Race Report

We avoided the mishaps of last year although Phil Deisel would probably disagree: he didn't even make it out of Toodyay before he punctured and abandoned. Stu Helm wondered if he could plead a 'mechanical' as an excuse for a poor time but quickly realised that despite riding the 44km on the small chainring, he did a pretty good time—and sure as hell gave those big legs a punishing workout; and will probably think about giving his Di2 battery a charge before the next event?

It looks like we said farewell to Heiko for quite a while today—his bikes are leaving for Germany next week and he will follow soon after. So, sadly, there will be another rider missing from the pointy end of the list. But Steff made sure that her name gets added to the Women's trophy again with her second–best ride on the course: not quite as fast as two years ago when the Easterly possibly was a bit more 'propitious' than this year's breeze. Nevertheless she flew up the hill to the finish quickly enough with David Equid in her sights! Lorraine MacLennan's almost-ten-minute PB led a surprisingly short list and there was a mutter or two about the wind; it kept the 'ambience' at the finish line a tad cool.

So after twenty-three years and the smallest field for 15, we don't know whether this was our last ride on this course. It certainly was for the next few years when the road will be progressively upgraded and not available for TTs. The 'Mark Webb' is looking for another home.

Many thanks to John Lucas, our Toodyay busman for most of this period; Carolyn Equid took the 'desk' up to Toodyay where Lorraine was your starter and Alex Cairnduff took the trailer and Kim van Amerongen there too as they set up the course and then followed the last rider home and dismantled what they'd previously set up. By the time Matt Burton flew up Big Gidge, Lorraine was back at the school to collect bib-numbers, transponders and finally present trophies to Matt (in absentia; a 44km ITT was just the start of his day's workload) and Steff. Thanks also, of course, to Cathi Dixon who looked after the timing loop down at the base of Little Gidge so we could time that troublesome, final 4km.