sunday the 19th of feb sees the next running of renae’s race. this is the premier women’s race in perth and it is in memory of renae baker, a talented perth cyclist.
there will be 4 women’s only grades; open, b, c & d and 1 open men’s support race as well as a women’s “come and try” event. we are aiming for this race to be self sufficient in 2018 with no men’s event at all.
to achieve this, we need to make sure that each of the grades are well represented. this is a perfect opportunity for any women in club to have a go at racing. the circuit is only 1km long and the traffic is managed. there will be lots of club support down there and people to give you advice if you have never raced before. day licences are available if you do not have a race licence.
many of the lower grade races are just like a saturday group ride, so i know that you can do it. we have lots of women in the club that consistently ride all week so we need to support this event.
as the club continues to grow and the sun continues to shine, we are getting more and more people attending the saturday morning ride. we now regularly get about 150 riders and split into 8-9 groups. the introduction of the ride leader training has formalised how we run the saturday morning groups and there has been a lot of positive feedback around the black jerseys.
however, the shining sun also bring out a lot of other people that want to enjoy the swan river. as such, there has been a lot more cars and boat trailers filling up the carpark early making it hard for us to organise groups.
to assist in splitting the groups up and staying away from the majority of traffic movements within the carpark, we have developed a new marshalling plan. this allows us to slowly funnel riders out and gives us more control over splitting group sizes. it centralises the individual giving the ride briefing and also places the groups in departing order.
please have a look at the map below and when you get there on saturday, position yourself in the area of the group you wish to ride in. the ride leaders will then come to that area to split if necessary and brief that group before heading out.
so school holidays have finished but don’t let that stop you from taking the kids out on the bike. the heritage trail is a great place to ride as the dirt is easy and the gradients are not steep. there are places to see and ice creams to be bought at parkerville store. let the next generation of spr riders experience the freedom of riding your bike. you never know that some of their youthful joy may rub off on you and you remember why you started riding in the first place.
ride leader sponsor – there is no ride leader sponsor for this month. if you have a business that you think would benefit from advertising on our blog/facebook/emails then get in contact with the club. all money goes towards providing vouchers for the ride leaders who give their time to ensure that the group is riding to our standard.
tips and tricks – when you are riding by yourself, one of the most frustrating things is sitting at a set of traffic lights and watching every other direction get green except you. understanding how lights are triggered will help you get around this without having to mount the pavement and pretend to be a pedestrian. as you approach the intersection you will see a number of cut marks in the road surface. these are the induction loops that are used to sense when a vehicle is waiting. contrary to some people beliefs, these do not sense the weight of a car, so jumping up and down on your bike will not help. what they do is sense a change in frequency to the electromagnetic field over the coil of wire. this is caused by a conductive material being placed above it (i.e. the steel in the bottom of a car). so firstly, what you need to do is stop your bike on top of the loop. if you ride around it, it will never know you are there. there should be enough metal in your cluster and spokes to set it off, but with the new fangled carbon and alloy bikes, there is less and less conductive material. what you can do is lean you bike to one side to give the loop more metal (chain, rings, cluster) to detect.
ride routes – looks like some nice weather this weekend with southerly winds blowing instead of easterly’s. take advantage of it and train your little legs off.
saturday 4th february
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
so it is now safe to get back onto facebook as the barrage of tour down under posts have ceased. the club had a very good and visible presence in adelaide and we even saw some screen captures of ritchie porte soloing past a large contingent of club members. by all accounts it was an awesome with lots of hills, pro-spotting and local racing involved. there was even a sagan wheelie competition winner.
ride leader sponsor – the ride leader sponsor for january is Stadium Triathlon Club. perth’s largest triathlon club caters for athletes of all abilities and has training programs to suit all goal.
ride etiquette – on the sunday long hills last week there was an incident that i found a little disturbing. one of the stronger riders was stung by multiple bees and quickly pulled off the front of the group in obvious distress. people asked if he was okay and he responded “no”. however, no-one actually stopped to see if he was alright. it was a passing motorist that actually stopped to render assistance. the rider lost vision in one eye for a period of time and this is from someone that isn’t allergic. now we are not sure if people didn’t stop because he is considered one of the stronger riders and therefore could look after himself. however, this was not just a case of getting a flat tyre and could have resulted in something much much worse. these are club group rides and we should be there to look out for everyone in the group. this happened towards that base of the climb where there would be a regroup at the top. if you took 10 sec to slow and see if they were alright, you would have caught up quickly.
tips and tricks – i realise that there are always new riders joining the group and also people that are new to cycling. what we would like to do here is just give a few little helpful hints that people may not know about. so the first thing is personal hygiene. not to say that you are stinky, and i know that you would wash your kit after every ride. however, how often do you wash your helmet and your helmet pads. these little suckers soak up so much sweat, especially during a summer ride. often people just let it dry and wear it next time. you will see salt crystals forming on the straps, but you will not see the bacteria in the inside pads. giving the whole thing a hose out after every couple of rides is quick to do and will mean that your helmets lasts longer.
