quite chilly again this morning, but i knew it would warm up so i didn’t add to many extra clothes to the mix. an extra pair of over-gloves to keep the wind chill down and the booty covers and i was away. a very small turn out this morning and i wasn’t really sure why. the weather was one thing, but it was forecast to be nice. the busso half ironman was on, but i didn’t think we had that many hardcore triathletes in the mix. so just to be paranoid, i put it down to the current e-mail war that was going on. if you haven’t been involved, don’t worry, it will all go away very soon, but it involved my new probikekit ad banner and supporting local bike shops. apparently a conflict of interest.
so we rolled out this morning with about 20 people, and headed down canning hwy. the route would take us past garden city, and murdoch before hitting south st and down to freo. the usual way home via dalkieth was the plan. it was a very subdued group as we headed south. the banter was still about the e-mail war as there were a lot of people getting there opinions out there. we took it easy up riseley st and across leach onto murdoch dr. south st was the aim and i would give the group their head of steam once we hit it.
this stretch of south st contained a number of rolling hills to test the legs, but can also be let down by the number of traffic lights that you really have to luck to get a clean run. the group started to stretch out a bit as some of the boys hit the front and began to up the pace. i intended to sit on the back all day today to rest my legs for the race tomorrow, but went to the front with the primary aim of getting a bit of video footage as the group came around me. i ended up doing a bit of a turn and was surprised how tight my quads felt. not a particularly good sign.
once some of the others like nick, steve and rod came to the front, i wasn’t playing anymore and just cruised along in the group. a couple of the boys got a bit of a gap and the group began to splinter as people tried to chase. luckily the lights at north lake rd found us all back together before the boys did it all over again.
we regrouped on stock rd and the lights meant that the group was all back together. i dropped to the back and had a chat with a new guy that had turned up. apparently, he had damaged some bit of his hip or something playing footy and wanted to keep active so was out playing with us. good to see, and i hope you come back out with us, dan.
we turned down marmion for the run down to freo and between here and along stirling hey, the group was remarkably contained and basically stayed together till the turn towards dalkeith. as always, the pace was going to step up.
i left it up to the guys to work out who would be doing the work as i was still under the impression o would be saving my legs for tomorrow. as usual the pace was on, but not at an unattainable rate, probably due to ryan not being here. as the field stepped up i allowed myself to drift to the back where i found dan, hanging off the end of the group. i gave him my wheel and attempted to draft him back to the group. the combination of increased pace, me not wanting to overstress my legs and the small undulations meant that we were off the back till we hit the intersection that takes us onto hackett dve. back on the group i noticed that it wasn’t all our riders as another group had got through the intersection and was heading up the road. i guessed that the lights on mounts bay would slow them down as i don’t think we have ever got through them without having to stop. i will be caught out one day and let someone go and they will sneak through.
so we lined up on mounts bay ready for the sprint. there weren’t many willing workers, so i found my way to the front. i wasn’t pushing hard and was primarily there because i find it hard to write the blog from the back of the pack. chrostophe took off early and no-one chased. he got a bit of a gap before steve also headed off. i did not intend to lift the pace so if there was going to be a chase, it would be someone else. a couple of guys came around, but then dr melvyn decided that they escapee’s needed to be caught and made his move. he yelled at us to hop on as he came past and i jumped on his wheel. he made a good pace and got us up to overtake both riders before running out of puff. by this tiem we were at the brewery and bruce jumped from the pack with jerry hot on his wheel. from what i could see, bruce almost buggered it up but had a second kick to keep jerry at bay and into his ‘eternal second’ place.
so, a small group for coffee, served with true german efficiency (the waitress is german, and she is very efficient. service has been really good since she arrived). lots of discussion about the state of our group and what we will be doing in the future, so expect some changes soon.
racing down in collie tomorrow and i will be joined by ryan, jerry, michael and stu. ryan did the half ironman bike leg today as part of a team, so it will be interesting to see how he goes tomorrow. he has come second in the last two races he competed in, but will have to see what he has left for tomorrow. hopefully we can achieve something for the team.
Showing posts with label saturday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label saturday. Show all posts
Saturday, 3 May 2008
Saturday, 26 April 2008
saturday 26th april - benara rd
saturday morning rolled around once again and about thirty or so riders were keen to play. the course was picked to take advantage of the easterly wind, which didn’t seem to be blowing too hard at south perth. a nice easy pace out to guilford before a hard session on benara rd, a further cruise and regroup down to whatley crescent where we would go hard all the way into town. that was the plan anyway.
up great eastern hwy and out to ascot was a pleasant pace allowing us to hold a conversation and generally catch-up with the group. once we hit guilford rd the easterly wind was a lot more evident. after we past under the tonkin hwy i tried to get the group to roll through to make it easier for everyone. however, it actually had the opposite effect, as some of the more experienced guys thought that we were doing it to try to up the pace and started pushing harder. the group started to splinter and some guys couldn’t pull through for a turn. luckily we hit the lights at bassendean station and had a chance to regroup. unfortunately for john b, the stop meant that he almost ended up on the ground as he touched wheels with the guy in front and ended up riding his bike like a bucking bull trying to stay upright.
so we moved along, and gave up on the roll through and just let a couple of the stronger boys do the work. just before the bridge that separates bassendean from guilford, a couple of big slow moving trucks past us. the road was going from double to single lanes and the trucks were trying to get past before the bridge. unfortunately, chris decided to jump on the back of one and get a draft, but didn’t see the next one coming. he didn’t get run over, but the next thing we know, half the pack is now chasing to try to catch a draft. this basically spread the group along a couple of hundred metres making it difficult for traffic to get around.
it continued this way up west swan road and the nice and easy pace soon became a hard slog as riders battled the cross winds. i was stuck towards the back and was cursing the front guys for splitting the group up. i couldn’t get around to get to the front as there was a stream of traffic tryig to get around the little pockets of riders. i managed to jump up a driveway and get onto the bike path that ran alongside. it was pretty wide and in good condition so i managed to clip along at a fair pace. reaching the front pack i jumped off the curb and raced to the head of the field just as they were turning onto benara rd. our designated go hard point. as most of the group had already gone hard, i gave the guys my best gordon ramsey impersonation and a number of expletives about spltting the group up. i then made them all go easy pace to allow the rest of the pack time to catch up before we turned the pace up again.
after we past the first roundabout, i let them have their head of steam and the attacks happened soon after. nick, chris and ryan all sped off the front at some stage along benara rd and soon the pack was stretched out again. i was practicing my domestique duties and just chased down everything but didn’t attack my self. we came across dr paul and dr ian who had managed a very good short cut and were easily halfway down benara by the time we caught them. we did manage to catch most of the lights, but still thinned the group out by the time we reached the end. it is a nice long stretch but can be ruined if we don’t get a good run on the lights.
a easy pace down through morely and onto bayswater for the final run home along whatley crescent. this road contains a number of rolling hills and only a few traffic lights so you can get a good run in if you are lucky. i had discussed team tactics with chris earlier on in the week and we had decided that we would attack and wait for the others to chase. when the attack was caught, we would send another rider off the front to force them to chase again. hopefully, chris had talked to ryan, so he wouldn’t chase me down.
anyway, i went early and hard. bruce wasn’t far off my wheel so managed to jump across with me. he did one turn then turned off on garrett rd to head home early. i was on my own again as the road climbed up the next hill. a quick look over my shoulder and i saw that the group was closing fast. however, as i powered down the other side i managed to widen the gap again giving myself a nice buffer. not long after, i hit a set of red traffic lights and was brought to a standstill. my gap meant that i at least had a little time to grab a drink and get my breath back before the group descended on me.
as the lights changed, chris sped off with ryan close behind. i set off with the others but it seemed that no-one was really keen to chase. only a few had set off after them but no-one was really making much ground. i had recovered sufficiently and thought that i could give it another go and try to bridge across to them. if the rest of the pack came with me, then i would ease off, but no-one else jumped. jerry was off the front and i came around him too fast for him to get on so left him in noman’s land. by the time i hit east parade i had caught chris and ryan so tucked in behind to get a rest. a few turns between us and we still had a good gap by the time we cross the graham farmer freeway.
unfortunately the next set of lights put a stop to our shenanigans as the group caught us. dr melvyn sped past as the lights changed and charged through east perth to the hill next to the police station. the group splintered on the hill as normal but we managed to reel dr melvyn in or should i say that the hill forced him to slow down. we caught every single light between there and riverside drive which meant that the group was pretty much together for the final sprint. i had chris on my wheel and i was hoping that ryan and jerry would line up as well. we needed practice at the leadout train and this is a nice long stretch of double lane road.
nick jumped first at the light change and started to speed down the road. it was a long stretch, so i wasn’t too worried as even if i didn’t catch him, the next guy may do it. i didn’t accelerate hard as i wanted to make sure the chris stayed on my wheel. we pushed the pace and caught nick easily. james dropped in behind chris’ wheel with jerry just behind. ryan had to fight for position and come around a few bikes but was behind chris by the time i dropped them off. chris didn’t have much left after a few days off the bike due to a cold, but ryan still sped off dragging jerry along. the rest of the field was quite a way behind by then and everyone was pretty buggered after so chasing so many time today.
christophe commented on jerry being in his usual position of behind ryan’s wheel. he renamed him poulidor a french rider who always seemed to come second to the greats in the 60’s and 70’s.
so a good ride, and I felt strong which was good after a very poor showing on our thursday training ride where the guys had to wait for me a couple of times. hopefully a good sign for tomorrow’s hills ride.
up great eastern hwy and out to ascot was a pleasant pace allowing us to hold a conversation and generally catch-up with the group. once we hit guilford rd the easterly wind was a lot more evident. after we past under the tonkin hwy i tried to get the group to roll through to make it easier for everyone. however, it actually had the opposite effect, as some of the more experienced guys thought that we were doing it to try to up the pace and started pushing harder. the group started to splinter and some guys couldn’t pull through for a turn. luckily we hit the lights at bassendean station and had a chance to regroup. unfortunately for john b, the stop meant that he almost ended up on the ground as he touched wheels with the guy in front and ended up riding his bike like a bucking bull trying to stay upright.
so we moved along, and gave up on the roll through and just let a couple of the stronger boys do the work. just before the bridge that separates bassendean from guilford, a couple of big slow moving trucks past us. the road was going from double to single lanes and the trucks were trying to get past before the bridge. unfortunately, chris decided to jump on the back of one and get a draft, but didn’t see the next one coming. he didn’t get run over, but the next thing we know, half the pack is now chasing to try to catch a draft. this basically spread the group along a couple of hundred metres making it difficult for traffic to get around.
it continued this way up west swan road and the nice and easy pace soon became a hard slog as riders battled the cross winds. i was stuck towards the back and was cursing the front guys for splitting the group up. i couldn’t get around to get to the front as there was a stream of traffic tryig to get around the little pockets of riders. i managed to jump up a driveway and get onto the bike path that ran alongside. it was pretty wide and in good condition so i managed to clip along at a fair pace. reaching the front pack i jumped off the curb and raced to the head of the field just as they were turning onto benara rd. our designated go hard point. as most of the group had already gone hard, i gave the guys my best gordon ramsey impersonation and a number of expletives about spltting the group up. i then made them all go easy pace to allow the rest of the pack time to catch up before we turned the pace up again.
after we past the first roundabout, i let them have their head of steam and the attacks happened soon after. nick, chris and ryan all sped off the front at some stage along benara rd and soon the pack was stretched out again. i was practicing my domestique duties and just chased down everything but didn’t attack my self. we came across dr paul and dr ian who had managed a very good short cut and were easily halfway down benara by the time we caught them. we did manage to catch most of the lights, but still thinned the group out by the time we reached the end. it is a nice long stretch but can be ruined if we don’t get a good run on the lights.
a easy pace down through morely and onto bayswater for the final run home along whatley crescent. this road contains a number of rolling hills and only a few traffic lights so you can get a good run in if you are lucky. i had discussed team tactics with chris earlier on in the week and we had decided that we would attack and wait for the others to chase. when the attack was caught, we would send another rider off the front to force them to chase again. hopefully, chris had talked to ryan, so he wouldn’t chase me down.
anyway, i went early and hard. bruce wasn’t far off my wheel so managed to jump across with me. he did one turn then turned off on garrett rd to head home early. i was on my own again as the road climbed up the next hill. a quick look over my shoulder and i saw that the group was closing fast. however, as i powered down the other side i managed to widen the gap again giving myself a nice buffer. not long after, i hit a set of red traffic lights and was brought to a standstill. my gap meant that i at least had a little time to grab a drink and get my breath back before the group descended on me.
as the lights changed, chris sped off with ryan close behind. i set off with the others but it seemed that no-one was really keen to chase. only a few had set off after them but no-one was really making much ground. i had recovered sufficiently and thought that i could give it another go and try to bridge across to them. if the rest of the pack came with me, then i would ease off, but no-one else jumped. jerry was off the front and i came around him too fast for him to get on so left him in noman’s land. by the time i hit east parade i had caught chris and ryan so tucked in behind to get a rest. a few turns between us and we still had a good gap by the time we cross the graham farmer freeway.
unfortunately the next set of lights put a stop to our shenanigans as the group caught us. dr melvyn sped past as the lights changed and charged through east perth to the hill next to the police station. the group splintered on the hill as normal but we managed to reel dr melvyn in or should i say that the hill forced him to slow down. we caught every single light between there and riverside drive which meant that the group was pretty much together for the final sprint. i had chris on my wheel and i was hoping that ryan and jerry would line up as well. we needed practice at the leadout train and this is a nice long stretch of double lane road.
nick jumped first at the light change and started to speed down the road. it was a long stretch, so i wasn’t too worried as even if i didn’t catch him, the next guy may do it. i didn’t accelerate hard as i wanted to make sure the chris stayed on my wheel. we pushed the pace and caught nick easily. james dropped in behind chris’ wheel with jerry just behind. ryan had to fight for position and come around a few bikes but was behind chris by the time i dropped them off. chris didn’t have much left after a few days off the bike due to a cold, but ryan still sped off dragging jerry along. the rest of the field was quite a way behind by then and everyone was pretty buggered after so chasing so many time today.
christophe commented on jerry being in his usual position of behind ryan’s wheel. he renamed him poulidor a french rider who always seemed to come second to the greats in the 60’s and 70’s.
so a good ride, and I felt strong which was good after a very poor showing on our thursday training ride where the guys had to wait for me a couple of times. hopefully a good sign for tomorrow’s hills ride.
