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sunday 14th sept – cyclo-sportif, york (spr team 01)

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race report by peter.

as far as racing in perth goes, nothing can come close to the popularity of the cyclo-sportif events. however, as the organisors will tell you, it is not racing but a participation event. as such, the different format today gave others an opportunity to see how a real road race is run. instead of the normal team time trial format, this event would be a grand fondo mass start event. well mass enough to head off in groups of around 40 – 50 riders with 2 min between each group. as such the “no drafting between groups” rule was not in effect likewise the “stick together as a team rule”. this meant that we could form big groups and work together as well as drop team mates and not have to slow the whole group down to allow them back on. not that we were going to do it deliberately, but there would be other groups that would dictate the pace.

so, getting ahead of myself a bit again.

the event was to be held at york which, from previous experience, meant open roads with lots of crosswinds. it was not forecast to disappoint. the course would take us north to spencers brook before turning west towards toodyay, but not quite hitting the toodyay shire border. there is a bit of a dispute with the toodyay shire after they stuffed around the cyclo organisation earlier on in the year. it seems that 600 cyclists with supporters is an inconvenience to a town. the toodyay event this year was moved to lancelin. because of this, the advertised 108km event would be shortened to just under 100km.

so, as this event was not being run like a team time trial, we opened it up to anyone that we normally ride with as opposed to the normal race team. we were also keen to get a few riders into the 70km event so that they get a taste of racing rather than just coffee rides. at the end of the day we had a team of nine in the 100km event and a team of six in the 70km event. lorraine’s version of events for the 70km race have already been posted below, but well done to those guys and girls as for all of them it was the first event of this type they had been in.

in the 100km event along with myself, were, mark , mike, dr jerry, michael, dr mark, doug, ben and carlo. it was the latter four’s first time at a cyclo event and it would be interesting to see how they held up.

as we were a new team and had previously been riding under the rio tinto jersey, the organisors did not know our form and as such put us in the last group to go. i did a bit of negotiating and managed to get us into the third group alongside the current rio tinto riders. it would be interesting to see how this event would play out with such a wide range of skills present in each group.

we headed to the line and i noticed how tight my quads were. i had spent the entire previous day building a play-bench for ben and was now paying for the constant squatting and drilling and cutting wood. it was not a good sign for the start of a race but i was hoping that they would get better as the day wore on. pretty soon we were off.

our group was quite big and probably contained about 50 riders. with no real organisation the group was all over the place from the gun. mike suggested that we do single turns at the front and peel off, but i was keen to see how the rest of the group would actually work before i committed our team to dragging everyone around.

so, what happened instead was riders would go hard at the front and start to smash the group apart. we were guilty of that also and slowly but surely we dropped riders from our group and picked up others that started two minute in front of us. after about 10 kms i decided that i we needed a bit of control. we had already lost doug, dr mark and ben to an earlier surge up a undulation and they got caught in the back of the group. we had lost all the rio team except jens who had stuck with us on the surges. the majority of the group was made up of our spr team and a team from southern river bikeforce.

as i said i eventually got sick and tired of the chaos and rolled to the front and started yelling at people. we got a roll through happening. mike was concerned that we were chasing down carlo and jens who were currently up the road. i said that it was way too early and they would not stay away from here, so we will pull them back and just maintain control for now. some of the other teams were concerned that we would roll through too hard, but i reassured them that we would just do this to keep out of the wind.

it was all going fine, although some people needed a reminder every so often when they would not hold a wheel properly and let gaps appear. also, whenever something out of the ordinary (i.e. railway crossing or corner) appeared, the group would lose it impetus and have to be reminded to roll through again.

after the left hander at spencers brook, we came across a railway crossing that was at an angle. the rider next to me swerved to avoid the guy in front who had turned to get his wheel perpendicular to the tracks. the guy next to me had his front wheel slip out as the track was damp from the light mist that had been present all morning. he came down with a thump and jens narrowly avoided riding straight into him. we looked back briefly, but kept going.

we were now riding almost straight into a headwind and along the way we dropped a whole bunch more riders. pretty soon it was the southern river guys and us along with maybe a handful of different individuals that had lost their teams.

about halfway along this stretch, mike took off. not a deliberate attack, but i think he broke away on a small hill and just kept going. carlo soon bridged across to him and the two stayed out front for a while. now whenever a southern river (or ss riders as that was their race number) tried to move off the front, mark would just swing off with them causing the group to snake along the road. when asked why he wasn’t doing a turn, mark replied that he had teammates up the road so he wasn’t going to chase them down.

this continued for a while and i thought that it was a good opportunity to exploit it and try to bridge across to mike and carlo. i was on the back so sprinted to get around the group and managed to gap them as they were still stuffing around. i got about halfway across the gap and looked back to see jerry on the front of the pack, chasing me down. i sat up as i didn’t want mike and carlo to be caught. i asked jerry what he was doing and he asked me why i was chasing down my teammates. i said that i wasn’t as i had a gap and was trying to bridge across but he was the one that was dragging the rest of the pack along. we drifted to the back and had a talk about tactics. it was decided to just leave mike and carlo out there and see how they did.

from then on it was up to the ss boys to do the work, so we left well alone. they did an admirable job and mark commented how they didn’t once complain that we had stopped working. as we approached the turn around, the other two groups in front of us came blas
ting back along the road. that tailwind looked good and i couldn’t wait to taste it.

just before the turn we got to see how far ahead mike and carlo were, and the gap did not seem too great. at a right hand corner, one of the ss boys went left for some unknown reason, so the rest sat up to wait for him. i tried to take advantage by attacking to see if i could get across to mike. mark also made an effort, but when i looked back, they had started to get organised and where chasing. i sat up again and found my place at the back of the pack.

the tailwind turned out to be not quite a tailwind. as the road turned the wind came from every direction but mostly was blowing across the road. our group was strung out trying to get a draft and the ss boys were doing a good job of forcing us into the wind or risk riding on the other side of the road. i think we lost a couple more riders along this stretch and it was not surprising. if you didn’t get in the prime draft position, it was a hard ride.

after the turn at spencers brook, michael dropped to the back and was bouncing his back wheel in the tried and true method of checking whether it was flat. i had a look and it was pretty soft from what i could see. i bid him farewell and he stopped to change it… three times.

the remainder of the race was pretty much the same. the wind was now coming across from the right and was quite strong. the group echeloned across the road, but that really only gave protection to the first 4 or 5 riders before the rest of us had to line out behind. this meant that we were exposed to the wind for the rest of the ride.

mark had got around that problem by joining the ss boys in doing some turns at the front. he wasn’t chasing but gave a hand to set the pace and i allowed him to stay out of the wind.

i had no computer as i was still on chris’ bike so i didn’t know how far to go. it was probably the last 15 min or so that my legs began to cramp up on a small rise and i fell off the back. i was in damage control mode for the rest of the ride and just did what i could to get to the end. luckily i was picked up by a couple of total triathlon guys for the run into town and they gave me a nice draft home.

so, as is the format of cyclo-sportif, we all headed to the town hall for lunch. with over 600 riders, the logistics of getting everyone fed is quite a job, but they manage to pull it off at each event and I have never known anyone to go hungry. a few awards jerseys are given out for the bravest, strongest and stupidest riders as well as a bunch of raffle prizes.

so at the end of the day, the results were based on the combined time for the first four riders. I had missed the briefing as I was chasing down carlo to give him his race number and didn’t hear that bit of info. luckily for us mark and jerry stayed with the group and with mike and carlo up the road, my time didn’t matter. however, as we were actually competing against all the teams, not just the ones in our group, we probably should have just all worked together and may have got a better overall time. we will know for next time.

sunday 14th sept – kahuna & other climbs

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ride report by stu

7:00 – leave front door – looks like rain. Go back inside to get rain jacket.
7:02 – leave front door again.
7:04 – arrive Coode St. Nobody there. Think. Am I so late that they have all left? Or, are the conditions so bad and am I so mad that nobody else is coming? Maybe.
7:06 – decide that I’m riding anyway, so cease pondering madness and weather, and follow the designated course in case other nutters abound.

Nice tailwind, so contemplate changing course to get a nice time up Welshpool Rd hill, then decide I don’t relish such a big pain shot. Lots of lonely fun riding around the hills, so much so that eventual arrival at Kalamunda cafe prompts another loop down the zigzag and back up Gooseberry Hill. Further contemplation of forever riding in loops around the hills to avoid the strong headwind home, when reality strikes – no magic carpet is going to take me home. Damn. Go home. The End.

