so, as you can see by the lack of capital letters, i am now back from brazil.  it was a flying visit and included 55hrs of flying in the last week.  if i ever have to do a long haul flight again, i hope it is with emirates business class.  unfortunately without a multi-national company behind me, i doubt that i would be able to afford it.  for work though, it was all good.

while i was over there i only saw a total of 4 cyclists.  they seemed to be european ex-pats mainly because the locals didn’t have a deathwish.  the place we were staying at didn’t seem to have any flat ground at all.  if the roads weren’t going up they were going down and would provide a perfect training ground.  that is if they survived the year.  the drivers were all mad as cut snakes.  three wide, bumper to bumper with motorbikes cutting in between each lane.  mad.

races –pdcc graded handicap road race saturday, dwellingup 100km mtb race next saturday, cyclo-sportif at warona next sunday.

stickers –as you may have seen, we are getting some feedback on the design of the bumper sticker that we will be getting made.  this is basic club promotional stuff and needs to show that we are a bike club and where to find us on the net.  much like the federal election, there is definitely two designs that seem to be getting the majority of the votes.  keep the votes coming and we will see who the winner is next week.  (i have brought the closing date forward).  vote here.

spr accessories –i will be bringing the gloves, etc to the coffeeshop again this week so if you didn’t manage to collect your kit, then make sure you come along this week.  pick up can also be in the city during the week or at my place after hours by appointment only.  email here to arrange a time.

ride routes – so the question is, did you like the ride route suggestions from toby last week???  i have avoided giving everyone the same route as it means that the slower groups will not get to the coffeeshop till much later than the fast group.  however, if you feel we should trial it, i can give the fast and main groups the same 50km route next week and see how we go.  there are benefits in it and i believe the fast group had a much bigger turn out last week as they could always get swept up by the main group if they got dropped.  give me some feedback.

as for this week, some stock standard rides and a nice one for sunday…

saturday 11th september – all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional – spr saturday 40.72km (mosman park)

main 1 & 2 – spr saturday 51.36km (sth lake)

fast – spr saturday 55.76km (shelley & mosman park)

sunday 12th september – all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

short – spr sunday 61.14km (welshpool & weir rd) – follow long course to get to welshpool

long – spr sunday 94.36km (chookenberg & observatory & gooseberry)