Saturday, 19 April 2008
saturday 19th april - rebold and cott
cold, damn cold. i had to go back in the house and get my jacket this morning, much to the disgust of my sleeping wife. i always prepare everything the night before (including pumping my tyres) so that i minimize the noise when i get up. if i creep around quietly, i can usually be out the door before anyone wakes. this morning was not my stealthiest. if i was smart enough to thoroughly check the weather report the night before (it is all about preparation) i would have noticed that it was forecast to be freaking cold overnight and i would have got the jacket out just in case. so no, not a good start.
the course today was added not long after christmas as we kind of went this way for our christmas ride. a few extra hills, some fast paced sections and a few more km’s turned it into a standard saturday ride course. today it would take us around the bottom of kings park, onto hay street through subi and over rebold hill. a quick lap around cottesloe and we would then head back the normal route through dalkeith.
despite the cold we had a decent turn up as we would have had close to 40 riders roll out. a nice and gentle trip along riverside drive and onto mounts bay road allowed the group to ease into the ride. even the climb up thomas rd was not too stressful as the group remained under control. as we rolled down hay st which becomes underwood ave, i was surprised when we hit the few rolling hills that there were no real attacks as everyone found a nice climbing pace to the top.
once we came around rebold hill, i was going to allow the group it’s head of steam up the climb and along west coast highway till we hit swanbourne. as we turned onto oceanic and started the two small climbs around rebold hill, dr nic came charging up the road from almost the back of the pack. she hit the front and kept going with nev not far behind. i was waiting to see who would react but the group looked content to let them go. i switched it up a gear or two and started setting a faster pace which the guys could get a tow behind. we picked up nev and then dr nic before the top of the hill and by the time we crested, had a group of around 7 or 8 riders. with the chase and hill over, the momentum left group and the rest of the pack caught up by the time we hit west coast highway.
the group really seemed to not want to go hard at all today, and it took a few prompts to get it to start chasing. michael and nick finally broke clear along this stretch of road before the group reacted. however, it didn’t even manage to get strung completely out as no-one seemed eager to flat out chase them down. we regrouped around the lights at swanbourne and made our way down to the southern end of cottelsoe to come back up marine parade. a few of the boys wanted to stretch their legs a bit and i was content to let myself slip to the back of the pack and take up position as last wheel. with the race set for tomorrow and my flu like symptoms forcing me to have tuesday off this last week, i was a bit dubious of my form. i had already struggled a bit on some of the climbs for today, and worried that it my be a bad sign for tomorrow.
so, the group stayed together through a relatively fast tour of cottesloe and we meandered our way past the swanbourne shops. a nice big 4wd decided that we were too slow and tried to get past only to find that he was running out of road before the intersection. he had to slow down and push back in, splitting the group in half. smart man. if he had waited ten more seconds he still would have made it to where he wanted to go.
the route took us back home through dalkeith and the group will always go hard along here. always??? not today. with team p0rn0 making other plans to see how we can control the sprint, none of us were planning to do any work on the front. this left nick and a couple of others to force the pace, and they were not keen to hurt themselves either. chris stamped off the front to try to get something going but no-one would chase and he soon grew tired of playing and was absorbed back into the pack. finally as the group approached the last few undulations on birdwood pde, the pace picked up thanks to nick, christophe and nev. the group strung out a bit but not to the extent that we have seen it smash everyone apart.
team tactics were still in play and we were trying to keep mid pack to keep us out of the work load and in position to attack. a car interrupted us on the turn onto hackett dve and the front guys got a bit of a break. i mentioned to chris that is they got a good set of lights onto mounts bay, we were done for. it would have been an unusual set of events to get that to happen, and we caught them as they sat waiting for the green.
now, the team tactics for the day was to sit in till about two km’s out and then we all go hard down the right hand lane to get a break. we would all line out and try to deliver ryan to the line in one piece. now it didn’t quite go to plan. just before we were due to go, stu got a puncture and was off the back for a quick change. when i finally did decide to go there was too much traffic and i couldn’t get into the right hand lane, so i knew that there would be some hangers on.
brendan had made a break earlier and had a bit of a gap on the field. nick was on the front chasing him down with the rest of the train strung out behind him. as i led off the front, with (hopefully) the rest of the team in tow, i knew that we were not going fast enough, or over far enough to stop anyone jumping on board. too late for second chances as we had committed to the move already. i did a turn and manged to pick up brendan from his breakaway. i flicked the arm for michael to come through and looked back to see what the move had created. half the field were attached to us and the rest were still being pulled along by nick. i hadn’t totally smashed myself as i was hoping that i could jump on board as the tail came past. as i waited for the many riders to pass by, i started to doubt that the move would pay off at all. i ended up letting them go up the road and paced myself to the coffee shop. it turned out that chris had done an extra big turn to deliver ryan to the line but with steve firmly attached to his wheel. steve wasn’t too happy with some of our tactics and was unhappy with a blocking move by chris at the end when he released ryan. oh well, not a complete failure, but we will try something different next week.
coffee stop was good, but with a notable exception. big john who works with me at rio, didn’t make it back to the shop. his wife was waiting for him (as is the tradition) but he phoned up saying the he had four flats on the way back from cottesloe. with stu hitting a pothole to puncture and dr melvyn’s brake levers coming loose (after some dyi maintenance) we were lucky that there wasn’t a stack.
i have also started to take orders for the new group jersey, as had been posted on here earlier. if you want anything (jersey, knicks, vest, armwrmers) then see me after the ride or send me an e-mail through the blog. i will finalise the order over the next couple of weeks.
race day tomorrow at wandi, so hopefully we can get a ride report from the hills ride a well.
the course today was added not long after christmas as we kind of went this way for our christmas ride. a few extra hills, some fast paced sections and a few more km’s turned it into a standard saturday ride course. today it would take us around the bottom of kings park, onto hay street through subi and over rebold hill. a quick lap around cottesloe and we would then head back the normal route through dalkeith.
despite the cold we had a decent turn up as we would have had close to 40 riders roll out. a nice and gentle trip along riverside drive and onto mounts bay road allowed the group to ease into the ride. even the climb up thomas rd was not too stressful as the group remained under control. as we rolled down hay st which becomes underwood ave, i was surprised when we hit the few rolling hills that there were no real attacks as everyone found a nice climbing pace to the top.
once we came around rebold hill, i was going to allow the group it’s head of steam up the climb and along west coast highway till we hit swanbourne. as we turned onto oceanic and started the two small climbs around rebold hill, dr nic came charging up the road from almost the back of the pack. she hit the front and kept going with nev not far behind. i was waiting to see who would react but the group looked content to let them go. i switched it up a gear or two and started setting a faster pace which the guys could get a tow behind. we picked up nev and then dr nic before the top of the hill and by the time we crested, had a group of around 7 or 8 riders. with the chase and hill over, the momentum left group and the rest of the pack caught up by the time we hit west coast highway.
the group really seemed to not want to go hard at all today, and it took a few prompts to get it to start chasing. michael and nick finally broke clear along this stretch of road before the group reacted. however, it didn’t even manage to get strung completely out as no-one seemed eager to flat out chase them down. we regrouped around the lights at swanbourne and made our way down to the southern end of cottelsoe to come back up marine parade. a few of the boys wanted to stretch their legs a bit and i was content to let myself slip to the back of the pack and take up position as last wheel. with the race set for tomorrow and my flu like symptoms forcing me to have tuesday off this last week, i was a bit dubious of my form. i had already struggled a bit on some of the climbs for today, and worried that it my be a bad sign for tomorrow.
so, the group stayed together through a relatively fast tour of cottesloe and we meandered our way past the swanbourne shops. a nice big 4wd decided that we were too slow and tried to get past only to find that he was running out of road before the intersection. he had to slow down and push back in, splitting the group in half. smart man. if he had waited ten more seconds he still would have made it to where he wanted to go.
the route took us back home through dalkeith and the group will always go hard along here. always??? not today. with team p0rn0 making other plans to see how we can control the sprint, none of us were planning to do any work on the front. this left nick and a couple of others to force the pace, and they were not keen to hurt themselves either. chris stamped off the front to try to get something going but no-one would chase and he soon grew tired of playing and was absorbed back into the pack. finally as the group approached the last few undulations on birdwood pde, the pace picked up thanks to nick, christophe and nev. the group strung out a bit but not to the extent that we have seen it smash everyone apart.
team tactics were still in play and we were trying to keep mid pack to keep us out of the work load and in position to attack. a car interrupted us on the turn onto hackett dve and the front guys got a bit of a break. i mentioned to chris that is they got a good set of lights onto mounts bay, we were done for. it would have been an unusual set of events to get that to happen, and we caught them as they sat waiting for the green.
now, the team tactics for the day was to sit in till about two km’s out and then we all go hard down the right hand lane to get a break. we would all line out and try to deliver ryan to the line in one piece. now it didn’t quite go to plan. just before we were due to go, stu got a puncture and was off the back for a quick change. when i finally did decide to go there was too much traffic and i couldn’t get into the right hand lane, so i knew that there would be some hangers on.
brendan had made a break earlier and had a bit of a gap on the field. nick was on the front chasing him down with the rest of the train strung out behind him. as i led off the front, with (hopefully) the rest of the team in tow, i knew that we were not going fast enough, or over far enough to stop anyone jumping on board. too late for second chances as we had committed to the move already. i did a turn and manged to pick up brendan from his breakaway. i flicked the arm for michael to come through and looked back to see what the move had created. half the field were attached to us and the rest were still being pulled along by nick. i hadn’t totally smashed myself as i was hoping that i could jump on board as the tail came past. as i waited for the many riders to pass by, i started to doubt that the move would pay off at all. i ended up letting them go up the road and paced myself to the coffee shop. it turned out that chris had done an extra big turn to deliver ryan to the line but with steve firmly attached to his wheel. steve wasn’t too happy with some of our tactics and was unhappy with a blocking move by chris at the end when he released ryan. oh well, not a complete failure, but we will try something different next week.
coffee stop was good, but with a notable exception. big john who works with me at rio, didn’t make it back to the shop. his wife was waiting for him (as is the tradition) but he phoned up saying the he had four flats on the way back from cottesloe. with stu hitting a pothole to puncture and dr melvyn’s brake levers coming loose (after some dyi maintenance) we were lucky that there wasn’t a stack.
i have also started to take orders for the new group jersey, as had been posted on here earlier. if you want anything (jersey, knicks, vest, armwrmers) then see me after the ride or send me an e-mail through the blog. i will finalise the order over the next couple of weeks.
race day tomorrow at wandi, so hopefully we can get a ride report from the hills ride a well.
Monday, 14 April 2008
saturday 12th april - freo & cott
ride report by chris
well, my legs felt like crap after a tough couple of weeks training and i was hoping for a nice easy roll around the designated route. the weather was fabulous, a little cool to start but it was clear it was going to warm up.
so formalities out of the way we set off for freo at a steady pace down the hwy. i was on the front and joined by young nick, we chatted about the usual stuff bikes, racing etc. once we hit the river side along by attadale things quickly heated up. the usual kick off came with cade winding things up, he was quickly joined by the rest of the guys (and no i’m not being sexist, there was a distinct lack of the female gender on saturday).
as i mentioned i was looking for an easy one and reminded a few of the guys as they passed to regroup at pt walter. i didn’t have a lot of confidence that they would as once things heat up and the testosterone kicks in you never know what’s going to happen unless someone gets up the front and takes things in hand. this wasn’t going to be me today as i intended to save my legs for sundays peter clark memorial race. so things got a little messy from here on to the café.
i’m pretty sure we dropped a few before we got to pt walter and there were a few of us then struggling along past the left bank hotel. we kept the main bunch in sight but i was personally just limiting the damage and controlling my work rate. a brief regroup was forced by the changing lights but this all went pear shaped once we hit the beach. i’ll never understand why some of the guys want to hammer along the beach, particularly past cottesloe. the scenery is great and since we don’t get down this way often personally i’d rather take it in.
well, i worked harder than i wanted too and chased back onto the front guys dragging a few along with me. once again we regrouped, sort of, as we headed for the blast through dalkieth. now this is where i normally would have a bit of a dig and i managed to control myself for a little while. in the meantime a bunch of guys went off the front and from what i heard afterwards it was only the lights at mounts bay rd that brought the leaders back to what remained of the faster portion of the bunch. i did learn later that for once the pool boy was beaten for the sprint but he claimed to have spent a significant amount of time on the front. little did he know this was going to come back to haunt him in sundays race.
i was with the second bunch and hoping that things would be steady-steady to the finish, keep dreaming chris was the prompt response from the group. nick and i were back on the front again for a while until a tall fella on a trek came by. i figured that would do me and jumped on for the free ride and so things went. i didn’t bother trying to chase as others started to roll through until le kuan began his acceleration. again i grabbed the wheel and off we went, jerard came by and i yelled at le kuan to keep it going. a struggle ensued but it came down to jerard and i pushing into the breeze for the points. we are still awaiting the official judges decision, given jerards no-show for sundays race, i’ll be claiming the moral high ground.
well, my legs felt like crap after a tough couple of weeks training and i was hoping for a nice easy roll around the designated route. the weather was fabulous, a little cool to start but it was clear it was going to warm up.
so formalities out of the way we set off for freo at a steady pace down the hwy. i was on the front and joined by young nick, we chatted about the usual stuff bikes, racing etc. once we hit the river side along by attadale things quickly heated up. the usual kick off came with cade winding things up, he was quickly joined by the rest of the guys (and no i’m not being sexist, there was a distinct lack of the female gender on saturday).
as i mentioned i was looking for an easy one and reminded a few of the guys as they passed to regroup at pt walter. i didn’t have a lot of confidence that they would as once things heat up and the testosterone kicks in you never know what’s going to happen unless someone gets up the front and takes things in hand. this wasn’t going to be me today as i intended to save my legs for sundays peter clark memorial race. so things got a little messy from here on to the café.
i’m pretty sure we dropped a few before we got to pt walter and there were a few of us then struggling along past the left bank hotel. we kept the main bunch in sight but i was personally just limiting the damage and controlling my work rate. a brief regroup was forced by the changing lights but this all went pear shaped once we hit the beach. i’ll never understand why some of the guys want to hammer along the beach, particularly past cottesloe. the scenery is great and since we don’t get down this way often personally i’d rather take it in.
well, i worked harder than i wanted too and chased back onto the front guys dragging a few along with me. once again we regrouped, sort of, as we headed for the blast through dalkieth. now this is where i normally would have a bit of a dig and i managed to control myself for a little while. in the meantime a bunch of guys went off the front and from what i heard afterwards it was only the lights at mounts bay rd that brought the leaders back to what remained of the faster portion of the bunch. i did learn later that for once the pool boy was beaten for the sprint but he claimed to have spent a significant amount of time on the front. little did he know this was going to come back to haunt him in sundays race.
i was with the second bunch and hoping that things would be steady-steady to the finish, keep dreaming chris was the prompt response from the group. nick and i were back on the front again for a while until a tall fella on a trek came by. i figured that would do me and jumped on for the free ride and so things went. i didn’t bother trying to chase as others started to roll through until le kuan began his acceleration. again i grabbed the wheel and off we went, jerard came by and i yelled at le kuan to keep it going. a struggle ensued but it came down to jerard and i pushing into the breeze for the points. we are still awaiting the official judges decision, given jerards no-show for sundays race, i’ll be claiming the moral high ground.
