tour de perth - hills challenge

race report by mark

i won’t go into details of the lead up to the race, but jerry and i cajoled each other into entering, and i’m glad we did. after a school camp-over with my boys on friday night, and a wet and lazy saturday during which i felt very sorry for pete and stu, the real hard core riders, sunday morning found me driving up to the start in kalamunda.

i arrived at kalamunda at around ¼ to 8, and met jerry who was still umming and aahing about whether to ride. “no question” i reassured him, it would be good, and the weather was clearing.

registration was painless, and complete by 08h15. race to start at 08h50.
we ambled around a bit, then jerry went off to find a toilet, and i went back to the car to fetch my race number.

we met back at the start line at 08h47, and mingled in with the crowd waiting to start.
jerry remarked that they all looked a bit too relaxed and asked if they were doing the 100km ride.
“oh no” came the answer, “we’re doing the 50km. they 100km group left a little while ago”
what the f???

that was it. no time to stretch, gulp a drink of think about it. clip in and pedal like there’s no tomorrow.
the first 100m is up a hill (nice!), to the roundabout, and then down.
jerry stayed on my tail most of the way, but downhill is one of my favorites, so i waited on the uphill section.

i saw the first stragglers going up the other side as we approached the hairpin at the bottom of mundaring weir rd, and we caught them on the way up. i asked how far ahead the bunch were. “far already” was the answer. my heart rate stayed in the high 170’s to 180’s from there on. i psyched myself up for a long hard time trial – not my favorite event by any stretch, but at least i have a reasonable understanding of my body under race conditions, having done around 150 – 200 races between 1995 and 2004. unfortunately i’d only done around 5 social races after that!

i knew we had to ride smarter than the others to have a hope of catching them. that meant sharing the load, taking the race line through corners wherever possible, never dropping more than a foot behind the wheel in front, and always being in the drops when you’re in front on the flat or downhill. it’s all the little things that add up and make the difference in time trials. any wasted energy just meant we got less out for all our hard work, and we’d just be chasing for longer. i relied heavily on the fact that the real smart riders were either in the real tour de perth, or with pete and stu in the support race.

as we approached the descent to mundaring weir, i saw a few small bunches totaling maybe 20 or so up ahead. i knew i could catch them on the downhill, so backed off the chase a little.

around that time we caught another bike, who stayed with us and shared the load a bit for 5 km or so.

then the descent into the weir, and i cruised past several on the way down, and caught the first few of that bunch near the start of the climb on the other side.

we passed quite a few on the road up from the weir towards mundaring, although jerry being a doctor, is not such a risk taker, so i took it easy on the climb while he bust his guts to catch up.

it’s amazing how useful it can be to descend quickly in races. not so much by cornering fast (though that does help), but just by gaining on the fast straight downhills. around that time we caught the young riders choice guy who i stayed with till the end. He was strong and when i asked why he wasn’t with the front bunch, he replied that he was too slow on the downhills to stay with them.

that decreased our efforts in front by 30%, and meant that we could up the average speed, which we did. our new comrade hadn’t been chasing that hard till then, so was on fresher legs. we fixed that quickly.

it was fairly uneventful back to mundaring weir road; we passed a few more here and there, and the climb out of the weir was as horrible as always.
at least the conditions were perfect – about 20 – 25 degrees, little or no wind, and ok roads. somewhere along the way my polar monitor died, and reset itself, so i never established my actual final time.

another fast descent into the hairpin at the bottom or mundaring weir rd, then the very familiar climb up to kalamunda. but no incentive of coffee and ham & cheese croissant this time. just the thought of a u-turn, and more chasing. at least we’d soon find out how far back we were. about half way up we saw the leaders on their way down. i counted exactly 21 of them, spread over maybe 1km.

jerry took a split and estimated that we were 9 minutes behind the leaders at that point. we stuck together up the hill, at a moderate pace (i measured almost 10 min for the climb, that i’ve done in 8m20 on a good day). but at least then we’d been able to quantify the problem. i always tell my guys at work, a problem well defined is a problem half solved. i knew we wouldn’t catch the very front few, but a top 10 finish was possible. this race was not going to end in a bunch sprint, so the final climb would be crucial in gaining or maintaining positions.

another fast descent, and then waited for jerry and our newfound riders choice partner, before settling into a rhythm chasing the group. we saw them often in the next 50 km, but it took us until around 5km from mundaring before we caught them. the last 4 or 5 km were spent watching our riders choice mate doing all the work. He was a real legend and i did thank him profusely after the race.

somewhere at this point jerry got left behind, and ended up turning right at mundaring too early by mistake. this meant he inadvertently overtook the group at the u-turn which confused the hell out of me when we caught him up again. at the time i blamed the confusion on my mind playing tricks on me due to extreme overexertion (i’d averaged over 170 heart rate for about 2½ hours which is not good when your theoretical max is 175). once in the bunch of 12 or so i vowed to do as little work as possible from then on; and i’m pleased to say i stuck to my arrangement.

the pace was moderate but ok. we were not going to catch the front 8, so best to conserve to be able to defend any attacks, and save the rest for the final hill.
on the climb out of mundaring weir, i started to hit the wall, and fell behind the front of the group as it split up. i had to make one of those decisions which i hated doing; “how badly do you want this?”

i decided i wanted it badly. i called out to my friend called pain to stay away for a while, sucked on another carbo shot, stood up and pedaled hard to bridge a 100m gap. but i got there.

from there to mundaring weir rd climb to kalamunda i hid in the bunch, till the descent to the hair pin.

i gave it stick on the downhill, and pulled a gap of about 150m on the bunch. the legs did not feel good as i started the climb, and a chase group of five caught me after a few hundred meters. we stuck together sharing the load up the hill till the false flat where one guy broke away. i was in 5th place and shouted for the others to close the gap, but only one did. that created a gap of 50m very quickly. i made the mistake of hesitating, and then going. i closed to around 20m but then cramped in the calf, and fell back to the bunch immediately.

i was already in the big blade, but dropped down 2 gears and ground away, as this is the only thing that helps me with cramp.

that left four of us at the end of the false flat heading into the final sting of the hill.
i stayed behind till the next upward kink about 300m from the top and then kicked. fortunately the muscles behaved, and i pulled a comfortable gap of around 100m which i kept to the finish.

so i won my mini sprint up the hill, but i missed a top 10 by one place. oh well; shit happens.

nevertheless, i will remember it as one of the best races i’ve done, even though i’ll always wonder what might have been, if only ….