better known and more reputable South Perth Rouleurs. The pre-requisites for entry to this elite league of ladies were simple …a road bike, a pair of ovaries, ownership of more lycra than the average female and a penchant for speed.
Much secretive discussion, planning and stragetising ensued over the course of the evening…
Anna and Jill
Nicole, Bec H ad Bec WHolly, D and Lisa
After several hours the meeting was concluded and proclaimed to be an overwhelming success. Members made their way home…
many for an early night before the next morning’s training while some lingered over coffee and hot chocolate and considered the day off they had planned for the next day (actually that was only me!).
a quick dash from the barrack st jetty this morning as i needed to bring some documents along to the coffeeshop for our meeting after the ride. i felt like i needed lights and was glad to see that the latest polls had perth pretty much rejecting daylight savings. lets move on.
we were going to split today no matter what. i think we have given the fast group enough of a taste of what to expect that they tend to want to go hard every ride. it caused problems last week when the group’s overall pace increased. and this was with most of the fast guys away racing.
with an easterly wind predicted, a course was set for benara rd. the main group would do the usual route, and the fast group would head out a bit further and do an extra 8km before heading to benara rd. i doubted that the main group would be caught, but it always gives some extra incentive when chasing a rabbit.
i would say about 50 or so riders were out this morning and we headed off together along great eastern at a leisurely pace. chris had already “volunteered” to head the main group and once we hit the turn to ascot, the group split with about 30 in the main and 20 in the fast group.
we started rolling through when i got tired on the front, but we managed to get all the lights until we were well past the airport. this made the roll through a bit difficult, but it was more about staying out of the wind than smashing a hard pace. my aim for the day was to stay with the group until we got through some of the back roads and onto great eastern again. i was sure that people didn’t know which way to go, as this was a new route, and some would get lost.
as we left the traffic lights behind, the pace quickened with a more consistent roll through. by the time we hit guilford, some people were only just hanging onto the back and not rolling through at all. the crosswind meant that the guy in front offered little protection and it was sorting out the boys from the men (lorraine and lisa had stepped up today though). the group slowed to get onto west rd and past the golf course, but when the pace picked up we really started to shed some people. by the time we reached helena valley road, there was no chance some would be getting back on and i hoped that they had looked at the map (there was a shortcut at this point).
i was beginning to sit on the back as i just needed to conserve as much as i could to act as navigator for the group. we turned just before roe hwy and detoured through midland to get back onto great eastern, but now heading the other way. the tailwind made this a bit more pleasant but also upped the pace. no turns for me. we finally got onto west swan rd and headed towards benara rd.
however, this is where the crosswind really sunk the dagger into a number of riders. with heavier traffic (single file) and no where to hide from the wind, the group quickly broke up into a number of little echelons. i managed to leap-frog across a couple of them and tried to bring the others up the road with me, but some people were really struggling by now. we turned onto benara with ryan and the others about 100m ahead.
with a group of about 6 on my wheel, i started to time-trial across the gap and was pushing a nice pace. we could see the we were gaining, but my heart was also doing about 189bpm and was pretty much at it’s limit. i looked back to find that only lorraine had managed to hold the wheel. we got within about 20m but couldn’t hold the pace any longer. lorriane managed to get a springboard off my draft and bridged up to kimbo who had drifted off the back of the front pack. i sat up a bit trying to suck some oxygen in and was soon caught by a couple more riders. the next set of lights determined the make up of our group that would stick together for the rest of the journey. kimbo, lorraine, steve, lindsay, dr mark, john and myself all did what we could to keep the pace on but we knew that we weren’t going to catch the front guys. i must say that today’s ride was the longest time on benara rd. it felt like such a struggle and even though we had a tailwind, it seemed to go on forever.
the rest of the trip was uneventful as it was mainly trying to keep out of the wind. we met up with brett and dan who were coming the opposite way onto whatley cres after they managed to miss a turn and ended up at the base of ridgehill rd. myself and couple of others were caught at some lights in east perth so managed to come in after our group, but made it nevertheless.
i gathered my documents and we had out inaugural meeting of the south perth cycle club. all the points on the agenda were ratified and carried and so we are now formally a club. it hasn’t even been a full year since the start of spr and we have made so many big steps in such a short time. i get emails all the time from riders i have never met but have been reading the blog and are interested in coming out with us. i think if we continue on our current path, we should be in for a successful year.
