Tag Archives: sunday

sunday 13th july – darlington and mundaring

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ride report by peter

a smaller than expected group turned up this morning. the overnight temperature was quite a bit above the expected low of 4 deg as it was closer to 8 or so. this made the decision to wear a jacket or vest a hard one to make as you know that there will be cold spots in the hills, but at the same time, we are climbing a lot which makes it hot. i went with the jacket, and covered up my new kit, as the coffee shop is notoriously cold.

i received a text from ryan before we left, stating that his broken cranks, the cold weather and his lack of sleep all conspired to keep him in bed this morning. bit of a pussy really. without ryan or mike, the main contender on the climbs would be stu. but we would see what transpired.

the route today was a new addition to the suite of sunday climbs in our current arsenal. there would be a few new roads as well as a number of more familiar ones cobbled together to form the new route. it was planned to be a little over 100kms and climb over 1000m vertical. it would be a bit deceptive though, as there would only be three main climbs, but lots of little bonus climbs.

we would head out great eastern hwy but turn to head through belmont and across to maida vale to access ridge hill road. this cuts the corner somewhat and goes to the south of the airport rather than around the northern side. from ridge hill rd we would snake our way through a new route to darlington and back up to great eastern hwy. jump the hwy and into john forrest national park before jumping back to travel to mundaring township. down past mundaring weir and onto coffee in kalamunda. a wild convoluted route, but we need to go exploring some times.

as i said, not a big group and we probably only had 12 roll out with us. we cruised out to belmont and found our way across to kalamunda rd. they were good quiet roads and made it easy to get out to the hills. it gives us another option for both our saturday and sunday rides. along the way we picked up doug and russell to boost our numbers.

our first “bonus” climb was ridge hill road. we normally come up the other side, which is definitely harder, but today we were really just using it as a way to get to darlington. the pace started to increase and it was obvious who would be leading the climbs today. stu, brendan, rob and sam all rode to the front and left the rest of us behind. my tour de france coverage induced lack of riding is starting to catch up with me and i am just not able to hold the pace that i used to. i let the four of them scamper up the hill and over the top. we lost dr paul and wally at this point as they set their own route up the zig-zag instead.

we regrouped and headed through to darlington via clayton rd. this contained mainly rolling hills which were not tough enough to hurt the group until the last one near the end. the road did a sharp left hand turn and started a quite nice climb. the boys headed up the road again, but came to a intersection and milled around awaiting further instructions. i was confused as i had only ever come along this road from the other direction. russell lives close to the area and he provided direction. we turned down glen rd and continued to climb up to darlington proper. another regroup point, as this route has a lot of intersections to negotiate, and we lined up for the final climb up darlington rd. there was a bit of a shout and it turned out to be our marketing director, lorraine, going for a jog as she also lives close by. she is still not on the bike after taking a tumble and breaking her wrist. she likes to pretend that it happened during a final sprint along mounts bay rd where she was giving ryan a run for his money. we will just pretend that it is true.

we have never taken a group up this part of darlington rd before, as it terminates on great eastern hwy and doesn’t leave us with many choices. today however, we would use it as an alternative to riding greenmount as it will also get us to the enterence to john forrest national park. i had only ridien this hill twice before and really didn’t remember how long or how steep it was. the other guys also didn’t know this climb, so everyone was playing it conservatively. about five or six of us climbed it together as we dropped the rest of the field earlier on. anna stayed with us for a while but the constant tempo on the steeper sections eventually unhitched her. the same four from the previous hill finally dropped darren and i on the last pinch up towards the hwy where we regrouped again.

our detour through the national park did not contain any real climbs and was really just an excuse not to ride on great eastern hwy. the rough and windy roads made for an interesting ride as it forces you to ride quite hard in order to maintain a decent pace. michael and brendan di most of the pace making and soon we were back at great eastern hwy again. a nice easy cruise back up to mundaring taking thomas rd which parallels the hwy. we regrouped and set off for the final stretch to kalamunda.

the plan was to do the whole road without stopping as everyone pretty much knew the way to the coffee shop from here. the group held together well down to the weir which contained a great fast decent. once we hit the other side it was a different story.

the previous four and michael started the climb out of the weir and i scrambled to get on the back of that group. michael pulled off at the carpark to wait for emma while the rest of us continued at a decent pace. i was suffering again and the temp had dropped dramatically as we came down into the valley. my left quad started having the same tight feeling as last week so i am deducing that it is the cold that is affecting it. i need to get some knee warmers, i think.

halfway up the climb, brendan, stu and sam stepped up the pace a bit and rob began to fall away. i accelerated to come around him and tried to latch back onto the wheel in front. the effort took it’s toll and i also began to fall back. rob came past me again and set himself a tempo to try o catch back up. i recovered slightly and tried to just ride myself back into a tempo that would allow me to catch back up once the road flattened. it didn’t happen.
i just didn’t have the power in my legs and it depressed me greatly. i used to be the guy that would push the pace all the way back to kalamunda and would shed off the weaker riders with a tempo on the hills. now i was the weaker rider. my heart rate was not high so i didn’t feel i was working hard, but my legs felt leaden and did not want to push hard.

on the final climb before the decent into piesse brook, i thought i saw a rider a bit behind me. from that distance all i could see was they were wearing black. michael was wearing black, but i thought that i couldn’t be himas he was riding back with emma. i soldiered on hoping the decent would allow my legs a bit of respite.

once i hit the final climb up to kalamunda, i had decided to well and truly punish my legs for not being available today. i left it in the big ring and selected a cog from the middle of the cluster. strength endurance work it would be.

it turned out that it was michael behind me as he caught me on the lower slope of the climb and kept on going past me. i just sat down and pushed out the big gear, only standing if i needed to get on top of it during a change in gradient. the coffee shop finally appeared before me.

at the coffee shop we got the news about the accident in roleystone. see the previous post for more info.

we headed off on our descent and had a good run down lesmurdie rd. at the intersection with welshpool, there was a jag waiting to turn right. we rolled up behind it as there was some traffic approaching. as it cleared, we clipped in and started moving. however, the jag didn’t move. we had to skirt around it and by t
hen there was another car coming. it cleared and we looked at the jag and it still didn’t look like it was going to move, so we went. there is an added lane once you cross the traffic coming up the hill, so you don’t really have to wait for the opposite traffic to get across the road. we have no idea what the jag driver was doing, and didn’t care as we were now heading down the hill.

the wind, or lack of meant that the descent was not breaking any records. michael took off just before us and managed a good gap by the time we reached the bottom. we were all pedaling on the descent to try to make up ground, and then time trialed it along the flat, but still didn’t catch him. a long wait at the lights meant that the group was all together and didn’t need to wait at the usual spot.

with no ryan or melvyn present, there were no riders willing to sprint it out at the two mcdonalds sprint points. it actually made for a very pleasant return to perth.

so a nice ride with little to no rain besides a few drops on the return to perth. the new route is nice but quite convoluted coming through darlington so may not feature as regularly as others. but we will see. again, our thoughts go to the riders that got cleaned up today in roleystone and i hope that they recover well.

sunday 6th july – patterson & peet & observatory

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ride report by peter.

well a freezing start to the morning and i was fully expecting that i would be the only idiot to toe the line. i was really surprised to find close to 20 riders all rugged up and ready to roll by the time i turned up there. the official temp for perth city was 0.9 deg at 7:30 which would have to be the coldest start we have had for a long time. i was wondering what the temp would be somewhere like antarctica and should we really be complaining. the davis base on the frozen continent reached -15.7 at 9:00am. it sounds cold and we should probably not complain, but i was sure i could have easily snapped my fingers off if i hit them against the handlebars. either that or my bars would break.

anyway, we had a good group with a couple of newbies and special guests so i knew it would be an interesting ride. josie (team flexpoint) was back on break from racing in europe and had brought her boyfriend, cj (slipstream-chipotle) along for the ride. we also had jordan who is a young “a” grade rider from perth and a couple of the top younger female cyclists in perth in mel and bella. to round it out, we had a bunch of our usual cast to balance the entire group’s ability back to average.

the course today would be a brutal one in any weather, but the freezing temps made it even more difficult. we would travel down towards armadale before turning up brookton hwy for a short spell to lead us to the foot of our first climb. patterson rd is a short-ish climb that would make for a good finish in a one-day classic in belgium. i have renamed this hill and i will explain why later. after that heart starter, we then travel up canns rd before taking a quick decent down soldiers rd which takes us back to brookton hwy. across the road to peet but we don’t climb right to the top instead turn up urch and meet up at the top of the kahuna climb. travel the usual way back to pickering brook, before heading up around the observatory and then up mundaring weir rd to kalamunda. so with five main climbs plus some bonus’ it will be a loooong but productive day.

