home at last.  after a month over east doing the family christmas thing and visiting family, we are finally back in our own beds and not living out of a suitcase.  as you may have seen on the blog, i managed to catch a few bike races while i was over there, but didn’t manage to “saddle up” at all.  as such, my fitness level is somewhere off the back of the intermediate group.

there have been a lot of things happening while i was away, but the most significant one for spr would be the growth of the novice group.  from the 4 or 5 hardcore mainstays over the winter, the group now regularly boasts around 20 riders.  also, i am hearing that the intermediate and advanced (note name change) groups have also swelled such that there are around 80 riders fronting up on a saturday morning.  while this is great for both the club and cycling in general, it does call into play a few safety concerns.  with more riders in the novice group there needs to be more leaders as these are the riders that need the most attention.  with more riders in the intermediate and advanced groups, we take up a lot more road, meaning more splits at lights, more difficult to change lanes and generally more chance to piss off the motorists.

as such, starting this week, we will make a small change to the way we format the rides.

the intermediate and advanced rides will now split at the beginning with both groups heading out on totally different courses.  although, this does diminish the social aspect of the ride, safety is a higher priority and you can always catch up at the coffeeshop.  for the intermediate group there should be no real change.  just get yourself warmed up and then start a moderate pace roll through.  this does not need to be a race and should be about developing skills in a safe environment. 

for the advanced group, this will mean that you will set off a couple of minutes earlier and you must know the ride routes.  you also have to make your choice of which group you are riding with before the start as there will be no second peloton to sweep you up.  it will not be flat out from the gun, but rather you should spend the first 10 kms warming up and socialising before the pace goes on.  generally this ride is around the 50km mark, so there will be plenty of time for seemingly endless suffering.

the novices.  once an after thought because i didn’t want to turn people away, has now become a draw card with three (or four) rides scheduled each week.  the majority of emails that i receive during the week of new people wanting to come out riding with us are asking about the novice group.  i am really happy with the way that it has grown and really proud of the people that have stepped up to take on the task of getting them organised.  cycling with a group can be very daunting and back a year ago, any newbie would have been both scared shitless and dropped within 5 kms from the start of the spr ride.  we are one of the few clubs that organise so many training rides and one of the few places that offer a wide variety at no cost.  however, it does come at a price as the more novices we have, the less one-on-one time the leaders can spend with them.  also, there is a much wider spread of abilities within the novice group and as such we will be looking at splitting the novices into 2 groups.

the original intent of the novice group will remain as such.  a standard ride with a smaller group and keeping out of high traffic areas so they can concentrate on developing riding skills.  these should include, how to hold a wheel, where to position your bike, how to move positions within a group safely and how to roll through.  riders should be comfortable with these skills before they move up into a more advanced group.  confidence in your own skills and those around you is the most important thing when it comes to safety in the group.

the second novice group will be called the transitional group.  this group contains those riders that have mastered the basic skill set and need to put it in practice in a smaller and more controlled environment.  this will also include the development of skills of bunch riding on busier roads and a general increase of fitness.  as such the transitional group will follow the same course as the intermediate group.  this allows a more varied weekly route to develop navigational skills and encountering different terrain.  it also allows any of the transitional riders a chance to try out the intermediate group, but if they get dropped, can be picked up by the sweepers. i will be looking for some leaders to take care of this group.  someone from the intermediate group would be more than adequate.  for this first week, however, i will be looking after it.

so, there we have it.  we have now developed into 4 separate training groups with 11 different rides during the week.  not bad for less than 2 years in existence.  all i need to do is work out how to make money off of it and i can move into semi-retirement.

peter

the ride routes are as follows and where there are 2 routes in the link, the intermediate will do the shorter one while the advanced will do the longer one.

saturday

novice – south perth rouleurs saturday novice ride (41.28km)

intermediate/transitional – south perth rouleurs saturday ride 08 (benara rd) (route “a” 42.35km)

advanced – south perth rouleurs saturday ride 18 (canning vale & welshpool) (route “b” 54.03km)

sunday

novice – south perth rouleurs sunday novice ride – freo via cannington (79.48km)

advanced – south perth rouleurs sunday ride 07 (canning mills & peet & patterson) (90.54km)

tuesday (australia day – be aware of road closures if driving to the start)

intermediate – south perth rouleurs public holiday ride (59.35km)