All posts by elPrez

spr 200km challenge

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south perth rouleurs participation ride

200km challenge

  • this event is to be held on sunday the 8th august starting at coode st carpark and following a fairly standard route around the river.  see map below.
  • the ride will be split into two parts each containing 2 complete laps of the circuit. 
  • after the second lap the group will stop briefly at the carpark for food and water refills. 
  • start time will be 6:00am to allow for the extended time that the group will be in the saddle. 
  • lights will be required for the first lap and these can be dropped off at the carpark after the second lap.
  • normal spr group ride etiquette rules apply and can be found on this website.
  • it is intended that the group will stay together for the entire ride and participates must look out for weaker riders.
  • riders that are struggling will be helped to the end of the lap but must then withdraw once back at the carpark.
  • there will be a regular regroup at the water tower after mosman park hill where mountain points for the first 5 riders will be available each lap.  however, you must finish the entire 4 laps to claim the title.
  • riders are welcome to join in for as many laps as they want, however, riders in main2/transitional group may be better off in the 100km challenge starting later.
  • this ride is only open to current members of the south perth cycle club.

100km challenge

  • at 9:00am, there will be a 100km challenge aimed at the transitional/main2 riders who may also want to be challenged.
  • this group will follow the same route and complete 2 circuits.
  • normal spr group ride etiquette rules apply and can be found on this website.
  • this ride is only open to current members of the south perth cycle club.

in both cases the roads are not closed and we will be treating this as any other club training ride.  the aim is for the groups to stay together, so no racing and keep an eye on how the entire group is travelling. 

so we get an idea of how many riders we are expecting, add to the comments section with the group (200km or 100km) you are intending to ride with. 

challenge yourself, it is the only way you will get better….or end up in more pain.

ride routes 31st july & 1st aug

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well there goes july and another three weeks of sleepless nights.  well done to the winners of the tipping comp and i suppose well done to the guys that actually rode their bikes for three weeks straight.  i guess they are probably tired too. 

200km challenge –scheduled for next sunday 8th august along with the 100km challenge.  expect a post shortly.

races –lots of races coming up.  atta this weekend, mtb xc 8th, pinjarra classic 15th, collie-donnybrook 21st, cyclo-sportif yanchep 22nd, state road championships 29th, mtb xc 29th. lots of opportunities for you to get involved if you what to test yourself out.

website and email –as you can see the website has changed and the email for the club has changed too.  update your bookmarks and contacts.  if anyone is having trouble working out how to login to post things to the blog, let me know.  there was a bit of a gap in the blogging activity last weekend.  you can actually now login with your facebook account so your little avatar will be your facebook pic rather than the generated monster.

ride routes – good chance that i will not be at the start on saturday, so make sure you all know your ride routes.  if your group has no leader, here is your chance to step up.

saturday 31st july – all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional – spr saturday 41.73km (canning vale reverse)

main 1 & 2 – spr saturday 50.98km (benara rd)

fast – spr saturday 54.03km (maddington & welshpool)

sunday 1st august – all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

short – follow long route to top of first climb then across to kalamunda approx 60-70km

long – spr sunday 101.86km (welshpool & mundaring & kalamunda)

tour de france tipping comp – final

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after a very, very bad clerical error at the web-hosting place, we were suddenly left with no website for about 12 hrs.  this meant that quite a few people (including myself) didn’t actually get their tip in for the final stage.

as such i am going to pull a cancellara and neutralise the stage.  therefore all times and points were going to be based on the end of stage 19, the time trial.

the top three positions for each category can be seen below.  the final leaderboard can be found here.

well done to team cougar for staying ahead in the general classification all the way to the end.  team run bmc won every other category and if it wasn’t for a bad tip at about the halfway point, they may have won them all.

thanks for playing and keep an eye out for the vuelta tipping comp in a couple of months.

