Firstly, many thanks to the blokes, Andrew Heard and Karl McIntyre, who stopped to assist when John Healy was hit from behind by a motorist who had failed to allow more than millimeters clearance to several other riders before claiming John as his victim; thanks too, of course to Carolyn, Troy and Kim who sorted things out at the scene. Carolyn was on her way back to Gidge having looked after registrations in Toodyay; Troy was your starter and he and Kim had set up the course. They eventually continued to Gidge as the 'sag wagon'. In the meantime Gregor was redeployed looking after the setup at the school after he had supervised the loading of the bus; Alex Cairnduff looked after the intermediate timing set-up leading to the climb up Big Gidge to the finish.

And so, the event becomes our first genuine 'hill-top finish' course - and today was another first: not a single PB registered. So, not just a hilltop finish but the mythical 'headwind-all-the-way' cyclists' refrain had aslo become a reality. As a result, both Jon and Steff, our trophy winners were well-deserving their success. Jon has ridden the past six editions of the event - today wasn't his slowest and, indeed, on the positive side, it was his best 'Standards' result. But a selective eyballing of a few results indicated that riders were something of the order of 6 or 7 minutes slower than last year: Steff was and the man who has ridden more MWs than anyone else in today's field, Chris Reid (seventeen rides) was seven minutes down on last year's time.

Nevertheless, there were a few riders who had opted to drive themselves to the start and faced the return ride to Toodyay. They must have gained some satisfaction from the anticipation of the ride back: 44km with a tail wind!