My weekend started on Friday morning with a drive down to Busso to watch my first Half Ironman… A leave pass for the whole weekend was too good to pass up!
Even though Rob has given us his report on the Half Ironman, I have to mention what an incredible day I had watching everyone give their all. The weather was perfect and it was a truly inspirational sight to see all the months of training come together for them with such outstanding results!
With only an hour and a half drive to Collie on Sunday morning and a leisurely start time of 11.30ish, it was a very easy start to the day. I arrived at about 10… early enough to get a good park and catch up with the Fleet Elite girls who had also arrived. Upon registering I found that the
women’s race had been changed to only 3 laps (63k)… bugger I thought! I would have preferred the original 4 that had been advertised. The next blow was the marked absence of a coffee van!!!! What the??? The local cafe could only offer me INSTANT coffee… I was NOT that desperate 🙁
Mark "Schneiderman"... tough look for the camera???
The SPR crew had all arrived by about 10.30 including our intrepid triathletes Rob and Paul who had done their little warm up the day before 😉 The only other SPR girl was Nicole, who was doing her first race in open women’s (our events manger was notably absent from the start list… hmmm, hmmm).
The women’s field of 17 finally kicked off about 12pm. Most of the first lap was fairly slow and uneventful with my common sense keeping me near the back of the bunch (at least for the time being). Towards the end of the first lap Sarah Kent (in-between international commitments) and Sarah-Jeanne Fraser kicked hard. I wasn’t going to make the mistake of not chasing on this occasion and took off after them with Bec Halliday closely behind me. Things got a little sticky when the 4 of us became boxed in by the men’s B (?) grade. In the ensuing escape Sarah K got away on her own. I eventually caught up to S-J but by that time neither of us were fresh enough to maintain the gap from the bunch.
The rest of the race was excruciating… No one wanted to do work at the front and the pace slowed to a mind-numbing crawl! Eventually S-J launched another attack and I followed with the 2 South West Cycle club girls managing to catch us. Unfortunately we were again unsuccessful at maintaining the break. With the pace once again at a crawl my common sense buggered off and I found myself up the front! By the time we had the finish in sight there was a big bunch of relatively fresh riders all ready for a sprint finish for 2nd place… great! In the end I timed my break a little too early and ended up in 8th
place. Nicole had a great result for her first open race and placed 6th.
Nicole... great result in her first women's open race
Results
1. Sarah Kent
2. Jo Moore
3. Sarah-Jeanne Fraser
4. Linda Evans
5. Bec Halliday
6. Nicole Sloan
Post race discussions ensued as we refuelled with cans of Coke (the “devil’s bathwater” as one rider referred to it) and a plentiful supply of SPR brownies!
Another successful race… (we all stayed upright!), especially for Ben (3rd in men’s B) and Nicole. Congratulations!
Next up… Dardanup (AKA “Harden-Up”) on Sunday 17th May!
After enduring incredulous comments during the week from non cycling friends that I would be driving to Collie to go for a bike ride, I headed off early Sunday morning for a pleasant trip along SW highway. Left plenty of time to stop off at a bakery to stock up for an early lunch and arrived in predictably cold Collie with almost a couple of hours to spare. Came across Bruce at registration, where I got the bad news of the day that Peter was unwell and I had B grade all to myself.
Bruce and I went out for a short warm up ride on the first part of the course, with me worriedly checking that he was not intending on doing a full lap to warm up! What we saw looked like a nice scenic course, no wind and a couple of small hills to keep things interesting. Back at the start/finish we met up with the rest of the SPR riders, including the tough guys Rob and Paul fresh from their “warm-up” in Busselton the previous day.
After stuffing down some more food, we lined up on the start and rolled out on time 5 minutes after the A grade boys. The main rules from the briefing were: “keep away from the solid white line ($100 fine) and “no victory salutes crossing the line”! I didn’t think there would be much risk of breaching that one anway. The race was to be 4 laps of the 21km circuit and conditions were perfect with not a breath of wind – a feeling most of us riding in Perth are unaccustomed to.
The only familiar face really was Matt in the Kalamunda cycles kit who rides with us on Sundays, and he took the lead around the first part of the circuit, with everyone happy to sit in behind and warm up. I tried to stay near the front as much as possible, which has the bonus of knowing what is going on, the downside being that when you get on the front it is difficult to get anyone else to come past and help out. There were a few half-hearted attacks on the first lap, with everyone getting a feel for the circuit. There were 2 undulations/hills on the home stretch back into town before a fast crossing of the bridge and railway, and a small uphill toward the main street and finish.