Final General Classification
1 $60  Team Cougar 
2 $30  Team Liquigus 
3 $15  Don’t tip Garzelli 
     
Sprinters    
1 $40  Team Run BMC 
2 $20  Team Cougar 
3 $10  Team Liquigus 
     
Mountain    
1 $40  Team Run BMC 
2 $20  BigChainRing 
3 $10  Team Cougar 
     
Stage Wins    
1 $40  Team Run BMC 
2 $20  Team Liquigus 
3 $10  Team Cougar 

ride routes 24th & 25th july

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so, the tour de france is almost over but what a roller-coaster ride it has been.  the peloton being neutralised, the cobbles smashing the field, cadel crashing..again, favourites losing hunks of time and the big debate over whether contador should have attacked or not.  i was checking out the official online website while i have been writing this tonight.  it seems that sammy sanchez (currently 3rd) had a crash.  so what happens next, well contador slows the peloton down so sammy can get back on.  well he is a fellow country man after all.  they replayed the schleck chain slip this evening on sbs and i kept an eye on contador.  he was quite a few bike lengths behind schleck when it happened and saw what was going on.  he was also in front of sanchez and menchov for quite a while after the attack so he can’t even say that he was just following.  right or wrong, he certainly lost a lot of respect that day.  luckily we wait for people that have a mechanical.  maybe contador should come out with us to learn a few things. 🙂

races – mtb enduro on sunday.  atta wandi following sunday.

200km challenge – we are aiming for the 8th august for this event.  there will be a 200km challenge plus a 100km challenge that leaves a bit later and will be lead by mark from the transitional group.  expect a post this coming week with more info and some “rules of engagement”.

website – as of this weekend, we will be switching over to a new website.  www.southperthrouleurs.com.au is already up and running but is not live yet.  once it is setup, the current blog will be ported over to it and we will run everything through it.  you can bookmark the site now as it is running, but expect a bunch of new email addresses.

pilates- we have now opened up the pilates training on monday night to both members and member families.  see the previous post here for more info.

ride routes– the groups will all be making their own traverse around different sections of perth on saturday.  if all the routes were superimposed on one map it would make a nice four leaf clover.  maximise the advertising potential for the kit sponsors.

saturday 24th july – all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional – spr saturday 39.04km (benara rd)

main 1 & 2 – spr saturday 50.97km (river ride)

fast – spr saturday 55.32km (maddington & hale & ridge hill)

sunday 25th july – all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

short – spr sunday 67.96km (greenmount & zig-zig)

long – spr sunday 95.04km (greenmount & parkerville & mundaring weir)

spr accessories

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the final artwork has been approved and is shown below.  it took a while but they finally made them look what like i sent them in the first place.

the order has been sent through to the sales rep and we should be seeing the items in about 5-6 weeks.

there are a few people that are yet to pay and we would like these finalised so that we can close out this order.

sorry for the delay but there were some communication issues.

the good thing is that these guys do a 10 garment minimum, so now that the artwork is complete, a reorder should be quite easy.

cyclo-sportif pinjarra – call for riders.

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next weekend (25th) is the date for the next cyclo-sportif to be held at pinjarra.

there are 3 distances 75km, 45km, 30km and each of them tackle the hill up towards dwellingup.

if you enjoyed the last event at swan valley, then this one will offer a bigger challenge as it is no where near as flat as the last.

there is more info here, but leave your details in the comments section if you are interested.  we need your name, BWA or CWA licence #, distance you want to race and what group you usually ride in at SPR.  we will then try to put you into equally matched teams so that it maximises your enjoyment of this event.

entries close tuesday 20th july at 6:00pm, so we will need all interested riders to post to the comments by the end of the weekend.  that way we have monday to organise the teams.

ride routes 17th & 18th july

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tour de france.  poor cadel.  i think every australian watching the tour that night just died a little bit inside.  so close and yet so far.  back home though, we are forecast to have a dry weekend.  cold but dry.  this should mean that numbers will be back up after the 20 that braved the rain last weekend.

memberships – i got an updated membership list the other day.  we were sitting at 137 members at the start of july.  that means that we now have the most cycling australia members in the perth metro area.  not bad for a club that has been going for less than 2 years.  only south west have more members at 177 but they are down in bunbury.  we will catch them eventually.

pilates –chrissy has been taking  the monday evening pilates class and feedback has been positive so it will continue. 

races –sdcc at pickering brook this sunday, cyclosportif at pinjarra on the 25th july, mtb 4hr enduro also on the 25th.