Were there any chicks left at SPR? We seemed to have them all down south!… the Fleet Elite contingent: Bec Halliday Holly and Anna; the South Perth “Roulettes”: Lisa, Bec Wheadon, Nicole and myself; and Jill from Elite Racing Cycles!
I’ll stick to the race reports as much of the rest has already been covered by John and Brendan…
Saturday morning started at a leisurely hour with a group recon of the road circuit. A good course (well I liked it!) and even Pump Hill Rd seemed fine on our easy morning effort.
After that we coffee’d, ate and lazed our way through what remained of the day before the afternoon’s criterium. The road surface conditions of the crit course were less than ideal… railway lines, uneven road surface and a spattering of small pot holes. The presence of a reasonable hill at the back end of the course was the first real hill I’d encountered in a crit and the final stretch would also be going uphill.
The girls lining up for Saturday's Criterium
Now I just wanted this out of the way… I was dreading the crit! After a disastrous effort at Renae’s Race the week before I did not have exceedingly high expectations! About 20 of us lined up for the start with plenty of faces I recognised from the week before. The first lap was fast and furious and the first corner downhill and to the right had large padded barriers around the street signs… Very reassuring! My self-imposed week off must have paid off and I manged to stick with the lead group. The hill was certainly a bonus for me and on more than one occasion helped me keep in touch with the front. I was still in the front group on the final lap and pushed up the hill as hard as I could… TOO hard! No legs left at the top and I was over taken by 5 other riders before I crossed the line! But I got 6th!!! Now how could I be unhappy with that? Bec Halliday pulled off a great 4th place finish!
Saturday night the group whipped up a fantastic impromptu BBQ (apart from late arrivals Ryan and Kim who apparently thought the company and the pasta at the pub was better!) and mulled over the afternoon’s results. Early nights were the order for most people before the road race the next day. The exception
again were… surprise, surprise… Ryan and Kim who headed back to the pub again once the sensible cyclists had headed off to bed! I stayed up to wait for Ronny who was fresh (or not so fresh as the case was) from 27 hours of travel from the US, and being chauffeured down by his girlfriend Emma.
Up bright and early the next day for breakfast, registrations, warm up and the ever-essential milling around with nervous churning stomachs. Ronny was up surprisingly early too and handing out presents like Father Christmas. Personalised stickers for Bec W and Lisa ; pump, side-loader bottle cages and new knicks for me! He even had the born-again Rolf front wheel (the one that has been trashed in the Great Perth Bike Ride) for me to put on the R3 for the race!
The line up was pretty much the same as for the crit with one or two additions. I was worried that my chase for a placing the day before would take it’s toll today… I shouldn’t have worried too much! I found the pace comfortable enough and, apart from a few false attacks up the rolling hills leading away from Pemberton, I did not feel too stressed and stuck with the lead group of 7. The pace picked up on the straight back into town and I was holding Anna’s wheel as she rocketed along! After almost coming to a complete halt to let the C grade pass us in the centre of town, Mel and Sarah-Jeanne got up to the front and mounted an impressive attack up the first ascent of Pump Hill Road . Riding back through town I chuckled as I saw Ronny and Emma on the sidelines… they had written all our names over the road in white chalk… Vive le Tour!!!