Hope you guys had more fun than that…

sunday 7th september – greenmount & parkerville & mundaring

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ride report by peter

a quick head count this morning and i think we had around thirty riders at the start. the nicer weather combined with some father’s day presents (the gift of being allowed to ride) may have assisted with the numbers.

today’s route was a pretty standard one with a trip up greenmount before a detour through parkerville finishing off with a passage past mundaring weir. we were looking at around 95 kms with quite a few climbs, but this particular route had quite a lot of transitional sections where we would be just cruising between climbs.

with my bike in the shop (long story) i had borrowed chris’ ridley for the week or so. this used to be the top of the line roadie, but now has been relegated to his wet weather bike. with the impending birth of a little chris less than three weeks away, my riding may be the last action this bike sees for a while. i did take out my time-trial bike on the saturday ride, but it is not really suited to the hill climbs and is very hairy on the descents.

so, what was the bike like??? well i don’t really know. it’s not that i didn’t ride it, it’s just that i can’t really tell the difference from one carbon to the other. i could crap on about lateral stiffness and vertical compliance, but really, it just rode like a bike. i really don’t know how the bike reviewers can pick little nuances between frames. i guess they are on different bikes often enough to be able to spot the difference.

we rolled out along great eastern hwy and through hazelmere to take the back way to the base of greenmount. this used to be the way we went when the group was quite small and needed to be off the main roads. we have since adapted the route as it used to jump on the bike path to access great eastern after we past underneath it. i think now we may be able to just stay on great eastern the whole way as the majority of it is double lane and traffic is light.

anyway, our convoluted way of reaching the base meant that we actually started the climb before we were back on the main road. once we turned and headed up the climb proper, brendan and i set the pace and were waiting for mike or someone to come around and attack. our tempo kept the group quite large and the lack of attacks meant the people hung on for longer than expected. brendan finally pushed a bit harder so that he could get in front of me and let some others come around. it wasn’t an attack and the amount of kms he has been punching out in readiness for the grafton-inverall race in two weeks, it was no surprise he said that his legs felt a little heavy. mike came around to force the pace, but again no-one really attacked. the group had settled to a final seven, with mike, brendan, carlo, ben, steve, mark and myself all sticking together. it was a good pace and i think i would have been in serious trouble if they had started to light it up halfway up the climb.

we regrouped at the entrance to the john forrest national park and did a pretend headcount. there seemed to be a few missing and apparently a handful turned off once we hit great eastern and headed back for a flatter ride.

the road through the park isn’t particularly nice and is dotted with pot-holes and soft edges but everyone seemed to get through ok. the road surface is very aggressive too so it tends to wear you down a bit as you really have to power through it. we had one turn to make up oxley rd and i fell back to make sure the group all got to the turn ok. the climbs starts within 100m of the turn so i accelerated around the group and started the climb with as much momentum as i could to try to gain an advantage. it is a steep, tight climb and you can’t see the next part of it till you turn the corners. if you have not done it before, it can be quite demoralising.

mike and carlo sped past me like i was standing still and headed up the climb. i was trying to set myself a tempo to survive to the top when ben casually came past. he commented that the boys in front could not possibility keep that pace up the whole way. i was hoping for a bit of a self destruction, but it never happened. brendan also picked me up before the climb reached the plateau and the four of them stayed in front once we hit the regroup point at the summit of the next uphill pinch.

we picked our way though the back blocks of hovea and through parkerville to the extra bonus climb that would take us back to great eastern hwy. brendan and i were setting the pace up the first couple of pinches but no-one was really getting away. steve came around at one point but brendan pit in a bit more power to put him in his place. no real serious challenges on this climb as since it was a bonus one, we were just tempo riding the majority of it.

at the regroup at great eastern we lost a few more riders. the departure of holly and bec along with josie and sarah cut our female riders down to two remaining. a couple of the guys also called it a day opting for the nice descent down greenmount to the inevitable slug past mundaring weir. in retrospect, it may have been the safer option.

as we came along phillips rd just out side of mundaring, disaster number one struck. we were neatly formed up two abreast, no traffic, no wind, no really pace. i was just moving to the front to let the pace makers know where we would regroup when i heard the sound of gravel under foot and a bit of a yell. i look back to see dr mark had got his wheel off the edge of the bitumen and suddenly sliding out from under him. he comes crashing down in front of the riders behind and some had nowhere to go. mike careened into him and i saw him take a forward/side roll over the top and carlo also headed straight into the carnage and over the top. bruce (who was out for his fathers day present) had to brake hard and managed to stay upright, but smashed his wheel straight into dr mark’s shoulder.

we dragged everybody off the road and got the bikes clear as well. dr mark said that he was ok, but we wanted to wait a bit for the adrenaline to wear off a bit to make sure he really was. there was a bit of running repairs with some bent brake levers but everything else seemed in order. i got dr mark to rotate his cranks a bit to make sure that the rear derailleur was ok. it looked a bit crooked, but it seemed to run through ok. we saddled up and kept going, thankful that there were not real injuries and no blood at least.

the group seemed a lot more subdued as we headed towards mundaring weir and the pace was reasonable. it picked up a bit as we headed down that final dip and climb that precedes the long run into the weir. i was hanging back making sure that everyone was ok and talking to brendan and steve. we could pick up most of the group on the main climb so were not too concerned about the gap opening up. as the road pitched up i came past dr mark who was changing down gears to take the climb. there was a distinctive clinking noise that i didn’t think sounded good, but dr mark did not seem concerned. i came up over the climb and briefly looked back to see him stopped by the side of the road with brendan and steve looking at his bike. brendan waved me back and what i saw would make any bike owner cringe.

that distinctive clinking noise was the rear derailleur touching the spokes as the wheel went around. it had taken a blow when he went down and the drop out must have been bent sufficiently well enough to move the derailleur off line. it caught in his spokes and ripped the derailleur off and was sitting above the cluster when i got there. no chance of a ride home now hence disaster number two. dr mark’s first option for a pick up was his wife who had gone to melbourne so this made it hard. after a few phone calls he managed to get a taxi to come and get him. he told the three of us to keep going as he would be ok.

we were in no mood to chase down th
e group and just settled into a easy rhythm on the climb out of the weir. towards the top we picked up davina who was not having a good day in the saddle. it was pretty much a tempo ride to the coffee shop so nothing to really write about.

the return trip was a bit more exciting, and i was keen to see if chris’ bike would be different on the descent to mine. we almost all kept together for the majority of lesmurdie rd so by the time we hit the fast section of welshpool, we had a group of about eight. as the pace increased past the servo, i got stuck behind jens and anna who wer not accelerating as fast as the others. i came around and pushed hard to try to make up the ground between us. by the time we reached the bottom i was about 75 metres in arrears and they were still working to extend the gap. i have no idea of my speed on the descent as there are no speedo’s on this bike, but it felt fast.

stuck in no-man’s land, i had a choice of sit up and wait for anna and jens or push on and try to catch a bunch of about five riders. i had nothing to lose so i decided to switch to time-trial mode and see what i could do. it felt like ages and i didn’t really seem to make a dent on the gap. i was starting to feel lactic in the legs but thought that i should just push on regardless. as we turned past the vet clinic, i noticed that i was gaining fast as the bunch had split and was chasing two others. i powered past and came up behind brendan and mark (i think). i still had momentum to i just kept going till we approached the lights at tonkin and mark and brendan came around me again.

all safely down from the hill and it was easily an extra 5 degrees warmer on the flat. we had a nice run home made even nicer with no-one attempting a sprint along welshpool as we headed towards maccas. it looked like everyone was saving it for the berwick finale. as we turned onto berwick i ended up on the front as traffic dictated that we needed to go single file. as we got a good run on the lights, i ended up on the front all the way to the end.

as we came down the hill towards maccas, i was constantly looking behind me to see when the move was going to come. brendan was on my wheel and i was mostly worried about him coming around. someone shouted something and i looked back to see heiko and anna coming around the pack with a lot of momentum from the hill. i jumped up and started sprinting before the past me, but they still managed a gap. i held close to anna who was dropping off heiko’s wheel and yelled that i was coming on the left as there was still a gap. i bridged to heiko and came around into fresh air not far from the finish line. brendan had a spot of indecision on whether to stick on anna’s or my wheel, but came with me to slingshot past at the last minute for the win.

so, apart from the issues with dr mark it was a good ride and i think we were lucky that their weren’t any serious injuries. his bike was looking at the chopping block anyway as he has a new one almost ready to go, but drop outs are made to be replaceable for this exact reason. as for chris’ ridley, i guess that the final sprint showed that the bike is quite stiff as i feel i managed to get a lot of power down when we were going hard. it will be interesting to see when i get my fondriest back if i can actually tell the difference.

