July’s Ride Leader Sponsor is 45 Degrees North, a cycling/coaching/chalet/training facility based in Morzine in France.
45 Degrees North is run by a small team of passionate cyclists for all cyclists who want to experience the French Alps.
Stay in a luxury chalet in Morzine, a village nestled among famous Tour de France Cols and ride out on fully lead and vehicle supported routes each day. Experience French culture in tiny villages hidden away in the mountains. Feel the excitement and the passion for the polka dot jersey that the Tour brings to the region every year. Climb and descend the iconic Cols for yourself.
All meals are included with a sports nutrition focus to keep you fuelled for the week, along with post-ride cake and wine with dinner. The team’s specialty is catering for mixed ability groups so that everyone can participate and ride as much or little as they like. A variety of weeks are also offered each season including Intro to Alpine cycling, Big Cols (for the hardy) and even triathlon training weeks.
Please see our website for further information on our holidays and email directly for enquiries or to book for next season. We also offer good value skiing holidays during the winter.
quite a busy weekend last week with cyclosportif’s, cyclocross and masters racing all happening. winners are grinners down at the masters racing but i think that they may need to upgrade the podium boys before next race. however, it is masters, so maybe they are age-appropriate podium boys. this coming weekend is again going to be busy. the tour de france starts on saturday and again we are running a sweepstakes. stage 1 signifies the start of a long few weeks, whilst saturday marks the end of a different type of race. the federal election finishes with the country casting it’s ballot. as would you have seen, i am running for federal senate as a candidate for the australian cyclist party. we are realistic on our chances, but the more votes we get, the more chance the major parties will have to start taking notice of us. i know that i have your support, but you need to convince your family members to throw a vote our way too.
ride leader sponsor – the ride leader sponsor for july is 45 Degrees North, a cycling/coaching/chalet/training facility based in morzine in france. more info will be posted soon.
federal election – as mentioned the last couple of weeks, i am standing for the wa senate at this years federal election as a candidate for the australian cyclist party. on top of your vote, we also need your support to let others know that they have another choice in the election. convince those family members to put us on their preferences or even better as #1. check out our facebook page for more details as they emerge.
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.
tour de france dinner – our annual tour de france dinner is on again to celebrate the biggest bike race of the year. tickets are selling fast to next weekends event, so jump on in if you want to attend. please see the previous post for more details and a link to the online shop.
tour de france tipping – the sweepstakes are now open for this years tour. each entry is given a random team and then win the percentage equivalent that the actual team does at the tour. therefore even the minor teams may get money due to sprint points and mountain climbs. half the teams are already sold, so check out the previous post and get your entry in.
tour of margs – expressions of interest have opened for this years tour of margaret river. we have secured 3 men’s and 3 women’s teams, so it should allow us to provide for a decent spread of abilities. check out the previous post and put your name down if you are interested. there will be another attempt at a q&a this saturday at the coffeeshop for anyone interested in doing the tomr. last week the rain certainly affected numbers in attendence, so we will try again.
The new kit…
spr kit – order close tonight for the current run of spr kit. check out the club kit page for more info about how to login to the cannibal system and order your kit. remember, you must be a member of spr to purchase kit.
spr aussie kit – are you representing australia at the uwct final this year? do it in style by representing spr as well. check out the previous post to order your own spr aussie kit for the final. orders close next week, so don’t miss out.
bike swap meet – later this year perth will be hosting the pacific youth track cycling tournament. this event will actually cost quite a bit to hold and as such midland are organising a bike swap meet to raise funds. if you have any old bike parts that you think still have value, then you can register to sell them at this event. on to of this, it will be held at the velodrome while friday night track racing is one. buying bike stuff and watching bike racing. what more can you ask for. click on the flyer pic to the right for more details.
ladies day – it is the first saturday of the month, so that makes it ladies day. separate ladies only rides for main 1, 2 & 3. totally dependant on numbers, but we will endevour to provide an oppurtunity for women, to develop their skills in group riding.
uwct training – the new uwct grand fondo course has been annouced and as such we will be running training rides on sunday. this sunday will be a recon ride on the new course so people can get used to it. this will be like a normal sunday group ride with regroups at the top of climbs, etc. from next weekend until the actual race, the long hills will be a race pace uwct training ride. check out the previous post for more details.