Sally Robbins and I in the road race
As we begun the cheap cialis online figure of 8 loop for the second time the rain started… OMG How it rained… and then the thunder and lightening! Somewhere out behind us Lisa (who had not been having the best weekend) witnessed a tree being struck by lightening! Still suffering from the head injury of a week ago, her only recourse she decided, was to moo loudly at the cows as she cycled passed them (did it help Lisa?). I, on the other hand, was thinking to to myself “I bet I’m the only high maintenance chick here who bothered putting mascara on this morning and now has it running down her face”! There was crap on the road everywhere… water, gravel, bark, you name it. A huge lake of water lay ahead of us and we ploughed on through. Anna and I looked desperately down at our feet… both of us had new white shoes… which now were a muddy chocolate brown colour!
The second climb up Pump Hill Road was to be the decider and Mel and Sarah-Jeanne once again attacked strongly. At the top there was 4 of us trying to chase down the 2 of them but with no chance. With the finish line in sight I tried to break first at 200m but knew I was in no state to be of any threat to the others who spat me out and battled on for 3rd place. Bec Halliday got there first and claimed the 3rd place! 6th again for me but once again I was delighted with my result.
A great feat for all of us who completed the race… the hills and rain would have seen lesser women (or men) crumble!
At the risk of this becoming an epic, I think I have said more than enough.
A huge thank you to everyone who travelled all that way and enthusiastically supported my idea to have us go down as a group. It was the BEST atmosphere and I would do it again in a heartbeat!
Thanks to Brendon, Ryan and Kim for those wonderful moments in the spa 😉 If only I hadn’t been so tired after the race…
A personal thanks to Bec Halliday and Anna for your fantastic words of support and encouragement during the road race .
And of course many thanks to ALL the wonderful women I rode with that weekend: Lisa, Bec Wheadon, Nicole, Jill, Holly, Anna, Bec Halliday and our new SPR girl Emma who braved us talking about cycling ALL weekend!
good old benara road. lots of fun with an easterly wind. this time we will split the groups early (after 8kms) and the fast boys will have to try to make up 8km extra over the remaining 34kms that that main group will do. is it achievable??? does it really matter. what matters is the fast boys get to go fast and the main group gets to stay together.
sunday will see the return of the f_ckenberg. as equally as terrifying as the chookenberg, this will test the legs as the first climb of the day. a few more climbs to follow will make sure that any physical activity in the afternoon will result in a lot of complaining from whoever attempts the ride.
attached is the notice of the inaugural meeting of the south perth cycle club. we have an agenda which we need to go through at the coffee shop and also attached is the constitution that we hope to adopt on the day. have a read, and if you have any issues, let us know at the meeting. we will also be accepting licence applications for those that need a racing licence and also if you need to change clubs. the change of club form is also attached and as a special offer, until the end of the month, you can change clubs for only $15 instead of the normal $55.
i will soon post some information on why we think it would be a good idea to get a recreational licence through the club even if you are not intending on racing. what it can offer you as a rider and us as a club as well as other road users. also, if you do decide to do some racing later in the year, you only pay the difference between the licences rather than the full cost of a racing licence. anyway, we will discuss that later.
Well after a leisurely drive down to Pemby, we were the first to arrive at SPR base camp so we had a god look around and was quite impressed by Lorraine’s choice (the owner couldn’t praise her enough for the organising and I can’t disagree). So I quickly unpacked the car put the bike together for the next morning’s ride and off to the pub we went for a very nice piece of cow and a beer .
Everyone else gradually arrived throughout the night without too many mishaps although Nicole’s late arrival at midnight must have been a nice drive for her..Not.
So up not so early after a nice sleep in we set off for a lap of the course and to suss these hills out, turns out to be allot of rolling hills and none not to steep but bound to cause some hurt with the quality of the A grade field…
On returning I set the race wheels up and double checked everything prior to the crit and went out for lunch with jodes to try and settle some pre Criterium race nerves..
