november kicked off with a bang. torrential rain in melbourne and 36 degrees here. there was a race that stopped a nation and the betting agencies were run off their feet. it made me wonder if cycling was more heavily bet on, would it increase it’s popularity. keiren racing in japan is a big business and it basically attracts crowds like a horse race. betting is all part of the event and the riders are treated like stars. in europe, they run 6 day events at the track and there is live bands and hours of entertainment. here, track racing is relegated to the suburbs and road racing is sent well out of town. i don’t think we can ever be as popular as footy and cricket, but a higher profile for some of our events wouldn’t hurt. the track gpis coming up soon and if you haven’t been to one before, it is well worth the admission. a whole bunch of international riders come along and you will see racing at a whole different level.
movember –there are four of us currently growing the bad porn star mo for an spr team for movember. here is a link to the movember page where you can donate to the cause. if you don’t donate, i will leave the mo on for another month.
tuesday training ride –well the mob has spoken. a split is needed, but we will need to play it by ear for a few weeks till we get it right. this coming week we will use the odds and evens approach. either house numbers or birthdays. i will make it up on the day. normal tuesday group rules will still apply, so keep it together and regroup when needed.
ride routes –so after the feedback from the blog, we have trans 1 & 2 doing the same distance again. this is what the group wants so i am all for making the group happy. fast/main will be doing the river route in preparation for those that are doing the great perth bike ride in a few weeks. mike has put a call out for juniors this weekend, so see how we go for numbers. he is a teacher and so has all the working withchildren checks and is an athletics coach, but i think you need to still supervise your kids initially until you are both satisfied that they can cope in the group. i also don’t want to burden mike as he is theonly qualified person to be able to do it week after week. we will see how it goes. also, if you are keen to help out leading a group, add your name to the comments. leon and jordan did it last week and it was really appreciated.
saturday 6th november – all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am
juniors – spr saturday 22.11km juniors (mt pleasant)
development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)
transitional 1 & 2 – spr saturday 41.73km (canning vale reverse)
fast, main 1 & 2 – spr saturday 50.97km (river ride)
sunday 7th november – all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am
short – spr sunday 61.14km (welshpool & weir rd) following long course out to the hills
long – spr sunday 101.86km (welshpool & mundaring & kalamunda)
Happy to lead one of the transitional groups tomorrow.
I’ll stick with the T1 tomorrow (as I’m riding Byford on Sunday). To keep things organised, we will roll out just before the T2. Stick together on Canning Hwy. North Lake road will stretch us out, and we will regroup before the top.
Do as much practice at roll-thrus on South St (Bus lane), Bannister & Nicholson as we can safely fit in. We will roll thru at a reasonable 33kph on the outside lane, and 31kph on the inside lane. Remember not to let the person in front form a gap. There should not be a need to stand on your pedals to catch up. Conversely, there should be little need to stop pedalling let alone braking. Look past the shoulder of the person in front of you (not their wheel/derailleur even if you want to admire how clean Patrick’s drivetrain is).
Riverside drive will have the usual sprint. The weather is looking great with 8kph wind instead of last weeks wind tunnel