Ride routes 29th August – 4th Sept

Every year the month of July is usually full of suffering. The Tour de France has normally started and a bunch of riders are cutting a big lap of the hexagon. Although over in France the riders are suffering, I find that it is usually work and home that suffer here in Perth. Trying to catch all the action of a stage finish at midnight as well as still get training rides in at 5:30am does make for a grumpy demeanor. Something has to give and it is usually at teh expense of being pleasant to be around. :). This year, however, has been anything but “the usual”. The Tour starts this weekend with the Giro starting a couple of weeks after the Tour finishes and the Vuelta actually overlapping with the Giro’s last week. This will be an action packed few months whilst the organisors scramble to fit races into the rest of the year. Is this the year for another upset as a number of new names appear in the contenders list? You’ll just have to stay up late for the next three weeks to find out.

The Rules – just a reminder that it isn’t business as usual.

As we progress through WA’s phased approach to reopening, how the club interacts within itself and the wider community will also change.
Rightly or wrongly, the lack of community transmission in the state has meant that a lot of the social distancing rules have disappeared. As such we want to streamline what the requirements are from a club perspective. Basically there are 3 main things we want people to keep in mind.

  • The virus can spread via human contact, so minimise the amount of touching between people and each others bikes/helmets etc.
  • No spitting, snotting or sneezing within the group. If you need to, move to the back of the group, but please look behind you to make sure that it is clear of traffic. That is all traffic, not just bikes. We don’t want some dash-cam footage of someone blowing their nose on a car.
  • Personal hygiene becomes very important in the spread of the virus so make sure that you either wash your hands whenever you can or carry a small container of hand sanitiser. Limit your exposure to common surfaces (chairs, tables) and don’t be sharing items.

SPR Watertower Challenge – It’s back. The WaterTower Challenge is set to run in September this year after a couple of years hiatus. Choose from the Metric (103km) or Imperial (170km) challenge. Ride against the clock in group of 3 around the suburbs of Perth. Find WaterTowers that you never knew existed and visit suburbs you don’t usually ride through. Check out the event page on Facebook, organise some mates and pencil in the 20th September. Entries are now open via EntryBoss (click here).

The Beverley Race – The club is again holding this event as part of the Heroic weekend, but this year we have changed the format of the road race. As the perfect preparation for the Tour of Margaret River and it’s 3 team time trials, this years Beverley will be a Team Time Trial of between 4-6 riders. No special TT bikes or fancy helmets allowed, just ride your bike hard. Register your teams today via EntryBoss.

The Beverley Heroic – The Heroic involves many aspects of cycling spanning the weekend of the 17th and 18th of October. On top of the aforementioned team time trial, there is a cyclo-cross race, gravel race and heroic ride.

Volunteers – We have two events coming up where the club will need assistance from the members to ensure they run successfully. Firstly is the WaterTower Challenge on the 20th Sept and secondly is the Beverley on the 17th October.
If you can assist the club, send an email through to club to let us know what you can do.
The WaterTower Challenge requires the following volunteers –
2 x Registration Desk – Jason Gordon, Mandy McEvoy
3 x Feedzone 1 – Fiona Williams, Andrew Williams, Debbie Bertolatti
2 x Feedzone 2 – Greg Murray, ?
1 x SAG wagon – ?
The Beverely Race requires the following volunteers –
Positions announced soon – Fiona Williams, Andrew Williams.

Kit orders reopen – The club kit shop is now open again, primarily to allow those doing the Tour of Margaret River to purchase any additional kit that they might need. If you missed out in the first run get in and order now! https://www.mayeur.cc/collections/south-perth-rouleurs
Update – 2 new garments have been added to the shop. A women’s 3/4 length bibs and a Premium jersey. The fit of the Premium jersey is between the slim and aero and made from a premium fabric.
This order will close on 1 September 2020 to allow enough time for kit to arrive pre-ToMR.

