sorry for the delay publishing the ride routes this week. there was a bit of confusion between the president and the vice-president as to who was writing the blog and it ended up with neither of us doing it.
now there was a crash on the friday spr earlybird ride today. there has been a lot of discussion about the spread of skills on that ride and the size of the group. the blame seems to be placed on the “development group” that the club committee’s training and development officer had established. now, lets be clear here. the development ride is not only novice riders, and my understanding is that currently most of the riders are main 1-3 group riders. development means that the groups aim is to develop riders. now this can be to develop from main 3 to main 1 or tranny to main 3. to assist in this, the friday ride is used as it is meant to be an easier pace with a hard hit out along shelley. the development riders use the group to work on strength and speed, and if they can’t hang on all the way to to the end of shelley, they turn around and ride home. over the last couple of weeks i have heard of a number of “regular” friday riders complaining about the “development riders” slowing the pace of the ride down. as far as i am concerned the club is inclusive, the ride is inclusive and this ride, out of any of the rides should be able to absorb a wider spread of abilities. if the group is too big, then like other rides during the week, it will need to be split, but to say that one group of riders is more eligible to ride our club rides over another, goes against what the club stands for. i recommend that some of our members re-read the ride etiquette guide before they comment on what should and shouldn’t happen on sanctioned club rides. the worse thing that can happen to the club is that it turns into an exclusive clique of snobby riders.
ride leader sponsor – no ride leader sponsor for october as the one i had lined up was no longer available. i kind of ran out of time to sort out an alternative, but i know there are a few companies out there that are interested. i will sort you out for next month.
rules of engagement – please read the previous post if you come out on any of our rides. it is up to all members to enforce these rules.
2015 club survey – the club survey has closed and we are currently going through the results. we will attempt to post some replies to any of the specific questions/issues that have been raised.
spr club champion – the final race in the club championship was run over the weekend and the final leaderboard should be set soon. there will be some presentations for the winners and it will probably be at the next club breakfast. for the upcoming crit season, we will run another club champion series with more details to follow the release of the crit calendar
spr watertower challenge – you may have seen that entries are now open for the spr watertower challenge. for those of you that are relatively new to the club, it is a participation ride for teams of 3 that takes in a number of the high water towers scattered around perth. the majority of these towers are found on the tops of hills, but not really big hills. there are 2 distances a metric century (100 kms) and an imperial century (100 miles/160 kms). the ride is supported with feedzones and a sag wagon and is open to any cyclist out there. more info on the watertower event page. spread the word.
tour of margaret river – the tour of margaret river teams have been set and we have 2 teams of women and 2 teams of men with a couple of reserves. there will be specific training for all teams starting this weekend.
ride routes – rides for all riders.
saturday 10th october
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
early lap – earlybird 40.93km spr special
all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am
development group – novice shelley 36.06km spr saturday
transitional – trans reverse river 40.58km spr saturday
tomr teams – ttt training in kings park
fast & main groups – abernethy rd 48.21km spr saturday
sunday 11th october
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
early lap – earlybird 40.93km spr special
all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am
short – grnmt goose 65.22km spr sunday
long – grnmt prk mnd wr 93.71km spr sunday
monday 12th october
ride starts under the narrows (sth perth side) at 5:30am
main group – south stock 33.76km spr monday
tuesday 13th october
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
spr tuesday 36.37km (river ride)
ride starts frasers carpark at 5:45am
development group – interval training kings park
wednesday 14th october
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
spr wednesday 14.22km (uci masters)
ride starts raffles bike path at 5:30am
development group – stock road repeats
thursday 15th october
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30arm
spr thursday 37.26km (cott & freo)
ride starts frasers carpark at 5:45am
development group – interval training kings park
friday 16th october
ride starts under the narrows (sth perth side) at 5:30am
Ride not fast enough for you?
Grab a coffee, read elprez’ link to Club Etiquette Guide and have a think:
How many turns do you take on the front?
– If you’re only ever sitting in, don’t complain about the speed.
Have you tried sitting a few bike lengths off the back?
While you’re there, looked out for the newbies at the back and towed someone dropped back onto the pack?
Seen someone wobbly in front of you, well the pace is slow right……so back off a few bike lengths.
Pulled up alongside someone and actually pushed them up the hill or back onto the group?
Ride didn’t burn enough, throw in a few km’s after, or before next time.
These are Club rides, not you Strava PR rides.
Don’t complain.
Enjoy the ride. 🙂
Well said Doug.
And well summarised El Prez – unfortunately the vocal few are often those who prefer to blame others before looking within.
I come from a slightly different cycling background from the majority of club members (ie track and mtb) – the thing that attracted me to SPR many years ago, and still does is that it doesn’t come with the inflated ego that seems to accompany roadies in many other clubs (“exclusive clique of snobby riders”).
Your speed is not a measure of how nice a person you are (or how skillful a cyclist you are).
SPR is a great club with great values – don’t let those values slide for the sake of a vocal few.
On the topic of club values: thanks to the Main 1.2 riders who stayed back with me after an unfortunate minor fall (none to blame other than myself) – Anthony and a few other folks whose names I unfortunately didn’t catch. Appreciate the help and the tow back along Guildford. Ironically, that was probably the most organised, the smoothest and the most enjoyable part of the ride today, with nicely paced tidy roll-through.