The “Sur le Rivet” ride out in York was a fantastic day weather wise. The drive out there was just beautiful, with the Perth countryside never having looked so green, with wildflowers carpeting fields in purples and oranges. There were Six Coglioni, with Digger using a pinned thumb as some sort of excuse and Bif preferring to do some secret training in Italy. Although there is speculation that he may have lied to his team and is actually training in Mexico with Michael Rasmussen, so don’t be surprised to see him at the front of all the climbs and being particularly agitated with the Cyclosportif Marshalls and photographers. But the rest of the usual suspects were present and correct, Blinder, The Doctor, Stuey, Waterboy, Paddles and O’Dirty. Paddles was sporting his new all carbon fibre replacement bike that had finally arrived, and very nice it looked too. It was obvious the placebo effect would be evident today and I felt Paddles would be strong and impressive on his new steed. I for one was not sure how we would go as a team today as since our superb ride at Pinjarra we had lost some impetus for various reasons. The Doctor having broke his wrist, was off the bike, but on the turbo trainer, so was lacking distance kms. O’Dirty was swanning around the world eating and drinking the finest food and wine IBM’s corporate dollar could afford plus had been crook since his return. Blinder had been swanning around in Melbourne at a conference so that meant staying up late and carousing. We would have to rely on the in-form Water Boy and Stuey and the ever consistent Paddles to pull us through.

It was still a bit chilly at the start but once we got going we soon had a nice rhythm. It was a fairly flat course with a few rollers and we were into a bit of a headwind on the way out. For the first 10km we kept the speed around 32 km/hr until we warmed up and got over the main rollers, and then lifted it to 35 km/hr. We didn’t want to overcook it on the way out as we were worried there may be some blow-ups on the way back. Blinder gave us a few calming words when a couple of the team started to get a bit frisky. This was mainly caused by team Cc who overtook us and then seemed to slow down, so we took them back and put in a bit of an effort to get a gap. For all our work they just overtook us again. Rather than play this game we just sat 10 metres off their wheel and rolled at 35 km/hr as we both seemed to be going at the same speed so it was pointless killing ourselves just to be ten metres in front of them.

There were no events to be noted on the way out, a nice tidy team performance. No forays into the gravel from Stuey or onto the other side of the road from Paddles.

The return leg was a different story. Bit of a tail wind but also a bit more uphill, enough to make a difference with tired legs. We took a couple of kilometres to get going, losing sight of team Cc in the distance, but once we did we settled into a nice rhythm again showing good Coglioni form. A trademark of our riding has been the near perfect single line of a well oiled TT machine. We were soon ripping along at over 40 km/hr and at times 50 km/hr and had soon pulled back the hapless Cc team. It was at this point that it all started to go wrong. With 20km to go we decided to keep on the pace we were doing and roll past the Cc boys. Water Boy took us past them but as they had kept doing they sped up to match our pace as we came alongside. As Water Boy pulled off and Paddles went to the front they came up our inside but on Water Boy’s outside as he was dropping back. This left us in a strange position of having 5 Coglioni at the front of team Cc and Water Boy having to go around the back and then chase to get back on. He made contact but on the next climb the chase, coupled with the ensuing cold he had hoped would not get a grip of him, meant he started to struggle. We slowed, team Cc went around us, and we found our rhythm again. The last 10 km were tough but we stuck together as a team, rolling at 39 km/hr, and holding our form. Paddles and Stuey still looked to have more in the tank, although Stuey was looking a little brow-beaten as he commented that having O’Dirty nagging him from his back wheel the whole ride, was worse than going for a ride with his mother-in-law.

The average for the day was 35 km/hr, which was very respectable considering we had not trained well for this ride. But spending 76 km in the saddle had taken its toll on the butts of The Doctor and O’Dirty, maybe not having a number of long rides under their belts played a part there. The post-ride scoff was again superb although we did miss out on the free beer. The proudest moment for me, and better than getting the best time, was the C.C.Coglioni taking the best team prize. In my opinion we deserve to win this every ride, but at last out classy team form was noticed. Six bottles of wine for the end of season BBQ. The raffle reverted to a name draw as opposed to a number draw, and Blinder’s name was called out. Unfortunately he had left already. At least it was not for one of the main prizes.

Let’s use this as a springboard to some good training for the Pickering Brook ride in October, as that will be a toughie.

Late breaking news : After reviewing the photographs on the Cyclosportif website it was noted that Water Boy was at the front for all of them. This may account for him struggling as obviously he rode at least 50 km on the front to ensure he got his mug in the photos!