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ride report by stu7:00 - leave front door - looks like rain. Go back inside to get rain jacket.
7:02 - leave front door again.
7:04 - arrive Coode St. Nobody there. Think. Am I so late that they have all left? Or, are the conditions so bad and am I so mad that nobody else is coming? Maybe.
7:06 - decide that I'm riding anyway, so cease pondering madness and weather, and follow the designated course in case other nutters abound.
Nice tailwind, so contemplate changing course to get a nice time up Welshpool Rd hill, then decide I don't relish such a big pain shot. Lots of lonely fun riding around the hills, so much so that eventual arrival at Kalamunda cafe prompts another loop down the zigzag and back up Gooseberry Hill. Further contemplation of forever riding in loops around the hills to avoid the strong headwind home, when reality strikes - no magic carpet is going to take me home. Damn. Go home. The End.
Hope you guys had more fun than that...
ride report by peter
a quick look at the current weather on the web this morning showed a nice 9 degrees. i was a bit dubious as it did seem cold in the house when i got up but at least it was not showing something like 2 deg. it was a bit brisk, but nothing to really complain about and i was sure today’s route would get things warm as soon as we hit the hills.
the city2surf claimed a few of our regular riders today with ryan, rob and heiko deciding that they would rather run than ride. we could hear the pre-race festivities from our side of the river while we waited for the allotted hour to arrive. jumping ahead a bit, i did ask mike b later why he wasn’t doing the run today. he said that he gets disappointed that he can’t beat his best time anymore. he came second one year with a time of 36min. that was quite a few years ago though. kind of makes sense now why he is so fast in the hills.
anyway, we still had a good group of regulars and some return riders like josie toe the line this morning. about 15 riders all up i would say, with dr paul and dr greg starting with us, but doing their own thing once we hit the hills. the route today would be a challenging one. up the kahuna and down urch before up the rest of peet rd to rolleystone high school. down brookton hwy and through some back streets before up canning mills rd to join back up with the top of the kahuna, before the usual way to kalamunda via mundaring weir rd. four climbs and some bonus’ for a total of just under 100 kms. hopefully it wouldn’t rain.
so we rolled out and headed towards albany hwy. the pace was pleasant and gave everyone an opportunity to have a chat. as we past carousel shopping centre, steve got a flat, but told us not to bother waiting as he had an issue with his tyre anyway. i was in two minds as we usually wait for flats, but we were still close to the city and he would be right to get home if he was in trouble. we left him to his misery and pushed on.
as we approached the base of the kahuna, there was someone doing laps of the roundabout just before it. it turned out to be clare who was patiently waiting for us to arrive. the road up the kahuna starts off gentle before it kicks up to it’s average gradient and luckily it was the gentle section we were on when my phone rang. it turned out to be steve, who had fixed his flat and was now looking for us. he had not done the kahuna before and i was trying to give him directions while i started the climb proper (gotta love hands free kit). i tried to make it as clear as i could in between breaths, and i also gave him other directions in case he got lost. he said that he would call in about half and hour when we should have got to the second regroup point. i wasn’t sure that we would see him again.
so the group hit the hill and everyone settled into their respective positions according to climbing ability. the kahuna can be quite steep in places but also contains a number of shallower gradient sections (i can’t really say flat) that either give you respite, or break your rhythm. i find that it breaks my rhythm as i tend to spin out more and use different muscle groups that then also start hurting.
mike and stu found their place at the front and i jumped on their wheel to try to hold on as long as i possibly could. it seemed like a long time and i was pretty happy, but in reality, it was probably still on the first steep section on the climb. they began to power away with that slow steady “grind out the hill” style that both of them have. as they got further and further away it was clear that i was not going to be able to catch back on without some type of motor attached to my bike. i began to wish that i was 50 year old. both those guys are well on the wrong side of 40 and we cannot keep up with them in the hills. i hope that i am going that strong when i grow up. however, i am thinking that it probably has more to do with the years of marathon running that both these whippets had done in their earlier years.