sunday 31st august – kahuna & canning mills

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ride report by peter

a quick look at the current weather on the web this morning showed a nice 9 degrees. i was a bit dubious as it did seem cold in the house when i got up but at least it was not showing something like 2 deg. it was a bit brisk, but nothing to really complain about and i was sure today’s route would get things warm as soon as we hit the hills.

the city2surf claimed a few of our regular riders today with ryan, rob and heiko deciding that they would rather run than ride. we could hear the pre-race festivities from our side of the river while we waited for the allotted hour to arrive. jumping ahead a bit, i did ask mike b later why he wasn’t doing the run today. he said that he gets disappointed that he can’t beat his best time anymore. he came second one year with a time of 36min. that was quite a few years ago though. kind of makes sense now why he is so fast in the hills.

anyway, we still had a good group of regulars and some return riders like josie toe the line this morning. about 15 riders all up i would say, with dr paul and dr greg starting with us, but doing their own thing once we hit the hills. the route today would be a challenging one. up the kahuna and down urch before up the rest of peet rd to rolleystone high school. down brookton hwy and through some back streets before up canning mills rd to join back up with the top of the kahuna, before the usual way to kalamunda via mundaring weir rd. four climbs and some bonus’ for a total of just under 100 kms. hopefully it wouldn’t rain.

so we rolled out and headed towards albany hwy. the pace was pleasant and gave everyone an opportunity to have a chat. as we past carousel shopping centre, steve got a flat, but told us not to bother waiting as he had an issue with his tyre anyway. i was in two minds as we usually wait for flats, but we were still close to the city and he would be right to get home if he was in trouble. we left him to his misery and pushed on.

as we approached the base of the kahuna, there was someone doing laps of the roundabout just before it. it turned out to be clare who was patiently waiting for us to arrive. the road up the kahuna starts off gentle before it kicks up to it’s average gradient and luckily it was the gentle section we were on when my phone rang. it turned out to be steve, who had fixed his flat and was now looking for us. he had not done the kahuna before and i was trying to give him directions while i started the climb proper (gotta love hands free kit). i tried to make it as clear as i could in between breaths, and i also gave him other directions in case he got lost. he said that he would call in about half and hour when we should have got to the second regroup point. i wasn’t sure that we would see him again.

so the group hit the hill and everyone settled into their respective positions according to climbing ability. the kahuna can be quite steep in places but also contains a number of shallower gradient sections (i can’t really say flat) that either give you respite, or break your rhythm. i find that it breaks my rhythm as i tend to spin out more and use different muscle groups that then also start hurting.

mike and stu found their place at the front and i jumped on their wheel to try to hold on as long as i possibly could. it seemed like a long time and i was pretty happy, but in reality, it was probably still on the first steep section on the climb. they began to power away with that slow steady “grind out the hill” style that both of them have. as they got further and further away it was clear that i was not going to be able to catch back on without some type of motor attached to my bike. i began to wish that i was 50 year old. both those guys are well on the wrong side of 40 and we cannot keep up with them in the hills. i hope that i am going that strong when i grow up. however, i am thinking that it probably has more to do with the years of marathon running that both these whippets had done in their earlier years.

so i am drifting back and am trying to set myself a nice tempo. i look back and find that ben is gaining on me and soon over takes me. bugger. i continue my tempo and allow ben a bit more space ahead of me. i am hoping that once we hit the shallower gradient towards the top, i can regain a bit of ground. i manage to up my pace and catch back up to ben. i put in a hard, but consistent effort and manage to shake him from my wheel before we hit the top. mike had dropped stu before the top, and i ended up within 75 – 100 metres of stu by the time we reach the regroup point.

as we regrouped, both the effort of the climb and the increasing daylight meant that it was beginning to warm up. holly (pictured) took off her vest to reveal a fat cyclist jersey underneath that matched her fatty socks. if you haven’t heard of fatty, there is a link on my “other blogs” to the right and even though he blogs mostly about mountain biking, he has many an insight into riding and balancing his passion with his wife’s illness. it makes you realise how good we have it sometimes.

so we headed for the next climb up urch and peet. this at least was preceded by a nice descent down part of urch before the road kicked up again. once it did, a bunch of riders like stan, ben and melvyn took advantage of their momentum and started to smash it up the other side. stu also came past and i was determined not to give him too much head start, so jumped across to his wheel. mike also made his way up through the pack and was on my wheel when we all joined ben. melvyn and stan had dropped back by the time we turned the corner onto peet and ben managed to hold on for a little way before he also fell off the back. the boys must have been kind to me, or i was finally warm after the first climb as i managed to stay with them to the top.

as we crested the hill, mike lead us out towards the high school and to the state champs finish line. after a few turns, mike pushed for the last effort up the climb with stu and i sucking wheels to get a good lead-out. stu eventually went so i jumped on his wheel and waited for the last 50 m to come around for the sprint. i barely had enough to stay in front of him as he also turned it up a notch heading towards the line. it’s good, as we both need practice sprinting for that line as two races this year had already finished there and both came down to a bunch sprint. a couple of riders later, steve also made it to the line. he had come up the kahuna but then across chevin rd and into the top of peet road to meet up with the rest of the group.

after a regroup we headed down brookton hwy to give the legs a bit of respite. we don’t often climb up brookton and i remembered why as we were descending. it is not really that hard as we had to pedal quite a bit to maintain speed on the descent. we turned just before the road joined back up with albany hwy and took a couple of back streets. steve asked whether there was a house down here i was looking at buying as it did seem a bit off the beaten track for us. unfortunately, no, we were on the right road and soon we were at the base of canning mills rd.

this is the steeper side of the kahuna and averages about 9% for the steep section. it flattens off towards the top and is not as long as the kahuna, but much, much harder. however, it is fairly consistent and does not contain many “flat” spots that break the rhythm when climbing. you can set yourself a nice pace to the top, but it is when you want to chase others that you will get into trouble and blow-up.

i know that stu headed up the road pretty early in the climb and i had nothing to go with
him. ben caught and past me about halfway up after i started to fade. steve surprised me with how fast he came past, and i expected him to blow up as he had never done this climb before and didn’t know what was around the corner. luckily for him, and probably more testament to his ability, he maintained a good pace to the top and didn’t pop. after that, my memory gets a bit fuzzy and i remember there being another rider up the road. it was probably mike, but i can’t be sure as i know that stu stayed away from everyone on the climb. i just ground my way to the top and was happy to be there.

this climb took a bigger toll on the group and we had to wait a bit longer for all the riders to come in. it is a really challenging climb so we don’t do it that often. but to do it as the third climb in a set of four is just cruel. but sometime you have to be cruel to… get a laugh… i mean be kind. it will make all the riders stronger in the long run so it can’t be that bad.

as we turned to follow the rest of the kahuna rd back towards pickering brook, josie took off back down the hill to head home. her knee was not feeling 100% so she did not want to risk it with another climb. the rest of us ambled our way through the back blocks of canning mills and on to pickering brook. holly had said that she was going to skip the final climb and go straight to coffee. peer pressure made sure that she came with us in the end.

on the little rolling hills (that seem big by now to your legs) stu managed to get away a bit and headed into the final climb with about 50 m or so. jerry went hard as soon as the hill started and thought that he could get some advantage that could be whittled away. in reality he just caught and past stu and paid the price to get there. mike came up from behind and i jumped on his wheel as he moved up behind stu. the four of us started the climb together but it would not stay that way for long. jerry was first to step off after mike moved to the front and set the pace that he was comfortable with. i hung onto stu’s wheel as long as i could and thought i was doing really well when we reached the part where there is a fence and wall on the right. after doing this climb a hundred times, i know that it is not far to the “flat” section on this climb. unfortunately, i also know that the road pinches up ever so slightly more that what we were climbing.

the pace and pitch was too much for me and i also had to step off the train. i tried to set myself a tempo with the hope that i could catch back up when it flattened out. i looked back and saw jerry not that far back and thought that we could work together to catch stu and mike. i eased up my pace and let him get on before starting to wind it up along the “flat”. i thought that if i could out in a hard effort, then jerry could smash the last bit of the hill and maybe catch them as they were still in sight. jerry had the same idea and came around me early and set a high pace. i went as the road got steeper again and realised that i really didn’t have that much left in my legs. i made it almost to the top before jerry came back past me within 10 metres of the kom line. we were probably 100 metres behind stu and mike.

