City of Perth Great Bike Ride.
Once again, wimped out and went for the 53km 1 lap option: there's just no way I can muster the energy to raise my arm to eat my cereal at 5am, yet alone ride 106km! (the distance for the 2 lapper). Maybe one day...
Anyway, roused at 6am, slurped down some muesli then went back to bed 'till 6:45. I only live 15 mins by bike from the start point, and my group ('H' – one of many in the 30-35km estimated average classification) wasn't scheduled to blast off 'till 7:37am, so made it with heaps of time to spare. Rode my trusty Masi 3VC rather than the Ti Dean – the less grammes under me the better!
The weather had looked a little gloomy the previous night; drizzle and showers, but the morning was looking pretty good: fairly cloudy with a smattering of darker ones but nothing scooting in too low, so we looked OK. Also excellent: virtually no wind!
Arriving at Riverside Drive, everything was set to go: lots of riders organising themselves, a jovial announcer (very amusing repartee whilst we waited) and people keyed up and bouncy. There was a little water on the roads but nothing of any concern – hopefully the showers would stay away.
7:30am rolled around and they started letting loose the riders for the 53km ride in their groups at one minute intervals, commencing with 'A'. As they rolled off consecutively, we all shuffled forward – pretty soon group 'G' was up.
At which point, both the start and finish inflatable arches stopped being inflatable! Seems the generator powering the electric fans keeping them inflated died, and both of them flopped ignominiously to the ground. Quick organisation saw them pulled off the road, and the show continued.
As I found out last year the ride is a 'Ride' in name only – it's pretty much a full-on race! As in any race, the initial couple of kms tend to be a bit hectic and the speeds are up (hit 50km/h on one stretch which has gotta be some kind of record for me on the flat! - guess my losing 5 kilos since last year helped) but it pretty soon sorts itself out as those who've over-extended at the start soon hit a wall. Little groups start to form, and when you're riding by yourself, it's your task to try and pick one up which matches your own (fairly pathetic) level!
After around 10kms of flitting here and darting there trying to maneuver around slower riders and find a suitable group, I did indeed hook up with a bunch of 12 or so riders, and enjoyed a good hike with a well drilled bunch. The 'lumpier' sections mid race whittled this bunch down to 5 who stuck together to the end, and it all turned out very well: had an enjoyable and cooperative fang!
Ride was timed again as per last year, but they'll be published later. Going by my Flightdeck, I managed the lap in 1:26:25, which was slightly more than 4 minutes quicker than last year's time, so I was wrapped. Most of the improvement was I'm sure down to the good group I was in, plus a bit more luck with other rider traffic. Maybe my drop from 93 to 88 kgs this year also made a diff!
Overall, a great ride! Highlights included:
- Me managing to see a non-draft assisted 50km/h for a 1km stretch on the flat without blowing a gasket!
- No rain!
- Getting into a bunch who knew what was what – scooting down the freeway at 45km/h in a paceline and having a continuous rotation going was cool (you can tell I don't ride in groups much!)
- Some dude in our group flogging the guts out of his hardtail, front-suspended trail bike! This guy was awesome – whilst the bike was a little low-geared for paceline work, he compensated by just spinning at what looked like a cadence of around 130. If he'd have had a roadie, the rest of us would have been toast!
- No rain!
- The Mosman Park Hill (a nasty little 300 meter leg burner) once again catching bunches of people out: lots of people walking it up. But as per last year, pretty organised – everyone walking kept to the edges
- Best part: didn't see a single prang or close call! Well done all!
Closest thing to a stack was some dickbrain unsure of whether to go to the left or right of a traffic island on a long curving descent, and at the last minute choosing to stay to the left, which necessitated a 35 km/h bunny-hop over the curb of the island. That dickbrain – ME! ***blush***
Roll on next year – maybe if I can drop another 13 kgs, I can keep up to the bunch on uphills!
Ride safe!
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