Tag Archives: lawnbrook

sunday hills ride – 22 aug. long course.

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after a disastrous ride yesterday where my heart rate was maxing out with even the smallest effort, i was not expecting any miracles in the hills today.   there were 17 starters that greeted the morning and as usual, i was running late.  a smaller than usual contingent were taking the shorter route today, and i assume that the weather (or prediction)  may have thinned their numbers.  the roads were damp but not really wet as you could avoid the main puddles to stay dry.  as we rode down albany hwy, i was watching from the back as each rider from the front hit a small puddle.  there was this small spray launching off their back wheel for half a second and as it worked its way down the line, i was reminded of an automated fountain.  it was beautiful as the drops sparkled in the morning light (better ease off on the medication).

the damp conditions also meant that the road was pretty clear of traffic to so we made fairly good time down to kelmscott.  along the way we managed to pick up about three more riders to bring us up to 20.

we turned up brookton hwy and everyone started the hill.  the long course was to climb about half way up before turning left onto peet road, while the short course was to continue all the way to karragullen.  the long course hill seemed shorter, but it was no way easier as everyone was about to find out.

the first half of brookton hwy is not that steep so the group was not spread that far by the time we hit peet rd.  i was totally unsure as to how i would cope in the hills and so just went with the front boys for as long as i could.  i think i surprised myself a bit and managed to hold on all the way to peet rd.  from there it was a different story.  the first half of peet rd is basically 10% which is probably doubly as steep as the bit of brookton we just did.  it then jumps to about 12-13% before the intersection with urch.  i was well off the pace by then and so content to tap out the pace as best i could. 

just before urch, i noticed a guy standing on the side of the road just watching everyone ride by.  as i got closer i noticed he had a coffee in his hand too.  even closer and i saw that it was andrew and he was waiting for lisa and davina who he coaches.  i am sure that he was going to give them words of encouragement as they rode by.

after the urch intersection, the road sits at around 12% again for quite a way.  i managed to pick up a couple of places here, but wasn’t that concerned when they caught me on the downhill.  we had a few guys that had never ridden this course before so they hadn’t seen the end of the climb.  it is the state champs next weekend so this was to be a practice run for a few people.  i just let the boys go when they made a move for the line.  we were far enough back from the points to not let it worry me.

roleystone 01 – dan, ashley, sato, bonner, jerry.

after a regroup we headed off to do it all again.  this time we were doing the old state champs course.  this meant out brookton, left into chevin, all the way along to coventry, onto urch and back up peet.  in the good old days, the open men did this about 18 times.  this would be our second ascent of peet and it was pretty much enough.

we travelled well along chevin, but it broke up a bit before we got to coventry.  i was hoping to keep it together before the descent to give all the climbers a even chance, but a couple got away early.  we weren’t that far off them after the very quick decent down urch, so it wasn’t that bad.  i wasn’t making a play for points so it didn’t really matter to me.

i set a tempo up the hill and eased up a bit before the top.  tom and matt caught up to me and we hit the descent of peet together.  one last climb to the finish and i wasn’t chasing anything.  the front guys were already cooling done by the time i got there.

roleystone 02 – dan, jerry, sato, ashley, bonner.

an easy ride to pickering brook where we bade farewell to davina and headed up the observatory.  again a few went off the front early and started the climb before the rest arrived.  not really the spr way as we generally take it easy between climbs and then go hard once everyone is together.  jerry was at the back talking to me as we hit the climb.  he managed to bridge across to the front guys quite quickly and they all took off up the road.  i did an SE effort for a while, but then realised that it hurt too much so just took it fairly easy for the rest of the climb.

observatory – ashley, jerry, bonner, dan, markO.

a fast descent down from the observatory and soon we were on the final climb.  as soon as the 15% grade sapped all my speed, i just tapped my way up the climb.  a gruppeto of myself, lisa, john and matt formed at about halfway up the climbs so we stuck together till the end.  some weary legs were evident by this stage.

lawnbrook – dan, ashley, sato, jerry, bonner.

a few opted for an early out as the rest of us hit the coffee shop.  there was no room for us as the ndcc juniors were sprawled around the place taking shelter under the snugly blanket that the coffee shop now provides.  fortunately they were heading out once we had ordered, so we did a hot seat change over and took up residence.

an easy return trip which was kept uneventful and i had survived a hills ride after missing a couple.  looks like i may be missing the next few as well, but more on that later.

sunday 19th October – gooseberry & kalamunda & bickley (sort of)

ride report by Darren.

all I can say is that I am glad I wasnt doing a team time-trial into that wind.

