I thought I was going to be late this morning as I had to drop my boy off for Rowing. Its the start of schoolboy racing season and they have to be at the school bus stop in Guildford at 7am. Sorta makes it hard to be start of the ride at the same time. And don”t you always get peanuts in the outside lane going less than the speed limit when you are in a hurry?
Anyway, i arrive a bit late but in time to hear General Petes final instructions for the fast (sorry, “advanced”) group and the main group. And I say the Main group as on roll out I reckon there was about 40 in our bunch. Its an interesting change since we have gone to 4 groups. I think there are less in the fast group and there are far, far more in the main group. Prior to the reorg, sometimes the main group would be a dozen and the fast group would have 40 at the split.
Ride today was one of my favourites; reverse around the river, and a good distance at 50km. This feels like the right distance for the capacity of the group. Some of the other rides could be stretched a bit to get closer to the 50km mark maybe. And I think the group has also got more even in capacity since the reorg. Certainly the pace is a little higher and people don”t seem to fall off the back as much.
It was good to see a couple of familar faces back with the SPRs. Sandra joined us for a ride and Mike W made an apperance and rode with the main group although clearly has the speed and strenght for the fast.
With the rides Pete had set us today, we had the opportunity to see lots of other SPR groups on the ride. We passed the novice (i think) along mounts bay road and saw the split fast group in north fremantle. Good planning Peter.
After an easy warm up we got the heart rate up a bit in Dalkeith and up past Christchurch but were all back together at the highway. Wandering through peppy grove is always interesting as you start think about the hill in Mosman Park. People start positioning themselves and getting the right gear (read smaller chainring). It always seems safer near the front as you are not so tempted to stray to the middle of the road to pass tiring riders. It was Megans first time up there, she had the wrong gear and found it a bit of a surprise but battled on to the regroup at the water tower. I dropped back on the pretext that I was going to check out and round up the back markers.
After the regroup, we consolidated through the rest of mosman park and north fremantle onto the highway. Mr Green D**khead did a flying pass of all of us on a blind corner on the wrong side of the casino pa natet road. Good job nobody was coming the other way. (we caught him waiting at the lights anyway). And then we had Mr Red D**khead rip past us on Preston Point road, trying to squeeze through between us and the central islands.
Onto Burke drive, the pace picked up and all the SPR that I could see obeyed the road rules and stayed on the left side of the road and stayed left. There has been reports of other bunches being on both sides of the traffic islands – guaranteed to cheese off any car driver and highly dangerous.
Before getting on to Canning Highway we made sure we were all together so nobody had to cycle that high volume road by themselves. Pace was kept reasonable all the way to the causeway where the jockeying for wheels started. There are certainly some faster guys in our bunch now but they tend to hang back to last moment and then make their move when the rest of us older guys have blown up. The lights at Victoria ave went red and stopped everybody. Maybe the sprint finish should be changed to one of the signs before Vic Ave rather than after? You want the sprint to be determined by skill, speed and fitness rather than the fickleness of a light change.
On the ride to coffee at Atomic, Ronan was raising his arms in a victory salute. I think it was practising for a future ride rather than reliving the sprint glory (but needs confirmation).
Over coffee we had a bit of an animated discussion on group ridding etiquette and “customs” of the main group. I might get a discussion going on this via a seperate post given there are so many more now in the main group. Its always good to be aligned with what the majority of the riders want or expect.
Russell
Thanks for the writeup Russell but seems I still got left behind on Canning, no worries I almost caught the group thanks to some lights.
As mentioned it seems the group has gotten bigger since the splits and there are less in the Advanced crew. After the splintering pace of the Intermediate group the last few weeks I feel a few riders could extend themselves to the Advanced group. At its current pace I think a lot of the transitional riders would struggle to advance up (which was the original reason that group was created, so they could bridge to the Main group). But since the changes the Intermediate/Main group has gotten quicker as well, again extending that gap between the two. Personally I’m not fussed, it forces me to push myself that bit extra but not everyone is a glutton for pain.
Food for thought and my 2 cents worth
Well I dont know about anyone else but I officially stop my clock at the big blue sign for the Royal Perth Hospital which is about 200m before Victoria Ave. This means there is only one light to navigate before the finish on Riverside Drive.
like that idea toby 🙂
Good write up Russ.
Also would support 50ish k rides rather than the usual low-mid 40s we’re generally do. Dunno, guess that once you’re out there, you want to get as many Ks in your legs as possible.
With regards to the pace, I thought that the main gap that the Transition group was meant fill was that of road riding skills and cycling group dynamics, not really fitness. It would be vey difficult to cater for smooth fitness-level transition between groups. Its normal when joining a new (and faster) group to struggle a bit at first. That’s why we also have a couple of regroups, to allow everyone to catchup.
Having said that, checking the av. speed after the ride, we did ride 1-2 Ks faster than usual.
Also, looking forward to that rollthrough etiquette post Russ, as it is much needed. A good roll-through makes for a fantastic ride. Being the intermediate / main group, this is a skill we should all master by now and sometimes….we simply dont.
Anyway…good post
cheers
i didn’t realize we were coffeeing at atomic…i ended up at barrack st with a few others.
Guy’s, there already exists a ride etiquette page here on the blog see up the top. It covers pretty much everything you need to know.
link here:
/?page_id=2206
Great idea to increase the klms on the Intermediate Ride – it’ll give the Novice group an even better chance to get into the Coffee Shop queue before the hordes descend!