spr road race champs – the club road champs has been updated after the second pickering brook race. if you have raced in any of the races listed, see how you are tracking in club points. the leaderboard can be found in the menu above or here.
ride routes – looking like a nice, but brisk morning for saturday. hopefully we have seen the last of the inconsiderate saturday morning rain showers that come after a relatively nice week. ladies rides and uwct recons highlight the weekend.
saturday 2nd july
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
a new course was released this week with quite a few significant changes from the qualifier. the race starts at the city, but now finishes in kalamunda. there is a loop around kalamunda/mundaring/darlington that will be negotiated once for women/senior riders and twice for everyone else. our training ride will only do the loop once, but you have the option for 2 laps if you have the time.
as with the qualifier, the course heads up the zig-zag. as it is a one-way road heading down, we will not be using this road for training. instead, we will head up gooseberry. there may be other minor changes that we need to make for training, so make sure that you have a good look at both the training map and the actual race day map so you know where the differences are.
the initial recon ride on the 3rd july will not be at race pace as it will allow people to understand where the course goes and the turns that you will need to make. on race day, i expect that the traffic management will help you navigate the course, but up till then, make sure you don’t get lost during our training rides.
as per the qualifier training, it will be neutralised out to helena valley road, then race pace from when it crosses roe hwy. the final actually does a hard right hand turn just after roe onto midland rd and tackles ridgehill from the other side. however, we will skip that and head across to gooseberry. there are a few other subtle differences, but they have been made for safety reasons. we do not have closed roads and will be travelling in packs probably at speed. however, you must obey all road rules at all times. this is training, best not get in a serious accident before your big race.
for training, we will head up gooseberry a second time and race to the service station at the top of kalamunda. there we will have a 20 min regroup allowing people time to get food/water or toilet. after that, it will be a controlled return to the city via lesmurdie/welshpool road. if anyone wants to do a second lap, then they can regroup at the servo and head off when they have their group together.
have a look at the map below and upload it to your gps enabled device. this training is open to anyone, not just qualifiers, but please be aware that unlike our other rides, there are no regroups till after the second time up to kalmunda. please be aware of your own abilities and make sure you have adequate food/water for the ride.
there are only a few days to the most popular sleep deprived 3 weeks of the year for most of us. the tour de france starts in mont-saint-michel and begins it’s anti-clockwise trek around france. again we will be running a sweepstakes (as opposed to a full tipping comp) to make the tour a little more exciting for you. sorry for the lateness of organising this, there has been a bit on leading up to this week.
our sweepstakes are a little different in the way that they distribute the prize money. as usual, teams will be randomly drawn out once all entries are in. however, instead of just the usual stage win, yellow jersey win etc we will be tracking the actual prize money that the teams win. the percentage of the total prize pool that each team wins, will be what your entry wins from the total prize pool of the sweepstakes.
in the tour, money is awarded for sprints, mountains, teams, wearing leaders jerseys and final positions. basically every team will receive something from the prize pool. the actual winner of the tour will receive 500,000€ out of the 2,295,850€ prize pool which is 21.77%. in our sweepstakes the entry that has the winning team will receive 21.77% of the sweepstakes prize pool, in this case approx $140. however, every top 20 finish, intermediate sprint, mountain points and even days in a leaders jersey will also see your team accumulating money.
so, you do not have to do anything but purchase your entry and hope you get a good team. then you just follow that team and pray that they have someone in the break to collect money along the way.
entries are $30 and there is only 22 teams in the tour so get in fast. all money from the entries will be returned to the prize pool. for more information, see the tipping home and rules pages linked below and click the link to enter. you can also access the home page via the menu above.
so the night is dark and full of terrors, but since the winter solstice passed us by on tuesday, the days are officially getting longer. in a couple of weeks time the sun will actually be up by the time we start the saturday ride. however, we are still heading deep into winter while a number of spr members like dave (left) enjoy a european summer. i doubt that it will snow here in perth this winter, but there are obviously places in europe high enough to produce snow in summer. it may be time to “hide” the posts of certain people on facebook as they continue to post photos of riding whilst on holidays.
federal election – as mentioned the last couple of weeks, i am standing for the wa senate at this years federal election as a candidate for the australian cyclist party. on top of your vote, we also need your support to let others know that they have another choice in the election. convince those family members to put us on their preferences or even better as #1. check out our facebook page for more details as they emerge.