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
tour de perth support race - stage 02
well with the first road race over and the rain continuing to fall, the time trial was looking to be an ordeal. with four corners and a roundabout to negotiate, you really wanted some grip on the road. i had brought a second riding kit with me and had stuffed newspaper into my shoes to get them to dry out so at least i would feel dry to start with.
the initial info had told us that the time trial would start at 2:00pm but the registration told us that we would start at 1:23pm and go off in 30 sec intervals. people began to warm up and get ready, when the first guys came back up from the start line to say that it wouldn’t start till 2:00 as originally advised. there were a few pissed off people around especially the opens who were already into their warm up routine. it didn’t worry me that much as my warm up consisted of riding down to the start line.
so with a bit more time to kill it was back to the car to stay out of the rain. by this time i was concerned about getting my car off the oval as it was very, very wet and the exits were muddy and slightly uphill. not much i could do about it, so i didn’t let it worry me too much. anyway, by the time my race time approached, the rain had totally stopped and the sun had come out. in such a short amount of time it had warmed up so much that it was hot in the arm warmers.
the order was reverse number with the support men and women leading out the opens. the cantankerous but funny old guy that was calling out the race numbers as riders needed to line up was a source of amusement for all who were watching. he would call a number and then keep yelling it if they didn’t show up. then when they did and tried to get to their position in the line he would yell at them for trying to come past the start line. funny all round.
well brendan was a few spots in front of me and justin was directly behind me. i was pretty sure that in just 5 km i would not be catching brendan, but i was hoping like hell that justin would not catch me. i didn’t bother with the time trial bike as i didn’t think that the course warranted it enough. it was mostly hilly with 90 degree corners that were still a bit wet. there were only two sections that i could see where you could really benefit from being down on the aero bars. the rest of the time you would be climbing or cornering.
i was given the count down and too off. it was only a short distance before the corner and i was worried about putting it on the deck, so eased off a bit to take the corner wide. as i accelerated out i realized how much my quads hurt from the morning’s effort. i kept pushing through to hope that i could squeeze something more from them. damn, it was only the first side of the rectangle course. another left hand turn, with a bit more confidence this time, and i felt like i was in a better rhythm. i guess that this was mainly because the road was kind of heading down hill.
this was the section of road that we had ridden to the finish earlier in the day but it sure felt better when i could draft behind someone else. the road eventually kicked up and i tried to maintain a steady pace without blowing it all so early. the ride was going remarkably quick in my mind, but i was still worried about being overtaken.
another left hand onto peet rd with a bit of a downhill reprieve as the road only went up after that. a last left onto raeburn rd and a sharp pinch past the fruit guy and you can just about see the finish line in the distance. it is deceptive though as it looks fairly flat but is a steady rise to the roundabout before it does flatten. this is the calm before the storm as the last couple of hundred metres are climbing to the finish.
by this time my legs were burning and my lungs were screaming, but i didn’t want to be overtaken so kept going. panting like a dog, i managed to get myself up the last section and cross the line, not knowing whether it was a good time or not but just happy to be finished. i caught up with a few of the other guys before wandering back up to get changed again and pack all my stuff into the car.
all fresh again i came back down to watch the open women and men do their times. eventually all our times were posted and i was around mid pack so i was happy that i wasn’t last. stu and justin managed better times then me but i managed to get ahead of brendan by a few seconds. josie, though, blitzed the open women’s field to get a time that was only beaten by three of the support men. results here
davina also managed a good time to come in third in a time that was also better than stu, brendan and mine.
so, with stage two down and my legs questioning me at every step, i made my way home to have two dinners and hope that tomorrow would be a nice day.
the initial info had told us that the time trial would start at 2:00pm but the registration told us that we would start at 1:23pm and go off in 30 sec intervals. people began to warm up and get ready, when the first guys came back up from the start line to say that it wouldn’t start till 2:00 as originally advised. there were a few pissed off people around especially the opens who were already into their warm up routine. it didn’t worry me that much as my warm up consisted of riding down to the start line.
so with a bit more time to kill it was back to the car to stay out of the rain. by this time i was concerned about getting my car off the oval as it was very, very wet and the exits were muddy and slightly uphill. not much i could do about it, so i didn’t let it worry me too much. anyway, by the time my race time approached, the rain had totally stopped and the sun had come out. in such a short amount of time it had warmed up so much that it was hot in the arm warmers.
the order was reverse number with the support men and women leading out the opens. the cantankerous but funny old guy that was calling out the race numbers as riders needed to line up was a source of amusement for all who were watching. he would call a number and then keep yelling it if they didn’t show up. then when they did and tried to get to their position in the line he would yell at them for trying to come past the start line. funny all round.
well brendan was a few spots in front of me and justin was directly behind me. i was pretty sure that in just 5 km i would not be catching brendan, but i was hoping like hell that justin would not catch me. i didn’t bother with the time trial bike as i didn’t think that the course warranted it enough. it was mostly hilly with 90 degree corners that were still a bit wet. there were only two sections that i could see where you could really benefit from being down on the aero bars. the rest of the time you would be climbing or cornering.
i was given the count down and too off. it was only a short distance before the corner and i was worried about putting it on the deck, so eased off a bit to take the corner wide. as i accelerated out i realized how much my quads hurt from the morning’s effort. i kept pushing through to hope that i could squeeze something more from them. damn, it was only the first side of the rectangle course. another left hand turn, with a bit more confidence this time, and i felt like i was in a better rhythm. i guess that this was mainly because the road was kind of heading down hill.
this was the section of road that we had ridden to the finish earlier in the day but it sure felt better when i could draft behind someone else. the road eventually kicked up and i tried to maintain a steady pace without blowing it all so early. the ride was going remarkably quick in my mind, but i was still worried about being overtaken.
another left hand onto peet rd with a bit of a downhill reprieve as the road only went up after that. a last left onto raeburn rd and a sharp pinch past the fruit guy and you can just about see the finish line in the distance. it is deceptive though as it looks fairly flat but is a steady rise to the roundabout before it does flatten. this is the calm before the storm as the last couple of hundred metres are climbing to the finish.
by this time my legs were burning and my lungs were screaming, but i didn’t want to be overtaken so kept going. panting like a dog, i managed to get myself up the last section and cross the line, not knowing whether it was a good time or not but just happy to be finished. i caught up with a few of the other guys before wandering back up to get changed again and pack all my stuff into the car.
all fresh again i came back down to watch the open women and men do their times. eventually all our times were posted and i was around mid pack so i was happy that i wasn’t last. stu and justin managed better times then me but i managed to get ahead of brendan by a few seconds. josie, though, blitzed the open women’s field to get a time that was only beaten by three of the support men. results here
davina also managed a good time to come in third in a time that was also better than stu, brendan and mine.
so, with stage two down and my legs questioning me at every step, i made my way home to have two dinners and hope that tomorrow would be a nice day.
Monday, 7 April 2008
tour de perth support race - stage 01
saturday april 5th
what a weekend. my first real bike race in around fifteen years and i was absolutely crapping myself. the tour de perth support race is held in conjunction with the open events but has a reduced race distance and one less stage. it consisted of a 104km road stage on saturday morning, followed by a 5km time trial in the afternoon. sunday then finished with a 84km tough hilly road race. luckily we didn’t have the criterium in the afternoon.
well, the race started at 8:30 for us, which is a later start than most of my rides. however, it was starting at rolleystone high school at, well, rolleystone which is a bit of a drive away. nerves kicked in a hell of a lot earlier and i was up well before dawn for breakfast and a quick (but pointless) shower. while eating my porridge with extra extra sugar on top (if it doesn’t crunch, there is not enough) i checked the bureau of met website for an update of these expected overnight showers. a pleasant 20 degrees with no rain reported in the last 24 hours. great, should be a good day for riding. then i checked the rain radar. what the??? there was a huge rain storm moving in across perth and was just about to hit the city. i checked the longer range radar and kind of calculated that the main front should pass about 8:30 so maybe, just maybe we would not be starting in the rain. what i failed to calculate was the fact that the radar doesn’t really pick up the rain so far out and although it “looked” clear, it really wasn’t.
so, driving down to rolleystone, in torrential rain, didn’t really fill me with confidence. there was so much water on the road already, that i thought that even if it did stop (and i still thought it would) the roads would be holding so much water that we would be soaked anyway. i drove up part of the course, which we have often used for our sunday rides, just to get a last look at the finishline and the crap hill we would have to come up. i was not under any illusion that i would still be near the front by the time we reached the end, as my goal was just to finish the three stages.
i signed in and caught up with brendan and stu who are regulars on the saturday and sunday rides, and also with justin who had come out with us over easter. we were all in the support race so would be either against each other or looking out for each other depending on your view of the world. davina, josie, mel and camille from the sunday ride were also there but competing in the elite women’s race. the continuing crap weather meant that most people had grabbed their stuff and had set up camp around the verandas of the school’s multiple buildings. it was still raining, but at least it was not cold and there was next to no wind.
as we approached the roll out time, josie commented on the fact that i looked nervous. i asked her how old she was in 1993 and she said three. well, that was the last time i did a proper bike race and it was a ‘c’ grade race back in ballarat whilst i was at uni. i eventually stopped racing as the early mornings in the rain, sleet and hail kind of wore me down. so here i was again, still crap weather, but at least a lot warmer than ballarat.
the start was delayed by about thirty minutes as i guess the organisers hoped like hell the weather would clear…it didn’t. we rolled up the line regardless and i had arm warmers and a vest still on. i was worried about overheating if the sun came out but it didn’t and i was “comfortable” for the duration. as we waited for the gun, some of the guys were commenting on the prize money for the support race. there were 55 guys all paying $95 to enter and if you won a stage you would get $50. with the total entry fees totally over five thousand dollars they would hand out $575 in total prize money. hmmm, sounds like there is a profit in there somewhere. i wasn’t too worried about recouping my entry fee, but more worried about a long 100km ride by myself if i got dropped early on.
so, off we went into fray. i had opted for low tint sunnies as i thought that they may protect me from direct rain drop to the eyeball attack. it wasn’t dark or humid so i thought that it may be the way to go. as we approached the turn onto brookton hwy, the group started slowing. i grabbed the brakes and nothing happened. there was so much water everywhere, the pads were aquaplaning on the rims. after a small “oh sh_t” experience i realized that early braking and generally being on guard would be the order of the day.
the rain kept the pace low but it was still springy at the back of the pack where i had taken up residence. the little accelerations and brakings made life interesting when combined with lack of visibility and a mouthful of whatever the guy in front was spraying off his back wheel.
as we rolled down the hill towards karragulen, only a kilometer or so from the start, one guy had such bad speed wobbles that he had to pull over and check his bike as something may have come loose. well, it was either going to be a hard day for him, or a quick exit from the tour as no-one was going to be waiting.
unlike the regular sunday rides, i have no idea who was attacking or what was happening at the front of the group. i rode very conservatively right at the very back of the pack, content to be in the slip stream as well as everything else that was streaming off the bikes in front. there was an attack within the first thrity km’s that took about five guys with it. the pace in the rest of the pack quickened and they were eventually caught. this was pretty much the way that it went all the way to the turn around point.
along the way the things of note were as follows:
glasses came off when they fogged a bit, but then back on when my eyeballs took a direct hit from the rain.
lots of impatient redneck big f100 style utes.
me discovering that i need about 35kms before my hamstrings don’t feel tight anymore (maybe this is why the elites were warming up on rollers).
brendan copping a coke can in the ankle from a pissed off motorist heading the other way. didn’t hurt as much as the guy whose knee it ricocheted off in the first place.
rain, rain and more rain.
then when it looked like it was easing back to a drizzle, more rain.
me looking down and just seeing water running off my bike like i was washing it.
i had a chat to stu who was also stuck on the back of the pack. he said that he was bored. i guess it was, but boring probably meant that i would survive.
so, as we headed back into rolleystone, a few more attacks went and were brought back in. no-one really gained much ground as the roads were not steep enough and the pack could easily maintain a draft.
as we past karragulen servo and headed up the hill, one guy got off the front and looked like he may stay away. no-one really reacted but the group maintained a strong pace. i actually entertained the idea of trying to catch him, but seriously filed that away in the crazy department under “don’t be stupid”. i moved up the inside trying to make sure i didn’t get caught behind once we hit the small circuit that we would take to get to the finish line. the water was coming so hard down the road that the bike in front looked like a speedboat cutting a wake in the ocean.
we turned off brookton hwy and onto chevin rd for the last five or so kms. we have ridden this way before so i knew that it would be undulating and gave people a good opportunity to attack. again, i was happy to just make it up the hill with the group. a few hairy corners and we were on the final stretch up peet road. there was a gentle climb up to the roundabout where it flattened for a bit before a steep but short climb to the finish.
some of the boys were starting to flag after hitting the previous pinch too hard and were dropping back. the pace quickened as we approached the last climb and about halfway up everyone started going for it. i didn’t have much left by then so didn’t put in a big effort but tried to stay with them for as long as possible. suddenly the was a touch of wheels and someone was on the deck in front of me. not close enough that i had to stop, and luckily for me the carnage went to the right side of the road. unluckily for justin, he got forced into the curb and basically came to a stop. i continued to the line where stu had enough in him to stay right to the end and come in around the top ten or so.
no idea where i finished or my time or anything, as the organization wasn’t the best at posting anything past the top three. some guy with a name like a coffee won the stage (mattiaccio), but beyond that i have no idea. i was off to get changed out of my totally soaked kit, stuff my shoes with newspaper to help them dry and get some food into me before the afternoon’s time trial.
i did manage to get back to the finish line to see the end of the open women’s race. with a tough uphill sprint to the line i expected josie to whip everyone, but davina managed to sprint past and take the stage win over one of the queensland girls with josie taking third. it was good to see our sunday ride girls going well, as the talent pool is getting a bit old and tired amongst the sunday ride boys.
time trial next and i will have a crack at writing that up tomorrow night with the sunday stage.
what a weekend. my first real bike race in around fifteen years and i was absolutely crapping myself. the tour de perth support race is held in conjunction with the open events but has a reduced race distance and one less stage. it consisted of a 104km road stage on saturday morning, followed by a 5km time trial in the afternoon. sunday then finished with a 84km tough hilly road race. luckily we didn’t have the criterium in the afternoon.
well, the race started at 8:30 for us, which is a later start than most of my rides. however, it was starting at rolleystone high school at, well, rolleystone which is a bit of a drive away. nerves kicked in a hell of a lot earlier and i was up well before dawn for breakfast and a quick (but pointless) shower. while eating my porridge with extra extra sugar on top (if it doesn’t crunch, there is not enough) i checked the bureau of met website for an update of these expected overnight showers. a pleasant 20 degrees with no rain reported in the last 24 hours. great, should be a good day for riding. then i checked the rain radar. what the??? there was a huge rain storm moving in across perth and was just about to hit the city. i checked the longer range radar and kind of calculated that the main front should pass about 8:30 so maybe, just maybe we would not be starting in the rain. what i failed to calculate was the fact that the radar doesn’t really pick up the rain so far out and although it “looked” clear, it really wasn’t.
so, driving down to rolleystone, in torrential rain, didn’t really fill me with confidence. there was so much water on the road already, that i thought that even if it did stop (and i still thought it would) the roads would be holding so much water that we would be soaked anyway. i drove up part of the course, which we have often used for our sunday rides, just to get a last look at the finishline and the crap hill we would have to come up. i was not under any illusion that i would still be near the front by the time we reached the end, as my goal was just to finish the three stages.
i signed in and caught up with brendan and stu who are regulars on the saturday and sunday rides, and also with justin who had come out with us over easter. we were all in the support race so would be either against each other or looking out for each other depending on your view of the world. davina, josie, mel and camille from the sunday ride were also there but competing in the elite women’s race. the continuing crap weather meant that most people had grabbed their stuff and had set up camp around the verandas of the school’s multiple buildings. it was still raining, but at least it was not cold and there was next to no wind.
as we approached the roll out time, josie commented on the fact that i looked nervous. i asked her how old she was in 1993 and she said three. well, that was the last time i did a proper bike race and it was a ‘c’ grade race back in ballarat whilst i was at uni. i eventually stopped racing as the early mornings in the rain, sleet and hail kind of wore me down. so here i was again, still crap weather, but at least a lot warmer than ballarat.
