The Peel to Perth social 50 & 100 was held on 16 January leaving from the Mandurah Visitors Centre. The weather forecast wasn’t idea with a max temperature of 35 and strong easterly winds, but I figured the ride would be done before the heat kick in.

I had a brain-freeze moment and decided it would be a good idea to ride to the start. Quickly mapping it out on Ride with GPS and still in brain-freeze mode, I thought ‘yep’ easy only 100km straight down the bike path. I got all the prep done the night before and set the alarm for 2.30am hoping to be on the bike by about 3am.

All went to plan and I was on the bike just before 3am ready to tackle the ENE cross winds that I was expecting on my left shoulder. With a Jack Reacher tale playing in my ears, the winds didn’t feel quite as bad and I arrived in Mandurah well before the start time, giving me plenty of time to enjoy a coffee and a healthy serve of scrambled eggs.

All up there was 8 riders – Julie and Glenn riding the 50km around Mandurah; Ed, Perry, David, Doug and myself riding the 100km back to Perth; and Aaron tagging along untill Thomas Road. The route meandered around the estuary was very enjoyable despite the east wind that battering us around a bit.

At the 35km mark we left Julie and Glenn who took off back to the start, and headed north back up the PSP to Perth. The wind had cranked up and hit us directly sideways with gusts up to 45km. I don’t like the wind at the best of times but today I really did not enjoy the ride back to the city at all! I was very grateful to Aaron and Ed who let me sit behind and bum any assistance I could get (you don’t get much help with a crosswinds but mentally it always seems better).

Thanks guys!

Arriving at the Bell Tower around 1pm very hot and tired, I was ready for a break & a something cold!

The temp was just hitting 35 and with 20kms to home directly into the wind it was all about survival! 

All up a memorable day on the bike with just under 230km ridden in tough conditions.