Rockingham Return via WCMCC Crits :: 29th January, 2012

Decided earlier in the week that racing was not the go given the workload of the week so opted for a good, longer ride and yesterday's invitation to join some of the guys and girls from The Garland Crew for a roll down to Mandurah and back was the order of the day. Didn't make Mandurah itself but still recorded 110kms at an easy pace which was perfect. The ride down along the Kwinana Freeway PSP was not exactly exciting but still enjoyed being out on the bike.

Click to view larger image.

Not much to provide in the way of a ride report other than noting that Dennis and I parted way with the group at Safety Bay Rd service station (forgot to restart the Garmin again after ~4 kms riding) and headed for the WCMCC Jim Thompson Memorial Crits to see if we could catch a bit of the first races (B, D & E grades on the course together).

The wind seemed to play havoc on the pace of the race as much as the additional sprint prime laps throughout each grade race. It was certainly difficult to watch from the sideline so wasn't too keen to stay for the A and C grade races.

I will give a huge congratulations to Rob Brand (from The Garland Crew) who finished the D grade race first and came 2nd overall on points. He rode a fantastic race and deserved the line honours and it was a shame that the points went against him for overall honours. Rob has come a long way since starting part way through the Road Racing season with WCMCC and is certainly improving with each race.

By the time Dennis and I decided to hit the road again, the wind had really picked up and appeared to be coming slightly across us for the ride home. I had unknowingly set a decent pace which Dennis was keeping with nicely but we both decided to slow it down a bit given the heat and wind as neither of us wanted to "hit the wall" before getting home.

Looking forward to the next week of training including the group session in Kings Park and the Crystal Brook Rd repeats. Some hard work ahead but should be a good build up for the WCMCC Graded Scratch Crit at Kewdale on Sunday.

Finally, well done to Alan Flanders finishing 12th overall for the 30km ITT up at Neerabup. Reported windy conditions up there for the out-and-back TT kept times down somewhat but Alan still managed to complete the 30km course in just 00:46:39 at an average pace of 38.6 km/h. Great riding.