Cyclo Sportif Event - L'avalanche de vallee d'Avon 56km Team Ride

Race three for my Cyclo Sportif events was a ride around York. We had a few team build issues with this event and with a week before the event I received an email from the team captain saying we needed some more riders for the team. I asked my weekend riding mate John (who is my also a weekly drinking mate) if he would like to join the team. He was a little concerned about the group speed etc however he decided to give it a go.

So first thing in the morning we headed east towards York up in the Hills. We went in John's car and picked up the team captain on the way. As were were getting closer to York something that caught my eye was on the electronic console of the Kluger it was a temp gauge saying that the outside temp was 1-2 deg's. Ouch that was cold and a lot colder than I had gear for. We had a long chat about this for the rest of the trip in and when we arrived we were not surprised to be freezing cold. We met up with the team and discussed the race, John and I decided a warm up ride was in order - this was quickly stopped as we did one lap around town and felt a whole lot colder than we did before the warm up. So we just waited for the start standing in what ever sun we could find.

Well it was a really nice ride, no rain or wind and some wonderful scenery. We even saw a crop dusting plane flying overhead low and spraying fields. It was truly a scenic and enjoyable ride apart from the hills. John did struggle a little and we did drop the pace but with the all to see it was nice to back off a bit and take it in. It was still cold and I was still struggling to get warm after 15km's. Our time for this event was 1:46:57 being an average of 31:43km/hr.

Due to other commitments it was apparent that this could be the last of my Cyclo Sportif races for the season as other events and a trip to Sydney clashed with the dates. There is a event in the next few months being a ride down the new Perth to Bunbury freeway that is almost ready to be opened. If this does not clash then I will most certainly be riding in this event.


This time John missed out of the shot and is in fact hidden from the camera by myself at the front in yellow with the black helmet. Hooray I found myself in a shot where I was out the front.