as the rest of the group came into the coffee shop i was surprised to see bec finishing to high in the pack. she said that she finally was feeling good and managed to go hard on the last climb to beat in half the guys. the coffee stop was good today and soon we were off and running again. a nice descent down welshpool and we stayed together for much of it. i pushed hard on the last bit of hill to make sure the speedo clocked over 80 km/h and came past the rest of the group. it did cost me dearly as i then had nothing when jerry and stan headed up the road together. i jumped in behind the others and sat in for the majority of the chase. as we approached the curve in the road, i found my legs enough to do a cancellara and time trialed across the gap to come past the boys at the front. by the time we got through the lights at the highway, the group was all back together.

no sprint at the end of welshpool and we had it saved up for the final push up berwick. i was on the front (again) leading into the sprint when brett and anna came flying past on the slight rise before the lights at george st. i didn’t react as i was sure that they would get stuck at the lights. as they were waiting behind a left turning car when the lights went green, i jumped into the right hand lane and sprinted past them and up over the hill. i looked back and saw jerry closing fast but thought that i had to keep going to stay away. i did ease back on the descent to conserve as much energy for when he jumped, but realised that i probably didn’t have much left in reserve. as i started to run out of puff he came along side and we both looked at each other. i shrugged indicating that i was done, but he didn’t go as he thought that it was mean making me do all the work to just take out the final 100 metres. i was cool with that so we ambled towards maccas. however, when i looked back i saw bec coming off steve’s wheel and heading towards us fast. we didn’t really have enough time to react and she had way too much momentum so overtook us for the final sprint win of the day.

so a good day but a tough one with the number and severity of the climbs we tackled. i can’t say that we will do an easy one next week, as we must punish those that had forsaken us to go running instead. also, since it is fathers day, the blokes should be allowed to stay out longer to do a big ride. i know it doesn’t work like that, but it is worth a try.

sunday 24th august – welshpool & mundaring & kalamunda

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ride report by peter

as i stumbled out the door just before 7 i reflected on the fact that i was lucky to even be on the bike this morning. we went to the shops yesterday after the saturday ride and from about 11 onwards, ben was totally out of it. constant mournful crying and pretty much inconsolable for the rest of the day. by the time we got him to sleep that night it seemed like a very, very long day. i prepared my bike stuff as usual, the previous night, but i was aware that it would depend on how he woke up in the morning. he woke fine so i was off.

as i turned off my road and onto canning hwy, heading along was dr nick, so i rode alongside and had a chat. she was not heading out with us as there was mountain biking to do that arvo and it was her first love. i rode with her till douglas ave and turn off to meet the others. late as usual.

we had a good size group of about twenty and most were keen to tackle all the climbs today. the course was taking us back up welshpool road and around mundaring weir and darlington, before climbing back up kalamunda rd and on to coffee. all up there was four major climbs and about three or four bonus climbs.

we headed out along great eastern hwy and onto orong rd for a change of pace. it definitely has more traffic, but it is double lane and it was sunday morning, so more traffic really meant more than dead. pretty uneventful start to the day and i chatted with our new guy dr ronnie. he knows lorraine and she told him about the ride so he decided to come out with us. another dr and another cervelo to the group. the more the merrier. riders that is, not cervelos.

as we approached the base of the climb, everyone started to eye off young alistair after his exceptional climb last week. still resplendent in his dunlop sandshoes and toe clips, everyone was keen to see how they would rate against him. it would be interesting.

the hill started and the usual players were straight to the front. the pace didn’t start high and alistair led myself, brendan, stu, mike steve and ben up the hill. we were approaching another large group of mostly triathletes that we had seen up the road previously. they had already started to splinter on the climb and presented a number of targets for us to chase down.

the climb settled into it’s steepness and alistair attacked hard. i was on his wheel and decided not to go with him as expected him to die in the arse and we would pick him up later. brendan had other ideas and took off after him. i jumped on his wheel and took steve up with me. we caught alistair and i think brendan wanted to prove a point so attacked him almost straight away. i managed to hold his wheel, but only just and was beginning to struggle. not sure where everyone really was at this time as lack of blood to the relevant brain functions meant that the only signal out was push pedals and only signal in was pain now.

at some point stu and mike cruised effortlessly up the hill towing either steve or ben. they went past and overtook the group. unfortunately for me, they just kept going at this pace and left alistair, ben and i to fend ourselves, while brendan and steve latched onto the train.

as we slipped further and further behind, i tried to go again and managed to gap alistair but he always seemed to claw his way back on. we ended up riding together after the servo and tried to pull back any ground. my phone started to ring and i tried to answer it via and hands free, but the button didn’t work. after the family issues yesterday i was expecting it to be bad news, but it would have to wait till i reached the top.

as the hill started again ben just kept accelerating and started to gap alistair and i. another expletive erupted for the young lads mouth and i understood where he was coming from. after his efforts last week, we were all keen to attack him just to see how good he was. i sprinted around to get on bens wheel and we gapped alistair again. he clawed his way back again as the road evened out a bit. on the penultimate hill, we picked up steve who’d had enough of the pace men in front. as we crested the top and ran into the last little rollercoaster to start the final pinch, alistair attacked on the downhill.

tactically not the best spot as we all jumped on and were freewheeling behind him as it pushed hard to try to get away. as the road went up again, i attacked and ben also went off my wheel. we sprinted to the top and were soon joined by steve as alistair must have been a bit spent by that final effort. as we cruised down the final hill to the regroup point, i noticed that we were only about 100 metres from the front boys.

a quick check of the phone revealed all. a message from ryan earlier on saying he wasn’t coming and then the later call was from home. i rang to confirm the i was needed back asap. i waited till the rest of the group had arrived before reminding everyone of the route and seeing who knew their way through darlington. brett said he knew so that was good enough for me and i was off.

a quick run down welshpool and back the usual way which did seem a lot longer and harder when you are doing it yourself. family issues meant that i was needed on ben minding duties, so i packed his bag and headed up to kalamunda. we took the long way and came up kalamunda road to see if the group had made it that far yet. they had just began the climb as i came past, so would be up to coffee very soon. i sat with ben for a while before all the bikes came streaming in. i managed to catch up with everyone that made it to coffee as a few had turned of early, but spent most of the time chasing ben around as he wanted to climb the stairs. the he found the eiffel tower and started to climb that too. fun, fun, fun. as everyone headed off, we stopped the car on welshpool rd and managed to capture the group descending at speed on the camcorder. will post it once i drag it off the video.

so i was there for the start and the end-ish, but someone else will need to blog the middle section for me as i don’t know what went on.

sunday 17th august – welshpool & observatory

ride report by peter

i knew i was going to be struggling today. after the collie-donnybrook yesterday and the late return home, it was always going to be hard to back it up. i was running a bit late again today and it was a family effort which delayed me. my sleeping in combined with ben’s early wake up combined with kate going back to sleep all meant that i didn’t turn up till a smidgen past seven. i had dressed appropriately for the cold start, but was concerned that i would be caught out later in the morning as we were headed for another beautiful day. i had double jerseyed again and also had leg warmers on. it was a brisk morning and i was happy with the extra layers.

i knew that ryan and stu would not be coming this morning as stu was probably staying done south after the race yesterday and ryan had a bucks night to go to as soon as he got home. i was hoping for not too much competition as i was not sure how i would cope with the climbs. brendan had turned up after yesterday race but he is training up for a pretty big race over east in a months time so is doing 1000 kms a week when he is on break. our sand-shoed friend from the saturday ride had turned up again, but i had not met him yesterday, so had no idea what to expect. there were a bunch of other regulars for a total of about 15 riders. brett was out for a change and i asked him how he got a leave pass. he said that jerry had left a message to his wife saying that he’d had a hard week so should be allowed out to play on sunday. she did not want to seem like and ogre so let him come and play. i think everyone is going to get jerry to leave some messages now.

the route today would be a looping affair with a trip up welshpool before climbing the harder side of the observatory, up mundaring weir rd to kalamunda, before heading down the zig-zag and back up kalamunda rd for coffee. that was the plan, anyway.

as we headed out, brendan remarked to me that he was so buggered after the race yesterday that he didn’t even bother to change his race wheels. he was on his tubular shod zipps and did not have any spares. if he got a flat today, he would have to ring the missus to come and pick him up. as we came along mill pt rd there was quite a bit of glass and brendan managed to collect a bit of it. he ran his gloves over the tyres and tried to shed as much as he could. we were hopeful he got it all. we picked up mike b as we headed out, so at least i knew who would be pushing on the climbs.

as we came through east vic park and were about to cross shep rd via hill view, brendan felt his front tyre going down. he took off down shep rd to try to get home before the tyre completely flattened. we continued onto welshpool rd and towards the hills. before we got to the welshpool/orrong rd intersection, we picked up holly who lives very close by. she watched us warily as we rode past before joining us as she had already joined the wrong group once this morning.