so we were about to roll out and carlo had to duck off for a quick pee but we eventually set off to try to get warm. it was interesting, as we past through suburbia, how the temperature changed as we ran through dips and hollows. i had opted out of leg warmers but had double gloves and booty covers on as well as a wind proof jacket. my legs were not too bad but by the time we got down to kelmscott, i couldn’t feel my fingers or toes properly. it actually made it hard to change gears as i couldn’t feel which lever i was touching.

just before kelmscott we had to slow the pace right down. carlo needed another pee. instead of stopping to watch him, we just dropped the pace right down to allow him time to chase back on.

we did a short stint on brookton hwy before turning off behind the big orange shed to encounter the hell that is patterson rd, mt nasura. usually we head up over carawatha, but this gives a slight variation and a much harder climb. the whole climb is probably just over 500 metres, but kicks up so sharply that if you stall the bike, you will have trouble getting started again. rob and jordan were at the front as the road turned and some people got their first glimpse of the hill. it is instantly into the easiest gear you have and just grind it out till you hit the top. i was struggling from the start and the one hour ride to get to this point had not really warmed me up much. it may have had something to do with the cold morning…

anyway, i was past by a number of riders but was grateful that when cj past by he commented on the steepness of the hill. it was good to know that even a pro can find our climbs hard. well probably not hard, but challenging. it was hard for me and i watched jordan, cj and ryan fight it out for line honors as they crested the hill and rode out of sight. my arms were hurting from pulling up on the bars so much but i managed to grind it out and reach the top. after finding a patch of sunlight to try to thaw, we regrouped and headed to the next bit of fun. as for the name, this hill will now be known as the f_ckinberg.

canns rd was our next climb and we all started it together in a nice pack. from the front, rob and myself began to up the pace until we split the pack in two. jordan eventually came around and began to step up the pace further. i’m not sure what it was but i started to feel a tightness in my left quad when i need to apply more power. whether it was the cold, a cramp or whether i had damaged it on that first climb when my muscles were not entirely warm, was hard to tell. it hurt so i had to back off. a number of riders came past me as we continued up the hill, but i wasn’t too concerned as i was more worried about my leg. by the time i reached to top at a easier pace, the pain had subsided and i put it down to a cold cramp.

regroup. headed off down churchman brook rd which becomes the wonderful decent of soldiers rd. the road was nice and the decent was fast but not without its issues. the main one was what could only be described as an ice-cream headache. the wind-chill across the skull combined with the fact that the sun had not quite reached that part of the valley, meant a very cold decent.

a quick regroup to make sure everyone made it back to brookton hwy and we were off up peet rd. rob and ben made a quick start and headed up the road in front of everyone else. we started to step it up and i came around jordan to chase down the other two. as we came past, jordan stepped it up again and pulled a gap. i had nothing to go with him but rob came around with cj to chase him down. ben and i rode tempo to finish off the peet rd section before turning onto urch. ryan was not feeling 100% today and was hanging a bit behind us on the climb. as the road stepped up again on urch, my left quad problem came back to visit. i had to back off and this allowed ben to come past, followed by carlo and ryan not long after. meanwhile, rob was giving jordan a run for his money and it was good to see rob climbing so well.

i managed to hold it together till the end and was grateful for the rest while regrouping. mel turned up on a soft rear tire so we spent a bit longer watching her change it… with a bit of help from cj.

the rolling hills between here and pickering brook posed no real problems and no-one was really on the attack as we had two main climbs to go. as we hit the base of the other patterson rd and began the climb to the observatory, carlo shot off the front and took a large gap over the rest of us. no-one chased and we held together and took a nice tempo which broke it down into a select group of about eight. eventually cj and jordan held the front and paced us along the hill. as it wore on, you could see carlo start to look behind himself and was obviously slowing down. on the last pinch of the climb, the pace stepped up again and i had to unhitch. i left the boys reel in carlo and fight it out for line honors which went to ryan.

another fast decent and we were on our final climb of the day. michael and emma had turned off after the observatory as emma was on shift and they needed to get home. the pace was on and it was way too much for me and i very quickly fell off the back. a group of about 5 or 6 headed off up the road and i was caught by ben who also set a pace higher than i could manage. setting myself a tempo, i ground out the rest of the climb to make the final regroup for coffee. according to ryan, he managed to take them on
the final pinch for line honors.

an extended coffee stop and luckily the day had started to warm up so it wasn’t too bad sitting outside. cj asked if i was drunk when i came up with this route as even he thought it was particularly brutal. i said that i set it when i was a lot fitter than i am now. anyway, we left jordan, cj and josie as they were going to do extra km’s and it was beginning to get late. it was good to catch up with them as they are not in the country as much anymore and it is always good to have some of our boys pushed a bit harder by better riders.

so we had a good decent on welshpool rd as the practically windless day caused no problems. bella pushed hard to chase down some of the guys but no landspeed records were broken. the return to town was relatively uneventful with the required sprint up to macdonalds in vic park being to main event. ryan again, i believe. heading towards the final sprint to macdonalds in south perth i jumped on the front to set the pace along berwick rd. as we crested the final hill, bec and sam pushed around me but had ryan tucked neatly in behind so he had an easy final push for the line.

so, around 105km by the time i got home and over 1300m of climbing. a good day but i am a bit disappointed in my current level of fitness and will have to do a lot more work to get back in form.

UPDATE
a bit of video from going up peet rd. jordan is the rider in shot for most of it and cj is the orange and blue rider a bit further back. i would like to say that i kicked both their arses going up the hill, but the video does not go long enough to see me fall off the back and ride the rest of the hill on my own.

cyclo-sportif – swan valley

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race report by peter.

so today was the first cyclo-sportif race that didn’t clash with any other wacf race and we took advantage of it. it was nice and close and would be the flattest course available across the season. last year this race was both a success and a disaster for the organisors. they had their biggest turn out with over 600 riders, but it was also the day one of the worst storm to hit perth happened. rain was belting in sideways and a few people were blown off their bikes. this year they had over 800 riders register and the rain that did hit was nowhere near as cyclonic as last year. starting at the velodrome in midland, the groups first had to roll out to the actual course which was over the other side of the roe hwy at herne hill. once there, the circuit required five laps for us to complete the 78kms. it was unfortunately not just a nice rectangular circuit but had a number of left and right turns that would complicate things during the race.

but before we jump ahead to far, how did we get there. well we had a team of eight riders registered. this was great as the maximum allowed was nine, so we would have enough people to share the load. the team consisted of the usual race boys; myself, michael, chris, mark, ryan, jerry, stan and bruce. by saturday arvo i had received a text from bruce saying that he would not be available to race. on the way to the venue i received a call from stan saying that as his wife was due this coming friday, he was not coming either. so we were down to six. since our south perth kits had not yet arrived, we raced under the old rio tinto colours as this is who we raced for last year, and i could get enough jerseys to make sure the team was all wearing the same.

the intermittent showers that sprinkled us on saturday, persisted into sunday and the radar showed a number of them heading our way. they were not too bad though and would pass quickly. we registered, kitted up and headed out to the real start point. with over 800 rider in over 100 teams, they needed to start the teams at 30 second intervals.

maybe i should explain just what cyclo-sportif is and why it is so popular. it is touted as participation not racing and as such is structured so that there are no winners. the format is basic team time trial, but you must finish with all the riders you started with (barring injury or serious mechanical). so if someone is slow on the hills, you wait for them; if they get a flat you wait for them. this format is so very popular as anyone can enter and you get to ride with the people you like rather than a basic group race. times are posted, but not ordered and you actually need to import them into excel and reorder them to see how well you did. it offers all abilities something and hence it’s popularity has grown.

the core of our team had been doing these types of races for three years and it took us a while, but we finally got it together to learn to stick together. this meant pushing weaker riders up hills and a lot of yelling to make sure people knew what was going on. our strategy was simple. single file, 30 sec to a minute on the front, then peel off and jump on the back. this allowed us to go the fastest, and people could regulate their time on the front depending how buggered/fresh they were. it also meant that even if you did a 10 sec turn, that was a rest that someone else was getting.

the teams are ordered, based on their previous performance. as we had not raced this season, the organisors would not have any idea where to put us, but as we were a rio tinto team, they would probably use the other rio teams previous time. we ended up mid pack about eight minutes back from the other rio team. this was good and bad for us. good, cause i didn’t think that there would be any other teams that would pass us as most of the really good teams would start last. bad, cause we would not have as much clear road ahead of us.