Sitting at 3rd wheel at the end of the lap and feeling OK, the pace started to increase into the second lap. The “squadra pirata” team seemed to have an unlimited supply of riders and their team tactics came into play throughout the remainder of the race. They would send an attack off the front, let one or two of us chase them down, then launch another rider just as the main group caught back up. It showed how having a few numbers in a team can really help you manipulate the whole field, and wear down those riders who are on their own. This continued fairly consistently for the rest of the race.
Nothing much seemed to have changed coming into the 3rd lap, except that looking back we seemed to have dropped a few riders off the back by this stage. I remembered to have something to eat although unfortunately got caught out by an attack with a mouthful of muesli bar which had to be stowed in the sides of my mouth while breathing through my nose to avoid an embarrassing choking episode! I managed to hang on to the bunch, swallow, have a drink and not fall off by the time the action was all over. Was disappointing to see some people throwing their wrappers etc. into the bush on the side of the road though.
Into the 4th lap and the “pirates” continued their attacks in earnest. By now a few other faces that I had not seen earlier had moved up and it looked like the main players were establishing themselves. The main driving group had shrunk significantly it seemed. A couple of local riders, some Cyclemania boys and a few others started to string out up the road as the pace gradually increased. Coming around the last corner before the long home stretch and hills, my left calf suddenly cramped – not sure what was going on here as had never had any cramping problems before, but it seemed to settle with a few stretches as we headed into the business end of the race.
3 or 4 km before the end, one of the pirate boys launched an attack on the first hill, and it seemed no one was willing to follow. I decided to try and go with him, and we started swapping turns with the main group about 200m back. Coming over the hill I saw the C grade escort up ahead, and thought that if we got past them at least it would be a psychological advantage. By the time pirate guy and I had passed the main C grade bunch we were almost at the bridge just before town. Looking back now it was impossible to tell who was in C or B grade, and then the C grade boys started to sprint for the finish at the same time. Understandably it was instant chaos as I felt myself being forced back as the bunch surged around me. Seeing a gap open up I slipped through to the front of the bunch again which was now a definite mix up of B and C riders. On my right I saw 2 guys lock handlebars and go down, with the rider on the left and his bike skidding across the road into the path of the remainder of the bunch. Just as I thought I would be going over the top of him I was past and sprinting for the line. We all crossed pretty close together, and I thought I had managed 4th or 5th, but with the mix of B and C graders it was pretty hard to tell.
I was hoping that the rest of the SPR guys in C grade had gotten through the carnage OK, and rolled around the corner to get out of the way of the rest of the finishing riders. There were some words exchanged between a couple of B and C graders arguing over who was in the way of who but fortunately it did not eventuate into any physical exchanges! The instruction came to go and claim places so I went over to the marshal to try and work out where I had crossed. 1St, 2nd, 3rd and 5th were all accounted for so I figured I must have been 4th. Pretty happy with this as the aim for the day had been to finish with the bunch.
Managed to track down the other south perth riders and watched the womens finish with Lorraine featuring high in the standings once again – well done. Paul seemed pretty energetic still considering just completing the half IM, while Rob had treated the race as a bit of a warm down by the look of it. Fantastic effort to do both events! After a quick bite to eat we went in for the presentations and I was surprised and happy to be announced for 3rd place so there must have been a bit of shuffling about with the final standings. All in all a great day out and am definitely getting hooked on this racing business.
So does the weather get any better? When we arrived down South at our accommodation in Dunsborough it was blue sky, sunshine and 27 degrees….a perfect afternoon for our planned leisurely sojourn around the bike course at 3pm. When we arrived at the Goose, we had a total of 7 that would make their round; competitors Paul, Jill, Em and myself along with spectators Ronny, Lorraine and Tanya. Our 30kms was filled with much discussion about the course, the race itself and general social banter…did anyone notice the glistening sun off the Bay that is Geographe?? We also managed to identify a prime location for the massive spectator contingent we were expecting on the day – right next to the bike and run course ready for much cheering and encouragement from loved ones et. al. Registration & bike check in was like nothing I’ve experienced before – with 1100 individual competitors and 300 teams, it was a seething mass of carbon, shaved legs and the usual ‘sizing up the competition’ stares in the eyes of many. There is always a real mix of people at these events – those that are there just for the experience and happy to simply make the start (and finish!) to the true ‘hard core’ tri-dudes that look like they’d thump you if you got too close to their P2 pimped up ride. Paul and me kind of sit somewhere in the middle of this (or at least we like to think so….).