so i am drifting back and am trying to set myself a nice tempo. i look back and find that ben is gaining on me and soon over takes me. bugger. i continue my tempo and allow ben a bit more space ahead of me. i am hoping that once we hit the shallower gradient towards the top, i can regain a bit of ground. i manage to up my pace and catch back up to ben. i put in a hard, but consistent effort and manage to shake him from my wheel before we hit the top. mike had dropped stu before the top, and i ended up within 75 - 100 metres of stu by the time we reach the regroup point.
as we regrouped, both the effort of the climb and the increasing daylight meant that it was beginning to warm up. holly (pictured) took off her vest to reveal a fat cyclist jersey underneath that matched her fatty socks. if you haven’t heard of fatty, there is a link on my “other blogs” to the right and even though he blogs mostly about mountain biking, he has many an insight into riding and balancing his passion with his wife’s illness. it makes you realise how good we have it sometimes.
so we headed for the next climb up urch and peet. this at least was preceded by a nice descent down part of urch before the road kicked up again. once it did, a bunch of riders like stan, ben and melvyn took advantage of their momentum and started to smash it up the other side. stu also came past and i was determined not to give him too much head start, so jumped across to his wheel. mike also made his way up through the pack and was on my wheel when we all joined ben. melvyn and stan had dropped back by the time we turned the corner onto peet and ben managed to hold on for a little way before he also fell off the back. the boys must have been kind to me, or i was finally warm after the first climb as i managed to stay with them to the top.
as we crested the hill, mike lead us out towards the high school and to the state champs finish line. after a few turns, mike pushed for the last effort up the climb with stu and i sucking wheels to get a good lead-out. stu eventually went so i jumped on his wheel and waited for the last 50 m to come around for the sprint. i barely had enough to stay in front of him as he also turned it up a notch heading towards the line. it’s good, as we both need practice sprinting for that line as two races this year had already finished there and both came down to a bunch sprint. a couple of riders later, steve also made it to the line. he had come up the kahuna but then across chevin rd and into the top of peet road to meet up with the rest of the group.
after a regroup we headed down brookton hwy to give the legs a bit of respite. we don’t often climb up brookton and i remembered why as we were descending. it is not really that hard as we had to pedal quite a bit to maintain speed on the descent. we turned just before the road joined back up with albany hwy and took a couple of back streets. steve asked whether there was a house down here i was looking at buying as it did seem a bit off the beaten track for us. unfortunately, no, we were on the right road and soon we were at the base of canning mills rd.
this is the steeper side of the kahuna and averages about 9% for the steep section. it flattens off towards the top and is not as long as the kahuna, but much, much harder. however, it is fairly consistent and does not contain many “flat” spots that break the rhythm when climbing. you can set yourself a nice pace to the top, but it is when you want to chase others that you will get into trouble and blow-up.
i know that stu headed up the road pretty early in the climb and i had nothing to go with him. ben caught and past me about halfway up after i started to fade. steve surprised me with how fast he came past, and i expected him to blow up as he had never done this climb before and didn’t know what was around the corner. luckily for him, and probably more testament to his ability, he maintained a good pace to the top and didn’t pop. after that, my memory gets a bit fuzzy and i remember there being another rider up the road. it was probably mike, but i can’t be sure as i know that stu stayed away from everyone on the climb. i just ground my way to the top and was happy to be there.
this climb took a bigger toll on the group and we had to wait a bit longer for all the riders to come in. it is a really challenging climb so we don’t do it that often. but to do it as the third climb in a set of four is just cruel. but sometime you have to be cruel to… get a laugh… i mean be kind. it will make all the riders stronger in the long run so it can’t be that bad.
as we turned to follow the rest of the kahuna rd back towards pickering brook, josie took off back down the hill to head home. her knee was not feeling 100% so she did not want to risk it with another climb. the rest of us ambled our way through the back blocks of canning mills and on to pickering brook. holly had said that she was going to skip the final climb and go straight to coffee. peer pressure made sure that she came with us in the end.
