well the long weekend snuck up on me this week.  after last week being full of continuous BAM, i was looking forward to a simplier week.  it seemed to be going along ok when the boys both developed the sniffles.  wednesday morning started with a sore throat, then BAM.  full on head cold by the end of the day.  thanks boys.  the funny thing is that even though i have had a bad run of late, i actually have had a pretty good year to date when it comes to getting sick.  i put it down to taking a generic immuno defence pill which is supposed to bolster your resilience to child-borne sickness.  well i was taking it leading up to the uci race as i didn’t want to get sick before the event and it seemed to work ok.  i actually ran out about 4 weeks ago and have been suffering since.  coincidence??? maybe.  tainted steak???  possibly.  but as alberto clembutador says “i can’t prove that it is, but you can’t prove that it isn’t”.

rug up this week.  the rain has gone, but the mornings are going to be cold.  5 deg saturday and 4 deg sunday.

ride routes – some important changes to the ride routes this week so be aware.  saturday is a new route for the main group.  i recently drove up abernathy road for the first time in a long time and it is nice smooth double lane for all except the last litte bit.  the last time i rode this stretch was pre spr and i remember having to stop and dry retch on the grass in front of the toll-ipec building after trying to stay on the front with bruce.  we will see how it goes for traffic.

the monday earlybird ride starts at the city side this week and does the usual loop of the river.  the standard monday ride is a bit too long so you won’t make it to the start of the public holiday ride.  the public holiday ride usually finishes cottesloe and then meanders past swanbourne before heading into dalkeith.  this week there are bridge works at the underpass near claremont so we need to avoid that road.  so here is what we are going to do.  after cottesloe, we continue down west coast hwy past the servo where we usually turn, and turn left at the traffic lights at eric st.  this will take us out to stirling hwy were we will turn left again.  roll down the hill and turn right at the lights to continue through dalkeith.

saturday 4th june

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 41.73km (canning vale reverse)

fast, main 1, 2 & 3 – spr saturday 49.09km (abernathy rd)

sunday 5th june

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 61.14km (welshpool & weir rd) (follow long course to first climb)

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

monday 6th june

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 public holiday 59.35km (shelley & freo) (read notes above for route change)