the start was delayed by about thirty minutes as i guess the organisers hoped like hell the weather would clear…it didn’t. we rolled up the line regardless and i had arm warmers and a vest still on. i was worried about overheating if the sun came out but it didn’t and i was “comfortable” for the duration. as we waited for the gun, some of the guys were commenting on the prize money for the support race. there were 55 guys all paying $95 to enter and if you won a stage you would get $50. with the total entry fees totally over five thousand dollars they would hand out $575 in total prize money. hmmm, sounds like there is a profit in there somewhere. i wasn’t too worried about recouping my entry fee, but more worried about a long 100km ride by myself if i got dropped early on.
so, off we went into fray. i had opted for low tint sunnies as i thought that they may protect me from direct rain drop to the eyeball attack. it wasn’t dark or humid so i thought that it may be the way to go. as we approached the turn onto brookton hwy, the group started slowing. i grabbed the brakes and nothing happened. there was so much water everywhere, the pads were aquaplaning on the rims. after a small “oh sh_t” experience i realized that early braking and generally being on guard would be the order of the day.
the rain kept the pace low but it was still springy at the back of the pack where i had taken up residence. the little accelerations and brakings made life interesting when combined with lack of visibility and a mouthful of whatever the guy in front was spraying off his back wheel.
as we rolled down the hill towards karragulen, only a kilometer or so from the start, one guy had such bad speed wobbles that he had to pull over and check his bike as something may have come loose. well, it was either going to be a hard day for him, or a quick exit from the tour as no-one was going to be waiting.
unlike the regular sunday rides, i have no idea who was attacking or what was happening at the front of the group. i rode very conservatively right at the very back of the pack, content to be in the slip stream as well as everything else that was streaming off the bikes in front. there was an attack within the first thrity km’s that took about five guys with it. the pace in the rest of the pack quickened and they were eventually caught. this was pretty much the way that it went all the way to the turn around point.
along the way the things of note were as follows:
glasses came off when they fogged a bit, but then back on when my eyeballs took a direct hit from the rain.
lots of impatient redneck big f100 style utes.
me discovering that i need about 35kms before my hamstrings don’t feel tight anymore (maybe this is why the elites were warming up on rollers).
brendan copping a coke can in the ankle from a pissed off motorist heading the other way. didn’t hurt as much as the guy whose knee it ricocheted off in the first place.
rain, rain and more rain.
then when it looked like it was easing back to a drizzle, more rain.
me looking down and just seeing water running off my bike like i was washing it.
i had a chat to stu who was also stuck on the back of the pack. he said that he was bored. i guess it was, but boring probably meant that i would survive.
so, as we headed back into rolleystone, a few more attacks went and were brought back in. no-one really gained much ground as the roads were not steep enough and the pack could easily maintain a draft.
as we past karragulen servo and headed up the hill, one guy got off the front and looked like he may stay away. no-one really reacted but the group maintained a strong pace. i actually entertained the idea of trying to catch him, but seriously filed that away in the crazy department under “don’t be stupid”. i moved up the inside trying to make sure i didn’t get caught behind once we hit the small circuit that we would take to get to the finish line. the water was coming so hard down the road that the bike in front looked like a speedboat cutting a wake in the ocean.
we turned off brookton hwy and onto chevin rd for the last five or so kms. we have ridden this way before so i knew that it would be undulating and gave people a good opportunity to attack. again, i was happy to just make it up the hill with the group. a few hairy corners and we were on the final stretch up peet road. there was a gentle climb up to the roundabout where it flattened for a bit before a steep but short climb to the finish.
some of the boys were starting to flag after hitting the previous pinch too hard and were dropping back. the pace quickened as we approached the last climb and about halfway up everyone started going for it. i didn’t have much left by then so didn’t put in a big effort but tried to stay with them for as long as possible. suddenly the was a touch of wheels and someone was on the deck in front of me. not close enough that i had to stop, and luckily for me the carnage went to the right side of the road. unluckily for justin, he got forced into the curb and basically came to a stop. i continued to the line where stu had enough in him to stay right to the end and come in around the top ten or so.
no idea where i finished or my time or anything, as the organization wasn’t the best at posting anything past the top three. some guy with a name like a coffee won the stage (mattiaccio), but beyond that i have no idea. i was off to get changed out of my totally soaked kit, stuff my shoes with newspaper to help them dry and get some food into me before the afternoon’s time trial.
i did manage to get back to the finish line to see the end of the open women’s race. with a tough uphill sprint to the line i expected josie to whip everyone, but davina managed to sprint past and take the stage win over one of the queensland girls with josie taking third. it was good to see our sunday ride girls going well, as the talent pool is getting a bit old and tired amongst the sunday ride boys.
time trial next and i will have a crack at writing that up tomorrow night with the sunday stage.
Sunday, 6 April 2008
saturday 5th april - hale rd
ride report by chris
the morning rain was always going to limit the numbers and both bunches totaled about 11. hey, i ran out of fingers alright and i wasn’t taking my shoes off ‘cause it was raining.
nick thought he was saved due to the small numbers for his bunch but there was 1 or two so he was committed. anyway, they elected to tag along with us guys.
given the shear volume of rain things were always going to be relatively controlled and the amount of water on the roads ensured this was the case. we set a steady pace out to hale rd and explained to nick and his group the planned route, where we would wind the pace up and the various regroup points.
normally on this ride things heat up pretty quickly as soon as we hit hale rd, so i took it upon myself to ensure this remained the case. sadly for me after a tough few rides this week and a day off crook my legs really weren’t up to much. all i succeeded in doing was firing up cade and sending bruce, ben and christophe down the road with him. with bigger numbers i wouldn’t have been too worried but given my crap legs i just got myself into a tempo and figured i’d catch them at the regroup.
unfortunately cade had a mechanical problem with what was apparently a slipping chain as he attempted to change gears and went down at speed. luckily he didn’t bring anybody else down and with the wet roads slid and didn’t lose too much bark. still no fun for anyone and a reminder that it pays to be sensible when it’s raining. once we gathered up the various bits and sorted cades bike out we were back on the road. ben headed off with cade back the way we had come whilst the remainder of us followed the planned route.
this little accident put paid to any further shenanigans and christophe and i set a steady pace down kalamunda rd. the remainder of the trip was relatively uneventful, but christophe did comment that there was no abuse since people had to keep their windows wound up in the rain. we didn’t even get one honking horn today which makes for a change, shame it had to be bucketing with rain for this rare non-event.
bruce did the right thing and headed off home once we got back to bayswater whilst the rest of us headed for the café at a much more casual pace than usual. once over the plain street hill from my perspective it’s always a mad panic to hold onto someone like pete or the pool boys wheel in the vain hope of having something left for the sprint. today however i wasn’t up for any of that and suggested to the guys that i would be the lead out man. so off i went hoping to just be able to hold it together to the finish.
i can’t have been doing too badly as will was the only one who managed to hold my wheel and didn’t have enough or couldn’t be bothered to come around at the end. so that was it, with only half a dozen of us stopping for coffee and a feed, prompt service was assured and delivered. poached eggs on toast for me, very nice.
the morning rain was always going to limit the numbers and both bunches totaled about 11. hey, i ran out of fingers alright and i wasn’t taking my shoes off ‘cause it was raining.
nick thought he was saved due to the small numbers for his bunch but there was 1 or two so he was committed. anyway, they elected to tag along with us guys.
given the shear volume of rain things were always going to be relatively controlled and the amount of water on the roads ensured this was the case. we set a steady pace out to hale rd and explained to nick and his group the planned route, where we would wind the pace up and the various regroup points.
normally on this ride things heat up pretty quickly as soon as we hit hale rd, so i took it upon myself to ensure this remained the case. sadly for me after a tough few rides this week and a day off crook my legs really weren’t up to much. all i succeeded in doing was firing up cade and sending bruce, ben and christophe down the road with him. with bigger numbers i wouldn’t have been too worried but given my crap legs i just got myself into a tempo and figured i’d catch them at the regroup.
unfortunately cade had a mechanical problem with what was apparently a slipping chain as he attempted to change gears and went down at speed. luckily he didn’t bring anybody else down and with the wet roads slid and didn’t lose too much bark. still no fun for anyone and a reminder that it pays to be sensible when it’s raining. once we gathered up the various bits and sorted cades bike out we were back on the road. ben headed off with cade back the way we had come whilst the remainder of us followed the planned route.
this little accident put paid to any further shenanigans and christophe and i set a steady pace down kalamunda rd. the remainder of the trip was relatively uneventful, but christophe did comment that there was no abuse since people had to keep their windows wound up in the rain. we didn’t even get one honking horn today which makes for a change, shame it had to be bucketing with rain for this rare non-event.
bruce did the right thing and headed off home once we got back to bayswater whilst the rest of us headed for the café at a much more casual pace than usual. once over the plain street hill from my perspective it’s always a mad panic to hold onto someone like pete or the pool boys wheel in the vain hope of having something left for the sprint. today however i wasn’t up for any of that and suggested to the guys that i would be the lead out man. so off i went hoping to just be able to hold it together to the finish.
i can’t have been doing too badly as will was the only one who managed to hold my wheel and didn’t have enough or couldn’t be bothered to come around at the end. so that was it, with only half a dozen of us stopping for coffee and a feed, prompt service was assured and delivered. poached eggs on toast for me, very nice.
Saturday, 29 March 2008
saturday 29th mar - shelley
UPDATED BELOW
well the final day of the so called daylight savings and it was still night when everyone started arriving. we had decided to change the course a bit as the roadworks on the esplanade in mt pleasant were not too bad. this would take us on the same course as mickey’s group, so we decided to combine the two. or should i say, his group tagged on behind ours and i don’t know for how long either.
with the streetlights still on, and cars with headlights blazing, we headed out at the allotted time. the trip down canning hwy was rather uneventful and we managed to get through the multiple stop lights unscathed. once we turned onto the esplanade, the group did manage to stay together well, especially since the roadworks kept everyone on their toes. it was not raw gravel that we were rolling over as it seemed that the road was just waiting for the top coat to be laid.
once we got past that and the road smoothed out a bit, nick headed to the front and began to flex his “i don’t get out enough anymore so i need to hurt you” legs. the pace began to stretch the two groups already, and we weren’t even at the designated tempo section. i’m guessing that we started to lose some of mickey’s group at about this point, but i’m not sure as i was to close to the front trying to keep the boys undercontrol.
once we hit riverton dr strangely enough, everyone hesitated as no-one wanted to lead out the group. it is a long sprint section and well utilised by many groups in perth as there are minimal intersections and only one where we would have to give way. i sat at the front with nick as we began to slowly wind up the pace, waiting to see who would make a move.
being a long way out from the end, it would be a suicide mission to attack so early. so i went. and didn’t get too far. it did however, cause the pace to increase dramatically. ryan and nick both chased me down and before too long the rest of the pack was swamping me. with the ice broken, this meant that more and more people would try to get off the front causing most of the group to revert to survival mode.
a surprising sight was mickey flying around the pack and gapping the field before being chased down and totally swamped. i think the boys were pretty sure that he would not be getting away.
the attacks started to slow and people formed back into a double file with a kind of roll through happening. kind of, because it was more of someone doing work till they were buggered and the rest of the group swamping them afterwards. towards the end of the shelley sprint, some of the big boys went to the front to fight out the finale. not knowing where the line actually is, the boys just went hard early and tried to rip each others legs off. i was out of it by now and watched as ryan and another nick fought it out.
a general slowing of the group allowed people to catch back up as we meandered our way through the suburbs to get across to vahland rd. this would allow us to take in the full length of banister rd which would be our next tempo section. vahland and south st were uneventful, and even once we hit banister we had to take it slow. everyone was trying to get to the markets and cars were backed up for ages.
once we maneuvered past the mobile road blocks, the pace started to increase some what. the group strung out to single file quite quickly as riders looked to hide from the wind. it was a head-cross wind, so even right on the wheel of the guy in front didn’t allow an armchair ride. this would have broken the pack but we were saved by the lights which allowed a general regrouping. after that a very subtle rolling through began to happen, but not excessively hard and it hardly felt like we were working at all.
once i got to the point were i could extract myself from the line i jumped out into fresh air. unfortunately this was almost at the very back of the group and it was a long way to the front. i started to sprint around the pack, not exactly knowing how far it was to the end, but generally just to try to get the group to have to work a lot harder. ryan was close to me in the group when i took off and also managed to get himself free. luckily for both of us, the main threats were also caught up in the left hand line and could not get themselves free of the pack.
well ryan blasted past me once i had a nice gap on the field and i could not get on his wheel in time. jerry also came past and again didn’t want me to play with him either. as they both shot up the road, chris also broke free and was chasing us down. he yelled out a warning to me as he approached allowing me to jump on his wheel and get a slight reprieve. he did a good turn on the front and managed to pull us up to ryan and jerry, who were looking a bit bewildered as neither really knew where the road ended. we managed to get up with them, but then ryan hit his second wind and took off again.
once we turned onto nicholsen road the group slowed enough to get back together. the plan was to cruise up to cannington and along albany hwy at a nice easy pace. once we hit the intersection of welshpool rd it would be all on until we hit the coffee shop. unfortunately some of the boys deceided that they need to show how strong they were and made it a lot more difficult along albany hwy. i maintained the pace that i thought we should be going, and by the time we approached the intersection, i was almost off the back. christophe did comment in his french accented english, that maybe english was not their first language. unfortunately it is, but the testosterone seems to wipe out all other thought from their minds when presented with a stretch of open road.
anyway, i had family matters to take care of and had to be home by….earlier than i got home, so i turned off down berwick st and off home. hopefully someone will fill us in with what transpired on the final run into town.
well the final day of the so called daylight savings and it was still night when everyone started arriving. we had decided to change the course a bit as the roadworks on the esplanade in mt pleasant were not too bad. this would take us on the same course as mickey’s group, so we decided to combine the two. or should i say, his group tagged on behind ours and i don’t know for how long either.
with the streetlights still on, and cars with headlights blazing, we headed out at the allotted time. the trip down canning hwy was rather uneventful and we managed to get through the multiple stop lights unscathed. once we turned onto the esplanade, the group did manage to stay together well, especially since the roadworks kept everyone on their toes. it was not raw gravel that we were rolling over as it seemed that the road was just waiting for the top coat to be laid.
once we got past that and the road smoothed out a bit, nick headed to the front and began to flex his “i don’t get out enough anymore so i need to hurt you” legs. the pace began to stretch the two groups already, and we weren’t even at the designated tempo section. i’m guessing that we started to lose some of mickey’s group at about this point, but i’m not sure as i was to close to the front trying to keep the boys undercontrol.
once we hit riverton dr strangely enough, everyone hesitated as no-one wanted to lead out the group. it is a long sprint section and well utilised by many groups in perth as there are minimal intersections and only one where we would have to give way. i sat at the front with nick as we began to slowly wind up the pace, waiting to see who would make a move.
being a long way out from the end, it would be a suicide mission to attack so early. so i went. and didn’t get too far. it did however, cause the pace to increase dramatically. ryan and nick both chased me down and before too long the rest of the pack was swamping me. with the ice broken, this meant that more and more people would try to get off the front causing most of the group to revert to survival mode.