5 lucky punters turned up by 7ish, so I was guaranteed to get some k.o.m points.

young alistair led us down great eastern toward ridge hill and goosberry. stan, bronywn, and a new guy called gregor, complete with thick scottish accent despite living the last 5 years in texas, who found out about spr’s sunday rides through mutual mountain bike friends, completed the mini-peleton.

A thick headwind became the flavour of the day as we swapped turns, battling single file towards ridge hill. rolling onto ridge hill we already felt as if we had earnt our coffees. Alistair and his new crisp shoes headed off for the zig-zag regroup with stan in tow. Gregor came around me and quickly caught the young lads up front. Bronwyn was saving her energy for goosberry hill and came in just behind me. Pete can overule, but young Al gets 1 point for being first to the top of the bonus climb followed by gregor, stan, myself and bronwyn.

At the top we were greeted with some of the smoothest, freshest and blackest hot mix I have ever seen, seems the local council had totally re-surfaced the ridge-hill descent to the roundabout – NICE.

onto gooseberry, and at this point I would like to thank pete for arranging a course which not only takes us away from the coffee shop, twice, but today would see us take on goosberry hill with (what felt like) a 30 knot gusty headwind. young alistair and gregor too off, and half way up (on the nasty bit) my saddle decided to come loose, at which point I stepped of to adjust and re-tighten. KOM points Alistair (10), Gregor(7), Stan(5), Darren(10),… just joking (3) and Bronwyn (1).

uneventful desecent down zig zag, and soon we found ourselves back on the new hotmix for a fast (wind assisted) descent down ridge-hill toward kalamunda.

onto kalamunda, Alistair and Gragor took off on the initial steep section and Stan, Brownyn and I held a pact to keep it together as the headwind had taken its toll and we were riding into it… again.

on the way up, I found out that stan was back on the bike after 3 or so months off after the birth of his 3rd (a little girl called phoebe) in july, congratulations stan, and despite a blood nose and lack of hills training, still beat me to the top. Seems SPR is having a mini babyboom. at the top I also learnt from bronwyn, that dr nik had a nasty tumble during the week – hope you have a speedy recovery. alistair was severely tested by gregor to take the k.o.m points (again). Alistair (10), Gregor(7), Stan(5), Darren(3), Bronwyn(1).

At the regoup in kalamunda we decided that a loop of bickley would be too much so we headed down mundaring weir road (after repairing a puncture on alistairs rear) and across to lawnbrook. Alistair and Gregor took off again but turned around at the “false” top of the hill. We all regrouped on the final part of the climb and had a slow motion sprint for the final KOM points, Alistair (10), Stan(7), Darren(5), Bronwyn(3) and Gregor(1).

uncharasterictically, we declined to make-good on the coffees that we had earnt and decided to head for home early. welshpool rd was very fast, with the larger (stan and myself) riders using our girth to good effect on the descent, despite some tricky cross winds. Alistair decided to turn off and do crystal brook road just for fun. the rest of us decided to “recover” on the ride home with a nice tailwind to boot.

thanks for the ride and I can deffinitely recommend the new hot mix on ridgehill to all.

Sunday 8th June 2008 – Part 1, Canning Mills, Peet and Lawnbrook.

