Cyclosportif - Lancelin - the hell of the North
Yesterday was a long trip up to Lancelin for around 630 riders (another record field) in the cyclosportif. It was said that Toodyay Shire actually did us a favour with their lack of cooperation by making us look for an even better venue in Lancelin. Nick drove us in his big Ford Transit and it seemed to take forever. We arrived at the Endeavour Tavern and the place was abuzz. Thanks to Trevor Edwards and the rest of the committee on a very well run event.
On to the actual cycle now and the start was a few kms of slightly uphill. Once we hit KW road it was pretty uneventful up to the halfway turnaround. One of our team had a puncture but we took that as a blessing in disguise to have a break and stretch out a little at just over the halfway point.
One group was said to have had a kangaroo literally jump over the top of them so that must have been a little freaky. We had 5 in our team and 2 of them were first-timers in Ben and Dave. Well done guys! We reckoned we were sitting on around 33 kph which was a decent effort. Our other Bikeforce Southern River team had a 34kph approx average. It was a tough total of 105kms and proper hydration became an issue. It was great to finally see the ocean on the return journey but there was still a fair bit of cycling to get us back to the tavern. By the way, the tavern is owned by Rove McManus’ dad and was a great venue for our presentations combined with a very nice meal. A very challenging ride but no granny walk or noticeable ailments afterwards. We look forward to better weather for our Cicli a Swan Valley ride on 29 June. Last year, this event was marred with some of the worst cycling weather imaginable. The track riding afterwards is very interesting to watch so a big turnout is to be expected there.
My cadence meter fell off my bike however I imagine noone bothered to stop to pick it up so I’ve already written this loss off. I do the Central Park stair climb (in aid of the Multiple Sclerosis society) on 8 June so plenty of stairclimbing over these next 3 weeks. Dee managed 20 ascents of Jacob’s ladder on Sunday with a long walk afterwards. I watched a documentary on SBS last night about a team of doctors climbing Everest. Near the summit their breathing changed from an average of 10 breaths a minute at sea level to 80 breaths a minute. Mindblowing stuff - its amazing how the body adapts to altitude.
Adios amoebas
CHRISTO