our race number was “kk”. it starts at “a”, completes the alphabet, moves to double letter, then moves back to numbers. for the other distances (60ish and 30ish) they use different coloured numbers. what it really meant was a lot of congestion.

at the start line, gary suckling did the race commentary and introduced the teams. in three years he has never been able to pronounce my name properly. i mean, it is only three letters so it can’t really be that hard, but i have never heard him say it the same way twice. soon, we were off.

the cold that my young lad had given me on thursday was being held at bay by the cold and flu tablets that had formed part of my healthy breakfast. i was feeling good and ready to go hard. we past the team that started 30 sec ahead of us before we even hit the first corner. picked up two more before the back straight and kept passing teams the whole way around the first lap. i was totally unsure of the wind direction as we seemed to doing over 40km/h up the rolling hills of the back straight. a couple of the boys had the early ride struggles and we had to back off a bit but were still going relatively hard. the first lap was really just to get to know the course as i had not done it before. i really was not expecting so many corners and had not really researched the race too well. very unlike me.

we were being held up on many of the corners as it was unsafe to try to slip by some of the less skillful teams with the damp road conditions. there was a lot of yelling going on as we had to warn a lot of teams that we were coming past. as approached the finish of the first lap, i saw up the road that they were still starting the shorter distance teams. damn, there were a lot of people riding today.

sometime on the second lap, it started to rain. it also brought about a change in the wind as it picked up to throw the rain in our faces. it became a crosswind on some of the straights and we had to echelon across the road in order to maintain speed. this proved difficult in two respects. we had to continuously pull back into single file to pass other groups, especially those that were all over the road. and the constant corners and changes of direction meant that we had to form off to the left, then the right and back again. this meant a lot more yelling from the bunch to make sure everyone was in the right spot.

halfway down the back straight, michael informs us that his rear tyre is going down. protocol required us to all wait for him as he changed the tube. he suggested we treat it more like a criterium and he will sit out a lap and we can pick him up next lap. fine with us, we powered on.

more teams were overtaken and it was hard to know where we really stood as no-one was catching us. on the back straight of lap three we past the other rio tinto team who had an eight minute head start on us. we had expected to pass them but it was a good gauge of how we were going. a little bit later we picked up michael from the side of the road.

lap four began to not feel as good for me. the first three laps were ace. i wished i felt like that more often. the only memorial part of lap four was mark putting his head down when on the front and missing a marshal indicating for us to turn. we all turned, he sent straight. he didn’t get far before realising his mistake, but he was hammering along before the corner. we all thought that he was going to take it too fast.

at the start of lap five, the final lap, we caught group “gg” who looked like they had stopped for a mechanical. we past them by but not long after they past us back again. with a full complement of riders, they were fresher than us and managed to keep on going. ryan wa
nted to pass them back, but i was on my limit and some of the other guys were not going to go any faster. he was very disappointed, but he was not feeling what my legs were feeling, which was pure crap.

the final lap involved a lot of yelling to slow down as my quads had started to cramp if i got out of the saddle. i was having trouble holding a wheel and was really running out of steam. the final couple of km’s were an absolute struggle and ryan had to drop back to help me. we ended up riding two abreast to block the wind and get everybody home. we finished in 2hr 06min according to my clock and had cover 80kms at an average of 38.3 km/hr. the official results had not come out yet, so this may change.

a slow ride back to the velodrome where we at least get changed out of the rain. the track racing was well under way and there were stalls from all the major bike shops in town. as we were passing through, josie had her wheelrace heat and her boyfriend, cj sutton was pushing her for the start. we watched her race then grabbed our meal and sat down to watch the rest of the events. in the final of the wheelrace the scratchmen were both riding for european pro teams and cj buried himself to lead out graeme brown back to the main pack. brownie had an enourmous turn of speed and past almost everyone except one new zealand rider who hung on for the win.

so we will only be available for three of the races this year and our first was quite a good hit out. next race we will be riding under the south perth rouleurs banner and i hope to get a few more of the guys involved across a few teams so we can get our group out there.

sunday 22nd june – welshpool & mundaring & kalamunda

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ride report by peter

so my first hills ride in a long time and before i even started, i knew it was going to hurt. if i hadn’t been racing, i had been unable to ride due to other commitments. the racing was generally on flatter courses too, so it has been a different style of riding.

many of the usual suspects toed the line this morning, but we had an influx of estrogen as we also had four girls come out with us. davina was out on her final hills ride before she heads to the usa for eight weeks of racing. you can keep tabs on her progress via her blog which can be found here. a friend of hers, bec, also joined us along with sandy, who i used to do triathlons with, and anna an old regular. as far as the blokes went, we had ryan to keep us honest on the hills and carlo, a friend of stu’s who was a bit of a dark horse.

i had mapped out a new route this morning to take in the mundaring weir road. we often ride mundaring weir, but are usually heading towards kalamunda for coffee rather than away from it. i thought the change would be good, but to get to it, we would have to get across the scarp via welshpool rd. after mundaring, we would head back through darlington and back up to kalamunda for coffee. it was planned to be just over 100km by the time we got home.

the morning was fresh, but not as cold as yesterday. everyone was rugged up but wary of the fact that it was going to warm up as the day progressed. we headed out great eastern hwy to get onto orrong rd and picked up mike on the way out. great, both mike and ryan to hurt us on the hills. nice and uneventful on the way out and pretty soon we were beginning to climb the “lower slopes” of the welshpool hill.

everyone had been doing turns on the front and just as the road began to point upward, the guys peeled off to leave sandy and anna to lead the way up the climb. michael came to the front with davina on his wheel and i jumped on as he set the pace. a train of ryan, mike, mark and a new guy, carlo came past as the climb got harder. i switched wheels to see how long i could stay with them. i was sitting on carlo’s wheel when ryan swapped turns with mike and set a higher pace. i pulled off to the side and i think jerry may have been there too. all blood was channeled to legs so the short term memory was not functioning properly. anyway, eventually it ended up being ryan, mike & carlo up the road and they had about 100 metres on mark and myself by the time we past the servo.

after that, i don’t really know what happened to the front guy’s navigational skills. all three turned up lesmurdie road. when have we ever turned up that way??? mark asked me if we were going straight and we just kept powering by as they eventually looked back down the road and realised their mistake. the aim now was to try to stay ahead of the hapless trio.

as we crested the next section, we saw a few cyclists a bit further up the road. these turned out to be, doug, dr paul & dr greg. doug had lives up that way so always joins after the start, whilst the docs had left early and were going to do their own thing.

after the second “step” in the climb, we were still ahead of them but they were closing fast. ryan and mike had dropped carlo and very soon they had overtaken us. it was now a matter of jumping on board and holding on till the end. on the final pinch i tried a bid for glory, but came up a little short as they caught me as we crested the rise. we then rolled down to the intersection together. there may have been a dispute as to who should really claim the first on this climb, but the commasaires have reviewed the tape and have declared that they were stupid to turn up lesmurdie road.

a regroup at the top and we were off into bickley valley. a few of us tried for the landspeed record down the glenisla rd as it was ideal weather with little wind at that time. as i said yesterday, it was the winter solstice, which is the shortest day of the year. as we past through bickely valley it still had not seen the sun and was absolutely freezing. their winter solstice must mean a day of only three hours direct sunlight. another quick regroup to make sure we had everyone and we were off again, but unlike every other ride, we were heading away from the coffee shop.

the road to mundaring has a couple of main climbs and a lot of undulations in between. we hit the first one as soon as we turned onto the road and as i was “leading the way” i ended up with a decent gap on the rest of the field. carlo bridged across to me and soon ryan, mark and mike were there too. jerry briefly tried to make it across, but was a little short and didn’t manage to get a wheel.

the pace wasn’t high, but consistent, and we swapped off turns all the way to the weir. the decent into the dam wall was a lot of fun, especially the last couple of hundred metres where they have laid hotmix. all that road needs is about 20km more of it and it will be awesome.

as we came up out of the weir, we changed plans and would stop at the roundabout as i was concerned that some of the group may not know the way and would get lost. this meant that the second climb would not be that long, and ryan could go harder sooner. he did. about halfway up the first pinch out of the weir, he started going hard. mark and carlo dropped off but i managed to hang on, but only just. just as the climb approached the roaundabout and the grade steepened, both mike and ryan stepped on the gas and i had to let them go. i think mike pipped ryan for line honors.

regroup and off again. the pack stayed together till about the halfway point, where ryan, mike and carlo took off on one of the rolling hills. i again, managed to stay around for a bit but soon ran out of legs and could not hold wheel. mark and darren picked me up as they came past and we were only about 150 metres behind once we hit the regroup point again.