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.
numbat cup round 3 – the next round of cyclocross is on this sunday. entries close tonight and kids race free (with a day licence). more info can be found here.
cyclo-sportif swan valley – the spr cyclosportif teams are set to take on both the new and old swan valley circuits. we have 52 riders signed up for the event so if you are coming, look for the spr tent and flags.
tour de france dinner – our annual tour de france dinner is on again to celebrate the biggest bike race of the year. tickets are selling fast so jump on in if you want to attend. please see the previous post for more details and a link to the online shop.
tour de france tipping – keep your eye on the blog as we will soon be running our annual tour tipping comp. really easy again this year. your name goes into a draw and you then win the percentage equivalent that the actual team does at the tour. therefore even the minor teams may get money due to sprint points and mountain climbs.
tour of margs – expressions of interest have opened for this years tour of margaret river. we have secured 3 men’s and 3 women’s teams, so it should allow us to provide for a decent spread of abilities. check out the previous post and put your name down if you are interested.
spr aussie kit – are you representing australia at the uwct final this year? do it in style by representing spr as well. check out the previous post to order your own spr aussie kit for the final.
bike swap meet – later this year perth will be hosting the pacific youth track cycling tournament. this event will actually cost quite a bit to hold and as such midland are organising a bike swap meet to raise funds. if you have any old bike parts that you think still have value, then you can register to sell them at this event. on to of this, it will be held at the velodrome while friday night track racing is one. buying bike stuff and watching bike racing. what more can you ask for. click on the flyer pic to the right for more details.
spr road race champs – the club road champs has been updated after the second pickering brook race. if you have raced in any of the races listed, see how you are tracking in club points. the leaderboard can be found in the menu above or here.
ride routes – its the end of june this week and although it seems that it has been pretty wet, we are still below our long term average. expect a few wet ones coming up, which is great for cyclocross and mtb, but not so good for the road riders. this saturday is also looking like a reprieve to the eastern winds, so for a change the ride route will head to the coast…with some hills.
saturday 25th june
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
lots of people taking advantage of the european summer at the moment with a number of spr members showing their colours overseas. sarah fitton is still traipsing around most of europe while steph has landed in italy after being in norway. the outschoorns are out and about in italy, while dave is in fair verona. at least the weather in perth is nice at the moment. probably actually better than some places in europe. am i feeling jealous??? well considering i am still not on my bike post-surgery, even the old lady riding on the bike path is making me jealous.
federal election – as mentioned last week, i am standing for the wa senate at this years federal election as a candidate for the australian cyclist party. on top of your vote, we also need your support to let others know that they have another choice in the election. convince those family members to put us on their preferences or even better as #1. check out our facebook page for more details as they emerge.
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.
pickering brook race 02 – the next round of the pickering brook series is on this weekend. the spr race committee will be out in support so look for the bright green tent if you are racing. midland are asking for some volunteers to help keep the races run at a high level. most of the jobs are pretty easy and will be centred around the start/finish area. these include time keepers, rider assembly and roll calls and will allow a midland member to go and man a corner on the circuit. if you can help out, or if your partner can while you are racing, please contact wayne directly and let him know what you can do. it is important that the local racing continues to be provided so that the sport can develop.
cyclo-sportif swan valley – expressions of interest are open for anyone that wants to be in an spr team for the swan valley cyclo-sportif. this is a great opportunity for anyone that is looking for that next step after the spr group rides. it is not quite racing, but it also, kind of is. teams of up to 9 riders complete a timed course with the entire team finishing together. it is an all new course as the track cycling will not be running this year. make sure you have a look at the bwa links as there are a few different course with and without climbs. please see the previous post for further info and add your name to the comments if you are interested.
spr road race champs – the club road champs has been updated after the first pickering brook race. if you have raced in any of the 4 races listed, see how you are tracking in club points. the leaderboard can be found in the menu above or here.
slow hills ride – this week there has been a call for a slow sunday hills ride. it is aimed at those that currently cannot keep up with the short hills. the idea is that they will have their own regroup and build up endurance over the next few weeks until they can regroup with the main group. rebecca kelly is organising, so find her before the ride so they know how many to wait for. they will be initially heading out with the long/short hills.
ride routes – doesn’t perth have the best winters. next week is looking a bit wet, but this week has been great. take advantage of it before you are forced onto the trainer in the garage.
