SPR Sunday Morning Hills Therapy

The guys down at Garland Cycleworks did a great job of rectifying the snapped cable inside the shifter and getting the gears working crisply again. It's just like riding with a new groupset on the bike. It's almost impossible to find the words to describe the feeling of being outside on the bike again! I picked up the bike mid-morning on Saturday so it goes without saying that the hills were my Sunday target for the time I missed up there since Wednesday night.

Up nice and early and it was still dark (4:45am - winter is definitely on its way) so snapped on the lights and headed down to the city side of the Narrows Bridge looking forward to a good warm up ride before head up to the hills. Heading along Riverside Drive and passed a shadowy figure that I had initially noticed coming down Shepparton Rd hill. It was not until I got to the meeting point under the bridge that I realised it was Javan.

I hadn't expected to see Jav this morning as he had mentioned he was racing at Kewdale. It turns out he had checked in with Dennis to see what he was doing for the morning and Jav received an SMS from him saying, and I quote, "Me and the Psycho are doing the SPR Earlybird and Short Hills". Scratching my head I think to myself "Who is this 'Psycho' person he refers to? Surely he doesn't mean me?"

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Only 5 riders to get us started this morning with Pete Mah being the only other recognisable face among the small group. We picked up another rider at Matilda Bay to round out the numbers to 6 and we headed up to Nedlands onto Birdwood Pde and along the river bank to Claremont. The pace hovered around 35 km/h for the stretch to Clarement before slowing down a touch as we started into the smaller Mosman Park hills.

The easterly was up as we passed through Fremantle and headed east back to South Perth. There were obviously no sprints along Burke Drv which felt a little unusual and the pace was steady all the way through. The power was on a bit in order to reach Coode St car park in time and Peter parted ways as we came up to Thelma St and a dislodged chain had the group down to just four as we pulled into the car park to join the already swelling group of riders waiting to depart for the hills.

Between 50 and 60 riders had assembled by the time we left Coode St car park and made our way out toward the hills. I was so ready for the climbs to see how the legs would fair given the early bird ride and the workload during the week. Given I know I wouldn't be the strongest hill climber in the bunch, my plan was to stay in touch with the lead riders (the "mountain goats") as best I could up Welshpool Rd and then give it a few more beans along Aldersyde and up Mundaring Weir Rd. This would allow me to guage how much I had improved since starting hill repeats a couple of months ago on Brad's programs.

Welshpool Rd was by no means my quickest climb but that was not the intention. I was happy to find I could keep with the lead riders reasonably well and I rolled in about 30 seconds or so behind the first rider to arrive at the top (about 15th wheel). The HR was sitting nicely at a round 155 bpm for the climb so I know I could probably have done better but after the early bird ride I was happy just to keep in touch with the better climbers. I still vividly remember being consistently dropped on hill climbs such as these so to be there at the end was satisfying.

Bumped into Mike Burton on Carmel Rd and had a good chat while we waited for the remainder of the group to complete the climb up Welshpool Rd. Mike seems to be climbing hills quite well as he mentioned he jumped on to the end of the bunch at the beginning of the climb (I started a bit behind mid-group) and he finished just behind me at the top so must have made good pace up the hill.

The group picked up the pace as we descended Glenisla Rd and dog-legged onto Aldersyde. The group split here as the riders taking the long option continued up Walnut Rd and out to the Observatory (it was so tempting). I was among the lead riders as we ventured along Aldersyde with one rider opting to break off during the descent to Mundaring Weir Rd and keep his own pace. I stayed with 4 other riders who turned onto Mundaring Weir Rd and kept the pace up for the initial part of the ascent to Kalamunda.

Sitting at 3rd wheel in the group, I had Mike Burton on my wheel and the pace was respectable enough to keep the HR up to an average of 158 bpm. I was a little surprised that the average pace of the climb was only 26.5 km/h as it did feel as though were where quicker than this but I still achieved what I set out to do and completed the climb ahead of the 4 other riders with a PR for the Strava segment (but only just ahead of Mike Burton - huge improvements in his riding will make it hard to compete against him in the upcoming Masters Road Race season).

I waited for Dennis and Javan to arrive at the roundabout at the top of the climb in Kalamunda and (with a fourth rider) we continued off to the Zig-Zag to make our descent and on toward Technology Park to catch some of the racing action for Ranae's Race. With the temperature up by this time, I got to the bottom of the Zig-Zag to realise I have gone through a litre and a half of fluid (nearly both bottles) so a refill would be required at the BP service station in Kewdale.

I managed to stretch the guys a little more by keeping the pace up to around 40 km/h along Maidavale & Dundas Rd and into the BP service station to "refuel". The temperature was slowly but steadily climbing into the 30's before we reached Technology Park and with the average pace of this last leg up around 38 km/h, the water top-up was soon depleted - 3 litres for the ride was an indication of the work that I put in for the morning.

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Arrived at Technology Park for the bell lap of the C grade ride. Lee Pottharst (finished 4th - well done) reported the pace at about 38 km/h so it was back down a bit from last Sunday's event and B grade looked closer to the 40.5 km/h pace that C grade held last week. Quite a few WC Masters riders appeared in C and B grades. I would have thought that numbers at Kewdale might have been down as a result but from the results, the numbers were as high as ever!

As the mens B grade race came to a close, I headed home and completed the morning's ride. 118kms at an average pace of 29.6 km/h and a number of Strava PRs and Achievements:

PR on Causeway @ 39.9 km/h (still miles off the pace at 155th overall)

PR on Claremont Hill @ 27.2 km/h (still miles off the pace at 193rd overall)

PR on Mosman Hill @ 18.5 km/h (still miles off the pace at 84th overall)

PR on Aldersyde @ 34.9 km/h (bit of work to do at 58th overall)

PR on Mundaring Weir Rd @ 26.5 km/h (bit of work to do at 39th overall)

PR on Gooseberry Hill Rd to Ridge Hill Rd @ 39.5 km/h (still miles off the pace at 72nd overall)

Interesting, there doesn't seem to be any segments for Maidavale Rd and Dundas Rd so I might look at creating these to see how I measure up along there. A great ride this morning and thoroughly enjoyed getting back into the hills. The pain was a pleasure this time around and I could tell I was working given the moderately strong easterly wind and high temperatures. 18 km/h up Welshpool Rd was still an achievement given the wind we were riding into.

Finally, a massive congrats to John Sonego for his huge effort today in the ATTA Hilly Classic at Chidlow. John came in 13th overall out of 82 riders for a PB 00:43:13 over 27 km. That's an incredible 37.8 km/h out there - not an easy feat and clearly shows he is coming back into some good form. Looks like his training with Matt Illingworth is beginning to pay off.