ride routes – the “beasterly” winds that make summer unbearable on the bike are back. as such, we will get an awesome tailwind along benara rd to get us home. coffee awaits.
saturday 28th january
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
so i am still on holidays and as such i totally forgot what day it was. a trip to ikea this evening meant that it wasn’t till we were driving home after 8pm that i realised that i still hadn’t done the ride routes. so, ride routes done. there has been a significant change to how we run our rides this past year and the ride leader program is responsible for that. the members that wear the black jerseys are the ones that you need to look to for guidance and instruction. please give them your full attention and take on board any advice/instructions they are giving you. not just for your own safety, but also for those around you.
ride leader sponsor – the ride leader sponsor for january is Stadium Triathlon Club. perth’s largest triathlon club caters for athletes of all abilities and has training programs to suit all goal.
ride routes – with seemingly half the club away at tdu, not sure what to expect for numbers this weekend. we may need to call on reinforcements for ride leaders if we don’t have enough.
saturday 21st january
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
commitment. in patrick’s very short cycling career he has gone from a newbie rider (albeit very strong) to racing for spr, to racing for a team and now racing at a national level. the individual time trial in buninyong last weekend hosted the cream of the crop of australian cyclists. there is nowhere to hide in the time trial and it easily shows who has it and who doesn’t. however, as a first outing, patrick did very well coming in 16th overall. when racing against people like rohan dennis and luke durbridge, you are always going to be up against it, and it clearly shows the difference between the pro’s and those that also hold down a 9-5 job. it is the commitment to training, however, that gets you to where you need to go.
ride leader sponsor – the ride leader sponsor for january is Stadium Triathlon Club. perth’s largest triathlon club caters for athletes of all abilities and has training programs to suit all goal.
overtaking and ride etiquette – i received an email that other day from another ride group highlighting a few incidents that have involved our members. the main issues seems to be ones that we need to discuss on a reoccurring basis. firstly, when over taking a slower group, please make sure that you are well clear before you cut back in. be aware that the riders that you are overtaking will suddenly get a draft and may increase their speed a bit. best bet is for the whole group to stay clear for 2-3 bike lengths before pulling back in. also, be smart about how you overtake. if it is a large group, make sure that you go single file as the risk of hitting traffic islands or oncoming traffic increases the longer it takes to get around. secondly, when the group ride goes up stock road and other climbs you need to stick to your own side of the road. i know that you are such a great climber that you need to get past all these other slooow people, but you need to do it in a safe manner. there is no “king of the mountains” jersey for you at the top, so don’t take unnecessary risks. you don’t need to go 4 wide up a hill and have people facing oncoming traffic, just overtake when it is safe.
ride leader program – final chance for any expressions of interest to any members that want to be trained up as ride leaders. places are limited, and if we get more than we need there will be another course run later in the year. see the previous post for more details.
ride routes – a hot weekend ahead. be prepared. know the routes so you don’t have to ride further than you need to.
saturday 14th january
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
Last week I travelled to Ballarat for the most significant event of my short cycling career, the Australian National Championships. An ambitious first hit out for the Oral 7 GDT racing team. It would be a week of many lessons, my first lesson was that red eye flights are evil, with my flight leaving late on a Monday night and arriving around 6am AEDST. The next lesson was that it pays to check the destination weather when travelling a few thousand kilometres as I arrived in shorts and a shirt in 12 degrees with a threat of rain.
One van rental later and a quick reunion between the two halves of the Oral 7 GDT team (Matt and I had caught the same flight, Jordan and Ryan beat us by a week) and we were on the road for Ballarat. Sleep deprived and hungry like only cyclists can be, one of the 6 Mcdonald’s on the highway proved irresistible. Coffee rated 8.5/10 – naturally bumped up a couple of points by being awake for 24 hours at that point.
First point of business on arrival was assembling two bikes. I never did do the math but I think we increased the value of the rented house, bringing 9 bikes for 7 cyclists to the garage. A quick spin in the legs and everyone’s nerves were starting to unwind again. The fatigue melted away and we could have a laugh. We rolled out to Buninyong to survey the road race course, I’d later get a lift back with the TT bike to recon the 40.9km TT course. I’m really glad that I didn’t use this as my only recon as the conditions lied to me, with a headwind outbound leg and a tailwind return.
If you’re really invested in a time trial performance, recon is crucial. Understanding the nuance of the gradients and surface conditions as well as the probable winds are critical to pacing strategy. I returned on Wednesday for a second recon and some activation efforts and found that the wind had completely swapped directions from the day prior and that this was the forecast for the race on Thursday. While I was grateful to rehearse in the right conditions, I wasn’t exceptionally keen on 20km uphill into a headwind! Fortunately I was able to fight through it in time to see Matt and Ryan compete in the criterium championship which made for spectacular viewing.