the rest of the decent into darlington was going to be controlled and the group would stay together. there were too many twists and turns for people to get lost in, and michael and i also wanted to take the group down one of the steepest hills in the area. this particular hill is called mills rd and averages about 17%. when going up (and we will do this one soon) your arms get sore from pulling up on the bars and you are always searching for an easier gear. when going down, you are going over the crest and still can’t see the bottom of the hill. you tend to ride the brakes the whole way down as you pick up speed in no time. there is also a semi-blind corner that you don’t want to cut, just in case. a small bonus climb to get us to darlington, and we started another descent.

this eventually brought us out at the base of ridge hill rd, our last bonus climb for the day. my legs were not cooperating by now and when carlo and ryan went, i couldn’t really respond. i just rode tempo to the top but kept them in sight till the start of the zig zag.

as we regrouped a coup happened. not from within the ranks, but rather from my legs. they said “i swear that if you make us ride up kalamunda rd i will put your foot through the spokes when you are coming done welshpool”. they were pissed, and who could blame them. i hammered them pretty hard today, and they were out of condition to start with. my cardio backed the legs and my brain made my mouth tell everyone that i think we should just go strai
ght up the zig zag. a few of the others turned off to go home and then ryan and mike took off up the zig zag at pace. i was content to just cruise along and enjoy the view for a while. a couple of other “hardcore” riders decided to still tackle kalamunda rd. darren, dr melyvn and anna all deserve the insanity medal for that one.

about halfway up i thought that i better make the most of it and took off catching mark by surprise. michael must have been expecting it and sat neatly on my wheel until i ran out of puff. he then took off up the road to leave me suffering alone. mark and jerry started the long chase and eventually swallowed me up then spat me out the back while they went after michael. i snuck down a back road and beat all three of them to the coffee shop.

as i said before, today was davina’s last ride with us for a while. i can still remember the first sunday when she and josie turned up. we went up carawatha hill in mt nasura near brookton hwy and davina had to push her bike up, claiming that she was a track sprinter, not a road cyclist. how things have changed, as now she is smashing it up those same hills and going racing in the usa. josie has also just returned from a few months racing in europe and will be heading back again soon. for the rest of us that are well past our prime, we can all live vicariously through those in the group that are doing well in the sport.

coffee was good. service was not too bad considering it was closer to 11 than 10 when we arrived. so refreshed, rehydrated and recovered (maybe) we were on our way again. a fast descent down welshpool was not an option as the wind was not in our favour. a group of us stayed pretty much together until the bottom, when i ran out of legs (again) when they began to time trial to the regroup point. all present and correct and we started rolling through to keep out of the wind. we managed to box ryan in almost till the end but he still managed to stretch his legs for a couple of hundred metres to the intersection.

lining up for the final sprint along berwick, both ryan and davina were eyeing each other off as neither wanted to be on the front. knowing i had no sprint, i went to the front and paced the final section from kent st all the way to the end. as we came onto the flat section and the final sprint, ryan, jerry and davina all jumped off my wheel but ryan was too strong and managed to hold off a fast finishing jerry at the unofficial invisible line.

so, a good first ride back for me, as i actually finished without totally dying and managed to keep the big boys in sight at the major climbs. we have a cyclo-sportif event next weekend so not hills for me, but after that the next race is not till august, so i expect that i would have reacquainted myself with most of the climbs in perth by then.

Sunday – Welshpool Rapids & Kalamunda River

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Report by John
Updated with Video

All those with nothing better to do, and either no decent coffee machine, or indoor trainer turned up – i think there were 6 or 7. i waited in the rain hoping no one would turn up but alas they trickled in like drowned rats – equally disappointed in seeing a fellow cyclist…so we had to go.

someone murmured about going straight for a coffee – and thus a mutiny was hatched.
pete’s planned route was sabotaged before we even started.

i was little disappointed – i mean if you make the effort to go riding in the rain, may as well get hypothermia and make the most out of it. then again i must confess i was not totally unhappy as it started to ‘persist‘ down.

the ride up welshpool for me was better than anticipated – i kept in touch with the front guys (kept in touch at about 100m behind) for half the climb. todd was on my tail most of the way until he had a spell in front with me taking him on the last little kick before the finish.

the other climb up kalamunda hill felt good as well. trailed dr carl for a bit then took him. there is a flattish section about half way up that i’ve learnt to change into the big ring and scoot along. managed to keep about 35kmh for a while there but never caught sight of the front 4 guys. i reckon they must have been about 400m in front.

Pete and young Ben met us for a much needed hot drink (thanks carl for the $5) , and i think pete was filming us on the way back down the hill. at first glance i thought some cop was trying to make sure we weren’t speeding…no chance of that!

every time i climb it’s a learning experience balancing lungs, heart and lactic acid (”the kids in the back seat” ) with my brain telling everyone to “settle down”.

i think lance was right – we ride not for the pleasure, but for the pain. it gives us such a sense of achievement to ‘handle it’ – not matter where one is in group’s pecking order.

all in all, happy i did the ride (so nearly piked out), but very relieved to make it down the hill and back home in one piece.

apologies for not mentioning everyone who rode, but i have trouble enough remembering what i did let alone anyone else…

Sunday 8th June 2008 – Part 1, Canning Mills, Peet and Lawnbrook.

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ride report by darren.

part 1, – only because i scrambled home after the last climb. I encourage anyone who was
1. close to the front.. or
2. made it to the cafe
to fill in the rest.

sunday morning could be described as cold – but not too bad. the wind was coming from somewhere but didnt really play a factor in the days activities.

todays route had us going up canning mills rd, or did it, most of us were confused, was this cohuna? so i stepped in… “definitely canning mills road”, that made me the leader for the first part. this would be the only correct piece of info i would dish our for the day. i guess i was still distracted by the amazing mr dickhead, must have been the same guy from the saturday ride, who swung straight into the car parking spot i had been waiting 5 minutes for at the shops on saturday afternoon, who refused to move or apologise no matter how loud my protests.

a fairly ugly looking bunch today, luckily bella joined us for her second day in a row in the hills despite a physics exam tomorrow. as the minutes ticked past 7am and after a bit of banter in the carpark Mark reached deep into his lycra and produced a measuring device….a portable bike scale, to become the official (enough) bike weight measurer for the group. nice work, but still some calibration required as mine came out heavier than anticipated – back to the drawing board.

about 16 brave souls headed down the new route to albany hwy, via manning road. stuart and mike b led the way for a fair chunk at a decent pace. mark and i found ourselves at the front after cannington and worked up a sweat as we pace the group down albany hwy to gosnells.

at the tonkin hwy lights i told ryan the regoup point thinking that is all the instructions required . we held a moderate pace down connell ave to the end, ryan kept asking, “is this the climb yet”, not yet ryan. I found myself at the back of the pack as we swung left into luchich to start the ascent, if only we were heading in the right direction, a quick u-turn and off to canning mills we went.

back on track, we snaked our way up canning mills which can be described as nasty. I initially stayed at the back while ryan, mark, stuart and jerry led the way. mike b was back in the pack taking it easy, well for about 10 seconds, he held a consistent strong pace, picking off riders one by one and caught the lead guys somewhere near the top. as i took the initial climb easy i had a little in reserve (despite holding 180bpm for the climb) and soon found myself holding jerrys wheel with mark a few meters ahead (no chance of passing either). stuart, ryan and mike b were the first to the top, with evidence that stuart held on for the kom points (if only i told ryan the correct regroup point). so telling everyone to regroup at urch was a mistake, as stu and mike headed off to the correct regroup point (wasnt fast enough to reach them) with ryan waiting with us. no one seemed to mind too much and ryan sped off to round up the pace setters (sorry guys and gals). Bella complained that her rear derailleur was playing up and she was locked out of some easier gears (this didnt seem to slow her down on the climbs).

the steep descent down urch is always fun and a little scary especially as you hit a bend just after the last really steep section. the climb out of urch onto peet and then to the school hurts a lot. with ryan, stu, mike, mark and gerry setting the pace i found myself behind dr marc and bella with shao on my tail. shao pushed me on the steep parts so i decided to dish out a bit of pain on the flats and just as he would get back on my wheel again i would accelerate again (now i am starting to understand this theory of inflicting damage). dont know who was first to roleystone but marc beat me to the top in our own little mini comp.

