as in previous years, the uwct perth qualifier will be the goal for many of our clubs riders.  unlike previous years, there is no road race, but just a grand fondo style event.  instead of laps around either kings park or rebold hill, the course heads out to the hills.  this means that club training for this event needs to change a bit.  as these rides will take a few hours, sunday is really the only day available.

while the total course goes through kings park, up alexander drive and along reid hwy, the part that we will be concentrating on will be the hills from toodyay rd all the way back into town.

we have mapped a training ride which you can see/download here.  uwct training 107.2km spr sunday

starting this weekend, we will be running the uwct course as an option for the sunday hills rides.  as the course heads up toodyay rd, a road with a bit of traffic and very little shoulder, we will try to minimise the risk, by starting this ride at 6am.  the standard long and short hills ride will still be on at 7am.

now the way that we will run this training will also be a bit different to the standard sunday hills ride.  as it is training for a race-type event, we will be attacking certain sections as if it is a race.  there will be regroups at certain points, but a hard hit out in between.

the exception to this will be the first 25kms out to the hills.  as this is not part of the actual course, we will just roll along, 2 abreast, with riders peeling off when they are tired.  once we hit toodyay rd, it is all on until the turn onto stoneville rd.  probably best to stay single file along this stretch as well.  just after the turn, we will regroup to make sure that we have everyone.  from there, it is on again till the regroup at mundaring dome, on again until the regroup at kalamunda servo.  we will then ride as a group down the zigzag before rolling through helena valley and into guildford.  after this point, we will have to assess the traffic for the final push back into the city for a coffee at dome westralia.  potentially, it may be like the saturday return along guildford where it rolls hard with some attacks on those last rolling hills in maylands.

now, although this ride will be open to all, people must be competent enough in the hills before they come out.  what this means is that they probably need to be able to finish the spr long hills ride on a regular basis, before they attempt the uwct ride.  there will be a number of regroups, but we also don’t want to be out there all day waiting for riders.  it is also important for you to know the course, as there will be long sections where we will not be riding as a group, so you may need to know were to turn.

if you are interested in the event, more info can be found on the event website.