a surprising sight was mickey flying around the pack and gapping the field before being chased down and totally swamped. i think the boys were pretty sure that he would not be getting away.
the attacks started to slow and people formed back into a double file with a kind of roll through happening. kind of, because it was more of someone doing work till they were buggered and the rest of the group swamping them afterwards. towards the end of the shelley sprint, some of the big boys went to the front to fight out the finale. not knowing where the line actually is, the boys just went hard early and tried to rip each others legs off. i was out of it by now and watched as ryan and another nick fought it out.
a general slowing of the group allowed people to catch back up as we meandered our way through the suburbs to get across to vahland rd. this would allow us to take in the full length of banister rd which would be our next tempo section. vahland and south st were uneventful, and even once we hit banister we had to take it slow. everyone was trying to get to the markets and cars were backed up for ages.
once we maneuvered past the mobile road blocks, the pace started to increase some what. the group strung out to single file quite quickly as riders looked to hide from the wind. it was a head-cross wind, so even right on the wheel of the guy in front didn’t allow an armchair ride. this would have broken the pack but we were saved by the lights which allowed a general regrouping. after that a very subtle rolling through began to happen, but not excessively hard and it hardly felt like we were working at all.
once i got to the point were i could extract myself from the line i jumped out into fresh air. unfortunately this was almost at the very back of the group and it was a long way to the front. i started to sprint around the pack, not exactly knowing how far it was to the end, but generally just to try to get the group to have to work a lot harder. ryan was close to me in the group when i took off and also managed to get himself free. luckily for both of us, the main threats were also caught up in the left hand line and could not get themselves free of the pack.
well ryan blasted past me once i had a nice gap on the field and i could not get on his wheel in time. jerry also came past and again didn’t want me to play with him either. as they both shot up the road, chris also broke free and was chasing us down. he yelled out a warning to me as he approached allowing me to jump on his wheel and get a slight reprieve. he did a good turn on the front and managed to pull us up to ryan and jerry, who were looking a bit bewildered as neither really knew where the road ended. we managed to get up with them, but then ryan hit his second wind and took off again.
once we turned onto nicholsen road the group slowed enough to get back together. the plan was to cruise up to cannington and along albany hwy at a nice easy pace. once we hit the intersection of welshpool rd it would be all on until we hit the coffee shop. unfortunately some of the boys deceided that they need to show how strong they were and made it a lot more difficult along albany hwy. i maintained the pace that i thought we should be going, and by the time we approached the intersection, i was almost off the back. christophe did comment in his french accented english, that maybe english was not their first language. unfortunately it is, but the testosterone seems to wipe out all other thought from their minds when presented with a stretch of open road.
anyway, i had family matters to take care of and had to be home by….earlier than i got home, so i turned off down berwick st and off home. hopefully someone will fill us in with what transpired on the final run into town.
UPDATED RIDE CONCLUSION
the finale by chris
bruce fired off the front only to take the next exit heading home to nat & bub. this seemed to fire the boys up and the pace was on. i was aiming to look after myself for the final run along riverside dve. the number of traffic lights along shepperton rd means that it’s a bit of a lottery along this stretch. invariably any break is stopped by a red light bringing the bunch back together and potentially allowing a smokey to use their momentum to launch an attack.
today however six or seven of us managed to get through a set of lights and stay away to the café.
once onto the causeway nick decided he’d hit out for home but with the likes of the ryan the pool boy, mike, jerry and a couple of the squadra barista boys on his tail it was doomed from the start. as we all know, this has never stopped nick before.
i took first wheel with the vain hope that some of the other guys might swap off turns. surprisingly they left me there to cook myself. i decided that chasing nick down was bound to end in the boys smashing me once we had him, so i maintained the gap for a while. once we got well along the drive i upped the pace a few km/h in order to roll over nick. sure enough once we were within striking distance the pool boy launched with the others on his tail.
the final set of lights ran the usual spoiler to the finishing sprint but it’s safe to say the pool boy was the winner. it seems we need more people in the finale to box the bugger in.
Saturday, 22 March 2008
saturday 22nd mar - tv stations
damn it was dark this morning. i was waiting for the sun to come up and looked at my watch to find that we were 5 min over time already. i usually give my spiel after mickey has taken the novice riders out first, but he was running a bit late, so we headed out first. he did quickly give ryan a new pair of cycling socks for winning the intermediate sprint last saturday.
today’s course took us past the tv stations in dianella and back down wanaroo rd past kings park, but then swinging around into claremont and getting the usual run back into the city through dalkeith and mounts bay rd.
even without the sunlight, the weather was warm. the cloud cover last night kept temperatures pleasant but the wind was moderate. we headed out great eastern hwy and i started on the back as i forgot to turn on the video cam. not sure of the footage as it doesn’t go well in low light. i’m guessing that i will check before i post this or it will not make sense how the footage got there in the first place.
anyway, i’m on the back and chatting with ryan but i notice that the pack is not holding together too well. the early pace was a bit high so gaps were forming as people lost the wheel. after this went on for a bit, i decided to sort it out and went to the front to set an even pace.
a few tricky light changes, some left right intersections and we were all together at the start of dianella dr where some of the tv stations are based. this was our first tempo section and the slight rise up dianella dr would make it interesting.
cade shot off like a thing that had been shot out of something, so i quickly jumped on his wheel with steve b latching on as well. his pace was quite high and i was struggling just to hold on. it took me half the hill to get right on his wheel but by then i had nothing to come around to help out. luckily we hit the top and lights, which held us up for a bit. the lights changed just as the others started to arrive so we headed off to try to stay in front. this section down yirrigan dr is always fast as it is slightly downhill, so i knew it was going to be hard to keep away.
cade and i swapped off turns on the front with steve b and ryan tucked in behind. we tried to keep the others away, but the group was almost upon us. the next set of traffic lights made sure of it. as they changed, dr nic came flying past with a stack of momentum, and managed to get quite a bit ahead of us. the boys all shot off after her forcing everyone to chase hard. i was pretty much cooked by then so slowly dropped back in the pack looking for whatever wheel i could hold. some of the early antagonists also fell back and were swallowed up by the group.
i finally settled on steve r’s wheel and we swapped off trying to bridge to the six guys up the road. christophe bridged across and also joined in the chase, but to no avail. by the time we hit waneroo rd, they were still 100 metres ahead.
a quick regroup and we continued our cruise down wanneroo/charles and across to loftus/thomas rd. we seemed to get every single light, which i supposed should be expected crossing the city on a saturday morning.
the pace was a bit high and erratic as we came down the back side of kings park. we used to just head straight to coffee from here, but it made the ride a bit short, so we now turn past the hospital and around the back of the cemetery. it was supposed to be moderate pace from here to claremont, but some of the boys started pushing hard early. i was in no mood to chase to the front to slow them down so i just kept my pace and slipped slowly to the back of the pack. i was secretly hoping that they would miss the turn and go all the way to the usual crossing at the grammar school.
unfortunately for everyone, chris took the initiative and turned a street too early which brought us out onto a t-intersection on stirling. a slight delay and some good hearted abuse on chris and we were back on track.
the usual wind up along victoria ave/jutland pde/birdwood pde was the typical smashfest with ryan, mike b and chris some of the main attackers trying to break the group apart. by the time we hit the last undulation on birdwood, ryan made a strong move and michael had the legs to stay with him. little dribs and drabs of riders were working together to try to keep up where they could.
even with a break, no-one ever tries to keep it going once we turn onto the avenue. generally the right hander onto hackett dr and the lights onto mounts bay rd cause the smaller droplets of riders to coagulate together ready for the final sprint. also, ten kilometres is a long way to try to hold off the pack, even if you get favourable lights.
so by the time we hit the lights at mounts bay rd most of the group was back together again. we even came across a small but smart group that took a shortcut through waratah rd.
so as we approached the intersection, ryan was trying to get people to go in front of him so that he could get a nice lead out. i jokingly warned him not to try the old “i can’t clip-in at the lights” ploy to get people to come around you. so we headed off into a general confusion.
all the main players for the final sprint were all trying to hide from the wind and trying to get others to do the work early on. the problem was that the high pace a bit earlier on seemed to blast the rest of the pack out the back so now there was no-one to block the wind. i tried to get the group to roll through, but after mike b, myself and dr marc, no-one else was willing to play. i looked back and a gap was starting to form as everyone was hiding in the pack.
“fine” i thought. “i’m off”.
it was a long way out, and i didn’t think that i could make it, but nothing was happening otherwise. a few hard pedals out of the saddle and i had easily gapped the group. a quick look back and no-one was chasing, and there seemed to be very little organisation in the group. i kept the pace on and managed to get quite a bit down the road. i think people started to panic a bit when they realised that i may stay away till the end.
eventually chris tried to get the group rolling through to chase me down, but people were still reluctant and only a handful wanted to help.
by this time the effort of doing in excess of 45 km/hr was taking it’s toll and was starting to hurt. luckily my heart rate monitor had decided to stop working, as if i saw how high my heart rate was, i probably would have given up. i saw the brewery approaching and was still ahead. i looked over my shoulder about five or six times to try to gauge how the group was travelling. as i rounded the corner to go past the brewery, i knew that i would be caught. i could hear chris screaming at the group to chase me down. nice. thanks team-mate. but it was all in good fun. i would have done the same.
with about a little over 100 metres to go, the group came past me at such a speed that i didn’t stand a chance. the last thing i saw was ryan flying ahead of the pack and i guess he stayed there til the end. my heart rate took a while to get back down to the stage where i could talk again, and relished the easy pace to the coffee shop.
today’s course took us past the tv stations in dianella and back down wanaroo rd past kings park, but then swinging around into claremont and getting the usual run back into the city through dalkeith and mounts bay rd.even without the sunlight, the weather was warm. the cloud cover last night kept temperatures pleasant but the wind was moderate. we headed out great eastern hwy and i started on the back as i forgot to turn on the video cam. not sure of the footage as it doesn’t go well in low light. i’m guessing that i will check before i post this or it will not make sense how the footage got there in the first place.
anyway, i’m on the back and chatting with ryan but i notice that the pack is not holding together too well. the early pace was a bit high so gaps were forming as people lost the wheel. after this went on for a bit, i decided to sort it out and went to the front to set an even pace.
a few tricky light changes, some left right intersections and we were all together at the start of dianella dr where some of the tv stations are based. this was our first tempo section and the slight rise up dianella dr would make it interesting.
cade shot off like a thing that had been shot out of something, so i quickly jumped on his wheel with steve b latching on as well. his pace was quite high and i was struggling just to hold on. it took me half the hill to get right on his wheel but by then i had nothing to come around to help out. luckily we hit the top and lights, which held us up for a bit. the lights changed just as the others started to arrive so we headed off to try to stay in front. this section down yirrigan dr is always fast as it is slightly downhill, so i knew it was going to be hard to keep away.
cade and i swapped off turns on the front with steve b and ryan tucked in behind. we tried to keep the others away, but the group was almost upon us. the next set of traffic lights made sure of it. as they changed, dr nic came flying past with a stack of momentum, and managed to get quite a bit ahead of us. the boys all shot off after her forcing everyone to chase hard. i was pretty much cooked by then so slowly dropped back in the pack looking for whatever wheel i could hold. some of the early antagonists also fell back and were swallowed up by the group.
i finally settled on steve r’s wheel and we swapped off trying to bridge to the six guys up the road. christophe bridged across and also joined in the chase, but to no avail. by the time we hit waneroo rd, they were still 100 metres ahead.
a quick regroup and we continued our cruise down wanneroo/charles and across to loftus/thomas rd. we seemed to get every single light, which i supposed should be expected crossing the city on a saturday morning.
the pace was a bit high and erratic as we came down the back side of kings park. we used to just head straight to coffee from here, but it made the ride a bit short, so we now turn past the hospital and around the back of the cemetery. it was supposed to be moderate pace from here to claremont, but some of the boys started pushing hard early. i was in no mood to chase to the front to slow them down so i just kept my pace and slipped slowly to the back of the pack. i was secretly hoping that they would miss the turn and go all the way to the usual crossing at the grammar school.
unfortunately for everyone, chris took the initiative and turned a street too early which brought us out onto a t-intersection on stirling. a slight delay and some good hearted abuse on chris and we were back on track.
the usual wind up along victoria ave/jutland pde/birdwood pde was the typical smashfest with ryan, mike b and chris some of the main attackers trying to break the group apart. by the time we hit the last undulation on birdwood, ryan made a strong move and michael had the legs to stay with him. little dribs and drabs of riders were working together to try to keep up where they could.
even with a break, no-one ever tries to keep it going once we turn onto the avenue. generally the right hander onto hackett dr and the lights onto mounts bay rd cause the smaller droplets of riders to coagulate together ready for the final sprint. also, ten kilometres is a long way to try to hold off the pack, even if you get favourable lights.
so by the time we hit the lights at mounts bay rd most of the group was back together again. we even came across a small but smart group that took a shortcut through waratah rd.
so as we approached the intersection, ryan was trying to get people to go in front of him so that he could get a nice lead out. i jokingly warned him not to try the old “i can’t clip-in at the lights” ploy to get people to come around you. so we headed off into a general confusion.
all the main players for the final sprint were all trying to hide from the wind and trying to get others to do the work early on. the problem was that the high pace a bit earlier on seemed to blast the rest of the pack out the back so now there was no-one to block the wind. i tried to get the group to roll through, but after mike b, myself and dr marc, no-one else was willing to play. i looked back and a gap was starting to form as everyone was hiding in the pack.
“fine” i thought. “i’m off”.
it was a long way out, and i didn’t think that i could make it, but nothing was happening otherwise. a few hard pedals out of the saddle and i had easily gapped the group. a quick look back and no-one was chasing, and there seemed to be very little organisation in the group. i kept the pace on and managed to get quite a bit down the road. i think people started to panic a bit when they realised that i may stay away till the end.
eventually chris tried to get the group rolling through to chase me down, but people were still reluctant and only a handful wanted to help.
by this time the effort of doing in excess of 45 km/hr was taking it’s toll and was starting to hurt. luckily my heart rate monitor had decided to stop working, as if i saw how high my heart rate was, i probably would have given up. i saw the brewery approaching and was still ahead. i looked over my shoulder about five or six times to try to gauge how the group was travelling. as i rounded the corner to go past the brewery, i knew that i would be caught. i could hear chris screaming at the group to chase me down. nice. thanks team-mate. but it was all in good fun. i would have done the same.
with about a little over 100 metres to go, the group came past me at such a speed that i didn’t stand a chance. the last thing i saw was ryan flying ahead of the pack and i guess he stayed there til the end. my heart rate took a while to get back down to the stage where i could talk again, and relished the easy pace to the coffee shop.