After a short break we all headed off down brookton hwy to the servo. The pace was definitely on as we descended the hill with mark, melvyn and ryan pushing for the karragullen sprint points (where-ever they are measured?). At the servo, no one seemed to want a coke or a gatorade so we headed off but found ourselves amongst another group of CRT riders (chain reaction training). the CRT group seemed to have many more x chromosomes that y (a point not lost on some of the group). so whilst mark, marc and i took it in turns to smash out a decent average at the front of the pack (later joined by stu, jerry and ryan), dr carl, todd and melvyn enjoyed the view from the back. dr jerry’s excuse was retinal hypoxia – or something.

as we headed down toward the observatory turn off we were passed in the opposite direction by the ultimate bogan mobile (a black SS clubman ute with spoilers, flares, 20 inch mags, lowered at the front and raised at the back- the mining boom has a lot to answer for), todd and i had a chuckle. The climb to the observatory was uneventful with Stu leading the usual suspects at break neck speed and those not fit enough to hang on falling behind. As ryan stole the KOM points in the last metres from stu, i found myself a few hundred metres back battling with dr marc again with the heart rate well and truly in the red zone.

at this point we debated where to go to next, others wanted to do mundaring weir road but my vote was for lawnbrook since we had not done that for a while and since it was the designiated route, convinced them that we should. the run down walnut was fun and i decided to take it it easy up lawnbrook. at the top I heard that dr gerry hurt mark and I think ryan hurt himself as he said that he was feeling like crap.

I will leave it to someone else to finish the day off as I headed for home with a few other at this point… thanks everyone for a great ride.

sunday 1st june – menzies to kalgoorlie race

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race report by peter

the menzies to kalgoorlie is one of those iconic races on the wa racing calendar. if wa was europe, it would probably be referred to as a monument much like paris-roubaix. it has been run and won since 1928 when the road was only a dirt track. a event history can be found here.

the race is run as a graded scratch which meant that groups all got a head start based on the grade that they nominated. the “a” grade or “scratchmen” would take off last and be trying to catch “b” grade, who were trying to catch “c” grade, who were trying to catch “d” grade, who were dodging the remnants of “e” grade which is the participation race. so generally if the handicapper has read the field right (and this is a very difficult job) all the groups should come together at the finish for a mass sprint. this doesn’t always happen as it depends on how well the groups work together.

the most important thing about this race is the prize money. first place gets $3,000. being a handicap event, this means that everyone has a chance of getting it if they have the legs at the end of 132km. there is also a generous breakdown of cash prizes for the different grades and fastest times as well as money for the criteriums on saturday. the total prize pool this year was $15,000. that is what generally attracts people to the race.

so before i even got to the start of the race, i needed to actually get to kalgoorlie. this meant either a 6+ hr road trip or a flight to kal. one of my sunday training partners, davina and her hubby luke were also heading up for the race so i car-pooled with them to ease the drive a bit. davina got sixth overall in last years race and first female across the line, so she was looking to improve on that this year. my goals for the race were just to finish.

we set off on saturday morning early enough to get to kal before the criteriums that afternoon. i had not nominated for the crits as i didn’t really think i had the legs for two events. my list of excuses was starting to grow. i had been battling a sore throat and runny nose all week plus i woke up at 4:30 that morning with a serious cramp in my calf. it was all heading towards a memorial weekend, no matter which way it turned out.

so a long boring drive with many toilet/food/driver change stops on the way and we finally rolled into town at around 2pm. both davina and i had nominated for “c” grade and her crit was due to start in about 35min time. we quickly got her bike out and she kitted up and headed out to register and warm up.

the circuit was laps around the main street of kal for about 25 min plus a couple of laps. the field attacked quite a lot and davina was there to chase down most of them until the final lap when some guy went hard with one lap to go and managed to stay away till the end. a strong showing by the field and it would be interesting to see what the pace would be like the next day when it was over 132km.

a compulsory race briefing at 6:30 that night and it was time for a quick bite to eat and off to bed to close out an already long day. luke was going to drive us to the start, so it allowed a bit more of a sleep in compared to the other riders that would have to catch the bus. bike was ready, kit was ready, rider was…..interested to see how the day would pan out.

race day
the race started at 10am at menzies. being a one-way race, meant that we had to endure the 132km drive out to the start. after the previous day, it seemed like nothing at all, but did give a bit of a preview of the terrain. it is considered flat, by most standards, but the road actually undulated quite a bit along the entire course.

the handicaps are not posted till the morning so it was well into our warm-ups that we found out that “c” had to make up 11 min on “d” but stay the 9 min away from “b” grade. the “a” and “e” grade were either side of that, but weren’t really a concern at that time.

when our time finally came to toe the line, murray hall gave a bit of a pep talk encouraging everyone to work well together and make sure you did your fair share of work. murray is one of the most experienced riders around the wa scene and has raced at almost every level of the sport. also as he is over 55 yrs old (masters 6 last week state titles) and still as strong as an ox, he has a lot of respect from the other riders.

the clock struck 10:35 and we were off.

we had a field of about 20 and there were some familiar faces amongst the group from other races that i had been in this year. the pace was on as soon as we crossed the railway track just outside menzies and soon we were rolling through at an average of 45km/h.

with the aim of keeping away from “b” grade reinforced by murray’s speech, everyone was rolling through well and keeping the pace high. there was a nominated sprint point at about the 30km mark and each grade was given a prize for first to cross the line. funnily enough, there were calls for people not to sprint but keep working together just before a bunch of guys took off the front and went for the money.

we regrouped and started to work again. occasionally as we rolled from the back you would notice a couple of people sitting on and not doing a turn. i was still struggling with the pace at this time and really felt like my body had not warmed up to the event. i felt a bit cheated that even though i was feeling crap i was still doing turns while a couple of others were just sitting in. anyway, by about the 40km mark i started to feel a bit better.

i was trying to drink more than i usually do but i actually felt like my stomach was not talking it too well and felt a bit bloated. i stuck with mostly water to make sure i wasn’t trying to force too much sugar through my gut. it usually works after a while as it give it time to flush though. at the halfway point there is a feed station set up. luke was meeting us there to give out drink bottles and davina and i managed to grab one each. very quickly afterwards the pace was back on.

we were beginning to pick up remnants of both “d” and “e” grade the further we got up the road. as the roads are very long and straight, you could see other riders for quite a long way before you actually reached them. we were also on the look out for the flashing lights of the “d” grade support car which would give us an indication of how far in front they were. looking back down the road we also couldn’t see the “b” grade support car, so that was a relief.

by about the 75km mark i was really starting to feel my legs. the hamstrings were beginning to feel tight and i had to occasionally get up out of the saddle to stretch them. my quads had not felt any cramps yet, which was a good sign, and the tight calf from the other morning had not given me any grief. the hammies felt like they did the first few times on the track where you are forced to spin more at a high speed. i didn’t want to over gear though as then i may upset my quads. i just kept it going as best i could.

at the 85km mark i really needed a break and fell to the back of the pack and sat behind sarah-jean who had been lurking back there. i skipped a few turns and tried to get some recovery, but it really didn’t seem to work. my muscles didn’t want to play and my cardio was still sitting high. at 88km i fell totally off the back and watched the pack continue up the road.

f@ck. i was so disappointed in myself. couldn’t even finish the race. as i started to slow down my body really started to rebel even further. the tightness in my hamstrings and glutes turned to pain and it was uncomfortable to even sit in the saddle. i managed to keep going by alternating betwee
n standing and sitting until my quads then began to cramp. it hurt to sit. it hurt to stand. what the f@ck was i doing out here in the middle of nowhere.

i managed to keep going for another 4km after being dropped before pulling up at an intersection and reaching for the mobile phone. limited service so i rang luke, but he was out of range. luckily “b” grade came around the corner a few moments later and luke was stuck in the convoy behind them. he saw me and pulled over. very gratefully i loaded the bike into the car and was glad to not be riding anymore.

as we finally got past “b” grade and up the road, we saw that “c” had caught “d” and had formed quite a large pack. this would certainly make it interesting for the finish. as we headed towards kalgoorlie i was trying to work out what went wrong. the encrusted snot around my nose and the salt crystals i could feel an almost every inch of exposed skin was a good indication that my body was not performing as expected. i probably went into the event a little too dehydrated and should have spent most of friday and saturday sculling water to make sure i had enough in my system. i was still coughing up crap, from my “cold” but i didn’t really feel that bad. the most telling sign was when i downloaded my heart rate monitor and saw that for the 2hrs that i was racing, my average heart rate was 177bpm. this meant that after doing a turn on the front and hitting the high 180’s, i wasn’t recovering properly before doing another effort. the 44km/h average up to that point hadn’t helped the situation either.

so, we pulled into kal and took up position near the finish line. a number of “e” grade riders came in first in dribs and drabs, but as they had a 35min head start on “c” grade, it would be expected that some of them would. not long after, a big bunch came around the corner and started jockeying for position. there is a tight roundabout to negotiate and the pack thinned as it went through to avoid having a pile up this close to the end.

down a couple of blocks of hannan st and a sharp u-turn before the sprint to the line. “b” grade had not caught “c” and the winning group was made up of “c” and “d” grade. the sprint to the line started early and being a couple of blocks it was too long for some who fell back at the finish. paul lamond managed to come away with the win but davina held onto fourth overall and was only a tire width away from claiming third. her race report and video of the finish can be found here.

the top six spots were all “c” grade riders as it seems that both “b” and “a” grade self destructed along the way and stopped working together to save themselves for the sprint of their own grade.

so, not a good day for me but a few lessons learned. lack of water, lack of speed work, lack of heart all may have contributed to my downfall. i was quite disappointed with my effort and will try to learn from it for the next lot of races. i don’t think i was really prepared for the speed that the group went as i had only contested scratch races so far this year. with the next handicap race being the collie-donnybrook race in august, hopefully i will have my shit together by then.

