When Stuart asked if I was riding with the group in the Cyclo Sportif Peletons de Pinjarra, I apprehensively said yes. I felt quite bad for dragging the average speed of our group down to 28km in the Cycli a Swan Valley. This was partly because two weeks prior to Swan Valley I crashed my old blue bike into the concrete wall near the scout hall heading north along the freeway while the bike path was under repair, and I didn’t realised I’d buckled my back wheel in the process. I’d also pretty much trashed myself the week before with too much running, and a few other long rides, so I didn’t have enough “get up and go” for the Swan Valley ride. I didn’t want to let the group down again, but Stuart convinced me it would be ok, so I said yes. When I arrived in Pinjarra, I thought wow, contrary to a few rumours I’d heard, this course looks pretty flat. The weather was perfect, blue skies, virtually no wind, and the air was crisp. I love cold, crisp mornings for riding and running because in those conditions I never seem to heat up. I met up with Paul, Jen, Stu, Caitlin, Doug and Amy, and we chatted a bit about the course. Amy mentioned the course was mostly hills, and I started to get a bit nervous and offered to withdraw, but again, Stuart said I’d be ok. We took our places at the start line, where supermum Pauline was at the ready with a camera. Our group set off just after 10am. At first I didn’t get into a steady ride with the rest of the group and struggled a bit behind everyone. Thankfully Paul came to save me and pushed me back into the group. After about eight km’s we hit the hilly section of the ride. Again I struggled to get tempo and Stu and Paul pushed me up a good section of the first couple of hills. Paul and Stu also offered me some wonderful tips on when to change gears and how to sense the pedalling tempo. When I took these tips on board, the hilly section of the ride felt very comfortable. Both Doug and Jen skilfully led our group, rocketing up each hill overtaking a lot of other groups along the way. The course was hilly, but it made the ride interesting, more interesting and more picturesque than the Swan Valley ride. When we arrived at the 22.5km turnaround point, Pauline was at the ready again with a camera. Our return to the finish line was mostly downhill. I might be a bit biased because I’m part of the Eclipse team, but I think we were by far the most impressive group on the downhill sections of the course. We all seem to have a hunger for speed. With bums up, heads down and elbows tucked into our sides, we were flying smoothly and gracefully through the downhill sections. We hit the flats again, and it wasn’t hard to see that Paul and Stu had massive reserves of energy left and were anxious to tank it through to the finish line. I started to fall out the back but Jen and Caitlin helped me back into the middle of the group to find that steady tempo again. We finished strongly. Thanks to not only a bunch of great athletes, but to a group of genuine, friendly people. You helped make this one of my most enjoyable events. |
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