200km challenge – there will be more details on this as it gets closer.  we are aiming for the first weekend in august so either the 1st or 8th.  we will also be looking at running a 100km challenge at the same time for those that don’t think they can make the 200km.  stay tuned.

spr accessories – most items have had the artwork approved.  just waiting on the shoe covers.  order will be sent then.  there are about 13 people with outstanding bills.  these need to be paid asap.

ride routes– a new route for the tranistional group for saturday.  don’t get lost.

saturday 17th july – all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional – spr saturday 40.86km (rebold hill)

main 1 & 2 – spr saturday 50.04km (hale & ridge hill)

fast – spr saturday 55.76km (shelley & mosman park)

sunday 18th july – all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

short – spr sunday 82.79km (brookton & weir rd)

long – spr sunday 101.68km (carradine & canning dam)

Tuesday Ride Report…kind of.

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Tuesday ride report by Meg.

I’ve been hearing the screams of “toughen up princess” all morning, so in an attempt to purge my soul here is my confession. This ride report really starts before this morning though. Key points that impacted on the ride: within the last 5 weeks I have ridden once, so yes, I’m aware that the first ride back is not going to be pretty. For some of the last 5 weeks I’ve been tango dancing in Buenos Aires. Important point because it reminded me that 1) not all forms of exercise require you to wear deeply unflattering lycra and 2) actually there are some forms of exercise/movement which actually cause you to feel euphoric. This is a very different feeling to the one that comes with completing a bike ride which is more along the lines of deep relief that you have survived and that the pain has now ended. Previously I had been tricking myself into believing that euphoric = deep relief that pain had ended. Final key point, and I’m not sure if anyone else has noticed this or not, but its been pissing down with rain lately. Oh and its been a bit chilly. To summarize, I have no illusions – I’m not a real cyclist, I’m just trying to fake it and failing miserably. My first ride back is going to be a disaster and its going to hurt like hell and the coffee at the end had better be good!

So despite what it is sounding like I’ve been trying to rustle up some bike love. Checked the weather report – rain clearing. That could mean that there would be less rain in the morning. Managed to fit in a run last night between rain storms, so that could also be construed to indicate that the rain was clearing. Anyway it was enough to dust off the bike, pump up the tyres and throw the machine into the car, ready for the early morning start. (Oh minor footnote here; when Argentinean tango dancing in Buenos Aires, one is dancing at 4am and thinking about moving on for a hot chocolate before stumbling into bed at 6ish. Much more civilised than waking up at 4.30/5am to head out in lycra and the cold and the wet)

The alarm went off, I could not hear any rain, so I pulled on multiple layers of lycra and with my housemate’s voice in my head distinctly telling me to toughen the f*ck up I drove to work. The weather was being decidedly British (i.e. a bit shit, a bit of a drizzle but no rain pelting down so not really enough to not do something, but just enough to make it unpleasant). Got the bike out of the car, and yes it definitely felt like the rain was slightly more than a drizzle, but surprisingly, I had that little thrill that comes when you clip in. That sense of an open road and you are going to smash yourself and its going to be fantastic. This feeling carried me down the road aways, before the cold, the puddles and the rain joined forces to confirm that actually it was a bit shit, and I really was not enjoying it.  The next bit will be unbelievable to many of you (well actually probably all of you) but what happened next was……I turned around rode back to the car, put the bike back into the car and went and had the hottest longest shower of all time!!!! And it was good. I’ve had an incredibly productive morning at work, and I’ve even found time to write up this blog and there is the chance that I may get to go home early!

