09th August 2010, Northam, WA

Proper Road Cycling (and Avon Descent watching)

My intermittent affair with road cycling took a decide up turn when myself, Pete, Jon, Andrew, Gregor and Leah hitched a lift to Northam with some of the poor souls trying to paddling the Avon Descent this year and then cycled back to Perth.

After watching the masses of boats bump and scrape their way down Northam weir we found a cafe for a lesuirely (especially the coffees) breakfast. Finally fuelled for the day we set off at 1000 and still made it to Katrine Bridge before most of the paddlers. At Extracts weir (well more of a rock garden) we had our next break and then lunch at the food and wine festival under the bridge in Toodyay.

It was now 1230 and we had cycled a sum total of 30km, cheered on lots of paddlers and eaten magnificently. Reluctantly we clipped in for the main part of our day, finally leaving the river at Julimar bridge. The inevitable climb that followed didn't sit so well with our early gastronomic overindulgences.

After steadily climbing on Julimar rd through non-descript bush we were treated with a fantastic long descent through attractive farmland into the Chittering Valley. After following the river for around 20km we entered a large area of orange and lemon farms. The brightly dotted orchards filled the surrounding hill sides and we came across a idyllic cafe just when we were flagging that served scones and freshly squeezed orange juice and lemon squash.

A steady climb out of the Chittering valley followed before a lightning descent into Bullsbrook. After battling into the wind (well Andy did most of it) along Gt Northern Hwy we joined up with the Avon river once more, where it iexplicably becomes the Swan, and followed it through the upper Swan valley all the way to Guildford and then along familiar bike paths home.

This is how all bike rides should be: with great company, along quiet, scenic roads, over hills (for WA anyway) with good cafe stops and a reasonable distance.

Route here.

05th August 2010, Perth, WA

Sharing the Pain

After twice having slugged around the Painathlon course solo, I couldn't face it again. In order to continue supporting this fantastic event that does so much for Variety I entered the slightly easier teams category with Pete.

After watching Pete suffer on the sand at City Beach we made our over the hill. I knew Pete was taking the day seriously when he grabbed my bike out my hands, and shoved me up Reabold Hill. This suspicion was further confirmed when he completely destroyed challenge 5, the 10km Bridges run in 41 minutes, even keeping up with Leah.

Onto the bikes and with veteran soloist Marek in tow we moved further up the field with a combination of hard riding, a good run on the lights and good route choice by me using the Reid Highway bike path to bypass Midland.

For some unknown reason I had volunteered to do the Truth. I was faster than last year, but not by so much getting overtaken by a couple of soloists but crucially not the second placed team, our good friends Andy and Gregor.

On the ride we to the Zig Zags we re-caught the soloists and led them all into transition in a train. More fast transitioning and strong running by Pete saw us leave comfortably in 3rd with only solo Painathletes Josh and Mike ahead of us.

Things stayed pretty much as they were over the next two challenges with Josh just ahead of Mikes, us around 10 minutes back and then Andy and Gregor 6 minutes behind us.

With this kind of buffer, we were reasonably confident as we racked our bikes at the top of Jacob's Ladder, the final challenge. It was with some horror then that we saw team Nova Scotia riding up Mount St; our lead had been cut to the equivalent of half a rep of Jacob's.

Fortunately Pete's legs are much longer than Gregor's and we soon extended our lead a little, although it was bloody hard work doing so. Meanwhile Mike had fallen into a huge hole and was really struggling. For once he didn't have a smile on his face and we were able to pass him and finish second overall and first team.

I'm not sure if entering as a team was much easier. The faster pace, partly driven by the close competition took a real toll on my legs, especially when we were sprinting out Jacob's reps at the end. It took several days to recover. However the company during the race, faster riding speeds and small breaks were much appreciated. Having done the solo thing, I'm sure I'll be back to race as a team again. We have our course record to defend as well.

Latest photos.

30th July 2010, Ferguson Valley, WA

Ferguson Valley 4 Hour

Back at Pile Rd for the second week running and for the umpteenth time this year, but I'm not complaining as this is by far my favorite spot in WA at the moment.

Both myself and Pete put in solid efforts in the race. The track lacked much flow so it was hard to get too excited about riding fast but we plugged away. The last lap which we commenced with only 26 mins remaining on the clock, despite previously lapping at around the 27 min mark, was a lot of fun and was probably nearer to the intensity I should have been racing at all day.

Anyway, the results told the story as I slipped off of the podium for the first time in the enduro series. By my calculations I still finished high enough to secure 2nd in the series and 23rd out of 152 entrants (teams and people with gears included) is respectable.

20th July 2010, Ferguson Valley, WA

KillaFergus

Finally Pete and myself managed to not lose any maps, miss any obvious controls or generally do to many stupid things too wrong. This combined with the large amount of cycling, some of which was even mountain biking, lead to a comfortable win we should have secured at the previous two Killas.

Things got off to a slightly shakey start when had some trouble with Cadel Evans on the opening Tour de France based orienteer. This was not a leg we needed to make longer as there was already a 1km hill run to the maps, and plenty of hills to get the controls themselves. Returning via the bog was well intended but unnecessarily confusing and lead to us heading out on the bikes way down the field and still a little unsure if we could just get on and ride or if we had to follow tape/flags.

Our nav was secure on this bike leg even if we did waste a few seconds looking the wrong side of junctions for 3 of the controls. We were stunned to be the first to arrive at TA2, admittedly at the same time as Oscar, the lead soloist, who had started 20 mins after us.

This exercise was by far the best, and probably the best I have done from any AR. There were 13 controls scattered around the Mount Lennard bike trails. 7 had to be found by bike and then any others found on foot were worth a 10 minute bonus. We couldn't see an obvious outer loop to easily get 7, so we skipped the far western two, knowing that the eastern half of the map was better riding. We collected the 7 planned with no problems and then got 4 more on the overgrown western tracks on foot with minimal fuss. The splits will be very interesting as to who had the best strategy here with Ricky and Wally sweeping the lot, us dropping 2, Jon only getting 1 and plenty of others none at all.

Now for the best bit - flat out down Grizzly trail to the brewery. If we don't get fasted split for this leg I want to know why. The brewery exercise was easy as we spent all afternoon drinking there the day before. The winery challenge was more of challenge as we are not known for our observational skills nor ability to bend under low vines.

We then smashed some road, found a control not on a dam wall and pushed up a steep hill on an invisible track. The last competitor we had seen was way back at TA2 so we headed out on the final orienteer very alone, but waiting for the faster, better navigators who were predominantly in the solo category to come past. Pete rather foolishly decided to give me the map at this point. I had no problems in finding the first two controls but then fell and buried the map 2 feet deep in a bog. After cleaning the map sufficiently to roughly work out what was going on Pete wisely removed it from me.

Eventually Ricky caught up with us but we held on to him all the way to finish, including the slow trudge up the final hill.

Latest photos.

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