about 10 days ago i received a facebook message from a guy that i went to high school with named anthony.  i haven’t seen him since school finished way back in 1989 but a few years back he got in contact to talk about bikes.  recently he wanted to tell me about the new bike that he got and sent me the attached photo.  he wasn’t doing a lot of riding but was pretty excited to show me his new bike.  i found out yesterday that 2 days ago, he died while out on the bike.  not from an accident or anything, but from a genetic heart disease called hypotrophic cardiomyopathy which also claimed his younger brother 21 years ago.  i haven’t had a lot to do with him and i can’t really even say where he was living, but he reached out because of a common interest in cycling.  even though we went to school together, that connection wasn’t really enough to make us keep in contact.  think of all the people that you now know because of cycling and what are the chances that you would actually meet them if not for riding your bike.  anthony has left behind a partner and young 2 daughters, so remember that there are also more important things in life than riding your bike.  the weather has been crap and i aborted my ride this morning after getting saturated in the first 5 minutes.  but that is not even close to being important or even worth getting angry about.  cherish the things in life that you are able to do.  ride because you want to, not because you have to.  enjoy it.

ride leader sponsor – there is no ride leader sponsor for august.  if you would like to be involved, please contact the club for more information.

spr tomr 2017 – the long team for the spr tomr squad was announced last week and it is from this group that the final teams will be decided.  as always there will be withdrawals due to injury/sickness etc, so we need to maintain a few more riders.  the other news this week is that one of our women’s teams will have annemiek van vlueten as our guest pro rider.  there has always been pro riders in amongst the race teams, but this year annemiek will be helping us.  you can read a bit more about her in our previous post. as usual, any further info about the tour of margs teams will be published under the team tab on this blog.

tomr nutrition  – we have scheduled a presentation on racing nutrition with spr member jessica gammon at the vic hotel in subiaco at 7pm on monday 28 august with a $7 entry fee at the door. this will be a very informative night with specific advice on fuelling for the three days. however, it is open to all riders that may want to learn about race nutrition.

club van guidelines – to ensure that club property is used effectively, we have developed a guideline for van usage so that everything is above board.  it is a resource for the club to use and this means not just the committee members.  have a look at the previous post for more information.

entertainment books – this year the club has decided to sell the every popular entertainment books as a way to raise funds.  even better there is now an app available so you don’t need to carry vouchers with you.  the app can also be shared between you and other family members,  there is also a cool function where you can see a map of your location and all the available offers in the area.   remember, you only need to redeem a few item to make up for the cost of the book and at the same time you will be helping the club. check out the previous post for more details and links to registration.

thursday training ride – we implemented a new system of splitting the thursday group ride to keep the size manageable.    we think that we have come up with a good way of splitting the groups, but we need you to be honest about your own abilities.  have a look at the strava segment for the ride so you know where you sit.  there is nothing to stop you stepping up to challenge yourself, but this will at least provide a guide as to how much more challenging it will be.

saturday start locations – we have revamped the group start locations on saturday morning.  please have a look at the map so you know where your group will congregate.  this makes it easier for ride leaders to give you a briefing before the ride starts.  see the previous post for more details.

ride routes – uuggh.  saturday is not looking too promising at the moment, but hopefully sunday can make up for it.  maybe we can get more than the 10 riders at the carpark on saturday…which turned into 1 rider at the coffee shop afterwards.

saturday 19th august

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 mosman 40.39km spr saturday

fast & main groups – tv stations 50.29km spr saturday

sunday 20th august

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 – coffee ride

short – brktn weir 82.89km spr sunday

long – carr peet obs 97.72km spr sunday

monday 21st august

ride starts under the narrows (sth perth side) at 5:30am

south stock 33.76km spr monday

tuesday 22nd august

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

spr tuesday 36.37km (river ride)

ride starts frasers ave at 5:45am

development group – interval training kings park

wednesday 23rd august

ride starts raffles bike path at 5:30am

interval training – stock road repeats

thursday 24th august

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

see previous post for ride groups

spr thursday 37.26km (cott & freo)

ride starts frasers ave at 5:45am

development group – interval training kings park

friday 25th august

ride starts under the narrows (sth perth side) at 5:30am

spr friday 42.01km (shelley)

friday training/recovery ride