I have been doing some training with CWA learning the fine art of the new Times7 timing system so I went to the start to help set up and do some more learning, awesome system relatively simple to set up but still more training for the programs to be had….So stayed at the start and cheered everyone else on released I better go get ready for my race.. nerves were settling in big time the crit course was a tough one with a nice steady pinchy climb up to the finish and a vicious downhill leading into a very fast corner and down the back some horribly rough road leading back to the hill…
My race didn’t go as well as I wanted as I went with the moves for the first 15 mins but for some reason my legs just didn’t want to race and I was popped off on the finish hill and watched what was left of the bunch disappear over the hill, looking around I realised just how many people had already dropped off and pulled out, made me feel a little better but not much… So I just watched Jordon steam up the hill for a great sprint win from Fitzgerald and Hall, very tough Crit I must say, don’t think any other course is that brutal especially at the speeds the guys were surging with… So went back and helped with the BBQ and readied myself for Part 2 the next day….
On the road race I had warmed p but still wasn’t feeling the best and as we headed out up the finish hill an attack went straight away, no one else seemed to care and I sure as hell wasn’t chasing him, after numerous vicious attacks my legs were responding OK but when Eddie and AJ jumped across the gap it left all the big teams with riders up front so the rest of their teams went to the back and let everyone else chase if they wanted.. was amusing that Aussie Crates missed the move and had to drive the pack if they didn’t want the race to disappear into the distance which was quite funny I though and several comments were made by the pack… Once out to the turn to come back into town the pace really picked up and I think we sat on 50-60 all the way back into town sort of rolling through with everyone knowing Pump hill will start the sorting, once on the hill (after a dangerous right turn in town into skinny roadway after flying downhill at over 60…nice) the attacks started, I positioned myself really well and was in the first 3 over the hill and feeling good I hoped that this was the scene for the day….
The hill got rid of about 5 riders some of who I thought were stronger so was a little surprised but on through town for lap 2 more attacks up the big hill through town but was going with them OK..
Once out on the smaller power climbs the pace really stepped up and so were the attacks and to top it off in the distance we could see the black as clouds with lightning coming our way…nice one I though… about 10mins later we were nearing the turn to town and down it came, huge Thunder, Hail and torrential rain but the pace was surging from 30kmphr up to 60 with no one really wanting to chase, then a small group of 4 got away but only lasted a few km before sitting up, I stayed near or on the front through town as I didn’t want to get mixed up with a crash on the nasty right hander before Pump hill, on looking back after the corner I opened a gap so set my own pace to the climb and hit it with about 60meters gap but before I knew what was happening some vicious attacks led the guys up the hill and my legs unable to increase enough in pace I crested the hill some 100 meters behind but found some guys to seek refuge with and we worked our arses off back to the group but didn’t get on till coming down into town then as we got on the attacks went again and my race was done as I couldn’t respond… I was rather annoyed (can’t say actual words here).
So was forced to just ride the last lap in pouring rain watching the leaders disappear, Steve Jansen caught me and we waited for another 2 guys from Aussie Crates and we pretty much just ticked over the turns back into town up and over Pump hill for the last time, Steve egged me into a sprint in pouring rain which was funny as when I forced the pedals the wheel spun so we were having a laugh as we sprinted the final 200meters for what was 13 and 14th place. While not overall happy about the race I was reminded just how many people didn’t finish and we only came in 10mins behind the winner as the breakaway was caught on the final lap. It must be one of or is the hardest local race course and with the talent in our group I guess I should be heartened for the season ahead considering 6 of the top ten are heading overseas in a few weeks.
Sprint for 3,4,5 and 6th
All in all it was great to see club SPR do so well across all grades and pick up numerous prizes and have an awesome atmosphere at our camp The tea following the race was some of the best food I have had in a while and quite a few laughs were had with everyone that was left (hadn’t gone home) and I had arranged a surprise Choccy cake for Jody’s Bday of which Bec tried to hog half of the cake much to Lorraine’s disgust, but highly amusing and game considering Lorraine had a massive knife haha.
The cake stealer
Looking forward to the next time we can all go away again, cheers guys and gals for a top weekend.