I don’t think the rollthrough issue was necessarily about a lack of etiquette on peoples part – probably just a little too much enthusiasm. I found myself behind a couple of guys who sped up as they got to the front. Kinda made things difficult because I’ve either got to let them sit there and I’m sitting in the wind the whole time, or I speed up to complete the roll-through. I chose the latter only to have my shirt tugged by the guy rolling through behind me. A quick (and friendly!) discussion at the next set of lights cleared things up, so no harm done. To be fair, I realise that I should have chosen the former and sat at the previous pace (but I’m not perfect, so there you go).
No great problem in my view, it comes with knowledge and experience and there are differing levels of both in the group. The more it’s practised, the better it will become.
By the way, did anyone watch the Tour of Qatar TTT? Quite a few of the teams were making a right horlicks of it themselves – any they’re the pro’s!
Unfortunately, I don’t think it is (or should) be appropriate for the team leaders to spell out the “etiquette” before each ride. So the onus should be on the fellow riders to point out and help each other. Unless you’re in the advanced group, most of us (me included) have still alot to learn, and I would appreciate someone telling how to do things better. I remember my first attempts at criterium racing in group D where there are chaperons from A grade riders – I learnt alot about drafting, cornering lines, bike handling and positioning, during the race. Too bad they couldn’t help me with power.
I’m also voting for increasing the Kms
+1 more kms
From what I’m hearing from people in the Main group, the pace has picked up. I’m coming back from a winter layoff and strugling to finish with the group, but isn’t that what we ride for- to be challenged!
When riders from the Transitional group decide to step up to the Main group they will always find people willing to help them (I can vouch for that as it has happened for me), the regroups help also.
I agree that with roll throughs it is upto all of us in the group to let the riders around you know if they change pace when they get to the front. And for all of us to not take it as a criticism if it is offered. Just remember as others have said, we wont always get it right.
Keep Challenging me!
Fair bit of discussion on last Saturdays roll through still, so I thought I would add something that hasnt been considered… Where we were rolling through was on Burke Street before the regroup point at Canning Highway – this is a pretty common “sprint/smash” point in many group rides. It was almost inevitable therefore that some of the boys (and girls) were going to stretch their legs along that stretch of road. The same thing happens at Shelly, up Mosman Hill, through Dalkeith etc…Hence why the roll through got blown away.
The regroup could have been a bit longer – I agree with that – as there were a couple of riders left behind – and after the Burke St blast I could have done with a couple of minutes more rest at the regroup – as I nearly got dropping coming home on Canning.
And ya have to leave the fast bits in the rides – it keeps it entertaining!
Now as for the fast guys lurking behind and coming out of nowhere to win the sprint… Yup. I do that. However, there is always stuff guying on in the pack that you dont see at the front. This week for example I killed myself dragging a couple of boys back to the group after they got dropped after Mosman Hill (again not enough recovery), and again helping close the gap that formed over Pt Walter. Actually I was soo buggered from the hill and these sweeping efforts that I wasnt going to contest the sprint on Roverside Drv – but the temptation to beat Kimbo got the better of me.
Cavendish out 🙂
interesting discussion, I thought I would add my 2 c. when I am following someone who is rolling through and speeding up, leaving a gap on the person he is meant to be rolling through on, I roll into the gap and encourage the next person to roll front of me. this way the person up front finds himself sitting out there for awhile getting tired. that is when I will roll through on them but will stay right for 5m further then go left and hopefully the roll through will start again and the person who was over enthusiastic will be in the hurt box 😉
or another method which hurts them (and can take a little out of you too, but is fun) is just to stay to the right and keep goingwith the train behind you. then pull left once a few metres ahead of said person and ease up so next person can roll through. do that a few times and perpetrator will be getting jaded.
see, all the fun one can have on a ride. 😉
Ryan,
I’ve see many employ both of those on you (paticularly option 1)! That’s not to say i’ve never been guilty of ‘over exuberant turns’
Lots of talk about cycling etiquette but at the end of the day its about being aware of what’s going on around you. If the group is rolling through at 35km/h when it’s your turn, do the same not increase to 40km/h. Also good to communicate. Tuesday was a good example; a group of us got left at the lights on Canning Hwy. People looked back and seen we were left but nobody seemed to pass the message on and we didn’t see the group again till the end. Not the end of the world but disappointing when me, Pete, Michael B, Chris etc were at the tail end simply because we were keeping an eye on and helping others.
Ahh but that would be on a Sat when we meant to be going fast 😉
Hopefully I do not do it on a Thursday morning, unless I am trying to breakaway…
Feel free to pull me up if I am…
Jonny, with all that horse power at the back and you could not catch the Tues morning ride??? Too many late nights? 😉
I’ll let you know Ryan 🙂
Sometimes it’s difficult to diagnose the difference between people taking the aforementioned ‘over exuberant turns’ and those with “Rhinoaeromuscular disease” – a condition affecting those who can’t push their nose into the wind. This is not to be confused with Gluteal Facial Attraction Syndrome (GFAS), which is a mental disease whereby the sufferer cannot bear the concept of not having another’s bum in front of their face!
I know i’ve suffered from (both) at times. Terrible afflictions……
lol