ride report

the ride began as normal.  ryan ringing up kimbo to say that he was going to be late and asking which way we were headed.  he then proceeded to ask all types of other stupid questions in order to stall us as long as possible so that he could get there before we departed.  it didn’t work.

the fast group was light on again today with the majority of people opting for main 1 instead.  could have something to do with the 200km challenge tomorrow, or maybe just the weather.  the novice group has not fielded a rider for the past three weeks.  i am putting it down to the cold mornings, but at least it is not wet.

so we headed off towards north lake road and jonno and i set the pace all the way to the turn off.  well actually, jonno was setting the pace and i was about half a wheel behind him trying to keep up.  by the time we rolled off and took the very short trip to the back of the pack, we found that ryan had already joined us.  not sure how or when but his claim of starting 10min later than us and catching up by the time we hit north lake road was interesting.  mainly because it took us approx 15min to cover the 8km to get to the turn off.  in that, because of the traffic lights etc, we averaged only 31kph.  for ryan to cover the same distance in 5min, he would have to average 86kph over the 8km.  the only time i can see him doing that is when mel calls him up mid-ride to tell him that the baby is coming NOW!!!

so the others in the group were jerry, nick, scott, ben and vaughan who was on a full suspension mountain bike with knobbly tyres.  that was going to interesting to watch.  we generally cruised down north lake road until we passed south st and then began to roll through.  this picked the pace up considerably and started to show the haves and the have nots.  the pace got too high for some and pretty soon it was down to single file only.  ben diesel, ryan, jerry, scott and jonno were setting a cracking pace with vaughan, nick and myself hanging on to the coat tails.

sensing most of the group didn’t know the route well, i refused to call out directions until the turns were almost on top of us so that the pace would slacken off in a moment of hesitation.  we swung across berrigan drive and pretty much stayed together but once onto jandakot rd, the small undulations split nick, scott and myself from the others.  a bit of scrambling on our end and we managed to stay in touch to the intersection with warton rd.  from here to nicholson and the pace continued to hover around the mid to high 40’s until we just came past livingston shopping centre and jerry got a flat.  there was lots of glass on the roads we took so it was really only a matter of time. 

it wasn’t a formula one wheel change and at one stage we were wondering if he was rebuilding the wheel from scratch but soon were under way again.  well we pretty much continued where we had left off and the pace was up again.  there were some legs deadened by the rest and nick and i were well off the back, but saved by traffic at the roundabout.  from the kink in nicholson all the way back to vic park, it was high pace punctuated by traffic lights.  pretty much the perfect interval training (although not the best the day before a 200km ride).  i think we lost nick somewhere along here and it was only the skin of my teeth that was holding me to the group.

the last stretch along shep road and scott got on the front for a bit.  when we got caught in traffic i told him that there seems to be an unwritten rule in the last few k’s.  similar to the tour de france where if you crash in the last three km’s, our rule seems to be, if you are on the front in the last few km’s, don’t expect anyone to help you.  everyone starts to worry about saving their legs for the sprint, so no-one wants to set the pace.

just before the causeway, vaughan (who was still with us and coping better than me) showed us why a mountain bike was versatile by jumping a kerb to get in the other lane while we had to stop at a red light.  however, by the time he hit the intersection he was running a red anyway.  naughty.  the group chased him down and then jonno went off the front early.  there seemed to be a bit of hesitation so i got on the front and started to chase him down.  i managed to catch him just as riverside drive straightened out, but he was strong and he still stayed on the front and even surged again.  i was spent so flicked the elbow and everyone came around.  i didn’t see the final sprint, as i ambled down the road in full recovery mode.

no coffee stop for me as we had to go shopping for the masses that were to need feeding at the halfway point of the 200km challenge.  probably not the best lead up to a long ride, but i am sure that it will do me good…hopefully…in the long run…once i can walk again.