The summer season starts with a single ride. It's a 'door-to-door' saunter that kisses the city and hugs the coast with bookended cafes that draws the smokkelaars from their post winter lethargy.
There are plenty of the Euro 2012 chapter on hand with the group bolstered by Rapha Lush, two Balls and P Didi/2.
This ride isn't about form because form is fleeting. This ride is about style; and skip steals the show with his Focus Cayo equipped with Di2 technology. The flamboyant, idiosyncratic Jelly Belly has been reduced to a folly by a masterpiece in achromatic understatement with a dash of rouge to respectfully reference its more scene-stealing predecessor.
The early pace is kind and the banter crisp as we negotiate the cobble-like vibrations of Anzac Highway. Lush and Harley exert some pedal pressure and what looks like a successful breakaway is thwarted by the traffic light gods. Curly has established a conversation that lasts the entire ride - and this from a man who does his best work off the bike. Paul is surfing the comfort of the couch at the back of the peloton but even that feather-soft luxuriating can get uncomfortable as time passes. The two Balls are keeping a close eye on one another with David's Orbea eminently more capable of attack than the carrier bejewelled steeler. Alistair pushes the big crank as is his want and is more vigilant than most as we pass the treacherous undulations at Crow corner - once testimony to premiership glory but now where Triggy stands rattling a tin looking for loose change to get him through to July.
All this with a trailing breeze that sweeps us effortlessly to Croydon and another coffee to punctuate the introductory ride to the summer season. The cyclo boys will be plying their trade next Sunday so their legs are smooth and twitching with anticipation.
Skip declares this the season of the photo essay with each smokkelaar to be a contributor - and like the season, it starts here.
The end
Bob
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