as we approached the base of the welshpool climb i was still unsure on who would be setting the pace today. the young lad with sand-shoes, alistair, headed to the front and had mike on his wheel. the young lad kept looking back to see who was going to go with him and a group of us were sucking onto mike’s wheel. mike was definitely feeling better than last week and soon came around alistair to up the pace. i was trying to hold wheel but my legs just didn’t want to play. i indicated for the guys behind me to come around as i was losing the wheel, but no-one did. i looked back and there was no-one behind me. i maintained my rhythm and tried to see if the guys would tire and allow me back on. we were passing lots of triathlon chicks on the hill as there were a few groups taking advantage of the nice weather.

i pushed on, marveling at the fact that this young guy was smashing us with just sneakers and toe clips on. i would hate to see him if he got some proper shoes and pedals. or i probably wouldn’t see him as he would be too far up the road in front of me.

anyway, closer to the servo, jerry and mark caught up to me so we pushed on together. we did a few turns but it was clear that we would not catch the two up the road. funnily enough the old man, mike, had put quite a bit of distance into the young lad, alistair. quite a bit by the top of the hill. we regrouped and headed towards the base of the observatory via glenisla rd. bit of an issue with quite a few gum-nuts scatted on the road during the fast descent near the sanitarium school, but no crashes luckily.

mike turned off to head home via lawnbrook as he had a previous engagement to attend, so i was left to deal with al on my own. mark went out hard for the first part of the climb but mainly to get to the top of the steep section as quickly as possible and we had all caught up by the top. as the gradient eased off i was not willing to attack but wanted to see just what al would do. i was on the front pacing up the hill and was happily to do that for a while as i was not pushing hard. al finally made his move and came around me to up the pace. i jumped on his wheel and sat in for the ride. we gapped the others quickly and pulled away from the pack. i thought i would test his legs out and as he backed off the pace i came around to stretch him. he sat on my wheel for a while but i eventually pushed him so that he dropped off. he clamboured back on so i attacked again and this time when i looked back he was looking behind himself to see if he could find another wheel. the rest of the pack was down around the corner so he made the decision to try to get back on. i was hurting by now and so had backed off the pace. he thanked me for letting him back on, but i said that i didn’t really have a choice. we continued up the rest of the climb together and waited for the rest of the group.

we took the descent down the observatory at a nice pace, always wary of that corner at the bottom which also had some broken glass on it this time. it was like there had been the national bottle breaking contest on during the week as there was glass everywhere. once we hit the bottom, there was a call to stop as dr mark had broken something on his bike. it turned out that he had thought that he had dropped his phone so had to stop to check. during that time, brendan called up to find out where we were. he had changed wheels and climbed up welshpool rd and was on glenisla waiting. i told him the direction we would be heading so he would reverse that and meet us along the road.

we headed down glenisla again avoiding the gum-nuts and headed towards mundaring weir rd. i had asked that everyone stay together as i wasn’t sure everyone knew the way but we would regroup at kalamunda. mark took off once we turned towards kalamunda and brendan, al and i started to chase hime down. my legs said no and i eased off and watched them head up the road. by the time we hit the second corner there was a clear split with brendan and al ahead of jerry and mark with dr mark and myself trailing behind.

a couple of corners later and i decided that i needed to make an effort. i said bye to dr mark and started chasing down jerry and mark as i could still see them up the road. it took a while and i picked up jerry before the false flat and he jumped on my wheel as i headed towards mark. i picked him up just on the corner before the flat and came around him. i put it in the big ring and ground out a plus 40 pace to the next pinch in the climb. i signaled for them to come around and i was done for this climb.

a regroup in the carpark and we had lost stuart a friend of brendans. he went searching and gave him a call but came up empty. we were concerned that he had turned right instead of left and was now heading towards the weir. we tried, so not much more we could do. he was a big boy after all.

a brief discussion and all in favour of m
issing the final climb and heading to the coffee shop say i. “i” was the call, with my legs being the loudest voice as they were screaming. the race yesterday had not been kind to me.

during coffee, stuart rang brendan to say that he had turned up lawnbrook and had to head home anyway, so he was fine. we broke bread as is the tradition on a sunday and enjoyed a coffee in the nicer weather. i should have taken this time to take off my leg warmers, but as we were sitting in the shade, i wasn’t reminded too.

we headed off and down the hill through lesmurdie with little incident. a smidgen under 75 km/hr for me on the descent, but the time trial along the flat took a lot out of me and i had to ease off. clare had joined us at the coffee shop after missing the start and was on the descent with us now. as she and holly lived just off welshpool rd they turned off early and would miss any of the sprints.

there was a big acceleration along welshpool, but i was not able to go with it, so not sure what really happened. i was happy to be still riding. the final sprint along berwick saw brendan unintentionally leading out as he needed to turn off just after the last rise, but couldn’t get out due to traffic. he just shrugged it off and kept pushing the leadout. i was biding my time and waiting to see who would go and when. it was getting later and later but then jerry started his move so i came out to jump on his wheel. i cut brett off by doing so, but apologised afterwards for doing so. jerry wound up but i managed to come past him as we approached macdonalds. shame i had no reason to sprint yesterday.

so a good ride if not a tad abbreviated due to lack of legs on my behalf. sorry to anyone who wanted to do that last climb, but the option was still open to do it if you wanted. coffee seemed like a much better option at the time.

sunday 10th august – carradine & canning dam

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ride report by peter

another fine day was predicted but only if you were looking at the temperature alone. the wind was similar to saturday and was cutting through you to drop the temperature another 5 degrees. the act of riding into the head wind probably dropped it another couple just to make it freezing. so even though the overnight temp was a very pleasant 9 deg we were all waiting for the sun to come out properly to counteract the wind chill.

so, we had around twenty riders on the line this morning and a few were discussing a change to the route as i was turning up a bit late. the course today was a long one but not necessarily hard as there was a lot more riding in between climbs. most of the climbs were not too difficult either. not by the standard of other rides we do. or by the standard that dr melvyn described last week. however, late though i was, i arrived with loads of time to quash any rebellious thoughts of changing the route.

we would be taking the hard slog down albany hwy into a harsh, cold, strong crosswind coming down from the scarp. a quick heart starter up carawatha would thaw out the bones before another ascent up carradine. we would then cross over to albany hwy and tackle the last part of it’s ascent, regrouping at the turn off to canning dam. a nice cruise along past the dam before a final assault out of the valley back to karagulen servo. the normal way back to the coffee shop via mundaring weir rd would follow. that was the plan.

we headed out into the fray and copped the breeze right into our faces. by the time we hit albany hwy the wind had picked up significantly. ryan was again sitting pretty at the back of he pack keeping out of the wind. this is how he always ends up with nice fresh legs for the climbs and the sprints.

anyway, the fresh morning, combined with a hydration regime the night before put extra pressure on me for the first few kms of the ride. i had to duck off in the bushes along the way to relive some unwanted pressure (and about a kilo of weight). as the day progressed, i was not the only one as there were multiple “nature breaks” along the way. a quick sprint into the wind to catch up and i was all warmed up.

as we past by gosnells, we managed to pick up a couple of chicks. i’m sure that they were enticed by the tight lycra and rippling leg muscles, and i am quite sure that ryan probably thought that they were drawn to his charismatic aura. however, holly and claire read the blog and knew where we were headed, so decided to join in to get a bit of hills work. unlike the other type of chicks you may pick up in gosnells, these were actually cyclists.

the first climb of the day was soon upon us and we started climbing the lower section of carawatha. this is where is sits about 7% or so and james pushed hard and put a bit of a gap in us. once we hit the small plateau in between the inclines, heiko came around me and headed up the road. since he had not done this hill before, he wondered why we were taking it so easy. as we came around the corner realisation dawned on him like a dodgy curry at 3am in the morning. ahhh, shit. as we started the final climb at 14 or 15% heiko started dropping back through the riders that had been conserving their energy. ryan, stu, brendan and a couple of others caught and past me on the hill, but we all eventually made it to the top.

after a quick watering of the gardens from some, we where off down to carradine. i didn’t realise that they had been doing road works on the other side of the climb and the surface was not the best when combined with the cross wind. all safely down we grouped together to start the climb.

we stayed in quite a bit group for a while and there was probably about 8 or so riders tucked in behind. the wind was coming down the valley towards us so it was a hard slog for whoever was at the front. after a bit i thought that i would see if i could dislodge a few hangers on, and pushed hard. it wasn’t an attack as i came past ryan close enough for him to grab my wheel, as i thought that i will need some help later on.