Thursday arrives, lazy wake up and a familiar breakfast then the waiting game. My time slot is 2.22 so there’s plenty of time to fret, I’ve already made an effort to ensure I have everything ready to immediately proceed to the course. Now’s the time for thanks: Paul Chambers, Steve Pieterson and Gordon Hindley worked their butts off for us during the week. I owe them all a beer and thanks. Paul helped me load up the car with both bikes and got me out to Buninyong with plenty of time for me to accidentally waste while confusing myself.
Things seemed to unfold in a beautifully controlled chaos from here. I was originally going to warm up on the TT bike on a trainer borrowed from WAIS but it couldn’t be found. So that became a warmup on Mt Buninyong on the road bike, for which I initially tried to start on sneakers. The warmup worked out spot on nonetheless, I returned and grabbed a radio and proceeded to bike check expecting some arguments about my height and bike fit but mercifully I walked straight through. All up, I was in a good headspace but nervous.
Before I knew it, I was standing on the start ramp, nervously fiddling with my visor and Garmin trying to absorb the minute until go time. The starter was a little looser on the hold than I’ve had in the past, the seconds ticked down from ten to launch; I edged a bit closer than I’d like to the side of the ramp on take off but did make it successfully down the first obstacle.
Gordon took the passenger seat of a support vehicle piloted by Steve. It was reassuring to have a spare bike zipping along behind me and a whole new world to have radio support. Gordon kept a steady stream of positional advice, course info and encouragement coming to me. It felt a lot less lonesome and 100% more honest knowing I couldn’t slack off for fear of being caught. The course was exceptionally fast on the way out, tending downhill on a tail wind. Getting to the turn around would not be a problem and I passed a couple of DNFs as well as another rider on first leg while averaging 47.2km/h.
The “easy” ride out would not last and was only to provide a false sense of security for the horror of the return run. It’s a 35 degree day and I’m wearing a long sleeve skinsuit with a space helmet, the slower return not only means less airflow, especially uphill but more time exposed to this. For some perspective on the heat from the road, Nick Squillari had an unfortunate stack at 18.5km from hitting a patch of tar at the turn off. The toll of the heat and exertion really started to be felt by about 30km in, feet burning, throat scorched from air intake and my head feeling like it’s in an oven. This also roughly coincided with me throwing my chain on a downshift, not an ideal situation when going uphill into a headwind but the mechanical gods took pity on me and permitted me to tease the chain back on with a bit of shifter tension and careful pedalling while i still had momentum.
At 35km in I was struck by some severe cramping in my left leg and I almost fell over for the third time in the race (I don’t want to talk about the first…). Again, uphill, it was a struggle to pedal enough to remain upright but I managed to keep moving and work through it. After a couple of kilometres I was able to get back on top of the gear and keep some good pace towards the finish line. That is, until the final rise. Never has such a small hill hurt so much before, it’s an utter act of cruelty by the organisers to have this final lump ~200m from the finish line. I commend them for that. As I came over the final hill and down the straight I pushed my heart rate through towards it’s max, mostly to finish with as much style as possible before keeling over. When I crossed the line I was in third place which felt amazing, despite already being fully aware of how short lived it would be. I would eventually slip back to 16th place which I’m still very happy with as a first outing to the national championships.
triathlete fish. great swim, ordinary bike, not much of a run.
it has been pretty quiet around xmas this year. lots of riding and there has been people out everywhere, but not much actually going on. it has been great. many people had the xmas/new years week off and managed to crack out their strava festive 500. some pretty big numbers out there but it was when i sorted it by club that i got the biggest surprise. JJ cracked 1500kms in the week! i am guessing that there was a fault in the aggregation of k’s as she pretty much doubled elar’s feeble 845kms. however, massive props to club treasurer daniel harvey as he hit 765kms after a pretty hard year on (mostly off) the bike. challenges are a great way to stay motivated if you do not have any short term goals, like racing. but challenges can come in all sorts of forms. kilometres and ascent are just two metrics that strava use, but setting your own pb on a segment or making sure that you stay 2 sec in front of your mate on the leaderboard are also good motivators. you can also challenge yourself to be a ride leader this year…
ride leader sponsor – the ride leader sponsor for january is Stadium Triathlon Club. perth’s largest triathlon club caters for athletes of all abilities and has training programs to suit all goal.
where are we riding today – please have a quick look at this post as there is some important safety info about why we publish ride routes before the weekend.
ride leader program – expressions of interest are now open for our first round of ride leader training. after the success of the pilot program, we are now looking for more people to step up and be trained so that they can lead a group. see the previous post for more details.
