Cyclo Sportif-Toodyay Team event

[crazycanuck]

Our Tri group has a team involved in the Western Australia Cyclo Sportif Series & we did the 45km(actually 48km!) event today.

For more info on Cyclo sportif http://www.cyclosportif.com.au/event...nt-toodyay.htm

http://www.cyclosportif.com.au/maps/toodyay-profile.htm

Who ever said the fun was at the ride? Weeeel...I almost didn't make it to the ride as I almost ran into a Kangaroo driving to Toodyay. That woke me up & kept my eyes peeled to both sides of the road.

We got ourselves together & were ushered off. The first few km's weren't too bad but then I got quite nervous as I remembered how much I don't like riding in a group. That and I could not hear anything people were telling me as they were on my deaf ear side.. I began to wonder if i should stop & wait for the sag wagon back but I told myself no matter what I have to keep going.

The whole route is undulating with some nice big hills.(I'm sure you US west coast ladies are giggling at the profile ) They weren't too bad and kept up as best i could. As always, what goes up must go down! I saw my top speed was 55km/hr. Pretty frightening as my eyes welled up,, had a a few cars on the other side of the road going 100km/hr & a group of cyclists pass me! The roads aren't the smoothest and there's no soft shoulder to fall onto. It's pretty much the oh so familiar orange pea gravel & rather sturdy trees

Back to the ride. I made it to the turnaround point without any incidents & wasn't too far behind. I threw the idea of catching a ride back & stuck with it.

On the way back one of our stronger riders, Kim-id never met Kim before but she joined us as her friend was in our group-actually turned back & stuck with me for about 5kms! What a great gal. We pushed it & found the whole group again. For some reason, that helped me get my speed back & zoomed back. My team members wondered "Hey cheryl, where'd you come from?" Umm..I dunno...

Finally, the end was in sight! YAYAYAY..I made it but man was it hard out there. I'm so glad I kept going as it was a fun ride. I still am not confident group riding & am unsure if i'll do another event. The 6hr(mtb event) is coming up and NEED to get in dirt time so i'm sticking to mtb'ing on the weekends.

So the moral of my post is: If you're a newbie to cycling (or a seasoned cyclist)& don't think you can make it-You can. Make hills your friends!

C

[Zen]

Yay Cheryl! I'm glad you didn't bail out.

Do you think you would have continued if it weren't for Kim riding with you?

I'll remember your determination when I'm no doubt riding by myself on June 23rd. And I'll be sure to keep an eye out for kangaroos.

[crazycanuck]

Zen-Thanks for that..

Does this mean i should look for roos when i'm in Virginia

I would have continued even if Kim hadn't turned back & biked with me. It was on the return journey and I knew I could cycle the distance but needed space(?) and time.

I might do the next one...I've heard there's a rather BIG hill that everyone walks up on the course so it could be rather interesting.

In the meantime, i'll be out mtn biking & hoping my group riding skills magically come...

Here's a pic from yesterday..

C