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ride report by darren.

part 1, – only because i scrambled home after the last climb. I encourage anyone who was
1. close to the front.. or
2. made it to the cafe
to fill in the rest.

sunday morning could be described as cold – but not too bad. the wind was coming from somewhere but didnt really play a factor in the days activities.

todays route had us going up canning mills rd, or did it, most of us were confused, was this cohuna? so i stepped in… “definitely canning mills road”, that made me the leader for the first part. this would be the only correct piece of info i would dish our for the day. i guess i was still distracted by the amazing mr dickhead, must have been the same guy from the saturday ride, who swung straight into the car parking spot i had been waiting 5 minutes for at the shops on saturday afternoon, who refused to move or apologise no matter how loud my protests.

a fairly ugly looking bunch today, luckily bella joined us for her second day in a row in the hills despite a physics exam tomorrow. as the minutes ticked past 7am and after a bit of banter in the carpark Mark reached deep into his lycra and produced a measuring device….a portable bike scale, to become the official (enough) bike weight measurer for the group. nice work, but still some calibration required as mine came out heavier than anticipated – back to the drawing board.

about 16 brave souls headed down the new route to albany hwy, via manning road. stuart and mike b led the way for a fair chunk at a decent pace. mark and i found ourselves at the front after cannington and worked up a sweat as we pace the group down albany hwy to gosnells.

at the tonkin hwy lights i told ryan the regoup point thinking that is all the instructions required . we held a moderate pace down connell ave to the end, ryan kept asking, “is this the climb yet”, not yet ryan. I found myself at the back of the pack as we swung left into luchich to start the ascent, if only we were heading in the right direction, a quick u-turn and off to canning mills we went.

back on track, we snaked our way up canning mills which can be described as nasty. I initially stayed at the back while ryan, mark, stuart and jerry led the way. mike b was back in the pack taking it easy, well for about 10 seconds, he held a consistent strong pace, picking off riders one by one and caught the lead guys somewhere near the top. as i took the initial climb easy i had a little in reserve (despite holding 180bpm for the climb) and soon found myself holding jerrys wheel with mark a few meters ahead (no chance of passing either). stuart, ryan and mike b were the first to the top, with evidence that stuart held on for the kom points (if only i told ryan the correct regroup point). so telling everyone to regroup at urch was a mistake, as stu and mike headed off to the correct regroup point (wasnt fast enough to reach them) with ryan waiting with us. no one seemed to mind too much and ryan sped off to round up the pace setters (sorry guys and gals). Bella complained that her rear derailleur was playing up and she was locked out of some easier gears (this didnt seem to slow her down on the climbs).

the steep descent down urch is always fun and a little scary especially as you hit a bend just after the last really steep section. the climb out of urch onto peet and then to the school hurts a lot. with ryan, stu, mike, mark and gerry setting the pace i found myself behind dr marc and bella with shao on my tail. shao pushed me on the steep parts so i decided to dish out a bit of pain on the flats and just as he would get back on my wheel again i would accelerate again (now i am starting to understand this theory of inflicting damage). dont know who was first to roleystone but marc beat me to the top in our own little mini comp.

After a short break we all headed off down brookton hwy to the servo. The pace was definitely on as we descended the hill with mark, melvyn and ryan pushing for the karragullen sprint points (where-ever they are measured?). At the servo, no one seemed to want a coke or a gatorade so we headed off but found ourselves amongst another group of CRT riders (chain reaction training). the CRT group seemed to have many more x chromosomes that y (a point not lost on some of the group). so whilst mark, marc and i took it in turns to smash out a decent average at the front of the pack (later joined by stu, jerry and ryan), dr carl, todd and melvyn enjoyed the view from the back. dr jerry’s excuse was retinal hypoxia – or something.

as we headed down toward the observatory turn off we were passed in the opposite direction by the ultimate bogan mobile (a black SS clubman ute with spoilers, flares, 20 inch mags, lowered at the front and raised at the back- the mining boom has a lot to answer for), todd and i had a chuckle. The climb to the observatory was uneventful with Stu leading the usual suspects at break neck speed and those not fit enough to hang on falling behind. As ryan stole the KOM points in the last metres from stu, i found myself a few hundred metres back battling with dr marc again with the heart rate well and truly in the red zone.

at this point we debated where to go to next, others wanted to do mundaring weir road but my vote was for lawnbrook since we had not done that for a while and since it was the designiated route, convinced them that we should. the run down walnut was fun and i decided to take it it easy up lawnbrook. at the top I heard that dr gerry hurt mark and I think ryan hurt himself as he said that he was feeling like crap.

I will leave it to someone else to finish the day off as I headed for home with a few other at this point… thanks everyone for a great ride.