Sunday 1st June – Carradine & Peet

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ride report by rob

another warm morning – still in for the arms and long fingered gloves though. with the weather being the way it was yesterday (thunder, lightening, flash floods, etc) it was pretty wet on the road – but alt least it wasn’t raining anymore. looked like it’d hold off too, so it was going to be a nice trip up in to the hills.

our number was 10 this morning – a lively looking bunch with some of the stronger riders in the pack. thankfully emma was with us providing some welcome relief from the hairy, gnarled faces of the rest of the crew. it was about 5 past 7 when mark rolls in. he pulls up to a halt, with some ominous bubbles coming out of his tire (or at least the air coming out of it onto the puddles on the road!) – yep, nice piece of glass in that one mate! “will you wait for me?'” he pleads…

once mark gets that sorted out, and gerry finishes his story about some dodgy shipment he’s trying to get flown into the country (from cuba???), we finally make our way out of coode st car park and on to mill point road.right at douglas and half way up the hill the call goes out to michael and me on the front, “mark’s lost his glasses!” mmmm, starting to see a pattern forming here – this is not a designated recovery ride! after a quick re-group we continue on to hayman and then round on to manning. and we nearly made it to albany highway without further event when another call from the back goes out “mark’s dropped his chain!” – the ‘other’ mark that is. stu turned round to go and collect him while the rest of us waited at the side of the road. re-group.

rounding on to albany highway i was thinking surely that has to be it, don’t these things come in 3’s? traveling along the highway was really quite spesh. beautiful sunday morning, not too many cars, nice flat road to warm the legs up before the climbs, everything’s feeling pretty good…”get off the f*%@king road, you wa*$%ers!!” is what i think the bloke said as he flew past in his camper van…at least i’ve got a house mate – back to the trailer park with you fella!

ryan, stu, michael and me did most of the front work along the highway – good to stretch the legs and get the heart going. i hadn’t ridden this route before so wasn’t too sure what to expect. knowing the routes pete plans though, i expected it’d probably start to hurt pretty soon. we rounded on to carawatha ave just before armadale, and my suspicions were confirmed. holy crap son, what is that??! looming large in front of us is what can only be described as something most people take their crampons and ice picks to get up…lovely. stu and mark move to the front and start working their way up. i drop down to what feels like a comfortable gear and try and hold mark’s wheel. ryan scoots past with gerry on his wheel. stu picks up the pace and leaves me and mark grinding our way up. about 2/3rds of the way up i looked at my heart rate – 97% of max and climbing – the breathing is so laboured that i’m sure i’m about to hyperventilate. finally reaching the top and started to spin my legs trying to get some oxygen back into my lungs and get my heart rate back down to something that resembled normalish. the re-group allowed for the needed rest – michael and emma arriving a short while after – respect to emma getting up it at all! and the re-groups are always a bit of a furphy – the stronger guys get to the top and get a nice long rest, and when the last person rolls in, it’s like “right, all on? lets go”. suggest new rules – lead pack turns round and heads back down to the last person (which is what stu started to do anyway) and push back up the hill again! then all re-group at the top and have equal rest….or is it just me??

anywho…on we head, michael flies off down the hill to the next turn and we head on to canns road. more climbing lies ahead, but nothing like that nasty, nasty cliff we’d just worked up. we make our way up through the bush to churchman brook road – quite a stunning piece of the world up there. great views and the scents of the wet bushland are something you only get to experience when you’re riding. pretty uneventful along this stretch with a few of us engaging in a conversation – others just enjoying being out in the open. a fairly fast descent down to the righthander at butcher road which takes u back up to brookton highway. ryan decides to test the pack up the hill and stu holds his wheel. mark, me, michael and gerry follow, but not with enough to keep on the tail of these guys – stu is really testing the fynn today it seems..good to see.

re-group at rolystone – mark mentions that they had breakfast there one ride – “mmm, that sounds good…shall we do that today” i think…ryan then starts to test the water on whether the group wants to pike it on peet road and just follow brookton around canning rd. as i hadn’t ridden this way before, i could only imagine what this next bit must look like. stu says that he’s doing peet road “for fun”, so it looks like the rest of us are too then! wouldn’t be right not too, really…! as we round on to peet road, it’s pretty obvious why there was some resistance…what the hell!!! off goes ryan, which was most unusual for him – normally likes to fly past with a giggle (at least thinking it, if not actually doing it) about 1/2 way up. stu takes off after him with me just off his wheel. i tried as hard as i could to hang on, but to no avail. 1/3rd of the way up the road flattens out and stu kicked. i looked behind me to see gerry about 100 metres back with mark, michael, john and mark just behind him. oh well, may as well give it what i’ve got, so i pushed again. that really began to bite and i could here gerry starting to close in. ryan was already off into the distance and i could see stu still trying the bridge the gap on him. gerry came past me just after the roundabout – is that the BIG ring he’s in!! mate, respect. i grabbed his wheel and held on for a while, and then it looked like he began to crack. grabbing for the smaller cogs at the back and then up out of the saddle….then clunk, off it goes on to the little ring. that’s me i think and go round. with the rest that i’d got in his draft, i was able to find just a little bit more and managed to get to the top in third. heart was certainly working and the head was beginning to ask the question “are you for real??”. stu headed back off down the hill to ride up with the back of the pack. as each one came in to the top there was a definite look of relief on their faces. ryan had the camera out taking pictures as they came in – any good ones mate?

after the re-group, we took off again, down to canning road – stu and me were off the front along brookton highway – i turned around and there wasn’t anyone else there?? i mention this to stu who seems not too concerned – something about ‘coffee shop’ and ‘first orders’ i think he said? quick regroup at the gull servo and we head out to go and find mundaring weir road. quite a nice rolling ride through to get there – the fast stretch along glenisla road had ryan on the front for most of the way doing all the work with the rest of us content to tuck in behind and get ready for what lay ahead. we wind our way down to mundaring weir road and round on to the final climb of the day. michael pulls off to the side to ride up with emma. stu’s on the front, with ryan, mark, gerry and me tagging on. the pace is high and the legs are all spinning. from what i can tell from everyone’s head position, we were very much at the business end of the day. being on the back, it felt like stu was putting in little mini attacks every 200 metres or so. as each of us responded it took just a bit more out of us. i was really struggling to keep in touch with gerry’s wheel…looking ahead there was another rider about 500 metres up the road. it felt like now there was a rabbit to chase down so the pace picked up again…reeling in this loan dude became a matter of principle and the effort stayed high. as we closed in, i could really feel the end of my run coming up…not much m
ore in the legs and the heart racing at 96% of max. we come up to the loan rider, and low and behold it’s darren – one of our usual crew. “slept in” he says as we work our past. darren jumps on to my wheel and i think the words were ‘holy shit!’ as he realized what pace we were going at. i think i only lasted another 100 metres or so before my legs packed it in for good…darren goes past and jumps on gerry’s wheel. so, from a distance, it looked as though stu really did have everyone’s measure today – mighty impressive effort, and as far as i can tell he was numero uno at the top. darren dropped his chain before getting up there and by the time i arrived at the round about, there wasn’t anyone there to greet me – guess i wasn’t getting first orders in after all!

rolling in to the coffee shop, there was lots of chatter from the four at the front about the climb. it was a big effort and the sweat count on gerry was running at what looked to be about 1.5 litres! time for a well earned coffee and food.