saturday 18th june
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
politicians. generally regarded as a bunch of lying bastards that love to hear the sound of their own voice. however, the way this country is run and access to the funding available means that you sometimes need to get a little political to make things happen. as such myself and the northern beaches cc president, chris howard, have nominated to stand as senate candidates in this years federal election. we are representing the australian cyclist party and our aim is to give all cyclist a voice especially in regards to legislation and infrastructure. the australian cyclist party is not that well known here in perth but it has done enough in the east over the past few election cycles to qualify as a national party. the aim is to start to influence policy and decisions as we see a close link between cycling and transport, health, environment and town planning priorities.
so what can you do??? well for starters, voting for the party on the white senate paper would be a good start. we will probably need some help on election day to have a presence at polling booths, and there will also be some political fundraising later to cover costs. however, right now, it is all about getting the name out there. we have setup a facebook page and i encourage you to like/share/comment. the way that facebook works is that the more interaction we get, the more it ends up in other peoples newsfeed. at the end of the day, there are a lot of cyclists in perth and we need to let them all know that they have a political option.
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.
numbat cup cyclocross – the next round of the numbat cup is on this weekend. you don’t even need a cx bike as a mtb will do as an alternative. there is even a kids race on for the under 13’s. very low key racing and there is even beer handups (not in the kids race). entries close tonight (except kids can enter on the day). please see their website for entry and further details.
pickering brook race 02 – the next round of the pickering brook series is on next weekend. this event always sells out early, so if you want to race, then get on board. results from this series go towards our road race champs. for those of you that have been out and raced the midland events at pickering brook, you will know what a well run event it is. however, they need a bit of help. midland are asking for some volunteers to help keep the races run at a high level. most of the jobs are pretty easy and will be centred around the start/finish area. these include time keepers, rider assembly and roll calls and will allow a midland member to go and man a corner on the circuit. if you can help out, or if your partner can while you are racing, please contact wayne directly and let him know what you can do. it is important that the local racing continues to be provided so that the sport can develop.
cyclo-sportif swan valley – expressions of interest are open for anyone that wants to be in an spr team for the swan valley cyclo-sportif. this is a great opportunity for anyone that is looking for that next step after the spr group rides. it is not quite racing, but it also, kind of is. teams of up to 9 riders complete a timed course with the entire team finishing together. it is an all new course as the track cycling will not be running this year. make sure you have a look at the bwa links as there are a few different course with and without climbs. please see the previous post for further info and add your name to the comments if you are interested.
spr road race champs – the club road champs has been updated after the first pickering brook race. if you have raced in any of the 4 races listed, see how you are tracking in club points. the leaderboard can be found in the menu above or here.
ride routes – a partly cloudy morning with very little chance of rain predicted for saturday morning. hopefully this breaks the cycle of wet saturday mornings and there can be a good (but cold) turnout for the main ride.
saturday 11th june
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
i am not going to discuss the knife wielding perth drivers in this post as i have seen an awful lot of commentary in social media already. there isn’t anyone out there that thinks that the driver did the right thing, so i will leave it at that. what i do want to discuss is 9 news perth and their persistent attack on cyclists in general. first it was “war on our roads” now it is “war on our paths”. firstly we are too slow and getting in cars ways, now we are too fast and can “potentially kill a pedestrian”. i haven’t been able to find the “news” story on their social media sites, for those that haven’t seen it. they had some experts basically telling us that anything over 20kph is too fast and there is potential for a pedestrian to be injured or even killed. the expert had a radar gun and was clocking riders as they came up the freeway bike path just before the narrows. what i didn’t see, however, was any pedestrians on the path at the time the speed checking was done. there are so many holes in the logic and so many issues with actually enforcing any limit that it is not worth worrying about. however, it just seems to be constant theme where channel 9 wants to polarise viewers to get a response and therefore higher ratings. the story was so one sided but i am not expecting for them to show any footage of pedestrians walking on the wrong side of the path, prams 3 abreast, dogs on one side of the path and owners on the other with a lead in between, or that couple in south perth that walk around with earphones in whilst reading the paper (i.e. they can’t see where they are going). in the meantime, the number of bike fatalities from cars still outweighs the number pedestrian fatalities from bikes. but, you know, as long as we are focussing on the ratings rather than the actual problem.