the group stretched and split as the pace increased and soon there were only four of us up the road. after i did a decent turn at the front, ryan took off again and i couldn’t keep up. stu and brendan managed to get on, but i looked back to see no-one else on the road. taking a leaf out of thomas voeckler’s book from the 2006 tour, i just kept a consistent pace and managed to get back on the back.

on the next rise, ryan took off again and this time brendan was done. lots of km’s of training were taking their toll and he didn’t have the legs to go with us. i managed to claw my way back on with stu in tow as we approached the final section of road. ryan upped the pace again, and it was all too much for me, but i was happy to let him and stu fight it out for line honours as long as i kept ahead of brendan.

after another nature break, there was an opportunity for a short cut if people wanted but peer pressure kept everyone in line. i basically said that i give the people a choice (democracy) , but let them know that they are a bunch of wusses if they take the shortcut (dictatorship). like anyone really has a choice. exercising their right to a choice, brett and anna turned off to head down albany hwy while the rest of us headed further up the hill.

the climb is not too difficult and the group was managing to stay together well. dr melvyn was setting the pace early on before ryan got impatient and came around for a turn. after a bit he got even more impatient and shot off the front. it was all on and stu, brendan and i managed to latch on behind him. we swapped off turns for a while over the rolling hills and managed to put quite a bit of distance in to the rest of the group. by the time we reached the turn off for canning dam, the road behind us was empty as far as we could see.

the riders rolled up in little packs and claire managed to hold onto the second group. she is climbing well considering the issues that she has had with her back recently.

another toilet stop and we were off towards canning dam. there were a few rolling hills and one bonus climb that split everyone up. ryan and i were just discussing climbing techniques and how i preferred to climb standing while he is trying to sit more. next thing we know we had gapped the rest of the field. we slowed a bit and said that we would wait at the bottom of the descent into the dam. the wind luckily didn’t cause too many problems and we had a nice descent clocking up over 70km/h. the road surface past the dam is usually shocking but it looks like they were halfway through resurfacing it. it wasn
’t perfect, but to me it looked like they were preparing to put a hot-mix top coat on it. that would make this route a lot more pleasurable.

an orange ford focus past us about three times on that road. not sure if they just got their licence or thought that they were a rally driver, but he just kept popping up all the time.

a regroup at the little bridge and we lost a few more riders. the girls and mike decided to call it a day and headed down brookton hwy as the rest of us climbed up via gardiner. it was a nice climb and we took it fairly easy for the first section. ryan hadn’t done this one before so asked me how long it was. quite long I said, just so he wouldn’t take off on me just yet. it started to steepen up but I managed to hang on to ryan and stu while the others fell back. as we turned at the fork in the road, i was spent and had to let them go. i paced myself up the rest of the hill until jerry and james caught up to me and rode the rest of the way with them.
we regrouped at the karragullen servo where a couple of people had to refresh supplies. it was a long ride and energy levels were low. we were soon off and heading for pickering brook. james and i set the pace from the gun and kept it up until that first hill. we didn’t push too hard but some people felt the strain and dropped off early. once we hit the rolling hills ryan took off up the road with stu not far behind. the rest of us just seemed content to ride the hill at pace without straining too much. once we hit the false flat, we noticed that ryan and co was not too far ahead so we upped it a bit to try to catch them. they stayed away, and i was pretty much done by then anyway.

after a regroup, dr mark decided to call it a day due to family commitments, and was heading straight home. the other mark was going to go with him, but peer pressure forced him to stick with us for one last climb up mundaring weir road. heiko didn’t know where we were so i was reluctant to leave him behind so a stuck with him over the rolling hills through bickley valley. by the time we reached mundaring weir road, the other guys were too far ahead to warrant a chase from me. i left it in the big ring and rode a 53 x 14 to the top while staying in the saddle. my cadence was under 40 rpm for the majority of the climb, but my knees actually felt ok.

we rolled into the coffee shop and sat for a well deserved rest. as it was a longer ride, we turned up quite late and were expecting a bad service day. fortunately for us, the cold wind must have kept the punters away and we were served promptly. bruce made an appearance on the sunday ride, but only in civvies as he was meeting his brother for brunch. we said that he should at least been wearing his spr vest to show his support.

coffee’s sculled, as mark still needed to get home and james was on the phone explaining why he was late. we headed down welshpool road with mostly a tailwind, but a few swirls on the descent made for some interesting times. stu apparently had the speed wobbles again and reckons that his heart rate download pinpoints the exact moment he thought he would die.

the tailwind continued to push us home and it gave us a good run. dr melvyn made his early charge as usual and set off the boys a little too early and we were soon spread along the road. the lights at leach hwy soon got us back together and we headed along the last stretch of welshpool rd. the call went out to box ryan in and we had him set on the inside second wheel. dr melvyn went again, and we thought we were safe to let him go, but ryan had been tricky and slowed down to manage to slip out the back. soon everyone was sprinting up the road again.

the final run along berwick rd had ryan doing his usual tricks. slowing down to force others to come to the front so that he can conserve himself for the final sprint. i told him that it will make him stronger if he does all the work and then still contests the sprint, but he wants the easy gold medal. i ended up on the front for the final stretch but managed to get a bit of a jump at the last set of lights to gap the field. by the time i was on the descent, ryan had bridged to my wheel so i just coasted to try to recover. as we paced along the flat, he jumped and i could not hold his wheel. so had to settle for second. or i would have until brendan also past me before the macdonalds drive thru point.

so, over 100 kms by the time i got home and 5 main climbs “conquered”. hopefully this puts me in good stead for collie-donnybrook this coming saturday, but i think it will all come down to who i get in my handicap group. we have three of the team entered with ryan and stu also heading down to play. ryan was in a good position to win last year until a flat with no spares played heed to his grand plans. hopefully this year, team spr can come away with… something. aim for mediocre, and there are less chances of getting disappointed.

sunday 3rd august – gooseberry & kalamunda + extra

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“coming from behind” – ride report by melvyn (deliberately missing out capital letters)

i was inspired by the first warm weather forecast to drag myself out on sunday to do the ride.i was pleased that this would be a shorter ride, and not a “special” new tryout ride that pete dreamed up for those who are not racing. the first real climb would be gooseberry hill rd which always is a test, but the rest would be manageable (i hoped).

i even got to the meeting point early, having given the bike a bit of a clean the day before to find no huddled group of lycrans surrounded by flashing lights like some exiled extraterrestrials waiting for the mother ship to pick them up in the dark. i knew i was early, but really??? moments passed and i thought – what if no-one else turns up? do i do the ride by myself? it would be a bit of a boring blog with all this “i looked back to see myself pedalling furiously, so i attacked to just win the hilltop sprint against myself by barely a wheel…” thankfully john rolled up to join us (and provide someone else to write about). unfortunately as we eyed each other we still did not have the critical mass to qualitfy as a group ride. i’m sure we were both thinking if we could cheat a little if no-one else turned up and modify the course (perhaps doing gooseberry twice then kalamunda a couple of extra times?)

it was all academic when more joined in just after 0700. darren arrived with “greased lightning” (his bike must surely be inspired by the hot-rod that john travolta and his gang do up in the movie “grease”), ben (to give some credibility to the overall pedalling ability of our group), schneiderman (uneasy in his winter mankini), nev (who i cant recall coming out on a sunday before – poor befuddled boy must have his days mixed up), ronan, and a newcomer bronwyn who has chosen perth (!!!) to settle down in for a while after finishing a round the world trip. must have been lured by the vibrant cafe culture.

soon it was time to go off! if we waited we probably would have seen every cyclist in perth ride past. i had to lead out and pretended i knew the way. the secret is that really i don’t have to know the way for any of the rides because i always get to ride at the back. the only time i sprint for the front is when i actually recognise the roads and know i won’t get lost. anyway, after a bit of “no, turn left” we got onto great eastern highway to run the gauntlet of cold air, cars and hobos shouting encouragement after passing the casino. As we pedalled east, we were greeted by the warm rays to the sun. however riding into the sun is not to be recommended as mainly you don’t get to see. if you are in the front, all manner of glass and potholes come into your vision all too late. if you are in the back, you are hoping that cars will be able to see your 1/2 watt flashing tail-light against the sun which puts out 368 yottawatts (1024 watts)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(power) admittedly 93 million miles away. You get the picture.