Conclusions: I’m piss weak, you cyclists are seriously hard core. As the sun has come up, it has stopped raining and it is looking like it might turn out to be a nice weather day which is bloody typical. I’ll spend the rest of the day trying to not regret my non-ride ride because I think if I’m honest I’ve actually missed riding and I’m keen to get back into it. Yes it is going to hurt and yes I’m going to be really bad, but the coffee and the chats at the end are worth it.

Exercise Study – UWA

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there is a study being run at UWA that needs some male cyclist as test subjects.  i am too old for this, but some of you may be interested to know what your VO2max is.  for comparison at their peaks lance armstrongs vo2 max was 84 ml/kg/min while migual indurain was 88 ml/kg/min.  i am sure that ryan will tell you that his is higher. 🙂

 

Physiological effects of cold water immersion on the human body with and without fatiguing exercise

Participants must be 18-35 years old, riding more than 200km/week and in exchange for participating you will receive an assessment of your aerobic capacity (V02 max) including anaerobic threshold data, as well as advice on post-exercise recovery strategies. 

Essentially it will require 6 trips to UWA.  The first visit, you would complete a V02 max and lactate threshold test, have your skinfolds done, and complete a cold water (14 degrees) familiarisation.  The second visit will be another cold water immersion familiarisation.  The 3rd and 4th visits will be approximately 3 hours (max) in duration and all you would need to do is immerse yourself in water (one trial will be skin temp and the other cold) and we would monitor you for a couple of hours post.  We would insert a cannula into your forearm vein so we can take blood samples throughout and core temperature would be monitored.  The 5th and 6th visits will be exactly the same, however you will complete a cycling set (15 min at set percentage of V02 max and 15 minute time trial) before the water immersion (total time of session will be 4 hours max). 

If anyone would like any further information, they can contact Elisa Robey directly on 6488 1383 or on email robeye01@student.uwa.edu.au

PDCC – Casuarina Race Report 3/7/10

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Race report by Michael Thomas

I’ve been meaning to go to a PDCC road race for a number of weeks now, so I thought it was about time to get off my ass and actually go. This weeks was a lovely seven laps of a 9ish km course in Casuarina. Lovely weather for it too. I decided to chuck myself into B grade, cos thats where all the cool kids were hanging out.

With 15 of us setting out, the first few laps were pretty tame. A couple of attacks here and there, nothing too threatening. We dropped a couple of riders somewhere along the line. The action started just after crossing the start/finish to commence the 4th lap. The pace was right up and someone in the middle of the bunch decided to start going a little bit off vertical (tyre rub?). I don’t really know what happened next, it all went by really fast. I think the first guy knocked someone else over and it went from there, domino style. Dave has a lot better write-up of the incident here.  Unfortunately someones handlebars got lodged in his nice new rear wheel. Luckily neither he or the bike was badly damaged.

Those not involved in the crash waited for a little bit to see if anyone was going to jump back into the race. I thought I saw Dave making a dramatic comeback, but it turned out to be a Cat C or D rider. Anyway the pack (now at 8 riders) was back together and off we went. The next 2 laps were reasonably docile, I know I was a bit worried about a repeat of the crash.

Things started to heat up on the last lap. The pace increased a bit.

Toby told me to keep an eye out for Jelly Belly man (there were jelly beans on his jersey) as he was looking pretty strong. Halfway around the lap another rider was dropped. Soon after the guy in the pinkish jersey and his mate had a crack at breaking away from the rest of us, but to no avail. I found myself at the front of the pack with Toby and I thought, if it comes down to a bunch sprint I’m not going to do too well (with my little legs). A little hill was coming up so I thought I’d give it a crack and break away up the hill, and then somehow make it to the line before everyone else. So I took off up the hill and down the other side.

After a few hundred meters I saw the pack was gaining on me, so I got up out of the seat and had a bit more of a go at it. I reached the last corner and almost clipped some traffic furniture going around it. Got up out of the seat again to get down the finishing straight. I had a look around me and the bunch had backed off a little. I was pretty sure I had it in the bag then. I didn’t let up though just to make sure. Crossed the line to grab first place! YAY! Toby outmatched everyone in the sprint to grab second. 1st and 2nd for SPR, pretty nifty!