saturday 24th may - tv stations

well back to blogging again. it has been a while and it will probably take me a while to get back into the grove. however, what i would like to do is get a few more people involved and give them access to blog at will. all this means is that you have to register as a user on blogger and then i can authourise you to blog on this page. i will still post the ride routes and my view on the rides, but this will allow other opinions and views on the world of cycling. so, register yourself and drop me an e-mail to let me know. i want to set the blog up as a south perth ride site rather than my site.

so, after months of bitching about the dark early mornings due to day light savings, i can now bitch about it being dark as we are only a week away from winter. well, it was dark this morning, and i had to strap the lights on to get to the start. the threat of rain kept a few away, but we still had about 30 or so turn up. the tv stations was the route and it would take us north to nollamura and back down wannaroo rd before taking a diversion around kings park and the karrakata cemetery.

it was an easy roll out down mill point road and we got the opportunity to wave to the old bikeforce group as they headed the opposite direction. or more importantly, see who was still riding with them. their choice. we rolled quite easily all the way up great eastern and across ascot to the north side of the river. the group stayed together well until the end of grand prom, where we did a quick left/right turn to get onto dianella dr. this is a slight hill that takes us up to yirragan dr which contains some nice fast sections before hitting waneroo rd.

well the pace went on as soon as the front boys realized that everyone made it through the lights unscathed. i let myself drift towards the back of the group as i was racing on sunday and didn’t need to put too much into my legs. lisa was hanging on at the back so i fell back to help her up the hill. mike b was also at the back so we formed a protective draft around her to help her back to the group. meanwhile, a number of attacks had gone off the front along yirragan dr, with the usual suspects trying to shake it up. unfortunately the “hamstring injury” that ryan has, did not stop him from going hard off the front and forcing everyone to chase.

mike and i looked after lisa until we got to the regroup point on wanneroo rd where the group had found a nice bus-stop to park in. an easy cruise down onto charles st and across to thomas rd to take us around the back of kings park. mike then told me that he would not be racing on sunday as his previous medical condition had started acting up again, and that was the reason he was hanging at the back of the pack. hope he gets it sorted out, as he is a demon on the hills when he is in form.

about half-way down past kings park, we turned off to head around the back of the hospitals and cemetery to lengthen the ride a bit. this also allowed us to come home the usual way through dalkeith where the boys could give it another go. unfortunately, just as we came through the claremont shops, it started to rain. we had been pretty lucky up till then, but maybe pushed it a bit staying out so long. didn’t change the ride much as we were already on the home straight.

the usual attacks happened around the back of dalkeith, but i stayed out of it again, content to get towed along. by the time we “regrouped” at mounts bay rd, the rain had stopped, but the roads were now sufficiently wet enough to make it uncomfortable.

as we headed towards the coffee-shop, everyone was trying to get into the right hand file to get ready for the sprint. i got sick of getting a face full of water from the bike in front, so started to time-trial ahead of the group. i wasn’t going hard, but managed to gap them a bit and force them to chase. i let them catch me before they wound up for the sprint and got back into the right hand file. as we past the old swan brewery and the pace started to pick up, i checked my back and jumped across into the right hand lane.

this has two main benefits.
1. it cuts the corner.
2. it is harder for the guys in front to get on your wheel.

i started the sprint and got a good jump on the guys. so much for saving my legs for sunday’s race. i saw that ryan had also started his sprint, but he was a few bike lengths behind me, so i was hoping i had enough to keep him off. unfortuntately he took me before the line, but i managed to hold on to second. a sign for sunday maybe.

no coffee stop for me today as i had a mountain of things to organize for both my birthday and the state championships, the next day.

however, i heard the news later that lorraine had a bingle less than 50m after leaving the coffee shop and had broken her wrist. hope you get well soon and back on the bike. in the meantime, it will have to be on the home trainer like stuart o’grady and brad mcgee, so you are in good company.