i had not cleared our mind of those thoughts when the next traffic hazard presented itself. it was outside the 24hour macdonald on great eastern highway (who really eats maccas at 0730 on a sunday?), where a green hyundai pulled out to turn right. i’m sure he saw us as he wasn’t looking into the sun to look at us. i could see that his intentions were to pull out 10 metres in front of us. fine i thought, we’ll be right. we weren’t right, as he stopped in the lane in front of us. there were lots of emergency manouevres to avoid this car, but no one fell off. obviously (to give the driver the benefit of doubt) he had thought better of turning into the path of cars that he couldn’t see because of the sun shining from his left. as ronald macdonald says “look left then right and left again before crossing the street”. silly boy, no happy meal for you.

we soon interrupted our ride (near the cement factory) with schneiderman’s scheduled puncture. we usually have one later in the ride which is handy for catching our breath back. its impressive to see schneiderman extract a tube from the mankini (where does he put it), but i think that if he keeps this up, we will have to chip in to buy him a seat bag that fits two tubes. it was about this time that i noticed that mike b had joined in to add pace uphill. i later found out that he was trying to get back into condition after a holiday in europe where he actually viewed the tour from the mighty tourmalet. he obviously hasn’t lost as much condition as myself as he easily outpaced me on the mighty “kalamunda”.

soon we were at ridgehill road which doesn’t count as a climb. the ride played out like it always does with me attacking for the first 20m before running out of steam in the slope. at least it gives me a chance to check out if any others have made new purchases as they ride past. something very unusual started to happen on the flat bit of the climb. i actually started to catch up and pass people. i don’t usually rub it in, but i must say that that does not happen often. was it my new wheels (probably 500g lighter than my previous set), or was everyone taking it easy? the reality was that i probably don’t ride up that well, and there was not very much going up by that stage. evidently i had run out of power-ups as that was the last time that happened on any of the climbs that day.

the regroup point was the base of the zig-zag, and then it was down (yay!) before the left turn at the roundabout to gooseberry (boo!) we had egged newcomer bronwyn on about how steep this one was going to be but it was only half joking. in any case being a ex mountain biker from new zealand i don’t think many hills scare her. soon it was reverting to the familiar tempo of breathing and pedalling (two breaths for every pedal stroke) when before you knew it the hill stopped. really after several european experiences, these hills don’t come close to he definition of pain. these are just the light dripping of hot wax type of pain, and not the chained to the bedpost with a red ball in your mouth before being whipped by a cat-o-nine-tails by a suspiciously masculine lady in a leather mask named steve sort of pain. you get the picture.

bronwyn chose a good day to come out on a hills ride as the next stage was down the zig-zag, which truly made it worthwhile. the sun was out and warming, birds were singing, the air was clear and most importantly dry, and the scenery was breathtaking. I can see why people live in the hills. best not enjoy the view too much though as gravel can make the hairpins tricky. I wanted to push the cornering properties of the wheels a bit as that is apparently one of their strengths, but woosed out a bit, not wanting to do an oscar pereiro. it was over however all too soon.

a short transport stage found us at the base of kalamunda road which i find terrifying sometimes. mainly because of the honky nuts that often cover the outside of the road, and the hoons who insist on driving at full pelt. we planned to keep going past the coffee shop (sacriledge!) and regroup at the coles roundabout. i spent about half the climb thinking of excuses to shorten my ride and retreat to the coffee shop, but was disappointed to find everyone full of energy and enthusiastic for more. the power of peer pressure again pushed me down mundaring weir rd and up lawnbrook. at least this was a good form of peer pressure, as it usually ends up with poorer consequences in other instance. we rode single file as traffic was increasing, and had time to wave at russell and ian(?) coming up the other way.

by the time we got to the coffee shop it was already quite full. they obviously were short staffed that day. the conversation was considerably
cleaner that day as we were not up to our usual compliment of urologists. by then a few of us had elected to go home early, and after making short work of the food and drink it was time for us to head back. but that is another story for another day (a day which you are not doing very much because basically nothing exciting happened).

……………………and so children ends the chapter on the exploits of this small band of intrepid cyclists who went out to conquer far lands over infrequently travelled roads, laughing at what destiny would serve up to them (and still making it home in time to avoid getting in trouble with their wives).

the end

sunday 27th july – carridine & peet & observatory

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well the forecast said bad and radar confirmed it’s badness, but i didn’t care as it was not raining as i left the house. the road was a bit wet and it was still dark, but at least it was not cold…yet. the forecast was for strong winds and a 90% chance of 20 – 40 mm of rain. basically all the ingredients for an absolutely crappy bike ride. i was wearing my vest, but was also carrying my rain jacket as it folded up into bum bag and fitted snuggly under the vest.

i was running a bit late and hurried to make it to the start. i was afraid of what i would find. the things that run through your mind in this situation are very insightful. if no-one else was there, would i go home, would i still do the hills, would i just cut a lap of the river instead. i didn’t need to worry myself as there were two lonely riders waiting in the dark as i arrived. ben and declan were looking lonely and very soon, stu also turned up. we waited around for a bit longer to see if any stragglers would brave the weather but soon realised that we would be the only ones.

so were we the hardcore ones??? were we the stupid ones??? or were all the others just a bunch of pussies that made some excuse about having to wash their big girls blouses???

so the four of us rolled out into the spitting rain. it wasn’t coming down hard and was hardly a concern at all. however, it still took quite a bit of will power, not to turn off as we came within a few hundred metres of home. declan was not going all the way with us today as he usually doesn’t do the hills ride, but was just looking for some extra km’s. the plan was for him to ride with us to the base of the hills then he would find his own way back to perth. taking the new standard route out to albany hwy, i pulled over as we hit manning rd to put my rain jacket on. it wasn’t coming down any harder, but i figured that i would try to stay as dry as possible.

a very sedate ride down to mt nasura and as we turned off to tackle carrawatha, declan kept going to return via armidale rd and the freeway. so we were down to three, which meant that we would probably just tackle the climbs at our own pace rather than trying to smash each other. ben led the climb and as it kicked up for the second steeper half of the hill, i started falling back. stu was on his old tommasini rather than his cervelo and was having some issues with gear selection. he still came around me as though as i struggled up the 13% section of the hill.

very little waiting needed today and the guys just had to ease off a bit before starting their descent. we then turned up carradine rd and started plugging our way up the rough roads. we basically stuck together to the top with myself just falling off the back on the last little bit of the climb. at the top, a call of nature struck us all and we all found a cubicle in the bush toilet. i gave my vest to ben who only had his jersey to protect himself from wind chill. my rain jacket wasn’t going anywhere for now as it was keeping me dry and warm. a change of plans from the original route and we decided to forego the canning dam route in favour of the climb up peet rd. the threat of crappy weather, and the fact that the ride past the dam gives us no chance of any options, forced us to skip it all together. instead we would have a wet and potentially slippery ride down soldiers rd then a nice an gentle 10% ascent of peet rd.

the descent wasn’t that bad as we took it easy and there was no traffic. surprisingly enough, no-one else thought it was a good day to go outside either. we started on peet rd and set a fairly nice pace. i dropped off on the second steeper section but managed to claw my way back as it flattened out a bit. down the other side and up past roleystone high school to head out brookton hwy.

we past the site of the accident a few weeks ago and it is lucky that no-one had to place any little white crosses on the side of the road. it made me worry when i heard cars coming up the hill behind us.

nice pace setting along to pickering brook and we decided to throw in the observatory climb as well. a slight detour along repatriation rd made a change but still turned us out at the base of the climb. i stayed with both of them until the second half of the climb when i struggled to keep the pace. we regrouped at the top and came down the other side to only go straight back up lawnbrook. again the climb left me wanting and i fell back. at one point ben had to double back to pick up his glasses or something and this allowed me to catch up with him. we rode together the rest of the way and met back up with stu at the end of the road.

no coffee shop for us today and we headed straight down lesmurdie rd and onto welshpool. the combination of the wind and wet roads made it not the most comfortable descent and stu said his bike got the speed wobbles towards the end. with no antagonists in the “group” the remaining ride was quite sedate.

at the end of the end of the day, there was not a lo of rain to be encountered. the official perth weather station only recorded 1.6 mm during the time that we were out. the main down pour came at lunchtime but we were home well and truly before that. overall the 6.8 mm was nowhere near the predicted rainfall.

so, just under 100 kms and just over 1300m of climbing to round out the morning. a bit disappointing with the turn out, but not surprising really due to the forecast. it is winter after all but you can still ride when it is raining. i guess it just shows who is committed or more likely, who needs to be committed due to a poor mental state. it was a good ride though as we ground out the kms and did the climbs. a little bit of rain builds character.

sunday 20th july – kahuna & peet & canning mills

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ride report by peter
video to follow.

