so it looks like it is basically going to rain from about midnight tonight, through to sometime sunday. for those of you that are relatively new to cycling, welcome to winter bike riding. it is wet, cold-ish, uncomfortable and you know that if you don’t do it, you will get fat. the saving grace is that the rain will stop next week, but this means the return of the 3 deg mornings. buckle up, summer has gone away for a while.
tour de france – welcome to three weeks of grumpy cyclists. the one good thing about being 2 hrs behind the east coast is that our live telecast of the tour finishes at midnight rather than 2am. this means that you can quickly jump into bed, get 5 hrs sleep then up again to go for a ride. family, work colleagues and non-cycling friends watch out. sbs has live telecast from 8:30/9:30 every night, plus the usual recap at 6pm if you fall asleep accidentally.
tour de france tipping comp – as we do every year, there will be a tour tipping comp. this year it will be a fundraiser to help the spr guys heading over to belgium. for those that haven’t done it before, it is a great way to follow the tour as you agonise over every sprint even for 6th place as you know that there are points on the line. join up by heading to the tipping page here and registering your team. first stage is saturday night so get on board and help support our club members.
ride routes – like last week, we will play saturday morning by ear as far as groups are concerned. the impending rain will generally keep people away but there will always be the committed/hardcore/crazy few that will ride regardless. to keep you warm, i have scheduled in ewen st. some people ask how i decide on which rides we do on saturday. well basically the wind will be wsw so it will mean a tailwind if we come home via dalkeith. we will do these type of routes while we can. once winter finishes, we will be back to easterlys and home via guilford or welshpool rds. sunday, is pretty basic. the short course will need to decide on either kalamunda rd or the goose on the day.
saturday 2nd july
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 50.23km (ewen st)
sunday 3rd july
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 67.96km (greenmount & zig-zig) (do kalamunda or gooseberry instead of zig-zag)
long – spr sunday 95.04km (greenmount & parkerville & mundaring weir)
Aaaah…. Le Tour. Ze memories are still strong from 1995, when Phil and I were still young.
Alors, can only recreate now with Gooseberry Hill – perhaps we can stop at zat beaut French Cafe ‘Le Croissant’ instead of ze usual one in Kalamunda wif de very grumpy woman, no?
Le Chocolat Chaude in large bowls for dipping croissants…. mmmm.
friggin’ ewen. gutted.
suck it up princess.
You will see me on Monday unless you catch me doing secret training
Wet, coldish and uncomfortable….yep it was everything you promised it would be!
Still ready to rock at half 5 in the morning.
Hope that it may be my first ride this week where I don’t get soaked.
Committed/hardcore/crazy ?!?!
maybe avoiding Le Tour beer gut.
missed you this morning nick. just young jamie and myself on the sunday earlybird.
I rode both weekend days – and didn’t get to say thanks to everyone who looked out for me – especially the lads on this mornings hills ride! I peeled off after coming down Berwick st this morning EXHAUSTED and on a lovely buzz from completing my first hills ride. I really enjoyed both rides (ask me tomorrow as my leg muscles may tell me a different tale ha!) and look forward to doing it all again with SPR yeooow 🙂
ps Peter love that comment about ppl getting fat!! Golden! I will use it against my friends who have been umming and ahhing for a while now
The view at L’alpe d’Huezigzag was amazing. Sunny and clear. Rainclouds far away. Almost forgotten the pain of G Eastern Hwy. Fresh. And thanks for stopping at Le Croissant instead of Le Grumpy Merchant everyone! 😀
Got my legs up now and ready to watch the Tour. Almost ready for work tomorrow….
Sunday’s ride – my first time up Greenmount, went so well, I could’ve charged through to Mundaring – given another hour or 2!!! fortunately Pete and the boys, having had time for tea and muffins waiting for me, called me into the regroup – so pissed off 🙂
I missed it due to a gastric illness with two of the children. And it was wet again.