morning.

i will have to catch up with the others to see how the ride ended and add it to this blog later.

i’m off to the freeway bike hike tomorrow, as i ended up organising it for work again. as with the brw triathlon it seems to be the same few people at work that get it organised and if not it just doesn’t happen.

so stay safe, and if you are doing the sunday hills ride tomorrow, take note of what happens, and write it down for me. i will then post your version of events on the blog. trust me, people will read any old piece of crap you publish. just look at my attempts at writing.