Tony and Maggie Webb returned to WA to present their trophies for the twelfth edition of this event with a field size that matched the largest previously. From what we saw and the reports that we heard the traffic density on this course is still reasonable and we should expect to be able to continue to return for a few years yet. It's a great ride and as the Webbs pointed out again, one that Mark would have particularly enjoyed as a Time Trial; not that he was a stranger to this road.

Maybe on reflection there wasn't very much of the Northerly component to the breeze the weather folk had promised but there definitely was a welcome little waft of encouragement at one stage of the drag up Big Gidge. We had the usual problematic crosswinds in the early stages but the temperature was quite comfortable.

None of this seemed to faze the two who so efficiently and convincingly demolished the existing course records - Matt and Emma - but we actually saw fewer PBs set this time than last year although some of them were pretty sizeable. Nevertheless a number of riders are getting a taste for setting PBs here and for some of them a good steady warm-up (a ride to the start) seems to be part of the recipe. One made do with a ride from home to Gidge and then had a bit of a kip in the bus to recharge the battery before the ride from Toodyay. That seemed to work too. Mark Roberts is still on the trail of a good ride in the Masters Nationals (and maybe a crack at a sub-four 160km?) so his ride from Toodyay was just part of 120km for the morning. Probably others were clocking up similar distances.

Terry Skinner was dragged into helping us out in the transport of bikes to Toodyay but he made use of the exercise by adding a ride back from Gidge to retrieve his ute after he'd posted a PB himself. Terry's care and attention to the detail of loading bikes onto both his own and Tink's ute was pretty impressive - thanks Terry; thanks Tink. Tink then flew back to collect intermediate times at the 39km mark - thanks again, Tink! Susie was our starter and the person who followed the field home and made sure that everyone actually got back. In fact she had to drop off the unluckiest rider of the day - Simon Longworth who damaged a hammie during his warmup - and then head out again to chase the last of the field home. (What's going on? - this is the second rider recently with hamstring problems). Nicky (with MrP) was left in sole charge of the gazebo and our timing station; no problems there, of course. And thanks as usual to Lorraine who managed a very mobile registration 'desk' today.