After a massive meal of pasta and ice cream (love the night before race day) and a fitful night of waking up every hour, Paul and I headed into town at 6am with the usual butterflies playing out the finals of the Red Bull Air Race in our stomachs. It was my 4th crack at the Busso ½ and Paul’s 1st – both aiming for a PB today! A relatively easy transition set up and getting our stuff together then saw time for catching up with a few others who were toeing the line. Hunter and Dean were ready for action – Dean having scored the prime position for his transition with possibly the shortest run to the bike entry/exit right on the end of the bike racks. He even had all the room in the world to lay out what could only be described as a Sunday picnic worth of bars/gels/fruit etc along side his shoes and run belt. We then proceeded to indicate that he’d better get out of the water before us or we’d make sure to fling what we could lay our hands on as far away from his bike as possible….just kidding Deano…we wouldn’t really….not really…..! Christoph was there with 2 of his charges having their 1st crack at the ½ along with our NZ long course champ Rachael. Declan was also up for the task – although indications were that his mind had failed him once again in keeping him away from this “god awful race!”.
So after race briefing and the announcement that there were a significant number of stingers in situ, we headed to the water to get on our way. It’s always here that the nerves start to bubble up to the surface and there’s a bit of jostling for position. I bumped in to Shao at the waters edge and wished him well for the race. It really is great to have so many people on the course that you know. The hooter goes and we’re off. Nothing like the washing machine of the full IM, but still tough to hold your position. I think I’ve just about got it down pat in terms of knowing where to start so that I don’t get crawled over but I’m also not banging into people up front. It only took about 150m for the field to thin out and I was able to get into a nice rythym. I was also making a conscious effort not to swallow too much of the Bay this time round given the previous issues I’ve had with gastro during the run. The swim was actually really uneventful, even at the turnaround bouys. No real scrapping and clawing going on and a general breeze to get started on the return journey. On arrival back into the beach, I looked at my watch and realized I hadn’t pushed the start button hard enough when we took off – oh well, there goes the opportunity to operate on the basis of “data” – back to the tried and test “see what it feels like” option! Running up the beach I was greeted with our supporter base of Ronny, Tanya and Lorraine all calling out to me – this encouragement from the side would prove to more than a significant contributor to our success on the day.
After making it into transition and donning the requisite appurtenances for the next leg, I promptly got caught up in a stray wetsuit lying in the middle of the exit passage causing me to drop my bike and lose my tubes/levers/gas out of the biddon cage. Much cursing and picking up/re-positioning of things saw me grumbling out to the mounting line. That’s racing I guess. So, we’re off on the bike heading West up the Bay Road which is probably the bumpiest section of the course. I was only 3 – 4 kms in when a guy rides up next to me and asks if I had anything in my “other” bidon cage? I said “Yes”, to which his reply was “Not any more you don’t”! Appears I didn’t re-position my tubes/levers/gas properly, and was now going to ride the 3 laps on the luck of the Gods and hope I didn’t flat out. Racing huh?
So, with the volume of competitors in the race this time around, there was always going to be an opportunity for a fast 1st lap – it was going to be up to the TO’s to try and work out who was breaching the no drafting regs and who was just trying to make there own way round. Now, as everyone knows, I’m a stickler for the rules, and would NEVER grab a lazy wheel in a race, even if the opportunity was there….but then with SO MANY wheels around and it being SO HARD to try and find your own place on the road, how could I POSSIBLY succeed in being good?? Oh well, hitch a ride and go with the flow…I think my max on the first leg out was 46km/h – it was just really difficult to get away from a pack of riders….honestly, it was…..
Anyway, with the TO’s out in full force, it actually didn’t take too long to sort out the wheat and chaff and by the end of the first lap there was already a line to get into the Penalty Box. With the 2nd lap it was very much into TT mode and getting on with the job. I felt comfortable on the bike and had made my mind up to try and knock it over with an average of 37/38. Riding past our support crew with the girls all jumping around on the side line really helped with the giddy up too. It’s about 2/3rds of the way into lap 2 (50km mark) that my mind starts to question what the hell I’m actually doing out here. The legs started to feel the effects of the constant pushing and my hamstring started to seize a little (and I remembered now that I didn’t even stretch before the race!). Time to engage my well thought through nutrition strategy….peanut butter and jam on white bread – food of the Kings I say! Gels and bars tend not to agree with me, so I was determined to see what whole food and water might yield in terms of preventing the bonk. With a little bit of food and rounding the turn into the 3rd lap, I started to feel a bit better – animated supporters again really helping the cause to keep the hard RPM’s going. The TO’s were well into their role too, with what seemed to be every 5th rider being shown the yellow card (Mr Owen…of should I say “Droped in Dalkeith…?” Anything tio report here???). By the 3rd lap, everyone is really hurting and the urge to grab a wheel is pretty strong. I had a couple make a few tired attempts to grab me as I went past, but without much success.