on the little rolling hills (that seem big by now to your legs) stu managed to get away a bit and headed into the final climb with about 50 m or so. jerry went hard as soon as the hill started and thought that he could get some advantage that could be whittled away. in reality he just caught and past stu and paid the price to get there. mike came up from behind and i jumped on his wheel as he moved up behind stu. the four of us started the climb together but it would not stay that way for long. jerry was first to step off after mike moved to the front and set the pace that he was comfortable with. i hung onto stu’s wheel as long as i could and thought i was doing really well when we reached the part where there is a fence and wall on the right. after doing this climb a hundred times, i know that it is not far to the “flat” section on this climb. unfortunately, i also know that the road pinches up ever so slightly more that what we were climbing.
the pace and pitch was too much for me and i also had to step off the train. i tried to set myself a tempo with the hope that i could catch back up when it flattened out. i looked back and saw jerry not that far back and thought that we could work together to catch stu and mike. i eased up my pace and let him get on before starting to wind it up along the “flat”. i thought that if i could out in a hard effort, then jerry could smash the last bit of the hill and maybe catch them as they were still in sight. jerry had the same idea and came around me early and set a high pace. i went as the road got steeper again and realised that i really didn’t have that much left in my legs. i made it almost to the top before jerry came back past me within 10 metres of the kom line. we were probably 100 metres behind stu and mike.
as the rest of the group came into the coffee shop i was surprised to see bec finishing to high in the pack. she said that she finally was feeling good and managed to go hard on the last climb to beat in half the guys. the coffee stop was good today and soon we were off and running again. a nice descent down welshpool and we stayed together for much of it. i pushed hard on the last bit of hill to make sure the speedo clocked over 80 km/h and came past the rest of the group. it did cost me dearly as i then had nothing when jerry and stan headed up the road together. i jumped in behind the others and sat in for the majority of the chase. as we approached the curve in the road, i found my legs enough to do a cancellara and time trialed across the gap to come past the boys at the front. by the time we got through the lights at the highway, the group was all back together.
no sprint at the end of welshpool and we had it saved up for the final push up berwick. i was on the front (again) leading into the sprint when brett and anna came flying past on the slight rise before the lights at george st. i didn’t react as i was sure that they would get stuck at the lights. as they were waiting behind a left turning car when the lights went green, i jumped into the right hand lane and sprinted past them and up over the hill. i looked back and saw jerry closing fast but thought that i had to keep going to stay away. i did ease back on the descent to conserve as much energy for when he jumped, but realised that i probably didn’t have much left in reserve. as i started to run out of puff he came along side and we both looked at each other. i shrugged indicating that i was done, but he didn’t go as he thought that it was mean making me do all the work to just take out the final 100 metres. i was cool with that so we ambled towards maccas. however, when i looked back i saw bec coming off steve’s wheel and heading towards us fast. we didn’t really have enough time to react and she had way too much momentum so overtook us for the final sprint win of the day.
so a good day but a tough one with the number and severity of the climbs we tackled. i can’t say that we will do an easy one next week, as we must punish those that had forsaken us to go running instead. also, since it is fathers day, the blokes should be allowed to stay out longer to do a big ride. i know it doesn’t work like that, but it is worth a try.
ride report by petervideo to follow.
with the mercury under 2 degrees at 7 this morning, i was expecting a poor showing. with the course i had mapped out for this ride, i was also expecting a poor showing. i was pleasantly surprised to see close to 20 toe the line ready for a big day. the course today was a bit of a monster and took in a number of the hard climbs around roleystone. first we would tackle the kahuna before taking on peet rd up to the high school. a descent down brookton hwy would bring us out at the bottom of canning mills rd which would take us back to the top of the kahuna. a trek along the top before dropping through bickley valley and back up mundaring weir rd to kalamunda. four major climbs would make this a decent effort for the morning.
