With much anticipation of what was in store for the next 7 days and the 1237km ahead, the RideWest Peloton took off from the Amberley Air Base around 7.30am AEST. There was a warm breeze flowing and thunderous rain threatening to wreak havoc, however the riders looked strong behind Captain Brendan Wright and well tuned for the challenge ahead. 35Km in to the ride, the undulating hills on approach to Laidley and the severe thunderstorm activity that finally came down proved to be the first major challenge for the Peloton, with small groups emerging.
The next major challenge for the Peloton came at the gruelling Murphy’s Creek Hill (a 2.7km Strava segment with 1.2km at a gradient of 21%) – a major highlight for the day as always – 6 riders made it up the hill without any stops, with the fastest time being 12mins 30 from the Captain who lead from the front. Todd Copeland, Simon Southwell, Damian Hancock, Mark Zaglas and James Chandler all closely followed – a superb effort from the team out front. Never a race though and always in the spirit of RideWest, the whole peloton arrived to applause from the full team and support crew at the top.
The 35km ride in from Murphy’s Creek Hill to Oakey were hard, wet windy k’s, with the major goal of the Peloton to all arrive into Oakey as a group – and they did that in style as they waltzed into the CWA (Country Womens Association) Hall for an amazing lunch spread, exhausted but satisfied by the great day of riding and in awe of the fantastic food that lay ahead. As always, a huge thanks to the wonderful CWA ladies and their kind donation.