Coming into T2 to get ready for the run, I felt really good. I’d timed the ride to be about 2:26 which was an average of just under 37km/h so was OK with that effort. Now I just had to knock off a lazy ½ marathon and we were done. Pulling the shoes & hat on, I ran out on what felt a little like concrete blocks swinging under my bum for the 1st 2 kms. Always takes a while for them to get some blood back in and pumping around – particularly down to the feet. Anyway, the first lap ticked away just nicely with the odd pouring of water over my head and occasional sip to quench the thirst. The return journey is always better because you can site the Jetty. Also knowing that the support crew is waiting for you to give you the encouragement makes a huge difference as well. Running up to a group of familiar faces that are all cheering you along is a real motivator. The 2nd lap was like the first, with a really nice rhythm and cadence – the main thing is not to get fixed on trying to keep up with someone else or getting frustrated if someone in your Category overtakes. You really have to just run your own race and trust your own rhythm. It was at about the 17k mark that it all exploded on me – my head started to falter and legs commenced their ‘shut down’ routine. And I was soooo close too!! Nothing for it but to try and make it to the Aid Station any way I could, which meant as fast a walk as I could manage. On arrival, I implemented my unplanned nutritional supplement strategy – coke and lollies. I figured I just needed to get an immediate hit to help with last 3.5kms. And wow – did that work! After another 500m’s, they really kicked in and off I took. I think the last 3kms would have been taken at sub 4min k’s, overtaking 50 or 60 people along the way. Felt pretty damn fine coming over the line and nailed it with a PB of 4:51:49. Stoked! Paul came across the line in just over 5 hours (something about a 3 minute delay in a Penalty Box??) – but with a target time of 5:15, that’d probably have to go down as the performance of the day, particularly as it was a first ½ hit out!
For those interested in my nutrition strategy, here’s the low down:
• ¾ of a peanut butter/jam sandwich – white bread
• 2 x 750 mls water
• 6 sips of Electorlyte
• 6 liquorice allsorts
• 3 cups of Coke
(And I reckon if I had had the last 2 items on the 2nd lap of the run I would have made it without hitting the wall too!)
Everyone’s times that I could find (Please correct me if I’m wrong with these…):
Thanks to all our support crew too – it really made the day a fabulous event to have you there with us all the way. Oh, and if anyone finds Lorraine’s mobile, please give her a call to tell you have it!!
(Warning, the cycling content that you read about is only about ME. If you want to read about someone else you may need to convince someone who can keep up with the group to write a blog entry)
Sunday started like my weekdays actually. I didn’t want to wake up. What really gets me up is my obligations to others that I don’t want to let down. What keeps me up is another matter – today the riding was going to be good.
I didn’t want to let Jerard (who was giving me a lift) down, so I got into my bike uniform and packed my bike lunch on my way to bike work (you see just like a weekday except more bike=fun).
I’d programmed the ride into the Garmin and actually checked it was the right route to avoid any fiasco like yesterday, as I knew that many of our usuals were absent and we actually had a high chance of getting lost in the hills. A month or so back we had done the same ride and I got superdropped (embarrasingly on a flat transport stage through Darlington on the way to Mundaring). I didn’t want to get lost today (I’d read that the 000 people still cannot track your mobile phone, so you have to try better than “under a Commodore ute” when giving directions to the ambulance).
Jerard was keen for a ride, having missed it yesterday while avoiding a mjor foreign affairs incident. Having got to Coode St in the comfort of the CRV, we unloaded the bikes to find a core of (quite) hardened individuals, the superstars having racing duties (or sleep duties). The route we left on was familiar as we had done it yesterday for practice. We found the missed turn off past the golf course and were happy that the usual howling headwind had taken a lie in. It was only when we approached Ridgehill Rd that I started to feel less confident, as the leaders were not sure which way to go. You can always depend on someone to know on sight which route to take and I think it was Mark D. this time. After some backstreet manouevring we arrived at the bottom of the first climb. I wished everyone well as I engaged the lowest gear for the climb (Shimano are so clever to design reverse on my bike).
After some huffing and puffing I knew I was near the top. For those who don’t come on a Sunday, you know you are near the top when you see other riders circling around looking bored and doing the last 100m of the climb again and again so they don’t cool down too much while you struggle over the crest. It’s a bit disheartening but it reminds me of a story book I read as a child.
