What a way to finish a week's training (although there may be a ride on tomorrow), a fast ride around the usual Fremantle / Shelley Loop completed in 01:45:25, giving a 36.9 km/h average pace. Well, at least that is what my split time shows so I am happy to go with it and I have included screenshots to demonstrate the ride figures.
The first two splits were my ride down to the bike shop and a warm up and the last split was the ride home but was interfered with by satellite scatter while at the bike shop. The third split (highlighted) was the actual ride.
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I don't think anyone was expecting to keep up this sort of pace given the hot conditions and the amount of water that we were all taking in before the ride (a huge thanks to Nick from the shop for providing the bottled water for all the riders).
I found out that Dave Ellis had a horror crash on Thursday morning coming down out of the hills. A blow out at 72 km/h is never going to be fun and I'm sure he had images of last years crash racing through his head when he realised he was going off the bike. Surprisingly, the speed he was going probably saved him from breaking any bones. He did suffer some rash burns and deep cuts, but it was not enough to stop him riding this morning and eventually latching on to Group 1 along Burke Drive.
A great sprint down Port Beach Rd by Dale this morning had me beaten fair and square. He motored off my wheel to swing around and take the "line honours" and I had know idea where he came from. With the power he has, I would lead him out for a sprint finish any day.
Burke Drive presented the second sprint for the morning and I was sitting in at 2nd wheel by the time we rounded the long bend at the east end of the road (beginning of the sprint). I ramped it up determined not to let Dale work off my wheel again but I could hear a rider on my wheel and about to come up along side.
Out of the saddle I put the power on but the unknown rider was almost level with me. I could only assume it was Dale again but couldn't be sure as I could only make out the front wheel. I was in no mood to be beaten at my favourite sprint so a last ditch effort finally got me there ahead of ..... DAVE ELLIS!!! Where the heck did he come from? For someone who had crashed on Thursday, he really had me working. It was a great effort from him considering he would have had to come up from the back of the group.
We were maintaining a great pace through to the Raffles however a water refill stop was definitely required as it was really beginning to heat up and we were feeling it. We continued along The Esplanade by the river and began working a pace line which was ideal for keeping the average speed up. I think the group could sense a possible fastest time and were keen to give it a shot so a pace line was definitely going to be the order of the day.
We continued the pace line along Riverton Drive right through until the final sprint around Shelley. The pace along Riverton Drive was a high 43.5 km/h leading into a final sprint of 46.7 km/h which apparently equalled my best time for the third time. I really think I can do better on that sprint so that will be something I will need to work on. Perhaps a real dig at reaching 50 km/h average might be on the cards during an SPR Friday ride or solo effort?
We managed to maintain a strong pace all the way through to the shop and Owain clocked us at 36.6 km/h on his bike computer. It was certainly a strong effort and it was nice to see the 36.9 km/h average pace on my split time so I think we can safely say that a new course record for the Saturday morning shop ride has been set.
Back in the shop for a cool down and Kieren and Simon were keen to let me know that Kieren had taken KOM on the Kent St to Berwick St segement on Strava and relegated me to 2nd overall. I recall chasing Dale up the hill near Kent St High School so I wasn't sure if I had done enough to take it back but the results show that I had done just enough. Great job by Kieren to get there though.
Turns out my ride was full of Strava achievements with 11 in total including a PR up Gairloch St and a 4th overall (equal 2nd place) up Shenton Rd Climb along with Kieren, however I know Owain smashed us heading up there - I struggled to keep his wheel.
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