I can highly recommend the lavender farm pancakes, best I have had and I lurve pancakes ..haha
Sure Ronny and Emma will back me up on that one…
Emma Pooley, Olympic Silver medalist in the womens’ individual time trail at the Beijing olympics is currently in Perth for some “winter training”.
She has kindly taken time to be available to talk about her cycling, the bike design for her olympic success and her balance between cycling and her studies for phD in
so friday we left perth at around 2pm and arrived before dark . spent saturday looking around the area with the family and in the afternoon it was the crits.
i watched our spr team warm up and go thru their various preparation routines and checked out the course. bit of a tough course by the looks of it with some steep sections and a very tight corner at the end of a downhill run. anyway i’ll leave the crit details to those that raced it.
next day it was the road race. i lined up with brett l and kimbo in cat C along with 30 or so others. we had one aim- stick with the group. i knew from my last fiasco at joondalup that once you get dropped it’s pretty much good-night. ryan’s advice was to not do any chasing. i thought no danger of me doing that…
the course is a figure 8 with one of the eight’s circles about 3 times as big as the other. the smaller circle had the steepest climb but nothing compared to a sunday ride in length. still, in a race, it hurts.
the bigger circle took us on undulating back country roads for half, then a main highway for the rest. in terms of variety this little 33km figure 8 course had it all. our race was 2 laps.
ok so what happened? well i started out in the 1st 3rd of the bunch and stayed there much of the 1st bigger circle. brett did some generous towing for some part of the fast section. i’m sure he paid for it come the next steep part. i then found myself 2nd just prior to the steep little hill.
turning the corner to start the steep section
quarter way up the climb there was a break. at this point the fit boys took off and left me in about 10 place. this is one of those moments you play back in your mind thinking ‘why did i not htfu and hold the wheel?’
well i think lack of some vicky king park specials and no fast hard rides for the last 10 days left me nicely rested, but a bit under cooked. anyway about 6 or 7 of us were left in a chase group behind the leading group of 6.
we continued on our merry way and worked together on the faster sections to try and make ground. to no avail as the 1st 6 guys seemed way too far ahead and not even in sight.
on the second lap we were hit by some heavy showers with lightning. bit scary but we were on rubber tyres so i guess we were safe enough. at this point we lost some of our group over the undulating sections with visibility (as well as moral) much reduced.
it cleared by the time we hit the fast section for the last time that although we were not racing for a place, the three of us that were left wanted to cross the line first.
the 2 lost me on the steep hill again (dam it) but not by too much (about 400m). i fought my guts out to get back on and i was encouraged to see i was making ground. in the meantime i think they had thought they’d lost me. it was not until they turned to go down the last hill toward the finish that they spotted me and quickly tried to up the pace.
i had about 200 m to catch up before the finish which was now about 1 km away. this is where all those races down welshpool rd against gerry and mark came in handy. i felt right at home smashing it down hill and caught them as we reach the last home straight which is a 3 degree climb.
we all looked at each other to see who was going to ‘draw’ first… then the stronger of the other 2 took off but i pounced quickly taking a wide sweep to avoid any hanger-ons, pumped my legs for all they were worth past him to take out 8th place.
only my 8 yr old son managed to snap my finish...
we all shook hands and the it felt great to actually finish an individual race.
in summary joondalup memories are now laid to rest and i think cat ‘c’ is my natural place to be (for now).
i just need to anticipate/learn some of the likely sections teams will make a break on – and if you can work as a team you have a huge advantage as i witnessed 1st hand.
Having had a couple of weeks off the bike due to a minor but annoying injury was looking forward to a Sunday ride. Wasn’t sure what the turnout would be with the long weekend and a few of the regulars hills riders flying the SPR colours at the “away” fixture in Pemberton, but about 15 riders rolled up at what is now sunrise at 7am. Pete had set us a slightly shorter ride with 4 points climbs scheduled with the usual finish in Kalamunda. Mike B who had requested a “moderate” course joined along mill point road so I knew that we would have to work hard on the climbs to stay in sight of his back wheel at his “moderate” climbing pace.