Having conquered the climb, and seen a lot of the road surface on the way up, it was time to move on. I gobbled down a weight watchers bar (less fat) and enjoyed the scenery. Those were pretty much the only things I enjoyed for the next 30 minutes or so. We had to take a detour around the roadworks which ended up being significantly more challenging as it headed up more steeply and for longer than the conventional route. No doubt it will soon become the conventional route when Punishing Pete finds out about this. Furthermore, after the regroup (more of the fast riders buzzing round), we (meaning they) set a cracking pace to Mundaring. I was however quite satisfied with myself to actually hang with the group until Mundaring and the descent part.
There was a bit of traffic around as there was a market on in Kalamunda that morning. As we were whizzing down the initial part of Mundaring Weir Rd one had wanted to overtake. By then we had strung out a bit but a nameless rider had made a move onto the opposite (oncoming) lane to overtake on the descent. The car had overtaken the back half of the group and narrowly (seemed to me) missed the rider. We don’t need more doctors on the ride it seems but insurance salesmen may be helpful. I took the descent quite easily as I knew that there was a bit of a climb out of the weir. Russel had joined us by this stage and I was following to check out his swerving. He seems to do OK for someone with sich a high centre of gravity. It felt like I was drafting his rear derailleur.
On the climb up, it was bye bye again to everyone else. I stuck behind Russel because I couldn’t ride faster, and his back wheel gave me something to look at besides the road surface. I learned that his hub was made by Tune, and that he has a long cage derailleur that still doesn’t have enough chain capacity if he is on the smallest chainring and on about the 15 cog. He also has quite a clean chain, but I couldn’t pick if it had 114 or 112 links. Luckily I also had my power meter to distract me from the work at hand – pegging my output to a sustainable 230W. Mundaring Weir Rd is actually a spectacular climb as it goes up round curves, popular to motorbike owning organ donors. Not too soon the bit that goes up turned into quite a flat bit that goes up occassionally. It allways amazes me that this stretch always has some road kill on it. Today eyes came before nose in identifying it.
Russel really did a good job pacing us back to the unofficial regroup point. I say unofficial, because there wern’t the usual guys on bikes riding around. They were having a rest. We rolled past, and I knew what was happening – the preparation for the final timed attack of Mundaring Weir Rd. It was interesting to see the lengths that people took to gain advantage, like emptying their drinks before the climb on the descent. May not be very safe to have a puddle of cytomax on a bend however. All good things must come to an end however, and it was again time to fly up the road (or flap about in futility). I was going to time it, so I chose a relatively sustainable 240-260W to sit on and actually was not being dropped the way I usually do. There is comfort in the familiarity of the turns of the homeward stretch so close to coffee and it seems easier than other climbs (also probably because it is). With a bit of a puff, I got on to the quite flat bit and continued the pressure. There obviously must be a bit of psychology involved because sustaining higher wattage on the flat seems mentally more difficult than when going up which seems absurd. The time speaks for itself – 10:28 (room for improvement), but in reality I don’t think there is much more without losing significant weight, or improving the power.
The shop was packed out as every cyclist in Perth had taken advantage of the weather and chosen to visit the market. After an all too brief break, we made for home.
(The story will now be retold in point form to cut down on employee slacking, reading the blog during work – and I have to get to sleep).
1) Ride back notable for an (Whinging English) pensioner in a Magna with a screechy wife who need to read the road rules regarding riding two abreast on dual carriageway. We appologise for making you 47 microseconds late to your pressing engagement. However you probably made up that time when the wheelspin form your tyres settled down.
2) Nev and myself inadvertantly leading the paceline down Welshpool Rd East. I don’t know which one of us was hurting who, but I’ll call it a tie until….
3)Timetrialin’ Mark had enough of going at 35 and made us go at 45 down the rest of Welshpool Rd until Leach Hwy – does make you tired following him round.
4)Always time for a sprint at the end (when everyone else has turned off home) – watch the traffic though.
5)My goodness – back in South Perth by 1130! Room for another cafe stop! (Must stop complaining about pace of ride)
When the call went out to all SPR riders that there was a race at Collie on the same weekend as the Busselton Half-Ironman my first (and only) thought was ‘great, we can go and support the guys & girls on the way back to Perth’. Then Rob had this insane idea of not only showing support on the sidelines, but actually racing after completing in the ½ IM. After a week or so weighing up the pros and cons I thought why not – it’s not every weekend I get the chance to compete in two events, take the opportunity while it’s there.
