not much to report on this one.
a few of us rode down to kwinana in the dark.
a few thousand rode up to joondalup at great speed.
and a few of us rode back to the city afterwards.
my legs are a bit shot from the 130km round trip, but overall ok.
it was pretty dangerous out there today, but probably a bit less than last year. i thought we had it good when it strung out going up the hill through the city. we had it down to double file and rolling through. unfortunately the rest of the pack eventually caught up and we were back to eight or nine wide and people all over the place.
the footage below kind of shows a crash with less than 2km to go. probably doing 45 km/hr at this point as people were starting to line up for the final dig up the off ramp. you don't see the point of impact, but look for the bike flying in the air and later the guy bouncing off the guard rail. best i could get without actually causing one just for the camera.
i missed getting footage of the other crash which happened just 5 min from the start. i was chasing to get on the group at that stage so didn't see the initial impact but saw the secondary one where a couple of guys tried to avoid it and ended up tangling up with each other on the opposite side of the road. all i can remember is the smell of burning rubber. not nice.
will probably say the same as last year, and vow not to do this event again....but i always seem to end up organising it for work so also get roped into it.
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7 comments:
Thought I'd pen a few thoughts of my own from the ride today. Pete you have inspired some words to sprout forth from my keyboard.
See 60 Frenetic Kilometres
davidp.
I feel better NOT having done the freeway ride this year. It just confirms my experiences from last year - a general free for all. Had a great morning getting tired in the hills instead - Melvyn
Anyone willing to share their times?
Concur with Melvyn, we had a great ride of about 9 riders on a beautiful day.
Unfortunately I missed out on the fun.. Pete, unfortunately I can not see the man bouncing off the rails nor the bike flying into the air..
Very disappointed not to be part of the carnage.. Next year gadget, next year..
Interesting footage. What sort of camera setup do you have?
I'm currently trying the Where's Wally challenge of finding myself in the footage. I figure I must be right alongside or just behind you. Dang, should have worn the bright orange jersey.
dan, the camera is an oregon scientific ATC 2000. not very expensive (about $165 online) and is a solid state all in one unit that records to a 2Gb flash card. not the best quality, but the better cameras require you to cart along a camcorder in you back pocket. next time i have it on the bike i will take a photo and post it on the blog.
i have 1hr 23min of footage, what were you wearing, and what bike colour and i will see if i can find you.....as long as you were in the first group.
Cool. I was thinking of mounting a camera forward facing then superimposing PowerTap data over the footage from races. For 1:23 of footage you must have more than 32 MB of storage though?
In terms of the Where's Wally challenge, I'm wearing a blue and white retro Formaggio jersey and a Lone Star giro helmet (blue with a white star on the front). I was about 50 to 100 m behind the first crash (chasing on), front third of the group for most of the ride, then slowly worked forward at the end from the 5 km mark (6th across the line I think).
Dan
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