Monday, 17 March 2008
saturday 15th mar - conclusion
ride conclusion by ryan.
as pete peeled off to go home, i was thinking to myself ‘one less person to drag across the finish line’ but as it turned out, we lost many people along canning highway, including bruce who had been looking spritely on chris’s mavic carbones (i was looking forward to a decent show down in the sprint).
coming over the last rise on canning highway before we go past berwick st, cade pulled off the front with his friend in tow, i decided to let him go to assess if anyone would follow. sure enough, peter dawson picked it up a little and started to bridge the gap on cade and his mate (who had now dropped off cade’s wheel i think), so i decided it was time to catch up so went past peter dawson close enough to let him on my wheel (just to seem sporting) but he kept going straight anyway.
i then caught up to cade who was beginning to fade, i told him he was not allowed to fade now as we had to keep on going. unfortunately the lights where canning meets the causeway were red and cade and i had to stop allowing the others to catch up. i took off slowly and let everyone go past. some people picked it up at the front and people started to drop back going over the causeway. i was watching the front and keeping my distance at the back, none of the real threats were left in the pack but i did notice a shadow following me as i rode around people getting dropped.
a look over my shoulder confirmed my suspicions as there was jerard watching my wheel closely (well i hope it was my wheel, lucky i did not have my white knicks on today as jerard was looking special in his white pinarello get up and people may have started to ask questions) and keeping nice and close behind me.
coming down riverside drive, we were doing a decent speed and i noticed cade had gone off the front. i decided to go just after the first set of lights, i changed down into a heavy gear, stood up and engaged my whole body into a few seconds of acceleration which saw we passing the field at a good few kms faster than they were travelling, i was then bearing down on cade at a rapid rate of knots and when i past him, i heard him make some sort of moaning sound but i feel he knew in his heart of hearts he was not going to stay away this time.
after passing cade, i sat down, kept the gears heavy and kept on powering along, focusing on a strong round stroke to keep me moving forward. then about 100m from the lights, they went red (everytime coming down riverside drive this happens), i looked behind and there was noone within at least 30metres, so i sat up put my arms in the air (stretching, not gloating, i promise) and continued rolling towards the lights, just before i came to a complete stop, they went green so i took off after the car in front of me (which took longer than i would have liked to get going) as i did not want someone who had just reached the lights to come past and claim the hollow victory as we past the 60km sign (there was no steve r in the group today so should be pretty safe).
i past the 60km sign, still in front, changed into an easy gear to spin the legs a little before getting to the coffee shop. melvyn came up along side me just before we turned into the coffee shop (did melvyn take second place in the sprint?). Upon arriving at the coffee shop mickey’s group was still there (a decent size group of beginners which was good to see), so i pulled up an extra table and went off to get my coffee but upon returning mickey had taken all his people and vacated the premises. my efforts to pull up an extra table (thus putting me further back in the coffee queue) had been for nothing.. grrrr..
i was looking forward to the freeway bike ride the next day but because i had no bike, i could not do it.. i was very disappointed. short version of the story, i left my bike at a friends house for an hour whilst we went to breakfast. after breakfast we decided i would come back to watch the force play at 1:30pm (a good time to collect my bike as well i decided) but my friend was then invited to watch the game at one of the injured force players houses and decided it was a more exciting opportunity than watching it with me. i was not phased, it gave me time to have a snooze and clean my race wheels anyway. i informed my friend to let me know when there was someone at his house so i could collect my bike. well at 1am, i gave up and went to bed, i guess at least i got a sleep in on sunday, it has been a long time since i have had one of those.
as pete peeled off to go home, i was thinking to myself ‘one less person to drag across the finish line’ but as it turned out, we lost many people along canning highway, including bruce who had been looking spritely on chris’s mavic carbones (i was looking forward to a decent show down in the sprint).
coming over the last rise on canning highway before we go past berwick st, cade pulled off the front with his friend in tow, i decided to let him go to assess if anyone would follow. sure enough, peter dawson picked it up a little and started to bridge the gap on cade and his mate (who had now dropped off cade’s wheel i think), so i decided it was time to catch up so went past peter dawson close enough to let him on my wheel (just to seem sporting) but he kept going straight anyway.
i then caught up to cade who was beginning to fade, i told him he was not allowed to fade now as we had to keep on going. unfortunately the lights where canning meets the causeway were red and cade and i had to stop allowing the others to catch up. i took off slowly and let everyone go past. some people picked it up at the front and people started to drop back going over the causeway. i was watching the front and keeping my distance at the back, none of the real threats were left in the pack but i did notice a shadow following me as i rode around people getting dropped.
a look over my shoulder confirmed my suspicions as there was jerard watching my wheel closely (well i hope it was my wheel, lucky i did not have my white knicks on today as jerard was looking special in his white pinarello get up and people may have started to ask questions) and keeping nice and close behind me.
coming down riverside drive, we were doing a decent speed and i noticed cade had gone off the front. i decided to go just after the first set of lights, i changed down into a heavy gear, stood up and engaged my whole body into a few seconds of acceleration which saw we passing the field at a good few kms faster than they were travelling, i was then bearing down on cade at a rapid rate of knots and when i past him, i heard him make some sort of moaning sound but i feel he knew in his heart of hearts he was not going to stay away this time.
after passing cade, i sat down, kept the gears heavy and kept on powering along, focusing on a strong round stroke to keep me moving forward. then about 100m from the lights, they went red (everytime coming down riverside drive this happens), i looked behind and there was noone within at least 30metres, so i sat up put my arms in the air (stretching, not gloating, i promise) and continued rolling towards the lights, just before i came to a complete stop, they went green so i took off after the car in front of me (which took longer than i would have liked to get going) as i did not want someone who had just reached the lights to come past and claim the hollow victory as we past the 60km sign (there was no steve r in the group today so should be pretty safe).
i past the 60km sign, still in front, changed into an easy gear to spin the legs a little before getting to the coffee shop. melvyn came up along side me just before we turned into the coffee shop (did melvyn take second place in the sprint?). Upon arriving at the coffee shop mickey’s group was still there (a decent size group of beginners which was good to see), so i pulled up an extra table and went off to get my coffee but upon returning mickey had taken all his people and vacated the premises. my efforts to pull up an extra table (thus putting me further back in the coffee queue) had been for nothing.. grrrr..
i was looking forward to the freeway bike ride the next day but because i had no bike, i could not do it.. i was very disappointed. short version of the story, i left my bike at a friends house for an hour whilst we went to breakfast. after breakfast we decided i would come back to watch the force play at 1:30pm (a good time to collect my bike as well i decided) but my friend was then invited to watch the game at one of the injured force players houses and decided it was a more exciting opportunity than watching it with me. i was not phased, it gave me time to have a snooze and clean my race wheels anyway. i informed my friend to let me know when there was someone at his house so i could collect my bike. well at 1am, i gave up and went to bed, i guess at least i got a sleep in on sunday, it has been a long time since i have had one of those.
Saturday, 15 March 2008
saturday 15th mar - river ride
it has started to get a bit cold in the morning. i actually had to go back in the house and get my arm warmers out of the drawer before i took off today. on the way to the shop i was shivering so much that i wished that i had put on the vest too. luckily it didn’t last too long, and my poor little body was warm once i arrived at the shop.
there were many a bike with lights on this morning. again a curse on daylight savings. and i’m not alone on this one, with the totally unbiased and politically neutral “the west” newspaper also highlighting the fact that the sun is not up at 7am. overall numbers seemed low, but maybe it was that i couldn’t see very far in the dark, as once we got started, i saw that the group was around the thirty mark.
today was the standard river ride loop. past the uni and through dalkeith, claremont and a bunch of other suburbs i can’t afford to live in. past freo, and pt walter then back via canning hwy and across the causeway. pretty standard loop for anyone that has ridden around perth.
we had predetermined three sections where we would increase the speed and then regroup at the end. the first came up quicker than my legs were ready for and i really felt it. but i am getting ahead of myself a bit. we cruised neatly along riverside drive and mounts bay rd before turning past the uni. these are usually sections where we take advantage of the nice flat wide road on the way home, but not this time.
the small hill after steve’s pub was the start of the tempo section and we had to get all the way to christ church grammar. i had pull off the front earlier on and was about mid pack when the pace went on. being a single lane road with double white lines, i decided to wait till the pack dispersed a bit before trying to head around. once at the top, there was the rare occurrence that we had to wait for traffic so this split the pack up a bit. worst of all it was bike traffic, so we weren’t going to cut them off.
however, it did allow cade and rob quite a bit of a gap once we finally got underway. i was in the third group with bruce and we worked to catch the second or main group that was being led out by mike b. we jumped on the back, but then saw how far ahead cade was getting so had to push the pace again. i said to bruce that i was going to chase them down and was he coming with me. we headed off to the front of the pack and started to split that group apart too. it was bout this time that my legs started to complain about the lack of warm-up. as i am getting older, my legs need longer and longer before they start firing.
anyway, bruce came around and then mike b and a bunch of others, so we began to chase. the undulating hills around dalkeith make it hard to keep a good rhythm, but a group of 10 or more that we had in the chase group meant that we caught cade and rob soon after the old hospital. the pace stayed high and as we approached the end a car decided to reverse out so we all had to slam on the anchors. bruce managed to scoot around in the other lane so the chase was on as we were close to the end. cade had his rhythm broken by the car and had enough by then so ryan and I chased down bruce. the last two corners before the end and ryan flew past bruce who hung on to stay in front of me by the roundabout.
a couple of minutes to get our breath back and allow the stragglers to catch up and we were on our way again. a pleasant cruise through some very expensive suburbs but before we knew it we were at the base of the mosman park hill. this was our next pace section and the plan was to hit the hill and the next rise before regrouping at the water tower opposite rose hancock porteous whoever’s now vacant block.
again it was a matter of getting position as the climb started as the pack spread across the lane. as it thinned out i managed to get ahead, but a couple of the boys were already bolting up the hill. from memory it was mike b and ryan. i thnk that cade and jerry was in there too, but i was busy concentrating on getting up the hill myself. the main climb and subsequent rise thinned the pack considerably and it filtered in to the water tower in dribs and drabs. a couple of minutes wait and we were off again.
the remaining route to freo was nice and gentle and the pack kept together well. even over the climb up preston point road fron canning hwy was very contained. as preston point road continued along the flat through bicton, it was suggested that we roll through as the wind was not really favourable. as a group we do need more practice at this, so we took advantage. the pace stepped up, as you would expect, but not to an unbearable rate.
turning up point walter road, the group was still fairly well together, and i wanted to keep it that way till we hit the bottom after the golf course. however, cade started up early and took off before we reached the roundabout. a few others gave chase and i eventually gave in and went with them. the rest of the pack seemed to keep together but upped the pace as well.
as we hit the flat on burke drive the pace jumped up again. we started rolling through but so had the main pack which closed up down fast. we continued that way the whole length of attadale and it was good to see the group moving through. at some point along the way we picked up peter dawson and a mate. for those in our group that don’t know who he is, he has won olympic gold in the teams pursuit and world records in the same. riding in a full “rock racing” kit (the team that mario cipollini has made his comeback thorough) i had to warn nick not to give him crap about riding in a full kit. he had previously made that mistake when cj sutton came out with us in full cofidis kit. he was only wearing it because he rode for them in the protour.
anyway, the group slowed down as we hit canning hwy allowing the others to get back on for the ride home. now the bug must have bit a few people as we started to roll through again. i wasn’t complaining as i had promised that i would be home early and miscalculated by a long way. as we cruised up canning hwy, i peeled off into my home street and onto taking my young lad to the zoo for the morning.
i will have to catch up with the others to see how the ride ended and add it to this blog later.
i’m off to the freeway bike hike tomorrow, as i ended up organising it for work again. as with the brw triathlon it seems to be the same few people at work that get it organised and if not it just doesn’t happen.
so stay safe, and if you are doing the sunday hills ride tomorrow, take note of what happens, and write it down for me. i will then post your version of events on the blog. trust me, people will read any old piece of crap you publish. just look at my attempts at writing.
there were many a bike with lights on this morning. again a curse on daylight savings. and i’m not alone on this one, with the totally unbiased and politically neutral “the west” newspaper also highlighting the fact that the sun is not up at 7am. overall numbers seemed low, but maybe it was that i couldn’t see very far in the dark, as once we got started, i saw that the group was around the thirty mark.
today was the standard river ride loop. past the uni and through dalkeith, claremont and a bunch of other suburbs i can’t afford to live in. past freo, and pt walter then back via canning hwy and across the causeway. pretty standard loop for anyone that has ridden around perth.
we had predetermined three sections where we would increase the speed and then regroup at the end. the first came up quicker than my legs were ready for and i really felt it. but i am getting ahead of myself a bit. we cruised neatly along riverside drive and mounts bay rd before turning past the uni. these are usually sections where we take advantage of the nice flat wide road on the way home, but not this time.
the small hill after steve’s pub was the start of the tempo section and we had to get all the way to christ church grammar. i had pull off the front earlier on and was about mid pack when the pace went on. being a single lane road with double white lines, i decided to wait till the pack dispersed a bit before trying to head around. once at the top, there was the rare occurrence that we had to wait for traffic so this split the pack up a bit. worst of all it was bike traffic, so we weren’t going to cut them off.
however, it did allow cade and rob quite a bit of a gap once we finally got underway. i was in the third group with bruce and we worked to catch the second or main group that was being led out by mike b. we jumped on the back, but then saw how far ahead cade was getting so had to push the pace again. i said to bruce that i was going to chase them down and was he coming with me. we headed off to the front of the pack and started to split that group apart too. it was bout this time that my legs started to complain about the lack of warm-up. as i am getting older, my legs need longer and longer before they start firing.
anyway, bruce came around and then mike b and a bunch of others, so we began to chase. the undulating hills around dalkeith make it hard to keep a good rhythm, but a group of 10 or more that we had in the chase group meant that we caught cade and rob soon after the old hospital. the pace stayed high and as we approached the end a car decided to reverse out so we all had to slam on the anchors. bruce managed to scoot around in the other lane so the chase was on as we were close to the end. cade had his rhythm broken by the car and had enough by then so ryan and I chased down bruce. the last two corners before the end and ryan flew past bruce who hung on to stay in front of me by the roundabout.
a couple of minutes to get our breath back and allow the stragglers to catch up and we were on our way again. a pleasant cruise through some very expensive suburbs but before we knew it we were at the base of the mosman park hill. this was our next pace section and the plan was to hit the hill and the next rise before regrouping at the water tower opposite rose hancock porteous whoever’s now vacant block.
again it was a matter of getting position as the climb started as the pack spread across the lane. as it thinned out i managed to get ahead, but a couple of the boys were already bolting up the hill. from memory it was mike b and ryan. i thnk that cade and jerry was in there too, but i was busy concentrating on getting up the hill myself. the main climb and subsequent rise thinned the pack considerably and it filtered in to the water tower in dribs and drabs. a couple of minutes wait and we were off again.
the remaining route to freo was nice and gentle and the pack kept together well. even over the climb up preston point road fron canning hwy was very contained. as preston point road continued along the flat through bicton, it was suggested that we roll through as the wind was not really favourable. as a group we do need more practice at this, so we took advantage. the pace stepped up, as you would expect, but not to an unbearable rate.
turning up point walter road, the group was still fairly well together, and i wanted to keep it that way till we hit the bottom after the golf course. however, cade started up early and took off before we reached the roundabout. a few others gave chase and i eventually gave in and went with them. the rest of the pack seemed to keep together but upped the pace as well.
as we hit the flat on burke drive the pace jumped up again. we started rolling through but so had the main pack which closed up down fast. we continued that way the whole length of attadale and it was good to see the group moving through. at some point along the way we picked up peter dawson and a mate. for those in our group that don’t know who he is, he has won olympic gold in the teams pursuit and world records in the same. riding in a full “rock racing” kit (the team that mario cipollini has made his comeback thorough) i had to warn nick not to give him crap about riding in a full kit. he had previously made that mistake when cj sutton came out with us in full cofidis kit. he was only wearing it because he rode for them in the protour.
anyway, the group slowed down as we hit canning hwy allowing the others to get back on for the ride home. now the bug must have bit a few people as we started to roll through again. i wasn’t complaining as i had promised that i would be home early and miscalculated by a long way. as we cruised up canning hwy, i peeled off into my home street and onto taking my young lad to the zoo for the morning.
i will have to catch up with the others to see how the ride ended and add it to this blog later.
i’m off to the freeway bike hike tomorrow, as i ended up organising it for work again. as with the brw triathlon it seems to be the same few people at work that get it organised and if not it just doesn’t happen.
so stay safe, and if you are doing the sunday hills ride tomorrow, take note of what happens, and write it down for me. i will then post your version of events on the blog. trust me, people will read any old piece of crap you publish. just look at my attempts at writing.