So after a very successful event in Busselton (Rob will tell you all about it in another blog) we grabbed a well deserved quadruple shot latte from The Goose and left Busso early Sunday morning. C grade was scheduled to start at 1130am so we managed to get into Collie by 1045 only to find out they had put our start time back to 1200pm. No need to rush now. So we suited up, took in some calories, caught up with Lorraine and Nico in the car park then went for a short warm up through the town centre. The legs were feeling surprisingly OK considering the 90km ride and 21.1km run I had put them through the day before. The weather was perfect, as it had been for the past few weeks, with no wind to speak of on a bright sunny 25 deg day.
We got back to the start line and all of a sudden they called up C grade to line up…but it was only 1130 and they soon realised the start time had changed. Time for some more food, short stretch and bathroom break then we were called up to the start line for the second time. So there we were lined up along the side of the road ready to race when the timekeeper broke the dull noise of chatter with ’13 minutes’. What the? 13 minutes? He must be yanking our chain. But he wasn’t. We waited for what seemed to be an eternity in the sun before C grade was finally sent on its way.
There were 33 starters in C grade with most representation by Cyclemania and SPR…we had five riders – Ronny, Bruce, Mark Schneider, Rob and myself – which was a great turnout and the most for SPR in any grade. Ben had the toughest job riding by himself in B grade (but we’ll get to Ben a bit later).
The course was a 21km loop with around 3-4 undulations…nothing too serious. C grade was to do 3 laps for a 63km race. The most interesting part of the course was the last 800-1000m where we came down a small hill, over railway tracks then up a small incline that turned right before the final 300m-ish sprint to the finish. In the pre-race briefing they warned us this section was quite bumpy over the railway tracks…I mention this for a reason as it becomes important later on.
It only took around 3km before the first break off the front by a Cyclemania rider. About 5 riders took off and then another Cyclemania rider sat on the front of the chase group and attempted to slow us down…this didn’t fly and we caught the break fairly quickly. So Cyclemania showed their hand early. The rest of the first lap (21km) was what I would call a reconnaissance lap with nothing really happening…lots of swapping turns at the front with no one really showing too much. At one stage on the back half of the loop I was being forced further back in the group and wasn’t feeling comfortable with some of the riders back there (safety wise) so I decided to go to a safe place – on the front. Not long after Rob came around and SPR all of a sudden had two riders on the front. It seemed to make the other riders take notice of the SPR representation because from then on whenever one of us went near the front we seemed to be closely watched. The only real surge on lap one was near the start/finish line funny enough were people wanted to be seen on the front.
The second lap saw the surging pick up with the occasional break. I managed to grab the first break of 4-5 riders but the pack soon caught on. The next break was then chased by Ronny, giving the other SPR riders the luxury of letting the rest of the group use their energy to chase. This is where we worked well together. Then Mark went to the front and did some work with the lead riders. Unlike the first loop, the pace picked up along every incline to see who had the legs to keep up. A few km from the end of lap 2 Rob told me that his day was over with his legs having no energy left to surge.
Into the last lap and once again the surges came. I didn’t realise Rob had pulled out at the start of loop 3 until Ronny informed me as we began discussing whether we wanted to start attacking. Ronny wasn’t too keen as the pace was a bit high to do it, which was the right call as we still had 15km to go. Mark was once again in the front half dozen riders doing some work – he was riding strong. The further went went and the closer we got to the finish you could sense everyone was wondering if anyone would break. Now my original plan was to see if i could get through 40km and then see how I felt. I was now through about 50km and was feeling pretty good so I decided to attack over one of the inclines and down other side. A Cyclemania rider immediately jumped on my wheel but the rest of the peleton let us go so the two of us picked up the pace for a few minutes before we realised we weren’t going to get away and sat up to let the group come together again. Ronny gave me some word of encouragement for my efforts then we sat back in the group to let others do the work. Once again Mark went to the front and immediately the group reacted.
So into the last few km and all of a sudden there was a call of ‘B grade coming through, stay left’ and then I see Ben come flying past on the front of B grade. So we now had the situation of B & C grade coming towards the finish line in a big bunch. A couple of the C grade riders thought this was an opportunity to make their move and latch on the the passing B grade train, which is a big no-no. We were barking at a few C grade idiots to sit up and let B grade through but they wouldn’t have a bar of it.
