saturday 14th june - benara rd

ride report by peter

as saturday rolled around, the predicted ne winds did not appear and we had calm conditions instead. usually this would be better, but i was banking on a nice tailwind on benara rd to give us a push. with the predicted clear 23 degrees meaning very little overnight cloud cover, the temp had dropped to about 6 deg by the time i rolled out from home.

the usual suspects were there this morning minus ryan who we expected had slept in again, but would probably join us as we rolled by his house. we headed out great eastern hwy and crossed the river at ascot, turning onto guilford rd. the group took it really easy this morning and it made a good change from the last time we did this route. there were some hot-heads which split the group up early when they got a draft from behind a truck. this made for a very splintered and dangerous trip through guilford. no truck this time so everyone was together by the time we hit benara. everyone except dr paul and dr greg who turned off early for a shortcut.

i was sitting at the back of the pack with ryan when the pace came on. not ideal positioning, but the road is long and i was sure that there would be wheels to catch to propel me forward. after the second round-about, i had made my way to the front and launched a nice attack where i managed to gap the field significantly. i had a really good group ride on thursday and thought that my form was up and ready to play. unfortunately, this was saturday and i found i had no legs. i pushed on trying to will some more power out of my body, but i was going slower and slower. the bunch lead by nick reeled me back in and back was the direction i was going. everyone who was in that group managed to get past me as i was struggling to hold the pace.

i managed a bit of recovery before finding my way to about mid-pack again. at the two main sets of lights that stopped us, it was strange to hear that not a word was spoken. maybe i wasn’t the only one feeling it today. as we came through the last roundabout and started the final stretch, i attacked again. this time i didn’t get as far before ryan came screaming around me like i was standing still. i tried to hold out as long as possible but soon the rest of the pack engulfed me. i managed to hold on and limp to the end of benara rd.

we slowed it right down for the next section to allow any stragglers to catch back up and also allow us a bit of a breather. as we headed towards whatley crescent, the pace picked up a bit as the guys saw dr paul and dr greg up the road a bit. this forced the group to “line-out” and i was stuck at the back talking to shao as we approached the intersection. bad positioning again, and i was sure that we would miss the lights altogether, but managed to scrape through on the amber.

a handful of boys had attacked straight away and managed to get a bit of a break. i sprinted around the main group and headed into no-mans land. wary of my previous two efforts i tried not to max out, and aimed for a steady pace to try to reel them back in. i past dr paul just as the lights changed which stopped the rest of the pack. i was seriously screwed now. the guys were up the road in front of me, and the ones behind were now stuck at the lights. i decided to keep plugging away, and hoped that i could make up the ground.

a group of five or so should have been able to keep away from me on my own, but there weren’t really sharing the work load. it took a few km’s but i finally managed to grab a wheel. it turned out to be dr greg who had latched on as the train went past. rob had been doing the majority of the work with a turn from christophe, but then rob was soon back in front again. he was frustrated and so kept going through the lights at guilford rd when the rest of us stopped. not a yellow card, or a red card, but a serious black card as the lights were very red.

i got on the front as the lights changed and time trialed my way along east parade with the other five in tow. it turns out that the other group then got every single red light on whatley cres and was never in sight of catching us. we caught and past rob and kept the pace on over the police station hill as usual. with only a handful available for the final sprint, i decided to lead it out as i felt i had no top end speed. with james on my wheel i wound it up along riverside drive until about halfway. gasping for air, i signaled for james to make his move, but he said he had nothing. ryan and jerry came flying past and that was the end of the sprint for me. ryan managed to dodge the sloooow car that i was catching and held on to the end.

the rest of the crew rolled in a few minutes later, all grumbling about the lights on whatley cres. by then the day had seriously fined up and so we really shouldn’t have had anything to complain about. coffee and a big breakfast for some offered a nice end to the ride. the shorter distance on this one also meant that we had longer to chat at the coffee shop too.

i have been playing with some new routes for both the saturday and sunday rides that i hope to unleash on the group soon. variety helps keep it interesting.