We headed out on great eastern highway into a bit of a breeze. The roads seemed nice and quiet today, and we managed to avoid any abuse, car attacks or punctures which makes for a much better day for all. I think everyone took turns at the front on the way out, with some smooth changes and the group moving up through the middle when the front riders peel off as dictated by group ride rules! (http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=6731&status=True&catname=Latest%20News). This feels a lot safer than having the inside rider try to get across to the right and let the group pass on the left.
The first climb was up coulston road along the southern edge of greenmount to get everyones legs warmed up. Some of the boys headed off for a shorter ride around this point I think. Hunter set the pace early up here and I managed to sit in for most of the windy bits thanks for that! We kept the pace up and towards the end and I was expecting mike or jerry to shoot past but we managed to hold them off to the T junction. Points as follows:
ben – 10, hunter – 7, mike – 5, jerry – 3, dr mark – 1
Next climb up toward glen forrest drive started pretty sharply, with pete advising that we would probably get split up from the start. Bill led out near the start but we were soon overtaken by mike b whose wheel I managed to hold for approx 5 seconds before being dropped off. He makes it look too easy! Peter seemed to have warmed up his holiday legs and put in a good chase toward the intersection with the points ending up being:
mike – 10, ben – 7, jerry – 5, peter – 3, bill – 1
The regroup time was pretty short with everyone seeming to get stronger every week. Mark led all the way through to the Mundaring roundabout in time trial position, and for the rest of the day it seemed like he had too much energy to spare. A short pause to check all were on and mark was off again. From here to mundaring weir is probably one of my favourite rides – plenty of speed with gentle rolling hills but overall downhill through some pretty nice scenery, a right at the roundabout and down to the weir. The call went out to keep together from here up the next climb out of the valley and from what I saw this seemed to work well with the bunch staying close. Somewhere near the top pete made the move to encourage us up the final stretch to asher road with bill setting the pace initially. I seemed to have missed where asher road was but thankfully peter was paying attention and it ended being:
ben – 10, jerry – 7, hunter – 5, bill – 3, mark – 1
we headed straight on without stopping toward Kalamunda with hunter and I sitting behind gerard into the climb. Gerard set a good pace from the start of the climb, and I was hoping we would be able to hold the others off to the top. For some reason this bit seems short on some days and to go on forever on others. Today it seemed long… (much like this report is getting!) As I expected mike b came past just before the half way point, having gained any ground that we had made on the downhill. He must have been taking it easy today as I managed to get past again. Gerard looked strong at the end to take final points:
jerry – 10, ben – 7, mike – 5, hunter – 3, mark – 1
I don’t know about everyone else but I had lost a fair bit of fluid by coffee – the humidity meant that there was not much evaporative cooling going on. 11 of us squeezed around a couple of tables perched on the stairs to take the bonus point. The service was pretty quick today, we saw how many surgeons it took to change a mountain bike tyre, and got the rest of the details on petes new baum. A nice run down welshpool, with pete stashing his breadstick in case required to beat off any bogans in 4x4s. Mark D now loaded up on stimulants from paris brest got down on the bars again and towed us back up to the shepperton road intersection at a good pace just in time to catch some boy band music at a disturbing volume from someone’s astra at the lights.
