report by peter.

about a year ago, i headed down to the coode st carpark wondering whether there will be any one down there wanting to go for a ride.  i had decided to not lead the bikeshop rides but it was up to everyone to make their own choice of where they were riding.  luckily for me, there were people wanting to ride and hence the south perth rouleurs came to fruition. 

we decided to concentrate on our strengths, which was a good solid core of riders that had developed a strong group dynamic.  people knew what we needed to do on our group rides and that we needed to cater for everyone in the group.  we happily continued on our way and the group started to grow.

the website has also evolved and what was once a blog of my perspective has now become a proper site full of information and stories. 

towards the end of the year the racing scene started to gain some prominence within the group.  the highlight would have to be the joodalup race in december last year when we had about 15 or so riders entering various grades in the final race for the season.  this became the catalyst for transforming the south perth rouleurs into a proper cycle club. 

fast forward though the technical bits and we now have a constitution, committee and are affiliated with the sports governing body.  our membership has been steadily growing and the last official count had us at around 40 members.  a little over half of these have racing licences and half have recreational licences.  we have started making our mark on some of the races on the perth calendar and sent a strong group away for a trip down to pemberton.  we hope to continue to offer a bit more than just being a club that you give money to and want to offer support to all our riders.

and it is not just about racing.  the group rides have now become training rides and the long standing saturday ride has now been split into three groups.  this allows us to cater for all levels of riders without adversely affecting anyone’s enjoyment level.  the sunday hills ride has also grown and we often get between 20 – 30 riders all willing to hurt themselves in the surrounding hills.  there are also now three weekday training sessions giving people more opportunity to get some extra km’s in.

so, saturday afternoon gave us the opportunity to reflect on just how far we have come in the last year.  a family lunch was held and it allowed the partners and kids of some of our riders to meet with the people that seem to dominate the saturday mornings of their lives.  there was about 40 adults and about 20 kids in attendance and all enjoyed a nice casual atmosphere although it was sometimes punctuated by some french class or violin lesson.

lisa, kate and lorraine did a great job of organising everything and as we enjoyed the food the kids seemed to take over the playground.  i didn’t realise there were that many kids in the group.  maybe we could start to target junior riders as well.  something to consider.

so after a year as the south perth rouleurs where do we see ourselves heading now.  with up to 70 riders fronting up to a saturday ride, it is obvious that we are doing something right there and so we must keep on doing what we are doing.  the inclusion of the novice ride will do a lot to help continue the development of the riders skill levels and i am looking at the rest of the group to assist in helping out by leading the novices every now and then.  the racing side is progressing well and with a number of races coming up, i hope that we can attract a few more members by the way that we present our club.  the development of a women’s racing team is something that we are also looking at and hopefully we can offer a pathway for those that want to take that next step.

by may 2010 it will be interesting to see how spr has changed after another year.