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.
bike lights – it is now at that time of year where if you are doing the earlybird ride, then you need a good set of lights. last year i wrote a long post about bike lights and what we expect when riding in a group. basically, bigger/brighter is not always better. please read the post take note of what effects your lights have on the rest of the group. take any suggestions on board as at the end of the day, it is for the safety of the group as a whole.
cyclo-sportif swan valley – expressions of interest are open for anyone that wants to be in an spr team for the swan valley cyclo-sportif. this is a great opportunity for anyone that is looking for that next step after the spr group rides. it is not quite racing, but it also, kind of is. teams of up to 9 riders complete a timed course with the entire team finishing together. it is an all new course as the track cycling will not be running this year. make sure you have a look at the bwa links as there are a few very hard climbs involved. please see the previous post for further info and add your name to the comments if you are interested.
spr road race champs – the club road champs has been updated after the first pickering brook race. if you have raced in any of the 4 races listed, see how you are tracking in club points. the leaderboard can be found in the menu above or here.
ladies day – the first saturday of the month means that it is ladies day. there will be a ladies only ride in main 1, 2 & 3 for any women interested. this is an opportunity to set your own standard and ride up front.
uwct sunday – the first sunday of the month means that the long hills ride this week will be the uwct route. normal rules apply. controlled till the group gets to helena valley, then race pace until guilford. 15 – 20 minute regroup, then home along guilford road.
ride routes – you wouldn’t believe it would you. it has been perfectly fine all week and now that the weekend is almost upon us, they are predicting rain for saturday morning. this would have to be a record for us having so many saturday mornings washed out. what always surprises me is just how many people still turn up on a rainy day. if you do turn up, ride to conditions and look after each other.
saturday 4th june
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
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After watching the first cyclo-cross race at the showgrounds, Dad made me do the next race. I didn’t want to do it, but Dad nagged me all week. My brother was going to a birthday party on the same day, so it would only be Dad and I at the race.
I got a new bike for Christmas which was a lot bigger than my last bike, so it would be easier to ride over obstacles. We packed the bikes up into the car and headed out to Fishmarket Reserve in Guilford. I was wearing my SPR jersey, so Dad could easily see me on the course.
There were about 30 other kids in the race ranging from big kids on cyclo-cross bikes to very little kids on balance bikes. I knew that Alex, CJ, Jehan and Riyani were also in the race.
We started a warm-up lap, but I only got 3 seconds before all the kids were called to the start line. The course was marked out by tape strung between plastic poles which guided us between trees and through obstacles. The kid’s course was a lot shorter than the adult’s course and the race only went for 20 minutes.
On the first lap I discovered that the course ran through a very large, sticky mud puddle. My bike got stuck in the mud and I fell over and was covered in mud. When I tried to get my bike moving, my foot got stuck in the mud and it sucked my shoe off. I had to walk through the mud in my socks to get the bike. I wanted to quit the race, but I told myself that “I can do this”. Dad helped me get my shoe back on and I started racing again.
The course ran past the edge of the river and if you took the corner too fast, you could end up crashing into the water. There was sections of thick sand on the course that made it hard to ride through. I had to stand up on the pedals and push hard to make it through. There were other sections of easier mud for us to ride through, but it made my tyres heavy with mud.
After the first lap I changed to the number 1 gear on the front and number 3 on the back which made it a lot easier to ride. 20 minutes is a long time to be racing but I managed to finish 5 laps of the course. Each lap I had to get off and push my bike through the thick mud which meant that my shoes also clogged up with mud.
By the end of the 20 minutes, I was exhausted and ready to get off the bike. It was a lot of fun being able to splash through the mud and ride with my friends. Dad then did his race while I got to play at the playground and on our bikes. Dad’s race was even messier and he finished totally covered in mud. We had to clean ourselves and our bikes up before we could get back in the car.
There are another 7 races between now and September in and around Perth with races for all abilities. We should be all going to the next race in June at Victoria Park.
July’s Ride Leader Sponsor is 45 Degrees North, a cycling/coaching/chalet/training facility based in Morzine in France.
All meals are included with a sports nutrition focus to keep you fuelled for the week, along with post-ride cake and wine with dinner. The team’s specialty is catering for mixed ability groups so that everyone can participate and ride as much or little as they like. A variety of weeks are also offered each season including Intro to Alpine cycling, Big Cols (for the hardy) and even triathlon training weeks.
