This was the thirteenth edition of this race. It was the first time we haven't had a member of the Webb family, Tony and Maggie or Paul present but, as always on this occasion we know where their thoughts were.

We wouldn't like to be thought ungrateful and we know we had an Easterly blowing - more or less what we asked for but what we really needed and should have specified was a NORTH-Easterly. …probably a bit of a misunderstanding there: simply asking for a 'tail-wind' is not specific enough. There are not many parts of the route that head directly west

Anyway at least for the second part there were some very fast sections, not all of them downhill. Some people of course went faster than others. Brad was clocked by Pimmie doing 80+km/h. I think Mark Roberts was doing something similar when he sailed past me. But he was somewhat more aerodynamic too; and told me so! About a quarter of the field posted PBs so what's the point of making excuses about the blustery nature of the wind?

The big winners on the PB scale were Mark Roberts (2'11"); Brad Hall (2'45"); Mark Petterson (#'09"); Phil Deisel (4'45") and Brad Woodbrook (6'45").

The people who helped make the event go were Lorraine, handing out numbers etc in the pre-dawn gloom; Pimmie who started the field and also ferried a trayfull of bikes to Toodyay; Nicky who timed everyone home, assisted by John Andrews; Troy Coulthard who also ferried a few bikes, signage and people to Toodyay but importantly, made sure everyone got back to Gidge (fortunately there were no mishaps or DNFs today anyway); Frank Norton who looked sfter the intermediate timing point after bringing the 'mousemobile' back from Toodyay and, finally our bus driver John Lucas from Toodyay. These were their main tasks but they are all multi-taskers and deserve big thanks as usual.

mouse