Now you remember me mentioning the final 800m into town with the decline over the railway tracks…well we had +50 riders trying to jockey for position over a bumpy section of road with railway tracks and a right-hand turn. And as predicted there was a crash with a couple of riders going down hard near the front. Lucky enough all SPR riders got through unhurt but it did slow a lot of people. It was a crappy way to end the race as there was no sprint finish and Ronny, Mark, Bruce and myself were all up in the front with a great chance to have a crack at it just as the crash occurred. I managed to get through and over the line in around 6th or 7th place but the finish was a mix of B & C graders so I don’t know how they manged to work out the podium places. My bike computer tells me we averaged 35km/hr for the 63km with a max of 56km/hr and my heart rate averaged 156 bpm (max of 171 bpm).
Overall I really enjoyed the experience with this being only my second race. The course seemed to suit me and it was great having 5 of us in the pack riding for SPR. Congrats to all those who competed in other grades and thanks to those who cheered us on from the sidelines. I’m looking forward to riding some more races with the crew this year. Thanks Rob for talking me into it J
So Julian had given us all our instructions and off we went. We split from the main group at some lights in Ascot and off we trotted along Great Eastern Hwy. The pace increased but wasn’t too bad to start off with. Since starting to go with the fast group I’ve reverted back to using the trusty Google maps to print off the route just in case I need some “Lisa” time aka I get dropped 😉 As we were zooming along Great Eastern Hwy a few riders went to turn off right and there was a lot of voices erupting in the group shouting “is it this road is it the next one?”……Aha I thought they wont take the piss out of me again for carrying maps, so little old me pipes up “we need West Parade” as that is indeed what Mr Google Maps had told me. So onwards we went over the bridge and onto the next right…………Nick was leading and I beetled on up as this road didn’t look familiar (nor was it called West Parade!) I pulled out my trust map and we studied it for a split second before putting it away. As we went round the corner the road came to an end… with a little bit of cross country mountaineering and scooting over footpaths we made it out onto James St and then turned onto West Swan Road.
You could feel in the group that now we were on our way we needed to up the pace and indeed we did with some rolling through on West Swan road. Benara road soon was upon us and off we turn. From her the pace stepped up a notch again with chief time trialer Nick working his wonders and getting the pace up to the reported late 40’s kph – I love Benara road you can really fly along it. It wasn’t long before Nick, James and Kimbo had taken a small lead on the group with the assistance of a huge draft from a truck! Kimbo got caught at some lights and we were back together as a group (though Nick and James had made their bid for freedom).
Due to our small short cut we ended up being the first lot back to the café where comments began about women and map reading even though I only commented that we needed to get onto West Parade!!!! – I of course blame Google maps and lets face it, it gives people something to talk about!!! 😉
The Saturday ride started at home at 6.40 am with a call from Peter, who had informed me that he’d been orally emitting his stomach contents throughout the night and therefore would not be able to ride today. He then informed me that a volunteer was needed to take the novice group out on its first ride. Given this was a one-on-one conversation, me volunteering wasn’t much of a choice!
I arrived at the meeting point to find about 30 riders, which included 3 novices. And so, having dispatched the other two groups with their directions (which I understand weren’t adhered to by the fast group) Carol, Libby, Tracy and I set off down Coode Street for our 35 km trip to Shelley Bridge and back to the Coffee Shop.
In conditions that could only be described as magnificent, we made an easy pace to Thelma Street, then headed down to the river bike path. I explained a few signals and instructions to the group regarding oncoming traffic, glass etc and pretty soon we were on the bike path heading towards Canning Bridge. We rejoined the road at the boat sheds in Mt Pleasant and rode on past Deep Water Point and under Mt Henry Bridge. The pace was about 27 km/h and the group was holding up well. Around the Shelley Rossmoyne foreshore we picked up the pace a little and were overtaken by a 70+ pack. This caused considerable excitement with Tracy and Libby even trying to hold on to the back. We were only slowed by the approaching road dead end near Shelley Bridge, which signaled the U-turn point.
On the way home we tried a bit of rolling through just to given everyone an idea of how it goes, although it was a bit hard with only 4 people. Libby and Tracy led the way back up the river path to the Narrows, with Carol and I content to draft behind. The 8.40 arrival at the coffee shop was bang on schedule but we came in behind the main group and had to queue for morning refreshments. I couldn’t stay as junior Netball season started at 9 am and I cheered on my youngest daughter Astrid’s team to a 14-1 win and my oldest daughter Freya’s team to a 7-2 win. All in all it was a great morning and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. I hope we see everyone back again next week with a few extras in tow.
Dont forget that if you would like to come to the SPR Lunch next Saturday if you could let me know by Monday 4th May so that I can order the catering. To confirm It will be held at South Perth Church and will cost $12 for members, $15 for non members. Children are free if U12 and over 12 $5. If you can either post a comment on the blog or email me at lwood@claytonutz.com that would be great.