with the mercury under 2 degrees at 7 this morning, i was expecting a poor showing. with the course i had mapped out for this ride, i was also expecting a poor showing. i was pleasantly surprised to see close to 20 toe the line ready for a big day. the course today was a bit of a monster and took in a number of the hard climbs around roleystone. first we would tackle the kahuna before taking on peet rd up to the high school. a descent down brookton hwy would bring us out at the bottom of canning mills rd which would take us back to the top of the kahuna. a trek along the top before dropping through bickley valley and back up mundaring weir rd to kalamunda. four major climbs would make this a decent effort for the morning.

we were about to head off sans ryan again, when young jordan from a couple of weeks ago turns up in a ute. he gets out all kitted up and his “driver” takes the bike out of the tray and he is ready to roll. we all wish we had a support crew like that. as we turned onto mill point rd, ryan turns up just in time…again. as we make our way through the suburbs, i notice that rachael was no longer with us. i’m guessing she heard today’s route and opted for an easier day. i could be wrong and maybe she thought it was too easy and went to find some harder hills.

we eventually hit albany hwy and worked our way down towards gosnells. we had briefly lost john to a call of nature and i was thinking much the same thing. just after the road bridged over roe hwy, i ducked off behind a bus shelter and into the bushes. what seemed like a good kilo lighter, i chased for a bit to get back on the group just as they were coming through maddington. a good stop for me as i lessened the weight i was going to carry up the hill and the chase put some warmth back into my fingers and a bit in my toes.

we turned up mills rd west and picked up doug along the way. the kahuna loomed above us and i let the fast boys know where we were going to regroup. jordan left it in the big ring and started grinding his way up. i managed to hold his wheel for a while before a gap appeared and the guys behind moved around to fill it. i couldn’t maintain and had to let them go. i watched jordan tow matt, robbie, ryan and rob towards the top. i was stuck in no-mans land with no riders to be seen i managed to keep ahead of the one behind, but could not make ground on the guys up the road. stu started at the back of the pack and was working his way through. he easily dispatched me and worked his way to the front group. from what i could see, he didn’t quite make it but caught rob who had dropped off the pace. apparently jordan could not hold the big ring for the whole climb and had to drop it back a notch. ryan claims that he took him at the top, but i am not sure of the context. i am assuming he was talking about the race to the top… on the bike… who knows.

we regrouped at the turn and bid farewell to jordan who was only using our ride as a gap filler before his shop one started at nine. we traveled down urch and started our next climb after a short sharp descent. i left it in the big ring and tried to power up the other side. unfortunately, the other side is quite long and i started to run out of puff. ryan came past and i jumped on his wheel. as the climb progressed, we shook off mel and bella who relished the descent, but mat and robbie were not far behind.

we turned up peet rd and ryan set a decent tempo. to hard for me, he gapped me and i had to let him go. robbie, with his bouncy style, hopped up the road and onto ryans wheel. i was again caught in the middle but managed to stay away from any of the chasers. on the descent, i eased off enough for mel and rob to catch up. as peet rd became raeburn and the road starts to climb again, rob came to the front and stepped up the pace. it was enough to shake mel but i just sat neatly on his wheel. as we approached the state champs finish line at roleystone highschool, we were caught by another couple of riders and my memory is vague, but i think it was stu and mat. taking off from the same spot as the state champs masters race, i came around rob, who was spent from too much time on the front, and took line honors in our group. as the group came in, melvyn started to make excuses about spending the last couple of weeks in spain not riding. he was going to take a short-cut, but through the power of peer pressure, we convinced him to keep going.

up this high, the fog had rolled in and we could not see very far at all. we were going to take a right turn across brookton hwy not very far from where the accident happened last week. mat and phil were riding with that group last week, but as most of them were off the bike, they were out with us instead. we stopped at the intersection and allowed people to put their flashing lights on, just to be safe. you could hear the cars coming, but not see them properly at all. we listened for a break in traffic and headed off for our descent. we kept a single file all the way down and the road was not really conducive to high speeds as it continually flattens out. we past a couple of groups heading up the hill and it surprised me how many were out in the cold weather.

speaking of cold, it was so cold that i got an ice-cream headache on the way down. the fog turned out to be more like low cloud as it wasn’t to be seen after we were halfway down the hill. doug and i swapped off turns to keep the pace high and we led the train to the bottom. we turned right just before we hit albany hwy and regrouped before heading to the base of canning mills rd. this climb has been used as the perth hill climb championships as it is a fairly consistent gradient to the top. it basically heads up for around 2 ½ kms at just under 9 % before flattening to 2.5 % for a further 2 kms.

i was on the front as we started the climb as people did not know where to go and managed to gap the field a bit. after the previous efforts i was not sure how i would go, but i preferred to be chased rather than chasing. i held off the boys for quite a while but was caught by ryan, robbie and mat. i still managed to hold wheel for a bit as ryan was still grinding big gears today so was not out to sprint off on everyone. stu caught up with us and came around. robbie chased him down and took off up the road. stu held a gap to us, but mat, ryan and i all kind of stayed together for the majority of the climb.

once the road flattened out, ryan and i stepped on the pace to catch up with stu. matt was spat out the back and had to fend for himself, while robbie was long gone. the climb really sorted the field out as it took quite a while for all the riders to filter back in for the regroup.

we headed across to canning rd through the windy track that is the extension of canning mills rd. mr dickhead was driving a old crappy sedan today as he sped up to pass us only to turn right into a driveway just after. he couldn’t have waited that extra 5 sec. as we waited to regroup on canning rd, the “mid-life crisis harley Davidson club” came past with about 50 or so riders. apart from that, it was a fairly uneventful trip with just the usual attacks on t
he rolling hills heading towards pickering brook.

on our final regroup, a number of riders opted for the straight to the coffee shop route or straight down welshpool rd and home. the rest of us were going to head back up mundaring weir rd. as we went to turn onto glenisla rd, we were held up by the “mid-life crisis huge 4wd club” as about 50 of the damn things were coming the other way. this gave stu and doug a headstart as they managed to get through the turn beforehand.

we didn’t really chase and they held their advantage as we came down the glenisla hill at 70 kmph. mel the daredevil flew past me as i must have been holding her up.

when the climb started up mundaring weir rd, ryan took off like a scalded cat in a bid to try to catch stu. a paced myself up with robbie and rob and we caught ryan who had eased off once he caught stu. no lead change for the majority of the climb as we all sat in a line behind stu. as we came towards the top of the steeper section, ryan started dicking around with his gears. he was trying to get it into the big ring, but it wouldn’t go in. in the meantime, stu was continuing to grind away up the hill and had started to gap us again. i yelled some abuse at ryan, and told robbie, who was on his wheel, to go around him as he was slowing us down. rob, who was behind me, thought that i was talking to him so he came around all of us to chase down stu.

once we hit the flattish section i came to the front to lead out the group into the final climb. when we were just about there, ryan shot past like a bout of gastro (very fluid, but not much substance). the rest of the guys came around me to try to chase him down, while i was left to complete the climb on my own.

a nice pleasant coffee stop today as it was not that cold sitting outside. there were lots of groups of riders also replenishing their carbo and caffeine supplies at kalamunda and a few familiar faces were seen. we set off for the run home and i had a good descent on welshpool rd. i had to come around ryan towards the bottom and topped out at 79km/h. bella beat everyone hitting about 81 km/h.

as we turned onto welshpool proper, ryan informed us we had a few passengers. the glenn parker group that jordan had left us to meet up with had caught us after the coffee and was now attached to our group. we started rolling through to share the load and made our way back to albany hwy. the glenn parker boys turned off there and we made our way along berwick.

ryan led the pack from kent rd lights along berwick where we were heading towards our final sprint. i said to him that he should lead out and then sprint to make sure he had to work hard. we got caught at george st lights and he started dicking around with his gears again. his usual tactic to force someone else to lead out. screw this i thought and took off from the lights hard. i managed a gap quickly and pushed hard over the small hill. maxing out the heart rate at 188 bpm i eased off a bit as i crested and coasted down the hill a bit for recovery. i put the power down again and kept looking back to see if i would be caught. the only riders i could see were a fair way back so i guessed that i was safe. sitting up and cruising in i was past just at the end by a 4wd. sucking along behind at 60 km/h was ryan who claimed line honours. unfortunately he received too much outside assistance and has been relegated to last place. shame, ryan, shame. it’s almost as bad as doping.

so a good ride but definitely a tough morning in the saddle. just over 100 kms by the time i got home and over 1300m of climbing. my form seems to be coming back slowly but surely, however, the late night tour de france coverage is still playing havoc.