ok, so what is cyclo-sportif. well details can be found here, but i will give you the quick run down.

what is it?
it is racing, but it’s not racing. generally it is a team time trial but you can’t drop riders, you must stay together and you must all finish together. if one person gets a flat, you all stop. if someone is struggling on the hills, you all slow down. there are no winners and the final times are not even listed in fastest to slowest, rather just in the order that the teams departed.

like a team time trial, the teams head off at intervals and you cannot draft from other teams if you catch them. there are some very competitive teams out there, but the main aim seems to be to have fun riding with the people you like riding with. it is because of that, it has become the fastest growing club in australia. the last event at pinjarra had close to 600 riders and that was even with quite a few opting to do the proper wacf race on at the same time.

the next race.
the next event at york is a “grand fondo”. this is a different format and is a cross between a saturday group ride and the great perth bike ride. basically, they will seed the teams and set them off in groups of about 40 with a couple of minutes between the groups. the way this differs is two fold. firstly, you are allowed to draft off the other teams, and secondly, you do not have to stick together in your teams. each person is given an individual timing band and their own time will be recorded.

how much?
well money is always going to be an issue and in this case a single race is going to cost a bit if you don’t already have a licence. each event costs $40 and for this you get a meal and a ticket in the raffle. if you already have a racing licence then that is it as your licence will cover your insurance. if not then a day licence is available for $18. if you think that you would like to do the next race as well, then you can in fact join the cyclo-sportif club and get a licence (non-racing – i.e. can be used for cyclo-sportif but not wacf events) and i think if you join this late in the season, they may have a deal on.

what about spr?
well we are going to enter a couple of teams if possible. there are three distances (108km, 70km and 40km). the usual race team will enter the 108km and anyone is free to join us if they wish. if we get enough interest, then we will enter a team in the 70km distance. if there is not enough for a team (5 min, 9 max) then those people can enter as individuals.

how to enter.
well for now it is pretty simple. if you have an south perth rouleurs jersey and want to play with us then send me an e-mail with the distance that you would like to ride in. southperthrouleurs@hotmail.com
entries need to be in by tuesday 9 september 2008, 10.00pm wst so i will need to know by the end of this coming weekend so i can organise teams.

it is generally a good day out and you will be amazed at how many other cyclists there are out there and how many thousands of dollars worth of bikes can be found in any one place. it would be good to get a bunch of spr riders out there to show off our colours.