well it is the end of summer this weekend and already i can feel the oncoming winter…..not. the working week ends with a stinking hot finale and there is only a slight respite for the weekend. mid thirties are predicted with strong hot north easterly winds.
speaking of lots of hot wind, there has been lots of discussion on the blog about the rides and the rules. whenever a new person contacts me about coming to join in the rides, the first thing i tell them is to “have a look at the ride etiquette section of our website so you know what we expect”. i think that some of the riders that have been with the group for quite a while may need to have a look to refresh their memories. the first section pretty well sums up what should have happened last saturday in the advanced group. in any of the groups, everyone needs to be aware of the group as a whole. it is not just up to the group leader to enforce the rules.
few things coming up. there are quite a few spr riders heading down to pemberton race this weekend. it is quite a big trip to take for a bike race so it is good to see so many riders committed to making the journey. good luck to those taking part. at least they are not predicting hail storms like last year.
the following weekend we are manning a stall in george burnett park just off manning road to take part in the south perth fiesta. they are showcasing a bunch of sports and clubs from within the south perth area so we will be trying to “seduce” a few more members. it is on from 9am to 1pm so a couple of us will be missing the ride to man the stall. if anyone want to help out drop me an email or alternatively, after coffee swing by to have a look and so we can get a few people hanging around in out kit.
speaking of kit, the order is underway so if you have purchased anything you need to get your money transferred across soon.
the rides this long weekend are a below. you may notice that the saturday intermediate group is doing one of the advanced routes. i am in the process of renaming all the routes so that we will just have a selection of saturday and sunday routes of varying distances. all will be mapped to allow for any group to be able to use them. however, it takes time so bear with me for a bit. remember, the public holiday ride is aimed at the intermediate group so keep the pace down and look out for the slower riders.
saturday 27th feb- all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am
over the past couple of months there has been quite a lot of discussion amongst the various ride groups. this discussion has been fairly positive and has allowed quite a bit of feedback to those running the groups and the club. the increase in discussion can really be attributed to the increase in attendance of the rides and therefore the traffic flowing through the website. by friday sometime, the site will crack the 100,000 visits mark which i never thought i would see. december averaged about 190 visits per day while january was 250 and february is on course for over 330 visits per day. more people means more opinions and therefore more discussion. hopefully, as long as we keep it positive, it translates to more people riding with us as well.
so going back a bit, the first lot of discussion centred around the novice group. basically they were getting too big with a wide spread of abilities. the formation of the transitional group seemed to solve that problem as well as start to bridge the gap between the novice and intermediate groups. from what i can see, both groups are now thriving and the transitionals seem to be making really good progress on group riding skills. to me, this is the most important group as it is crucial to learn the skills before your fitness out strips your ability and you find yourself hurtling down a road at 50km/hr not knowing what to do.
the novice group i see as being a vary transient group with people progressing through there and quickly onto the transitional. mark and carol are doing an excellent job in transferring the basic skills across to the new riders. sometimes there are quite fit, experienced riders that come along, but are there because they have never ridden in a group before. along with dr ronny’s transitional group, these two groups offer an entry point for the casual cyclists to take that step into a group or club environment.
the intermediate group was next to discuss the merits of the roll through. this, i think, came about after we totally seperated the advanced from the intermediate groups and the usual 2/3 fast – 1/3 main split that used to occur, suddenly changed around. last week there were over 40 riders in the intermediate group while the advanced would have had half of that. the discussions centred around how to effectively roll through and basically reiterated all the things that the transitional group were learning. i suppose from the transitionals point of view, it showed the importance of getting it right and knowing what to do.
with over 40 riders with a wide variety of abilities, the roll through broke down as some people were not strong enough to keep up while others were too strong and created gaps. last week they basically gave up on the roll through and reverted back to some fast sections and regroup points. much like the early novice group, i think it may be time to split the intermediate group up into 2 groups. currently i am not sure how to do this as it is always hard to tell someone that they are not fit enough to go with the faster group. hopefully this can be sorted out and we can get both groups rolling through again. often there are riders from the advanced group that either don’t feel like they need to be smashed or are coming back from fitness that end up with the intermediate group. sometimes i think that their influence may increase the speed a bit so that others are struggling to keep up. these two types of riders are the easy ones to separate. it is all the others in the middle that need to make a call as to where they think that they belong. also the only way this can work is for there to be people to step up and lead the group. you people know who you are so don’t be shy and help out the group. russell and nev do an excellent job in keeping that group together but if we split it, we will need another couple. there are usually people sweeping at the back of the group and are willing to help out that way. hopefully with a split, we will not need sweepers, but will need leaders.
the advanced group. where do i start. the discussion after last saturday’s ride was enlightening, but not totally surprising. some ground rules need to be set for that group or it just becomes totally chaos as was shown on saturday. i have deliberately stayed out of the comments on the website on this issue because i wanted to see where it went and what i saw disheartened me a bit. the discussion about lights and being “the fast group” and all was not unexpected and i take some responsibility for that as that is what it has developed into. it was always meant to be a hard hit out but i think that it has developed into a “last man standing” kind of ride where if you can break the group apart then you are the winner. now i am going to back nico on this point as he was right when he said that it is a group ride so you should ride hard, but as a group. now i am not saying that you must ride to the ability of the weakest rider, but if the group is split by the traffic lights early on in the ride, then why not ease up to allow the group to reform. after all, getting split at the lights does not prove that you are a better rider, just a luckier one. thank you jarrad for admitting that you may have made the wrong decision at the lights and could have pulled the group up. whilst everyone else was making excuses or blaming others, i commend you for taking responsibility for your actions.
