Last year I went and watched Anna do the state long-course road race. It was pretty boring as it is a 112-ish km course that is mostly out-and-back. I say mostly - there are two and a half laps of a circuit near the Roleystone High School that are at the end of the race and they are tough because the finish line is at the top of a nasty hill (about a 1 km climb) that gets steeper the further you go up it. But not to complain too much - that's the course for the women and master's men (me) but the open men get to do that circuit 10 times - after the 100 km out-and-back course. Ouch.

Unlike the weather of the last few days (which has been crazy windy and wet) today was fine and calm although quite cold - about 5 degrees in the hills. But better than being blown around and getting wet.

About 25 starters showed up for the master's event with five from SPR which was a good turn out. Pete lent me a SPR jersey and we were away.

Things were reasonably calm on the way out to the turnaround point - fast but no-one seemed serious about hurting anyone by pushing the pace. The road is loosely described as undulating and it isn't too hilly which is good. I can generally keep up on that sort of road and although I was hanging at the back of the pack most of the time only two riders got away - and they stayed away for the entire race so good effort from them.

There were a few attacks but nothing serious. At the turnaround, things changed quickly. We were off out of the blocks at 45+ km/h and there were only a few steep-ish bits of the road where we dropped back to an incredibly sedate 30 km/h. Lots of attacks - pretty much every hill except the last few and even some on the flats.

At one point, I'd chosen a nice flat bit to down my last gel and an attack came. I found myself learning how to eat, drink and breathe all at the same time while our speed never dropped below 50 km/h.

I was pretty glad to see the Karagullen servo arrive on the horizon. I'd nearly dropped off the back a few times but had managed to hang on - Pete had come by and I'd drafted off him twice and the rest of the time I'd just pushed it hard, almost cramping at one point so I knew I was at the limit.

Just one small-ish climb to go before the circuit described above - coming from Karagullen up Brookton Hwy. It isn't long and it certainly isn't steep but I just had nothing and dropped off the back. So I was left on my own to do the laps of the high school. Up until then we'd averaged just over 38 km/h. Not bad, I think, given that we did the same speed for the Peter Clark Classic earlier in the year and it was a much shorter and flatter race.

The back part of the circuit is ok but once you turn onto Peet Rd and then up Raeburn Rd is gets nasty. Coming through the roundabout onto Raeburn you can see the next 1 km unfold - all the way up to the peak and it is hard.

So, I just did my best and went around the circuit at my own pace. Got caught by the open men doing their multitude of laps but (thankfully) didn't get caught by the women. Bit of an ego boost there.

Coming up the hill on the last lap I cramped up and just pushed on - almost catching Anna as she headed out for her last lap. I was very happy to finish and was there to see Anna finish a short while later.

Yet more training to come...

Update: The results are up. Anna noticed them before me and I was listed at a DNF. Bah! So she emailed cycling WA and now they've got me down as the same time as Peter - which is wrong but better than before... Oh well. Apparently there were quite a few other timing issues with the day.

Anna and I went out to do the Peter Clark Classic in Neerabup this morning. Anna raced A grade womens and I raced C grade mens.

It was a nice day except for the wind - there was a 3km-ish straight that was straight into the wind but we did get a corresponding straight with a great tailwind.

My aims for racing at the moment are:

• Don't fall off
• Finish the race
• If possibe, finish with the main bunch

Today I managed all three - finishing about 100m behind the main group as they sprinted down to the line. Not bad given that our average speed for the final lap had increased by about 5 km/h the whole way around the circuit. Overall we averaged 38.3 km/h so that isn't too bad for me.

Now to do more training...