the group headed back out 1/2 an hour later and off to find the lesmurdie and welshpool fun parks. nice fast downhills with plenty of space to play. heading down welshpool road, ryan kicks off the front with darren and me in pursuit. as we got up to what felt like about 75 (must get that resh battery back in the computer!!), michael flies past in full aero position – ryan and darren look sideways and start pedaling furiously. a broken down car in the left hand lane made for some interesting times. ryan waves us round, darren moves out and i was forced across to almost the right hand lane. i wasn’t too fussed about a) going into the right hand lane and b) hitting the reflectors in the middle of the road. my indecision about where to steer then resulted in a wobble of the front wheel, an involuntary tightening of the sphincter the result. i managed to hold the thing square and came back in behind darren, deciding that the best lesson to learn is the one that doesn’t, but almost, result in a loss of blood. we get to the bottom and michael has really kicked off the front. darren had got round ryan and i was on ryans wheel. darren then did the lions share of the work to try and reel michael in until he blew up and ryan and me go round. ryan works hard to chase, with us only getting to michael just before the lights. a fine effort on his part. darren rolls into the lights remarking that ryan and i had not been gentlemanly in the way we had let him drop off the back. sorry mate.!

dodgy dude was at the school again today. we’re now thinking it’s boys in lycra, and not the kiddies, that he’s there for. i swear it’s the same guy – grey toyota camry. when a couple of the others roll in to the bus stop, mark has some serious piece of skin missing from his shin. another dropped chain – slipped out of the pedal and ‘whamo’ – ice packs and detol on that one my son. anyway, re-group of sorts – emma and mike b (the “other” mike b) head past and leave the rest of us to chase them down. rounding off orong and back on to welshpool, the pace picks up. michael and me are on the front and my legs are really starting to feel every one of the 80kms so far. i managed about 2 kms before having to come off the front and let someone else take the wind. a nice rest at the back for a while and then i could see a roll through of sorts happening. darren and me ended up back on the front again as we crossed the train tracks, just when gerry flies past for the first sprint. he’s really smoking it and then ryan flies past with michael on his wheel. it’s a long way up to albany highway, and it looked from where i was (read: nowhere near them, not even on a good day..) that ryan managed to get round gerry and hold michael off for the win.

albany highway was a nice cruise back, round on to hillview and then on to berwick. a few of our number got caught up at the lights so we had a relatively easy run along most of berwick. as we waited from them to get back on. after darren pulled off to head home, i was on the front as we came over the final rise. michael kicked for the final sprint with gerry and ryan pushing hard to reel him in. it looked as if he might just have held them off too – not quite sure what the finish line is along there, but he was well and truly in the mix at the end.

anyway, that’s it for now. i’m off to the airport – my wife is flying back over this afternoon…and if all went to plan she’ll have hooked up with the father of those two kids we’ve had at our place for the last few years and he’ll have taken them off our hands…and if not…

…no more sundays…no more coffee shop…!!

Ciao!

sunday 25th may – state road championships

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the road state champs at roleystone had a few changes this year. for one thing they were in may as opposed to august last year, and this year they did not have a support race. instead you had to enter to what was on your licence. in my case this was the masters 2/3 race as it was my birthday today and i turned the ripe “old” age of 36, making me well qualified for the category.

so this was to be my birthday present to myself. a 114km race, in potentially crappy weather, along undulating roads, with a bunch of guys that would try to hurt me and the worse uphill finish that i know of. sounds like a wonderful day…. for a masochist.

six of us had registered for the day. this was not without a lot of badgering, abuse and guilt trips from me. initially, when the registrations closed, i was the only one from our team entered. after they extended it by a few days, we ended up with mike, stu and mark entered. however, those three are all in the masters 4/5 category so it meant that i was still riding on my own. luckily, bruce and jerry had last minute entries to provide some company for me in my division.

so the day rolled around and i found my way to roleystone high school. i made a point of getting there early as i knew that parking would be a premium as this was a similar course as we did for the tour de perth. registration was fairly painless, but they couldn’t tell me what order we would be starting which seemed a little disorganized for a state title. i had time to catch up with a few people before i got ready, but is still hadn’t spotted any of my team-mates. as mentioned on saturday, mike had decided not to ride due to medical reasons. this still left another four guys that i was keeping my eyes out for.

as the start time rapidly approached, i finally caught up with bruce, so at least i had one team-mate to ride with. we later found out that jerry had to operate on some guys doodle instead. they joys of being a urologist. stu and mark rushed to get registered but we at least had two more in the other masters division. ryan was not racing today as he would have had to ride with the open men. it probably would have been good for him to see what the next level up was like to play with. i was glad that i was that little bit older.

the start list had out division at around 16 riders, so i expected that a break my get away, based on the previous few races that i had contested. it seems to be that in the smaller groups, there isn’t that incentive to chase. however, we would have to wait to see what happens. this was a state title after all.

a few non starters put our field at just under 15 riders for the roll out. the open men had a five minute head start on us and the masters 4/5 men would be leaving after. the last race at dardanup had a field that would not even roll through just to share the load. i was wondering if that’s what would happen again.

we headed out along brookton hwy where the road would undulate for an expected 55km before we would retrace out steps and head back to roleystone. the guys didn’t roll through, but everyone seemed content to do a bit of a turn at the front before peeling off and dropping back. this at least meant that the pace would not be as pedestrian as the last race, but not too hard that we would all be struggling early.

i was trying to take note of the terrain as we headed out past karagulen as i thought that it would be important as we headed back towards the finish. my game plan was to sit in the pack, do the appropriate amount of work on the front, and keep the group together as long as possible. after an aborted attempt to get in the break at dardanup, i found that i didn’t have the legs to keep a break going. i needed the numbers around me to get me to the end of a 100km plus race. therefore, i would chase down breaks in preference to trying to create them.

about 10 or so kms into the race a guy in budget forklift kit (budget-boy) got a flat and had to drop back to the support van. i didn’t take any spares as i thought that if i flatted, i probably would be able to get back on anyway. luckily this guy got a good draft from the support ute and made it back into the pack, though, not without serious effort.

about 20km into the race the first attack went out. i really couldn’t believe that this guy was serious as he tried to go out by himself. the group reacted well and quickly pulled him back. for such a small group there was not much team tactics and besides bruce and myself, the only other guys in the same kit were three elite cycles guys. those guys did play the team game a bit and would not chase if they had a team-mate who attacked. it was a bit strange though, as everyone jumped to get on the break, the two other elite guys would end up behind the pack and would have to chase to get on anyway.

all the way out to the turn around little attacks would head up the road. the main antagonists were bikeforce-boy, csc-guy, glennparker-boy and multiplex-dude. these guys would all try repeatedly to break away on almost every hill and small rise. however, they would only try to go by themselves. if they had worked together, they might have got away with it. at one stage, one of the four headed up the road. i turned to one of the elite guys and said, “lets leave the bugger out there”. he agreed and we didn’t chase but left him to suffer about 50 metres in front of us. he eventually got bored and came back to the group.

at the turn the group was all together, but three guys tried to go hard out of the u-turn to try to get away. everyone had to go hard but we all caught back up before the next hill. about then, glennparker-boy attacked and got a little way ahead. no-one really panicked and we left him out for a bit. it seemed the thing to do now and we would often leave them ahead to burn themselves out a bit. bruce was starting to suffer a bit as his new young baby has contributed to his lack of training/sleeping/fitness. he had done some work earlier to bring back some breaks and was now paying for it. however, he was about 25 kms further along than he thought he would get.

a further attack on a hill and bruce said farewell and dropped off the back with one of the elite guys. i managed to get back on the group but was also feeling it as my quads were starting to cramp whenever i got out of the saddle. bugger, i thought. i could now see myself getting dropped on one of the attacks if i couldn’t go hard at the appropriate time. i fell into damage control and sat at the back of the group and tried to get as much fluids into me as possible. i usually run quite dehydrated during rides but this was one of the side effects if i ran too dry. any climbs from now on, i needed to stay seated to keep the cramps at bay.

the attacks kept coming and at one stage we managed to drop a couple more guys. they managed to get back on but everyone was starting to feel it a bit. i had managed to drink most of my powerade and half my water and was feeling better in the legs. as we came towards karagulen servo the hills may have shaken a few more guys off the back. i wasn’t really concentrating on anyone else by then as i was trying to just stay in touch. as we came up the hill past the servo and headed towards the turn off, i saw the csc-guy and another rider have a quick chat and then the other guy went to the front. so, there seemed to be some collusion in the group that i didn’t know about. it didn’t seem to matter as multiplex-dude took off and put a few more into distress.

by the time we hit the turn onto chevin road, i was counting the amount of riders left in the group. wow, i thought. i have made it into the last eight riders. i was quite happy at that stage, but was still worried about the last couple of k’s and how they would pan out. the open men had already entered the circuit and it started to become interesting as we now had one or two of them dispers
ed amongst us.