Sunday, 9 March 2008
saturday 8th mar - canning vale (reverse)
ride report by chrisa nice day for a ride, not too warm, not too cold, it was just right. if a little humid.
pastor pete decreed we would follow the canning vale route today which always results in a little pain along bannister rd and today was no exception but we'll get to that in a little bit.
pre-ride briefing over with the fast points nominated as a part of nth lake rd, bannister rd and the finishing stretch of shepperton rd and riverside dve to the cafe.
we set off down the canning hwy at a steady pace allowing everyone to have a bit of a chat. incident free down to the nth lake rd turn off when i expected someone to have a dig but it seems people were saving themselves for the blast down bannister rd. so i went to the front to wind cade up along the rise to south st. mission accomplished i sat up and let the bunch blow by. i figured without our pastor i had better make sure that the flock stayed together. nice excuse to have a rest at the back too.
the run along south st was supposed to be a steady cruise but we were up near 40km/h the whole way. probably shouldn't have fired cade up 'cause we were all about to pay once we hit the fast stretch. i'm told it was he who fired of the front immediately we hit bannister rd. i was down the back after stopping to pick up a dropped light, thanks to mike b for staying back to help me catch back onto the group. sorry if i rolled over you too strong but i just wanted the hurt to be over.
so, no steady building of speed, it was straight to 48km/h and into the hurt box. luckily we got a bit of respite before the pace picked up again. we dropped a few guys along here and i'm pretty sure there was plenty lactic acid in the legs of everyone. my data tells me we spent around 12 minutes at about 40km/h. sounds great but to put that in perspective think of your average tdf stage where they average the same speed for ~200km over proper mountains. ouch!
the final regroup at nicholson rd, thanks to those who showed some restraint and called the front guys to back it off to allow the stragglers to catch back up. a little further along and mike b and the big chris were on the front, two strong fellows pulling well but the guys down the back were still recovering so i struggled up alongside and asked them to back it off a bit. i think big chris was happy that i made the request, mr bonner was hurting him a little. by the way mr b, i gather you did rather well at the pemberton race. i think there are a few team lamo boys who might be joining you for the fun of the tour de perth support race, should be well suited to your abilities.
a steady roll along the albany hwy as we all awaited the fun of the final drag to the coffee shop. the heat came on almost as soon as we hit shepperton rd and if anyone else was feeling like me it was a matter of looking after yourself for the final sprint. the recently married mr fynn was conspicuous by his absence from the front obviously out to avenge his recent run of losses in the sprint. this opportunity was spoilt by the meeting of our bunch with another at the causeway and the part road closure along the river front.
so an anticlimactic finish to a reasonably quick ride.
my stats say we averaged 33.7km/h for the 42.7km. for interest sake my average heart rate was 147bpm with a peak of 181bpm near the end of the run along bannister rd. And for those even vaguely interested my average power was 170W with a peak of 956W. pretty lame in comparison to graeme brown who, if i remember correctly, can top out at 1500W.
figuring i'd earned it i had the big breakfast with a mug of coffee. yumm!
the pastor was there to greet us with the up and coming ben to catch up with the action. nice to see him getting indoctrinated in the ways of the velo.
rumours: michael w missed today’s ride to taper for sunday’s corporate triathlon. He also missed the thursday morining thrash, the rumour are that one is he was at the pool having some remedial swimming lessons after nearly drowning at last years event.
editors note: if you want a good work out i suggest the following.
1. mountain bike
2. bike trailer
3. 14kg child plus all associated child traveling paraphernalia
4. mount st
5. repeated sets without standing.
i did just one taking the young lad up to sticky beaks playground in kings park and it almost killed me. harder than any saturday ride so far.
Saturday, 23 February 2008
saturday 23rd feb - hale rd
so i’ve been away for a couple of weeks and how the weather has changed in that time. bloody cold wind has apparently been blowing all week, so even though the temperatures have been pleasant, the wind chill makes for a cold start. i’m not sure whether this kept the punters away, but we only had about 30 starters this morning.the course today was to try to take advantage of the wind and get a tailwind home. most of the rides are picked based on this, but i am thinking of changing it next week, so that the final 10 kms is into a head wind. that way, if anyone wants to try to break-away, they really have to work for it.
anyway, today would take us out shep rd and onto welshpool, up hale rd and back along kalamunda rd and finally guilford rd. nice straightforward box. it should have meant, headwind, cross-head, tail & cross-tail to get home.
nice even pace out along shep rd and onto welshpool rd. everyone was being nice and the wind did not even seem to be that strong yet. i was talking to paul as he is in a similar industry to me and having a pleasant time. damn daylight savings now means that you basically need lights to get to the start of the ride and sunnies are not initially needed. paul reached back to get his sunnies and dropped them on the road. we were about third wheel so i don’t know how there weren’t run over. he stopped to collect and i waited for him to help draft back to the pack. mike also eased off to lend a hand, but we luckily caught them at the lights.
as we got further along welshpool lorraine dropped her chain and had to stop to put it back on. about four of us slowed down to help her get back on. we chased for quite a while, but kept getting stuck at the lights. the pack eventually had to stop on hale rd so that we could get back on. good job to whoever initiated that.
hale rd was again a easy cruise and i got chatting to a new guy on our rides. brendon has just moved from kalgoorlie and was on his second ride with us. as he is on a fifo roster he said he can’t make it every week, but thought it was a good group to ride with.
along kalamunda rd the pace picked up a bit as we started to feel the effects of the tail-wind. nick and scott were on the front and picked it up to over 40 km/h. more like 45 most of the time. i looked back and saw that gaps had started to form in the pack. i still wanted to keep it together as there is a section between when we cross abernathy rd and the great eastern hwy that is narrow and difficult for cars to pass us. if we are together as a group then we don’t piss off as many motorists and there are more of us to fight back.
not that it matters that much as dr nic was telling me about a guy that was upset at some cyclists so he reversed his car into them when they were stopped at the lights. ahh, perth. the home of mr dickhead.
so, the boys backed off a bit at the front as they were actually just trying to half-wheel each other and ended up racing instead. about this time steve decided that it was “unsafe” in the pack with the constant pace change you get after about fifth wheel, and took off the front. i yelled out not to chase and went to the front with nick to keep a constant pace. steve got through the lights at abernathy and disappeared into the distance.
look, i don’t think that it anymore unsafe at the lower speeds as opposed to when guys have their ring hanging out all ride and make mistakes because they are tired. accidents happen in both situations, but it is the outside influences like motorists that i am trying to control. i think we may need more “smash-it” sections with a regroup in between. this would allow the boys to stretch their legs a bit more, but still keep the group together for the crucial bits. it’s something i will work on. hence the “trying to keep everyone happy” tag at the top of the blog.
so, steve got away and we kept it together nicely to guilford but raised the average speed to take advantage of the tailwind. once over the bridge and into bassendean, chris jumped on behind a small car at the lights and got a bit of a draft to gap the pack. mike and i were on the front and started to chase a bit to try to bring him back. i suggested that we roll through and instantly we picked up the pace. it wasn’t smooth but a quick peek at my speedo and saw that we had jumped from 35 to 50 km/hr. we started to string out and i found myself on the back by the time we were stopped at the tonkin hwy lights.
the pack found it’s own pace for a bit as everyone was waiting for the rolling hills to start. on the first hill, i changed lanes and got a bit of a draft from a 4wd to help me to the front and past the leading few. mike soon joined me and instantly came past me giving me his wheel. we pushed on for a bit more and i was aware that a couple of others had also attached. however, this is where it all came undone for me. two weeks off the bike, lots of car & plane travel, macca’s at least five times while we were traveling and generally no replacement exercise all started to take their toll. i had the legs to go and the cardio to push, but my recovery was shot to pieces. where previously i could have kept pushing and recovered while drafting, now i was fighting for air and trying to get my heart-rate down.
so gave a flick of the hand to tell the next person to come by and i sat up. pretty much everyone past me and i was forced to pick my way through the rest of the pack debris to get back to the city. there was probably a good 10 kms to go, and i managed to jump from dropped rider to dropped rider to keep my pace up. along the way i managed to jump on with nick and few others. nick was also suffering due to travel and lack of exercise. however, his three weeks in spain etc, have left him with a few kilos to shed to get back to fighting weight.
it’s been a while since i have been dropped, but i still remember my first ride with this group over three and a half years ago. i was dropped heading out past rebold hill and having only been in perth for two weeks did not know where i was. i spied some one in the distance and rode my arse off trying to catch them so that they could show me the way home. now at least i am organizing the routes so that i know the way home if i get dropped. not looking forward to tomorrow’s ride in the hills. it may be a very boring blog if i keep falling off the back.
so in the wash-up at the end the remainder of the pack caught steve but the sprint was won by wayne. i will try to be near the front next week so that i know what is going on. with nothing to add to the picture collection, i will follow chris’ lead and steal a pic from the pez website. today is the sister of “attempted” blood doping cyclist ivan basso.
Tuesday, 19 February 2008
saturday 16th feb - freo & cott
ride report by chriswell a lovely day for a ride with a light breeze blowing and a decent turnout of at 30 odd riders. pete had already determined the route all that remained was laying down the rules. the committee (michael w and myself) decided that easy to attadale, regroup after the ascent at pt walter and then finish it off a with the usual flurry along through dalkieth and mts bay rd.
i thought i'd have bragging rides on longest warm-up but michael w had already completed a lap of the river with emma who was off to work for the day.
things progressed well with bruce and i controlling the pace from the front to attadale. plenty of time for a chat, and yes rachel your friend (sorry didn't catch a name) and yourself took full advantage of it didn't you?
a little encouragement from bruce meant i fired off the front along the river in order to heat things up a little. i assume things strung out a little and then the call went up to start pulling turns. so those who wanted to did which helped keep things nice and quick to the foot of the hill at pt walter.
now i enjoy the swapping off turns thing and encourage everyone to get involved, you're only on the front for a short while if it's done right. you then get time to recover out of the wind before your turn comes up again. it's often easier to get in the loop than try to hold on at the back.
so back to the ride. it seems we lost a few people at this point, for which as substitute patron i apologise. once over the hill the pace eased up a little but the usual suspects just couldn't control themselves, even with a little yelling from yours truly. by the way, kom points to me. although without pete, cade, the newly married mr fynn or mike b around 'twas a hollow victory. was that you hiding down the back mr bonner? did the week back in the classroom take it out of you? ;-)
once we had regrouped (sort off) it was a steady roll down to freo. thankfully the traffic that got backed up behind us didn't get too cranky or try any crazy manouvres to get around us.
pete probably wasn't aware that the rotto channel swim was on but we knew this would make things interesting along passed cottesloe. prior to getting to cott however some of the big kids just couldn't control themselves. sitting 2nd wheel i was constantly pulling on the leash of nick and big chris (good to see you out again, looking to be strong too) but eventually they just had to kick when jerrard decided things were a little too staid. joined by bruce they quickly pulled a few lengths on the rest of us and were soon joined by several others. naughty children, your names have been entered in the black book. it seems we need to institute some sort of fine system to discourage this behaviour.
normally i like going along by cott as you can cruise along and admire the scenery but with the volume of traffic and pedestrians today was always going to mean we'd better pay attention. we got through with no surprises and headed along to the final drag race for coffee.
stevie b managed to sneak off and get across the lights at the grammar which meant the rest of us had some work to do to catch him. having spent a fair stretch of time at or near the front i was hoping for a tow to uwa. sooner rather than later however my ego decided the pace wasn't high enough so i moved to the front to kick things off. this had the desired effect of motivating others and meant i could get a rest amongst the bunch. i rolled through and attacked again onto jutland parade which kicked things up a notch.
at this point michael and someone else went off the front chasing down our bunny steve. i had bruce's wheel and gave him the call to kick to which he politely responded. we caught michael and his colleague and had steve firmly in our sites. i managed to pass him prior to the top of the little pinch. now normally ryan would have blasted by us all prior to this and sailed off into the distance whilst we cursed his name.
all that remained was the usual lunacy of the mts bay rd finish, with steve and i left on the front (thanks everyone!) i knew the bunch was going to nail us. steve had other ideas and made a suicide run of the front, my legs were shot but i tried to hang on anyway. sure enough the bunch came flying by so i have no idea who took out the all important sprint finish. finishers please claim your place with the commissaire.
things wouldn't be normal without the usual cafe report. it seems new faces every week is the norm these days and again this was the case. coffees came and were consumed, the news of ryans nuptuals spread along with that of the impending delivery of yet another bunch baby. cristophe, i trust all went well and that mother and child are happy and healthy. we expect to see you out sooner rather than later in the true bunch tradition.
as a final farewell, it would seem you now need to be riding a cervelo to be part of the in crowd, nice to see an r3 sl out and about. i think that brings the number in the group to 5 or 6, seems we need to rename the ride the Cervelo Owners Club Riding Group or COCRinG.
