holy crap.  just looked at the forecast for this weekend and they are predicting 6 & 8 degrees in the morning.  time to grab out those long gloves and knee warmers.  might even have a chance to try out the new winter longsleeve jersey.

preston point rd – so you would have seen some of the chatter on previous posts about the “downgrades” to preston point road.  pretty much every cycling group in perth uses that stretch of road to cut a lap of the river, so why they have made it harder for cars to pass is beyond me.  i understand that pedestrians need safe access to the oval and facilities, but with some sections bordered on one side by an army barracks (with no footpath) why does the whole road need to be “developed”.  basically i see it as the city has money in its budget and it needs to be spent before the end of the financial year or they lose it.  pretty soon all roads will be single lane, square kerbs, solid dividing strip, no parking, no bike lane, 40km/hr.  it is much safer that way.

anyway, i am getting a bit off track.  once the roadworks are finished, i see no problem for groups of cyclists to use the new road from a “safe road” point of view.  from a “piss the car drivers off” point of view, there will be around 2kms  where cars will not be able to pass cyclists even if they are single file.  there is not enough room to fit a single bike and a car through the traffic “calming” devices.  however, we will get to that once the road is complete.

in the meantime, i am suggesting that we map an alternative route when doing the river ride.  this is for the earlybird sat/sun as well as the tues/thurs rides for the next couple of weeks.  once we cross the bridge and turn left onto canning hwy, we generally take the first left to climb the hill of preston point road.  from now on we will continue to go straight along canning hwy and eventually turn left at point walter road.  this will mean that we join up with the old route at the roundabout where we turn left and climb up to point walter.  canning hwy will mean negotiating three sets of traffic lights, but a couple of them are T-intersections, so hopefully the group should sail through.  the road is double lane, traffic should be light at that time, it is well lit and the road surface isn’t littered with traffic calming devices.  hopefully this all goes well.  during normal daylight hours, the roadworks are easier to see, so using preston point road shouldn’t be a problem.

basically the safety of the group is the most important.  i have been riding in perth with this group for 6 years and this morning was the first time i have actually come off.  the fact that it was poorly demarcated roadworks on a very popular stretch of cycle route, is probably the most frustrating.  we will see how the canning hwy route goes for a while and reassess in the near future.

state time trial champs – are on this saturday arvo down at dardanup.  claire, lisa, dianne and davina will be flying the flag for spr in the women’s division. stu, jason, shane, jono and myself will be tackling the men’s section.  jono is the only one having to do the longer course as the rest of us are either old, or female.  anyway, good luck to everyone…and i hope i don’t get chicked again this year.

ride routes – after coping some flak for putting a “hill” in the saturday ride route for the last couple of weeks, we will be doing sth lake instead.  this also augers well with the prevailing winds which mean that you should get a tailwind home.  the transitional group will be making up for the softness of the main/fast by doing rebold hill.  don’t forget to avoid the roadworks at preston point during the earlybirds.

saturday 21st may

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – spr earlybird ride

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional 1 – spr saturday 40.86km (rebold hill)

fast, main 1, 2 & 3 – spr saturday 51.36km (sth lake)

sunday 22nd may

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – spr earlybird ride

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

short – spr sunday 70.93km (kahuna)

long – spr sunday 94.64km (kahuna & canning mills)