i took the hill on chevin well, didn’t cramp and stayed with the others. i started to consider my options for the finish. at the tour de perth, i was just happy to be in the group at the end of the day, so didn’t really even sprint. today, with a few more races under my belt, i felt that i should actually do something. still not sure what that was going to be.

we turned off peet rd and on to the final couple of k’s up to the finish. i changed to the small ring to make sure i wasn’t over stressing my quads as the last bit was almost all up hill. i was sitting on the back and suddenly realized that there was a gap to the front. i sprinted around csc-guy and another rider as they had no more to give. you could actually see the finish from here and i was surprised that you couldn’t find anything else. all those previous attacks took their toll in the end. i looked around and realized that i was in the final six.

through the round-about and heading towards that last damn climb and i was waiting for someone to make a move. glennparker-boy was on the front and the others were all hanging off him waiting…waiting…waiting. the climb started and still no-one made a move. the group was actually sitting in the middle of the road, so there was room on both sides for the sprint.

at 200 to go, i decided that i better do something and started to sprint. i saw the multiplex guy start his sprint from the right just as i started mine a bit further back on the left. just as we were about to come past the from guys everyone reacted. the glennparker-boy stood up and crunch, his bike didn’t want to play and something went wrong at the worst possible time.

i didn’t care by then as i had committed myself and gave it all i had. 200 metres doesn’t seem like much, but the road just didn’t seem to want to stop and i was running out of legs. both quads had started cramping again, but i didn’t care by then and pressed on. i felt a rider come past me at speed and thought, bugger, i stuffed it up. i sat down but kept pushing letting out a bit of a scream as my thighs rebelled on me. the line was coming and so were other riders. i kept pushing and through the bike to the line, not sure whether i made it or not. i was not looking at the other rider and i swear there were black spots in front of my eyes as the blood was sent to the legs.

i knew i didn’t win, but did i hold on to second or not??? i rolled up the road a bit to get my heart-rate back down to something resembling normal. normal for finishing a bike race anyway. i headed back to the finish line to try to find anyone i knew that may have seen the sprint. mel’s mum amanda thought she saw me take second and clare also confirmed it for me. i now had to check with the judges. two had me second and one had me third. majority rules and i held onto second but not by much.

the guy that came third was bikeforce-boy who did quite a few attacks during the race, while the guy that won had the same strategy as me. conserve energy and wait to see what happens at the end. the discussions on e-mail during the week between the race team had been about training hard and racing smart. was i smart going when i did??? maybe, maybe not. i may have started a bit early as i ran out of puff before the end, but if i had waited a bit longer, would i also have to negotiate the other riders to try to get to the front. it didn’t matter, i was happy with a silver medal at the state level, even if it is for the old man division.

the masters 4/5 men were coming in after us and we had mark and stu in the group. when we saw them at the turn-around, they had a bigger group that seemed to be working well together. it also came down to a sprint and stu managed to hang in for a very respectable 4th not far off getting third. mark also finished in the pack which was a great effort considering how much time he has been spending off shore on oil rigs instead of the bike.

so a good day for us and it is only a matter of time before one of us can crack a first place. no money for 2nd but a nice medal instead, so i am off to kalgoorlie this week for a crack at the menzies race.

i got home after the race and was wearing my medal. my wife asked whether everyone got one (like a participation medal). yea of little faith in my ability on the bike. i had to set her straight and she was very surprised. not enough to let me buy a new bike though.

sunday 25th may – welshpool & observatory & kalamunda

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ride report by roba crisp but not cold this morning as it had been raining most of the night and some the heat was being kept in. with it raining throughout the night though, it was a struggle to overcome the pillow demons and get out the door. wasn’t helped when i arived down at the meeting point at 7am and there wasn’t anyone else there! pete had said that 6 of the usual crew were racing, but i thought there might still be a couple to go up into the hills with. as it is not my usual ride (family commitments and all) i had no idea of the route anyway so started to think about going back to bed (not really – i would have gone for ride…!). eventually a few others turned up and then ryan rolled in at about 10 past 7 (i think was hoping that he might have been able to chase us down again as he did last saturday and prove to us all the true awsome power he possesses… – so such luck gadget!). he then says, “does anyone know the route?” and we all look dumbly at each other. darren pipes up and says “i “think” i do, but i’m not…..” “good” we say – “you’re it!”

8 of us head out and roll along berwick street picking up one more along the way. darren and me are on the front through to welshpool road and then decide to take a break at the back for while before we get to the first climb of the morning. coming up to the lights at roe highway, some kid on a trail bike comes out of a side street on the right hand side of welshpool rd and crosses the dirt medium strip at a great rate of knots. he lands on our side of the road, wobbles about a bit (he is not a good rider), slips and slides around in front of us as he kicks the crap out of the throttle and heads off towards the lights. by the time he hits the intersection the 2nd set of lights are very red and the cars start to pull out from the left hand off ramp lights, as is their right given they have a green light and all. does trail bike dude care. nope. he gives it everything the bike has and swerves around the first car coming out and misses the bonnet by about a bee’s male appendage. not clever – dumb – will die.

he heads on, shaking our heads and discussing all the variations that little episode may have looked like if he wasn’t so damn lucky! we get to the first climb and start working our way up. ryan drops to the back as is his usual way. i lead off the front with a couple of the other guys holding on for a while. the group stretched out about 1/2 way up when ryan flies past me – do i break rythym and try and hold his wheel?? not likely (even if i wanted too!). we get to the top and start rolling around the intersection waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive. greg apparently decided that the hills for him wasn’t actually on for him today so pulled off. after the re-group we headed on up and around towards the observatory. john was commenting to ryan how with the way the weather was this morning it was like riding through belgium. wet roads but a beautiful mist and glistening trees it was really quite superb. had us “pining for the fiords..!”. the next climb up to the observatory was good…john lead with me on his wheel. ryan flew past…again.

after the re-group at the top we headed off down to the hill again to go and find mundairing road climb. now that was fun!! darren calls out “10 minutes of pain”….”15 for me” we hear from the back”. i lead off the front with john on my wheel, starting to hurt a bit but still able to keep a good rhythm going while remaining seated in a reasonably high gear. ryan flew past….again. we get to the top at kalamunda and i’m already thinking about the coffee shop. “right” says darren. “we head across to the zig zag, down there andback up to kalamunda for coffee.” “what???” my legs scream. another climb before coffee?? but we’re already up here!! why don’t we just go there now…??” must be my soft saturday ride mind talking to me – sunday ride much harder!

the zig zag is lots of fun – although you do have to pedal. the gravel all over the wet road on the hairpin turns are interesting. at the bottom ryan comments that his biggest fear is hitting a kangaroo at speed…certainly not unheard of! anyway, after the re-group we head across to kalamunda road with my mind wondering just where i was going to get the motivation for this climb – i’d been off the front every other climb so we couldn’t lose face now, could we. after the 1st 3rd i was dead set going to stop. this hurt. ryan flew past….again. where’s that friggin coffee shop….why did we come down….why did i get up this morning….is there a bus….?? john held my wheel all the way up…i could hear the heavy breathing and clunking of gears as he searched for something lower than granny gear….finally though we get to the top and head round to the coffee shop. quick service and a welcome break.

when we get back on the bikes and start out across to canning road, ben pulls up along side of me and comments that he’s feeling it now – 1/2 and hour off the bike and the legs do not appreciate being reintroduced to the pedalling motion. the ride along canning road was fast, but those rolling hills really hurt after the coffee break. arrived at welshpool road – woo hooo…! 73kms an hour and john and me actually overtook ryan….then ryan flew past….again. it’s a lot of fun down there and you certainly get a few looks from car drivers when you overtake them on the inside lane!

regroup at the school (some dodgy looking characters sitting in a car outside the school that ryan said someone should tell them that school kids aren’t here on a sunday — thanks for that mate!!). heading along welshpool road at a reasonable pace with ryan on the front doing the work. i pulled out from his wheel thinking i’d go to the front and do some work but as soon as the wind hit my chest i knew i didn’t have the legs for it so pulled back in, much to ryan’s displeasure who i think was looking forward to a rest by then. at the lights i suggested that we roll through and each have a turn doing some of the work. it would appear though that we neglected to set the ground rules so it took about 3kms to work it out by which time we had about 1km left of rolling through (which was good when it worked) and then hit shepparton road. the learner driver at the front of the lights stalled three times and made us all wait 2 sets of lights before she (well, we ‘think’ she, but then we couldn’t be sure….) finally got going. we headed back along shepparton road and the usual disintegration of the group took place til it was just me, ryan and john left at canning hwy. john headed off right and ryan and me finished off with the cruise back along mill point road.

all in all a good morning out. my legs know i rode today