All in all a great ride with perfect weather really. Hope the pemberton crew were successful and hope to hear all about the weekend soon.
after 2 weeks off the bike, and number 1 son giving me a cold in that time, i was always going to struggle on a group ride. we had flown home on monday and i managed to slip a few rides in during the week but they were nowhere near the pace that i used to ride at. a constant push was fine, but any surges tended to hurt and i didn’t have the capacity for them.
the other big change over the 2 weeks is how damn dark it is again. it is time for me to complain once again about how daylight savings sucks. i know how i am voting come referendum time. the street lights were on as i was riding to the start of a 7am ride.
anyway, as i approached the start point i did a quick head count and only saw about 35 riders. within this was a severe lack of girls (i.e. none) and with some of our regulars down south for the race at pemberton there didn’t seem any point in splitting the group. a few new faces on the ride today too and it is good to see more people wanting to come out riding with us.
so the route without the split would take us along good old south st and onto banister rd. the aim was to make it as easy as possible until we got to banister then give it some stick. i lead out with jack and i managed to get all the way to the hill before stock rd before i had to drop off the front. a quick scurry to the back to see who was struggling and we managed to get everyone onto stock rd. the last climb between leach and south managed to unhinge a few riders but most jumped back on once we were on south st.
as expected, the rolling hills along south played havoc with the back markers but mike and myself managed to pull a few of them back to the group. the occasional stop light certainly helped us as well. doug decided to join us along south after thinking that he missed us on canning hwy. we had a delayed start due to a flat tyre so he thought we had already passed by so rode up to south st and caught us coming the other way.
once we hit banister the pace was on from the start. the field lined-out almost straight away and i was content to just sit in and hold a wheel as best i could. a few of the barista boys were in attendance today and were mixing it up at the front along with the usual suspects from the rouleurs. it got a little messy towards the end as people were surging around the sides as traffic was in the other lane. we need to keep that in check and at least look before you stray too close to the centreline.
once we hit nicholson rd, the call went up to ease the pace back. jack and a couple of others were already up the road with ryan chasing them, and so we just let them go. maybe we should have split the group today, but we would have ended up with two small groups.
anyway, the pace varied a bit along nicholson but most people managed to get back on. gregor slinked to the back to look for his mate who he invited out for the first time, only to find that he was off the back on banister. the indecision of whether to wait for a mate, or hang with the group. once we told him some regulars were back there with him and should know the way home, he decided to ditch his mate for the protection of the peloton.
the pace seemed to steadily increase along albany hwy and the group started shedding riders early. we were supposed to wait for the shep rd intersection and this is another reason why we will probably split the group every saturday. the first set of lights and the group was halved as some managed to get through on the amber while the rest of us contemplated the chase. as usual the long delay at the lights meant that any chance we had of catching was going to be up to how many sets of lights they caught and we didn’t. it didn’t really play into our hands too well and our group was split again before we reached riverside drive. with only 4 of us left, there was no sprint, just survival to the end.
the highlight of the final sprint came from brett who decided to be sneaky and slip through the t-intersection lights at victoria st. unfortunately he was spotted by and unmarked police car who flashed his lights and pulled him over. after a very stern talking too, and a threat of a $400 fine plus 8 demerit points (double this weekend) he was let off with a warning. probably a good reminder about rolling through red lights for the group. it happens sometimes, but you know we will wait, so just do the right thing and stop. in brett’s case, all he had to do was head onto the bike path and he would have ended up at the coffee shop.
day before the afternoon’s criterium. The road surface conditions of the crit course were less than ideal… railway lines, uneven road surface and a spattering of small pot holes. The presence of a reasonable hill at the back end of the course was the first real hill I’d encountered in a crit and the final stretch would also be going uphill.
The line up was pretty much the same as for the crit with one or two additions. I was worried that my chase for a placing the day before would take it’s toll today… I shouldn’t have worried too much! I found the pace comfortable enough and, apart from a few false attacks up the rolling hills leading away from Pemberton, I did not feel too stressed and stuck with the lead group of 7. The pace picked up on the straight back into town and I was holding Anna’s wheel as she rocketed along! After almost coming to a complete halt to let the C grade pass us in the centre of town, Mel and Sarah-Jeanne got up to the front and mounted an impressive attack up the first ascent of Pump Hill Road . Riding back through town I chuckled as I saw Ronny and Emma on the sidelines… they had written all our names over the road in white chalk… Vive le Tour!!!