Saturday, 9 February 2008
saturday 9th feb - benara rd
a forecast for strong easterly winds usually means a good ride along benara rd. this road runs directly east-west from caversham to noranda and goes for about 8kms. it may be a bit of a slog to get out to it, but coming home is always going to be fun.bit of a weird week, weather-wise, as we finally got a reprieve from the oppressively hot days only to have the entire february rainfall in one day. even though the rain has cleared up, the cloud cover was still thick when i got up this morning. this kept both the morning temperature down and the actual daylight also low. damn daylight savings.
the route would be fairly simple today. out great eastern hwy, onto guilford rd, up west swan rd, hard along benara, down to whatley crescent and home. guilford rd would be hard into the head-wind and it was going to be a bit of a test to see if the group stayed together.
michael and i rolled out at the front of the pack and set a nice uneventful pace up great eastern and over the bridge from ascot. no dickhead drivers either, which made a pleasant surprise. along guilford rd the wind began to pick up and the leading riders were having to work a lot harder to keep the pace. occasionally some of our stronger boys would come to the front to lend a hand, but luckily not to increase the pace too much.
turning into west swan rd and we were all still together and it seemed that the boys were itching to go once we hit benara rd. i had previously stated that we could go all out on benara as long as we kept it together before, and regrouped after. surprisingly, it didn’t happen as soon as we turned the corner. everyone was kind of waiting to see who would make the first move first. it finally picked up and next thing we know we are doing 50km/h and are strung out. i wasn’t in ideal position, so had to drag myself up to the front in order to stay with the lead group.
the one problem with benara rd, is even though it goes for 8km, there are numerous stop lights and round about to contend with. the first round about comes up not long into it and immediately caused mass confusion. a car was coming from the right so the call was made and everyone chucked on the anchors to let them through. unfortunately, the lady in the car got scared and also stopped. this meant that we were trying to wave her through, she was trying to let us through and both riders and cars were not sure who was going through. in the end some slipped through while others waited and the car ended up somewhere in between. the road rules are that we give way, and we were doing that. unfortunately we didn’t come to a complete stop as we expected her to keep going so then we could automatically keep the pace up. it didn’t end up that way, but luckily no damage, just another driver that probably now hates us.
with a longer stretch to play with, the pace makers hit the front again and did a fine job of smashing the pack. by the time we hit the lights at altone rd, a very select group of five or six made it through as the lights went yellow. mike and cade were on the front and stopped pushing as we usually wait if the group gets trapped by the lights. not in this case, we are trying to push every advantage we can, so i went to the front and set the pace for a while. we continually swapped off the front and had a nice but very hard pace going until we caught the next set of lights at tonkin hwy. it would be a bit of a miracle if we actually got through those lights, so i was expecting a regroup at this point.
most of the group caught up, but we still had a way to go so back to the front to keep the pace high. we managed to string it out again, but everyone was beginning to waver a bit as even with a tailwind, the continuous efforts were taking their toll. it’s times like this that we really appreciate ryans limitless energy and single bloody mindedness that can often keep the pace up.
as we left benara rd, the pace slowed significantly allowing everyone to catch back up. a pleasant cruise through the suburbs of morley and bedford allowed everyone to catch their breath and get some fluids down. i realized that i had not really drunk that much along benara rd as i didn’t really have time, or enough breath to swallow between gasps.
there are a couple of rolling hills before we hit whatley crescent and we usually hit them hard. i had requested that we keep it together and the pack set a nice pace and didn’t try to smash it.
once we dropped under the rail bridge and onto whatley crescent, i was waiting for the pack to start hitting it hard. it was double lane almost all the way back to the coffee shop and there are a few rolling hills to contend with as well. ideal conditions with a tailwind and the blessing of the group meant that someone was bound to go. no-one went. not sure whether people didn’t know that they were on the final stretch into town, or that they didn’t know it was whatley crescent, but none of the usually suspects set out to smash the field.
michael and i were back about mid-pack and waiting for the break to go. i told him that on the hills ahead that we should go if no-one else does. we managed to spring off the front and surprise the head of the pack getting a gap straight away. michael neatly paced me up both the small hills before we started swapping off turns to try to keep the pack at bay. cade had broken away and was starting to bridge across, before we were held up slightly at a set of lights. the delay was not enough for the main pack to catch us, but cade jumped on once we were off again. we continued to swap off turns until around maylands station, i looked back and saw scott leading the group and right on our tail. i told michael we had been caught and we eased off the pace.
a perfect time to counter attack is when a break has been caught, and mike and cade went off the front together. a bad combination for the rest of us as both these guys could put some serious time into us. the pack was unorganized as people had been going hard for a while and the two of then managed to stay away. luckily, or should i say typically, they were held up by the lights at the graham farmer overpass, and we managed to regroup.
heading into the final sprint along riverside drive, michael and cade were on the front and itching to go. the lights had changed to allow a car to turn, so when they changed back, the two of them expected that ours would go green allowing us to go. unfortunately the light changed and allowed the riverside drive traffic to go, not us. cade and michael had anticipated the change and were already out in the middle of the intersection, so had to continue through. just like the paris-roubaix a couple of years ago when a few guys on the discovery channel team went under the rail crossing barrier, these boys were clearly in the wrong and have been duly disqualified.
the sprint opened up with doug and john hitting off the front as soon as we turned onto riverside drive. no-one seemed keen to go as it was still a long way to the end. we upped the pace to get on their wheels but still no-one jumped. i decided that i might be able to make the distance so took off hard to try to keep chris off my wheel. i managed to gap the field and kept the pace on. i had to look back a couple of times and rode like i was scared to keep them away. i was eventually caught at the victoria ave lights where i was held up.
when we pulled into the coffee shop, i had a look at my video camera and saw that it was off. damn thing keeps turning off after a couple of minutes of filming. will have to send it back. i’m a bit disappointed after it seemed to work well last sunday.
anyway, nothing else was really news worthy in the photo sense, so i took a couple of snaps of jerry’s new mavic r-sys wheels and dr paul was also really proud of his new pump as it does both valve types, so i got a shot of that too.
the route would be fairly simple today. out great eastern hwy, onto guilford rd, up west swan rd, hard along benara, down to whatley crescent and home. guilford rd would be hard into the head-wind and it was going to be a bit of a test to see if the group stayed together.
michael and i rolled out at the front of the pack and set a nice uneventful pace up great eastern and over the bridge from ascot. no dickhead drivers either, which made a pleasant surprise. along guilford rd the wind began to pick up and the leading riders were having to work a lot harder to keep the pace. occasionally some of our stronger boys would come to the front to lend a hand, but luckily not to increase the pace too much.
turning into west swan rd and we were all still together and it seemed that the boys were itching to go once we hit benara rd. i had previously stated that we could go all out on benara as long as we kept it together before, and regrouped after. surprisingly, it didn’t happen as soon as we turned the corner. everyone was kind of waiting to see who would make the first move first. it finally picked up and next thing we know we are doing 50km/h and are strung out. i wasn’t in ideal position, so had to drag myself up to the front in order to stay with the lead group.
the one problem with benara rd, is even though it goes for 8km, there are numerous stop lights and round about to contend with. the first round about comes up not long into it and immediately caused mass confusion. a car was coming from the right so the call was made and everyone chucked on the anchors to let them through. unfortunately, the lady in the car got scared and also stopped. this meant that we were trying to wave her through, she was trying to let us through and both riders and cars were not sure who was going through. in the end some slipped through while others waited and the car ended up somewhere in between. the road rules are that we give way, and we were doing that. unfortunately we didn’t come to a complete stop as we expected her to keep going so then we could automatically keep the pace up. it didn’t end up that way, but luckily no damage, just another driver that probably now hates us.
with a longer stretch to play with, the pace makers hit the front again and did a fine job of smashing the pack. by the time we hit the lights at altone rd, a very select group of five or six made it through as the lights went yellow. mike and cade were on the front and stopped pushing as we usually wait if the group gets trapped by the lights. not in this case, we are trying to push every advantage we can, so i went to the front and set the pace for a while. we continually swapped off the front and had a nice but very hard pace going until we caught the next set of lights at tonkin hwy. it would be a bit of a miracle if we actually got through those lights, so i was expecting a regroup at this point.
most of the group caught up, but we still had a way to go so back to the front to keep the pace high. we managed to string it out again, but everyone was beginning to waver a bit as even with a tailwind, the continuous efforts were taking their toll. it’s times like this that we really appreciate ryans limitless energy and single bloody mindedness that can often keep the pace up.
as we left benara rd, the pace slowed significantly allowing everyone to catch back up. a pleasant cruise through the suburbs of morley and bedford allowed everyone to catch their breath and get some fluids down. i realized that i had not really drunk that much along benara rd as i didn’t really have time, or enough breath to swallow between gasps.
there are a couple of rolling hills before we hit whatley crescent and we usually hit them hard. i had requested that we keep it together and the pack set a nice pace and didn’t try to smash it.
once we dropped under the rail bridge and onto whatley crescent, i was waiting for the pack to start hitting it hard. it was double lane almost all the way back to the coffee shop and there are a few rolling hills to contend with as well. ideal conditions with a tailwind and the blessing of the group meant that someone was bound to go. no-one went. not sure whether people didn’t know that they were on the final stretch into town, or that they didn’t know it was whatley crescent, but none of the usually suspects set out to smash the field.
michael and i were back about mid-pack and waiting for the break to go. i told him that on the hills ahead that we should go if no-one else does. we managed to spring off the front and surprise the head of the pack getting a gap straight away. michael neatly paced me up both the small hills before we started swapping off turns to try to keep the pack at bay. cade had broken away and was starting to bridge across, before we were held up slightly at a set of lights. the delay was not enough for the main pack to catch us, but cade jumped on once we were off again. we continued to swap off turns until around maylands station, i looked back and saw scott leading the group and right on our tail. i told michael we had been caught and we eased off the pace.
a perfect time to counter attack is when a break has been caught, and mike and cade went off the front together. a bad combination for the rest of us as both these guys could put some serious time into us. the pack was unorganized as people had been going hard for a while and the two of then managed to stay away. luckily, or should i say typically, they were held up by the lights at the graham farmer overpass, and we managed to regroup.
heading into the final sprint along riverside drive, michael and cade were on the front and itching to go. the lights had changed to allow a car to turn, so when they changed back, the two of them expected that ours would go green allowing us to go. unfortunately the light changed and allowed the riverside drive traffic to go, not us. cade and michael had anticipated the change and were already out in the middle of the intersection, so had to continue through. just like the paris-roubaix a couple of years ago when a few guys on the discovery channel team went under the rail crossing barrier, these boys were clearly in the wrong and have been duly disqualified.
the sprint opened up with doug and john hitting off the front as soon as we turned onto riverside drive. no-one seemed keen to go as it was still a long way to the end. we upped the pace to get on their wheels but still no-one jumped. i decided that i might be able to make the distance so took off hard to try to keep chris off my wheel. i managed to gap the field and kept the pace on. i had to look back a couple of times and rode like i was scared to keep them away. i was eventually caught at the victoria ave lights where i was held up.
when we pulled into the coffee shop, i had a look at my video camera and saw that it was off. damn thing keeps turning off after a couple of minutes of filming. will have to send it back. i’m a bit disappointed after it seemed to work well last sunday.
anyway, nothing else was really news worthy in the photo sense, so i took a couple of snaps of jerry’s new mavic r-sys wheels and dr paul was also really proud of his new pump as it does both valve types, so i got a shot of that too.
Saturday, 2 February 2008
saturday 2nd feb - ridge hill rd
well we are into february already. easter eggs are starting to appear in the shops and pretty soon the damn awful day light savings will be over. apparently we are having the hotest summer in perth for 16 years. makes that extra hour of day light just delightful when it is still over 35 degrees with a howling wind. well you may have noticed that i don't like it. i train in the morning and have family time in the arvo. daylight savings doesn't work for me.anyway, that was my little rant. today's ride would take us back to ridge hill rd which we visited last sunday. however, instead of being a warm up climb, it would be the only one. the main reason that we headed this way was i wanted the group to come home via guilford rd. the wind was forecast to be a ene so it should have been a nice tail wind home. the rest of the route was straight forward. out great eastern, through guilford, over ridge hill, back down kalamunda rd and home along guilford rd. what could go wrong. well nothing. after broken collar bones etc, this was a pretty tame ride. i even had nothing to take a photo of, so i snapped the two waitresses that were serving our table.
again i requested that the group stay together. we would go hard up ridge hill and regroup afterwards, and stay together until bassendean in which we could go hard to get home. it all went magically to plan. steve b and dr nick led us out along the hwy and stayed on the front for a long time, but set a very nice pace. somewhere through belmont, a 4wd on the other side of the road travelling in the opposite direction yelled out some abuse. well dickhead, when you are travelling in excess of 60 km/h and yell something out your window, it all comes out sounding like blah, blah, blah. it doesn't surprise me any more. there are dickheads everywhere.
once we got to west parade, dr nick swung off but mike b and ben came to the front. i was just about to do a turn but they insisted so i wasn't complaining. there was a headwind too, so i was happy. we set a nice pace out to helena valley, but mike and ben were occasionally looking over there shoulder to see if anyone was going to help. i was there and was ready to take a turn, but if you have had enough on the front, peel off. we don't have any hard and fast rules when it comes to doing work. you can easily sit in our group and not do any work at all and no-one will care. we don't roll through unless we have to, but if you are tired, then just drop back as there will always be someone else ready to work.
so, we hit the hill with mike and ben having done a good 6 or 7 km's on the front. good, i thought. it might wear mike out a bit. we started to up the pace as soon as the climb started, but i noticed that most of the pack was still holding on. mike set the pace and ben held his wheel. i just sat on to see what would happen. mike stepped it up again and ben dropped off, forcing me to come around to grab mike's wheel. the pack started to really thin out at this point and i was having to really force myself to stay on wheel. the hill has a couple of steps in it and by the time we hit the first one it was only mike and myself left at the front with michael not far behind. mike kept the pace on and i was content just to hold his wheel, as realisticly i couldn't come around anyway. by the time hit the second step, michael was on my wheel and i was stuck in a mike sandwich (not one of my favourite fantasies). we stayed that way over the top where we had about 100m on the rest of the pack.
we rolled down the other side and onto midland rd where we stopped to regroup, before kalamunda rd. we had a bit of trouble getting onto kalamunda rd as we had to turn right across 4 lanes of traffic. left hand turns are so much easier to plan for. we used to really turn it on along this stretch and i was dreading it today. however, i have been pleasantly and constantly surprised by the group as we kept it together all the way to guilford. i wanted take it easy along that stretch as it is not double lane for quite a bit of it and i didn't want to run the risk of pissing off more motorist than we had to.
once on guilford rd and across the bridge, the road widens out and stays double lane all the way back to the coffee shop. with a nice tail wind, this was where it was going to be on. i wasn't close enough to the front to see who went, but the group started to line out as riders hunted for a good wheel. there were a couple of guys up the road and the pack instinctively started to roll through. this went fairly well, until the right hand line disappeared and we were just in one long line. a couple of sets of traffic lights and most of the pack were back together. everyone was just kind of cruising, and probably more so, watching each other to see where the next attack would come from.
chris and myself were close to the front when the first of the continously rolling hills through maylands started. i stepped it up to see what the group would do and chris came with me. almost to the top and mike b came past both of us at quite a pace and easily formed a gap. i hit it as hard as i could and tried to chase him down. it took about a km (probably less but it felt long) but i finally caught him and thought we could work together to stay away. unfortunately roadworks and a small truck conspired against us, and we had to slow down.
as the truck acclereated out of the roadworks, steve r came around the pack and jumped on the back of it. he got a really good draft and managed to get through a set of lights that we were forced to stop at. the chase was now on to try to catch him before the city. i had to drop back into the pack as the escape with mike b had almost completely buggered me. the boys were doing a good job on the front and we managed to catch up just at the set of lights crossing the graham farmer.
there is one last little hill to go and i didn't want to expend all my energy on it, so moved to the front to get a head start. i held ben's wheel to the top and even though some of the boys (mike b) went hard, there were four sets of lights before the final sprint....and we got them all. so i was well rested.
we turned onto riverside drive and the last km and a half of the ride. no-one wanted to go early, as ryan wasn't there to do the long lead out. chris and i were on the front and everyone was just looking around. dr emma deceided to have a crack and came around the pack early on. everybody just looked at each other, unsure whether to chase or not as it was still a way to go. bugger it, i thought and went after her. up out of the saddle to ensure chris would not get on my wheel, i managed to catch, pass and then stay away from the pack till the lights turned red at the end of the road and allowed everyone to catch up. as the lights changed, steve r came around everyone and gave a two arm salute for his victory sprint. first to the coffee shop wins.
brett was waiting for us at the coffee again, his arm is now out of the sling, so a few more weeks and he may be back with us. i then spend the afternoon trying to work out how to mount the video cam on the bike. i think i got it working, so maybe tomorrow we can see some faces in pain as we tackle the hills. national olympic distance triathlon champs is on at the foreshore tomorrow, and in a previous life i would have gone down to it. now it is all about the bike.
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