licences/memberships – we now have 317 members so we didn’t quite lose the 150+ that was predicted. it is still a fair way off the 435 that we finished the year with, so there are quite a few people out there riding without any insurance. this means that if you have a crash on a group ride, or even by yourself, there is nothing covering you for out of pocket expenses. see the previous post for more details.
ride routes – no public holidays this week and back to normal for most people. some mild weather predicted for saturday so we should see a few more new years resolutioners out with us. make sure you give any new comers as much support as possible so that the new years res becomes a lifestyle change for the better.
saturday 7th january
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
Stadium Triathlon Club is Perth’s largest triathlon club and caters for athletes of all abilities. For anyone who may be interested in giving the sport a go, the club’s popular 8 week novice course commences February. You may have the cycling covered but there is still the swim, run, transitions and nutrition to contend with!
If you’re a little more confident but could do with some added motivation for training, the club offers 10 training sessions a week in swimming (pool and open water), cycling (turbo and road) and running (track and road). Finally, if you’d really like to challenge yourself, structured group training programs for the Busselton and Cairns half and the Cairns full Ironman kick off on February 13th. The programs are delivered through Training Peaks and include free access to all club training sessions and regular contact and mentoring from a Triathlon Australia certified coach. The programs are a great way to take on your first attempt at these distances or improve your fitness and performance.
Car vs Cyclist on High Road in Riverton. Major Crash in attendence. 30/03/15 Picture : Lincoln Baker/WA News.
happy new year. even though we don’t start the new year till next week, i want to get the year off to a good start. not necessarily a positive message of just how great cycling can be, but rather getting people into the correct frame of mind so that we all make it through 2017 unscathed. some of you may not know that our own claire tyrrell is a journalist with the west and recently wrote an article about the introduction of safe passing laws in other states. now wa is not going to introduce the laws, but has instead opted for an education program to make people aware of the current law. road safety minister liza harvey said it was an offence for drivers to drive too close to cyclists, but the definition of a “safe distance” was up to police. so, what we need to do as cyclists, is not take anything for granted. some of the feedback that claire received after the article was published was generally along the lines of what we expected. “the roads are for cars”, “you don’t pay rego” and “if you get hit, then it is your own fault”. charming, i know. there seems to be no recognition that a person on a bike is actually a person. so what can we do??? well ride smart. be spatially aware. don’t put yourself in dangerous situations no matter how “right” you are. being spatially aware is the most important point as it allows you to make decisions before it becomes dangerous. an example of this is coming into a roundabout, don’t wait till the last moment to check the traffic behind you and try to claim some space. keep checking as you approach it and when there is a break, take the lane so cars don’t try to squeeze you into the gutter. i know that this takes a lot of the responsibility away from the drivers but the recent case where it was determined that the death of a cyclist was not the drivers fault, or the cyclists fault shows that drivers are not likely to cop much of a punishment anyway. stay safe by starting off safe.
ride leader sponsor – the ride leader sponsor for december is Dr7 Physiotherapy and Podiatry. Located within Dr7 Medical Centre in Yokine, their experienced physios, podiatrists and massage therapists provide a wide range of services and treatments to help optimise your health and well-being.
where are we riding today – please have a quick look at this post as there is some important safety info about why we publish ride routes before the weekend.
group ride summer start times – there have been a few request lately in regards to starting some of the rides earlier over summer. this comes up every year and so we will give the same answer. no. the rides are at a set time so that there is consistency throughout the entire year. we have people that come and go over the year and we would like to make sure that everyone know what time the rides leave. also over the weekend, there are lots of people that do the earlybird as well as the main ride. if we bring the main ride forward to 6am, then we need to bring the earlybird forward to 4:30am. the other complication is we would need to determine when the rides are summer time starts and when they change back. anyway, the formula has worked well so far and no-one has needed to be hospitalised for heat exhaustion. just be aware of the predicted weather conditions and plan accordingly.
ride leader program – expressions of interest are now open for our first round of ride leader training. after the success of the pilot program, we are now looking for more people to step up and be trained so that they can lead a group. see the previous post for more details.
licences/memberships – as of last week we have 435 financial members. in 2 days time we will lose 168 as people come to the end of their membership. the majority of those will be race licences that expire on the 31st dec. however, regardless of whether you are racing or not, having an expired licence means that you have no insurance. this means that if you have a crash on a group ride, or even by yourself, there is nothing covering you for out of pocket expenses. also, it disappoints me when our membership dips below 300. see the previous post for more details.
ride routes – as we continue our run of public holidays, be aware that there may be a bit of extra glass on the roads on monday morning. some people just can’t be trusted and this is why we can’t have nice things.
saturday 31st december
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
sunday the 19th of feb sees the next running of renae’s race. this is the premier women’s race in perth and it is in memory of renae baker, a talented perth cyclist.