we were about to head off sans ryan again, when young jordan from a couple of weeks ago turns up in a ute. he gets out all kitted up and his “driver” takes the bike out of the tray and he is ready to roll. we all wish we had a support crew like that. as we turned onto mill point rd, ryan turns up just in time…again. as we make our way through the suburbs, i notice that rachael was no longer with us. i’m guessing she heard today’s route and opted for an easier day. i could be wrong and maybe she thought it was too easy and went to find some harder hills.
we eventually hit albany hwy and worked our way down towards gosnells. we had briefly lost john to a call of nature and i was thinking much the same thing. just after the road bridged over roe hwy, i ducked off behind a bus shelter and into the bushes. what seemed like a good kilo lighter, i chased for a bit to get back on the group just as they were coming through maddington. a good stop for me as i lessened the weight i was going to carry up the hill and the chase put some warmth back into my fingers and a bit in my toes.
we turned up mills rd west and picked up doug along the way. the kahuna loomed above us and i let the fast boys know where we were going to regroup. jordan left it in the big ring and started grinding his way up. i managed to hold his wheel for a while before a gap appeared and the guys behind moved around to fill it. i couldn’t maintain and had to let them go. i watched jordan tow matt, robbie, ryan and rob towards the top. i was stuck in no-mans land with no riders to be seen i managed to keep ahead of the one behind, but could not make ground on the guys up the road. stu started at the back of the pack and was working his way through. he easily dispatched me and worked his way to the front group. from what i could see, he didn’t quite make it but caught rob who had dropped off the pace. apparently jordan could not hold the big ring for the whole climb and had to drop it back a notch. ryan claims that he took him at the top, but i am not sure of the context. i am assuming he was talking about the race to the top… on the bike… who knows.
we regrouped at the turn and bid farewell to jordan who was only using our ride as a gap filler before his shop one started at nine. we traveled down urch and started our next climb after a short sharp descent. i left it in the big ring and tried to power up the other side. unfortunately, the other side is quite long and i started to run out of puff. ryan came past and i jumped on his wheel. as the climb progressed, we shook off mel and bella who relished the descent, but mat and robbie were not far behind.
we turned up peet rd and ryan set a decent tempo. to hard for me, he gapped me and i had to let him go. robbie, with his bouncy style, hopped up the road and onto ryans wheel. i was again caught in the middle but managed to stay away from any of the chasers. on the descent, i eased off enough for mel and rob to catch up. as peet rd became raeburn and the road starts to climb again, rob came to the front and stepped up the pace. it was enough to shake mel but i just sat neatly on his wheel. as we approached the state champs finish line at roleystone highschool, we were caught by another couple of riders and my memory is vague, but i think it was stu and mat. taking off from the same spot as the state champs masters race, i came around rob, who was spent from too much time on the front, and took line honors in our group. as the group came in, melvyn started to make excuses about spending the last couple of weeks in spain not riding. he was going to take a short-cut, but through the power of peer pressure, we convinced him to keep going.
up this high, the fog had rolled in and we could not see very far at all. we were going to take a right turn across brookton hwy not very far from where the accident happened last week. mat and phil were riding with that group last week, but as most of them were off the bike, they were out with us instead. we stopped at the intersection and allowed people to put their flashing lights on, just to be safe. you could hear the cars coming, but not see them properly at all. we listened for a break in traffic and headed off for our descent. we kept a single file all the way down and the road was not really conducive to high speeds as it continually flattens out. we past a couple of groups heading up the hill and it surprised me how many were out in the cold weather.
speaking of cold, it was so cold that i got an ice-cream headache on the way down. the fog turned out to be more like low cloud as it wasn’t to be seen after we were halfway down the hill. doug and i swapped off turns to keep the pace high and we led the train to the bottom. we turned right just before we hit albany hwy and regrouped before heading to the base of canning mills rd. this climb has been used as the perth hill climb championships as it is a fairly consistent gradient to the top. it basically heads up for around 2 ½ kms at just under 9 % before flattening to 2.5 % for a further 2 kms.