I will post the directions to the venue next week.
what the… it’s may already. how did that happen. more importantly i get my new bike at the end of may.
this weekend we also start something new with a novice ride. effectively we will be running three groups all starting at 7:00am at the carpark. the main group and the fast group will leave together as normal, but the novice group will leave separately and be doing the same route every week. i am hoping to implement a roster system for who will lead the novice group so that one person does not “miss out” on their training every week.
the novice groups’ ride map can be found on the front page of the website. the main group will be doing the standard benara rd loop whilst the fast group will head straight up great eastern and take a detour through midland before taking benara. if you are in the fast group, make sure you check the map well. we had some guys end up at ridgehill rd last time. also look out for the shortcuts as there are a few if you get separated before midland.
sunday will see about 10 riders heading down south for the tom lowry memorial race in collie. we have representatives in all divisions so will hope to make an impression with numbers if not results. we will see. for the rest, the hills ride on sunday will be a fairly standard darlington-mundaring-kalamunda loop. there could still be roadworks in darlington, so someone better look pretty hard at the map to divert around them. good luck, i will be in collie.
A group of about 20 gathered on Sunday morning for the challenging 113 km jaunt (including 6 KOM climbs) to Kalamunda. Conspicuous by their absence were (a) Lorraine’s mobile phone and (b) Peter – with the former containing a message saying that the latter would not be able to make it. Unbeknown to the rest of the group, Jerry had also received the message and this was confirmed after we called Peter to see if he was coming.
The group set off at a leisurely pace down Manning Road and Albany Hwy and there were many happy comments about the lack of wind. Surely on such a great day there would be big pack to tackle the ride ahead!! The climb up Mills Rd began steadily and soon Ben, Stu, Mike and myself had a gap on the rest of the field. We made good progress and continued uneventful until Ben threw down the challenge about 300 m from the finish to take the points.
KOM 1 (Mills Rd). 1, Ben 2, Julian 3, Stu 4, Mike 5, Jerry
At the top, the first murmurings of a shorter ride were heard but we pressed ahead to the Peet Road climb and the finish at Roleystone High School. Stu, Ben and Mike made a break in Peet Rd and fought it out for points. Jerry finished hard but couldn’t quite get the points for 4th.
KOM 2 (Peet Rd/Raeburn Rd) 1, Ben 2, Mike 3, Stu 4, Julian 5, Jerry
The shorter ride murmurs became loud shouts after the climb and most of the group turned left at Brookton Hwy and headed directly to Kalamunda. However 5 hardy souls, not sadly lacking in intestinal fortitude, continued on to complete the whole ride, safe in the knowledge that everyone in the group would get points today. The climb up Soldiers Road was not too bad with the familiar pattern of Ben, Mike and Stu clearing out from Julian and Mark bringing up the rear. This continued for all the climbs, although at the Canning Dam turnoff we weren’t sure where the points were on offer. Ben and Stu realised somewhat belatedly and took off and subsequently missed the turn off! Mike, Mark and myself rode up and a more leisurely pace and negotiated the turn without problem.
KOM 3 (Soldiers Rd) 1, Mike 2, Ben 3, Stu 4, Julian 5, Mark
KOM 4 (Albany Hwy) 1, Stu 2, Ben 3, Julian 4, Mike 5, Mark
The decent into Canning Dam was fairly quick and was punctuated with lots of motor bikes coming the other way. Once we hit Araluen the climbing group split as above before we re-grouped at Karragullen for the final 15 km. By this stage there were a few tired legs but we all keen on getting to the Cafe by 10.45 am.
KOM 5 (Araluen) 1, Mike 2, Ben 3, Stu 4, Julian 5, Mark
The earlier climbs finally took their toll on me and no records were set this week. Up the front, Stu hit the 50 km sign first to take out the last of the points on offer.
KOM 6 (Mundaring Weir Rd) 1, Stu 2, Mike 3, Ben 4, Julian 5, Mark
We enjoyed a good recharge at the coffee shop and caught up with Brett and Simon, back from a Mountain Bike trip near Mundaring Weir. Finally we headed home down the hill and managed to get home before midday, thus ensuring I may even be allowed out next Sunday!
Dont forget that if you would like to come to the SPR Lunch next Saturday if you could let me know by Monday 4th May so that I can order the catering. To confirm It will be held at South Perth Church and will cost $12 for members, $15 for non members. Children are free if U12 and over 12 $5. If you can either post a comment on the blog or email me at