Saturday Hills Ride Option Survey Results – As you may remember the club received some feedback recently from a few members enquiring about an option to hold a Hills ride on a Saturday morning. We then put out a simple survey on this blog to gain an understanding of where members sat on the issue. Some key stats from this survey:-
There were 78 responses
On the question of are you interested, nearly 90% said yes
On the question of how frequent; 34% said once a month, 22% said twice monthly, which was the same response as “occasionally” and every week.
On the question of what distance, 47% said short hills, 18% said long Hills and 35% suggested either

From the results above, the SPR Committee has endorsed a 2-month trial of a Saturday Short Hills Ride on the first Saturday’s in September and October. We will be allocating a Ride Leader to the ride in the same way we do with all Saturday rides; this is an important part of SPR’s goal of providing safe group rides, but also means that we will need to review carefully after the trial as our volunteer Ride Leader’s time is precious! So, the first of these will kick off on Saturday 5th September, leaving from Coode Street at 7am. We will be reminding people next week that it will be on and again in early October via posts and Facebook so if you were one of the 70 that said yes, please support the trial. A decision to extend the trial beyond October will be made pending the popularity of the ride and any issues that may arise from riding in the hills on a Saturday not a Sunday.Given it is estimated that most respondents would have had some experience with Hills riding, it is suggested that the speed and fitness required for these first 2 rides will be that riders can keep up at a minimum Main 2 riding pace / fitness level. If we get feedback that there is a call for a slower Hills ride on Saturday, we can review that when we review the success of the trial.

Smart active transportation survey – A PhD candidate at the School of Design and the Built Environment at Curtin University is researching active transportation (walking/cycling) and its relationship with technology, and how technology can improve and assist walking/cycling. As part of the study, there is a survey to understand peoples idea about the active mode of transportation. Please help out and spend a few minutes to fill in the survey here.

Club Van – We are currently looking for a new location for the club van to reside. After a few years at Laurensia’s (which we are very appreciative about), it is looking for a new home. If anyone has any spare garage space and would be willing to have our club van sit quietly, then please contact the club and let us know. Either residential or commercial properties are okay, as long as we can access it for events.

Our commitment to Core Values – We are a diverse club that made a point early on of committing to a number of core values to which we have built everything upon. These are – Safe, Inclusive, Organised & Social. It is under these values that we want all club interaction to occur, whether on the road or in cyberspace. Please read the previous post so you understand what we as a club, expect from you as members.

Where do i need to stand again?

Saturday Start Locations – In order to adhere to the new gathering regulations, we need to slightly change the meeting points of the groups. There is a 100 person gathering limit and when all groups are combined, we often exceed that when everyone is waiting for the start. There was a discussion about different start times for different groups, but what we settled on was moving half the groups to different sides of the carpark. This is not ideal as there are usually more cars using the eastern most parks, but we will just have to work around that for now. We understand that the COVID risk isn’t high, but it is more about how the club is viewed from outside. So, please congregate in the assigned locations, so we can continue to hold group rides in the future.

From the Ride Coordinator – As predicted last week, our numbers for the Saturday ride swelled with the fine weather. It was great to see more people heading out after their long winter’s hibernation and this week it’s also looking good.
But of course, with extra numbers, comes extra responsibility on all riders to be aware of their surroundings and the safety of their fellow riders as group sizes tend to be bigger. So I’ve decided to post a weekly “spotlight/focus” on things to be aware of when riding in groups.
This week it’s on “Calling UP and DOWN the group” relating to riding instructions and hazards. We picked up some feedback last week that one of our pelotons got a little messy moving to single file when the road transitioned from double lane to single lane. Whilst it was called from the back, it wasn’t passed up through the group so a number of riders remained double breasted along the single lane road and caused some frustrations with the motorists behind. Likewise, it’s very important to be calling ALL the way down the line when hazards or traffic appears ahead. One of the most dangerous incidents we have is coming up to roundabouts when traffic is not called down to the back riders. So, please do yourself a favour and make sure a call is passed on to the next person, up or down! It may just be the difference between enjoying a coffee afterwards or getting an ambulance to hospital.

Saturday 29th August

Sunday 30th August

Monday 31st August

Tuesday 1 September

  • Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
  • Ride starts Frasers ave at 5:45am
    • Development group – interval training kings park

Wednesday 2nd September

Thursday 3rd September

Friday 4th Spetember