i was on the front as we started the climb as people did not know where to go and managed to gap the field a bit. after the previous efforts i was not sure how i would go, but i preferred to be chased rather than chasing. i held off the boys for quite a while but was caught by ryan, robbie and mat. i still managed to hold wheel for a bit as ryan was still grinding big gears today so was not out to sprint off on everyone. stu caught up with us and came around. robbie chased him down and took off up the road. stu held a gap to us, but mat, ryan and i all kind of stayed together for the majority of the climb.
once the road flattened out, ryan and i stepped on the pace to catch up with stu. matt was spat out the back and had to fend for himself, while robbie was long gone. the climb really sorted the field out as it took quite a while for all the riders to filter back in for the regroup.
we headed across to canning rd through the windy track that is the extension of canning mills rd. mr dickhead was driving a old crappy sedan today as he sped up to pass us only to turn right into a driveway just after. he couldn’t have waited that extra 5 sec. as we waited to regroup on canning rd, the “mid-life crisis harley Davidson club” came past with about 50 or so riders. apart from that, it was a fairly uneventful trip with just the usual attacks on the rolling hills heading towards pickering brook.
on our final regroup, a number of riders opted for the straight to the coffee shop route or straight down welshpool rd and home. the rest of us were going to head back up mundaring weir rd. as we went to turn onto glenisla rd, we were held up by the “mid-life crisis huge 4wd club” as about 50 of the damn things were coming the other way. this gave stu and doug a headstart as they managed to get through the turn beforehand.
we didn’t really chase and they held their advantage as we came down the glenisla hill at 70 kmph. mel the daredevil flew past me as i must have been holding her up.
when the climb started up mundaring weir rd, ryan took off like a scalded cat in a bid to try to catch stu. a paced myself up with robbie and rob and we caught ryan who had eased off once he caught stu. no lead change for the majority of the climb as we all sat in a line behind stu. as we came towards the top of the steeper section, ryan started dicking around with his gears. he was trying to get it into the big ring, but it wouldn’t go in. in the meantime, stu was continuing to grind away up the hill and had started to gap us again. i yelled some abuse at ryan, and told robbie, who was on his wheel, to go around him as he was slowing us down. rob, who was behind me, thought that i was talking to him so he came around all of us to chase down stu.
once we hit the flattish section i came to the front to lead out the group into the final climb. when we were just about there, ryan shot past like a bout of gastro (very fluid, but not much substance). the rest of the guys came around me to try to chase him down, while i was left to complete the climb on my own.
a nice pleasant coffee stop today as it was not that cold sitting outside. there were lots of groups of riders also replenishing their carbo and caffeine supplies at kalamunda and a few familiar faces were seen. we set off for the run home and i had a good descent on welshpool rd. i had to come around ryan towards the bottom and topped out at 79km/h. bella beat everyone hitting about 81 km/h.
as we turned onto welshpool proper, ryan informed us we had a few passengers. the glenn parker group that jordan had left us to meet up with had caught us after the coffee and was now attached to our group. we started rolling through to share the load and made our way back to albany hwy. the glenn parker boys turned off there and we made our way along berwick.
ryan led the pack from kent rd lights along berwick where we were heading towards our final sprint. i said to him that he should lead out and then sprint to make sure he had to work hard. we got caught at george st lights and he started dicking around with his gears again. his usual tactic to force someone else to lead out. screw this i thought and took off from the lights hard. i managed a gap quickly and pushed hard over the small hill. maxing out the heart rate at 188 bpm i eased off a bit as i crested and coasted down the hill a bit for recovery. i put the power down again and kept looking back to see if i would be caught. the only riders i could see were a fair way back so i guessed that i was safe. sitting up and cruising in i was past just at the end by a 4wd. sucking along behind at 60 km/h was ryan who claimed line honours. unfortunately he received too much outside assistance and has been relegated to last place. shame, ryan, shame. it’s almost as bad as doping.
so a good ride but definitely a tough morning in the saddle. just over 100 kms by the time i got home and over 1300m of climbing. my form seems to be coming back slowly but surely, however, the late night tour de france coverage is still playing havoc.
