so there were a couple of instances last weekend and even this morning that frustrate the crap out of anyone trying to organise the groups. it is all about why we split the groups up. we have been through this so many times before and everyone knows that we split for safety so the groups is not so big on the road, gets caught at every light change and is difficult to maintain a smooth roll through. unfortunately trying to split the long sunday hills last week was a waste of time. there were around 40 riders and 35 of them all self selected to ride in the fast group. this was after i beat a number of them up the climbs the previous week in the second group. in other words, they were not fast and hence would force the long hills group to wait longer at the top of each climb. we ended up going as one group as there was no point 5 of us trying to ride into the headwind ourselves. what it meant was that the group split on pretty much every red light all the way down albany hwy. now i don’t know why the human psyche works that way, and it is primarily the males, but we don’t post hills group results on facebook, so no-one is going to think that you are less of a rider in the second group. on that day, it was very, very clear that there was a have and have-not when it came to climbing and the faster riders did have to wait a lot longer before they could continue. we are trying to look after all riders when we do this. we don’t want the faster ones to get frustrated and wait just as much as we don’t want the slower ones to feel pressured that they are making people wait. all our rides are there for everyone to enjoy. however, trying to organise it takes away a lot of that joy if you are constantly battling against people. the weather is nice so more people are turning up for our rides. help keep them safe and enjoyable by doing the right thing.
crit season – criterium racing continues, but you have to make a choice this weekend. both peel and rccc are running a race on sunday at pinjarra and the tonkin business park respectively. entries for peel can be found here and entries for rccc can be found here.
spr xmas drinks – keep the evening of sunday 15th december free for our annual out of lycra xmas drinks night. tickets can be found in the blog shop and more info can be found in the previous post.
great southern ultra challenge – perth – toodyay – northam – meckering – merredin – lake grace – newdegate – ravensthorpe – albany – pingrup – katanning – wagin – narrogin – brookton – perth. fancy a casual 1600km event??? the great southern ultra challenge began at 8am last saturday and although a number of riders have already finished, there are still more on the road. tony smith finished midnight wed night after a stupendous effort. it kind of makes the festive 500 seem a bit lame. check out this promo vid if you have time.
tour of margs – waiting for race@spr to put the finishing touches on the tomr race report and some photos from zac williams to come through. mo said that he was running out of nick-names so have your glossary handy.
AusCycle – so there has been a bit of an update over the last week in relation to AusCycle. Tasmania came out and voted no to join NSW. it is expected that WA votes no even though our official vote isn’t in, the in-house vote said that we want a different model than what has been proposed. you can find out mode from the cyclingtips blog that is currently covering it. there is lots in social media about it and there are lots of heated conversations going on that i have decided to keep out of. however, the question i have for the states that are all for it is this; qld, vic, nsw are three states that have dedicated crit circuits. are the riders in those areas okay with their licence fees and state funding going towards building a crit circuit in wa? that is one of the fears from the association over here. the centralised mtb model has shown similar things in the past with no money being spent in wa, so they went ahead and setup their own wa association to get stuff done. not saying that coming under one banner can’t work, just that it seems to have not been well thought out.
cycling trip to france – next year long time spr member, christophe is looking at organising a trip to france to ride in the mountains. it is 12 nights with 2 french speaking guides cruising around such little hills as mount ventoux. if you are interested, see christophe at the coffee shop after the ride or email him at crosstraining@optusnet.com.au
sunday start locations – as numbers increase over summer, we are looking at how we can manage the groups on a sunday morning. as such we are implementing a start location system to give us an idea of how big the groups are. we can then split them before they leave the carpark to ensure that the groups are a safe size on the road. see the previous blog post about where to meet and the new start time.
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.
spr juniors – juniors, juniors, juniors. the weather is looking good so get the kids out and onto the bikes. there were some new juniors out last weekend so the numbers are growing heading into summer. A few more returns from last year and we will have quite a squad in kings park.
from the ride coordinator – This week’s ride route was inspired by the old saying “The Best ride routes are the ones you haven’t ridden”. It’s been a while since we have done Ridgehill Road. So long I’ve almost forgotten it. Enjoy your riding this weekend.
saturday 30th november
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
juniors – kings park juniors 23.72km spr saturday
development group – novice shelley 36.06km spr saturday
transitional 1/2 – trans canning vale 42.34km spr saturday
fast/main – ridgehill rd 50.55km spr saturday
sunday 1st december
rides start at coode st carpark at 6:00am
note: sunday rides now start at 6:00am from nov to feb
development group – coffee ride
short –khna weir 72.23km spr sunday
long – khna trnr obs 101.76km spr sunday
monday 2nd december
ride starts under the narrows (sth perth side) at 5:30am
south stock 33.76km spr monday
tuesday 3rd december
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
spr tuesday 36.37km (river ride)
wednesday 4th december
ride starts raffles bike path at 5:30am
interval training – stock road repeats
thursday 5th december
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 6th december
ride starts under the narrows (sth perth side) at 5:30am