now if riders get shelled during a faster roll through or hills then so be it as they maybe shouldn’t be in the advanced group (but there is nothing against trying) but the reason we should try to stay together as a group is for the safety of all the riders. there is no way that i would ride down canning hwy by myself as i think that it is too busy at the best of times. the safety in numbers and being only one group that cars need to pass as opposed to being spread over a kilometre, is what keeps us safe.
apart from safety is the club image to other people out there. the majority of riders are wearing the spr colours and by the looks of the latest order, people are more than happy to be seen as an spr rider. we are a club now and as such what you do as part of the ride reflects on the club. running red lights, sliding down between traffic at the lights, crossing lanes to start the sprint all upset the flow of traffic and make motorists more pissed off with us than they need to. even if you aren’t wearing the kit, if you are with the group then that is the kit that people will see the most of. don’t let the club image be tarnished by a silly split second decision.
so what to do now. well here are some ground rules for all the club training rides that we have listed plus some general ones as well.
saturday novice – keep the course fairly similar with low traffic areas. concentrate on basic skills like where to position your bike to get a draft and the mechanics of rolling through.
saturday transitional – different course each week to allow riders to experience varying road and traffic conditions. concentrate on rolling through and negotiating traffic interactions.
saturday intermediate – either split into 2 groups based on fitness or allow faster sections with regroup points. must develop the roll through into the ride as skills need to be developed.
saturday advanced – stick together for the first 15kms of the ride. the routes are generally 55kms so you still have 40kms to go hard. this is not a race. we are on open roads with lots of traffic so do not put yourself or others at risk.
saturday all rides – the sprint point is the blue sign before victoria ave on riverside drive and the 60 sign after the brewery on mounts bay road.
sunday all rides – always regroup to make sure we don’t leave anyone behind
tuesday all rides – these are both easy rides and therefore should not be used as hard training sessions. be aware of the abilities of the weaker riders. if you need a harder session, head down the back of the group and help those that are struggling.
thursday advanced – fast ride, but again without trying to smash the group apart. there are slower sections that should be used to allow dropped riders to rejoin the group.
general comments
always be aware of the size of the group and keep an eye out for what the riders at the back are doing.
make sure you pass information up the line so those setting the pace know what is going on.
stopping for a flat tyre is up to the group leader, but if you are near the rider who has flatted, then you should look out for them and stop to help. you know you would like someone to stop if you had a flat.
red lights. do not run them. there is no excuse because you can see that they are yellow as you approach them. stop, but do it safely and let those behind you know that you are stopping. going around someone that is stopping is a big no no. if they can stop then so can you. breaches of this will mean that you will spend the following week helping dr ronny with the transitional group.
if the group approaches traffic stopped at an itersection do not go around the cars but rather take up the lane behind the car. when the light change, if you have slid past the car, then they have to try to get back past you. this is unsafe and puts you are risk for no real benefit.
sprinting at the end of the ride must only be done if it is safe to do so. do not go into the next lane if there are cars in it. you must wait till it is clear or you can find a gap in between other riders. you have just survived the last 50kms, why get cleaned up when you are so close to home.
you are part of a group which is part of a club. make sure your actions are for the good of the group that you are riding with as this will reflect on how the rest of the group sees you.
this is to give notice of two events that are coming up on march 20th.
the first spr breakfast for 2010 will be held at the presidential residence directly after the saturday morning ride. due to lorriane’s high training workload, this breakfast will be catered for by kate. she has requested a bit of help from anyone that is willing to offer up their morning (or their partner’s morning). the usual food, coffee, hot chocolate will be on offer as well as raffle prizes and a bike weigh-in. we will post a reminder closer to the date to get some rsvp’s for final catering numbers.
after the breakfast, or probably just blending straight in, we will have the club AGM. This will be open for any financial club member to attend and ALL committee positions will be up for re-election. i will post some further details about the positions a bit later, but if you want to be actively involved in the running of the club, let me know.
a busy week this week and it was compounded by my #2 son giving me a cold. i haven’t been on the bike since sunday and had tuesday off work. if this is lining up to be anything like last year, i am expecting to have pretty much continuous colds till about mid-year. as such, i will be riding with the intermediate group this week as i was already dropped by the advanced group last week before i was sick.
the transitional group has gotten bigger again and as these are the riders that can learn the most from the more experienced riders, we really need a few more helpers to guide this group. if you don’t feel like smashing it and want to help impart some knowledge, feel free to help dr ronny out with this group. remember, these are the guys and girls that will be eventually mixing it up in the faster groups, so we want them to learn as much as possible now.
the kit order has been placed so if you want to order anything….get back to me in about 6 months time. as predicted, it was the biggest order we have had and came in at over $17,600. there were over 200 garments ordered so our brand will be well and truly splattered across perth. for those that did order, you will be receiving an email soon containing the amount you owe plus the netbank details where to send money too. we will need all payments in before the kit arrives. the entire order will be here in about 4 weeks, but certain items may turn up sooner. we will need to be progressively paying cannibal, so we will need your payments as soon as possible.
the next breakfast will be on the 20th of march and will coincide with the kit distribution and also the club’s agm. we will update details of both very soon so keep your eyes on the blog.
races. there is renae’s race this sunday at tech park. see a previous blog entry for details. if you are not busy, come down to support the spr riders that are having a crack. this race is all about promoting women’s racing so there is a support women’s race on as well for those without much race experience. pemberton is the following weekend and there are a bunch of spr riders heading down. maybe a bit far to go to show support, but good luck to those that are heading down.
the weekends rides are as follows. some routes have been changed to extend/reduce kilometres so if you are downloading it to your gps, make sure you have the latest version. over the next few weeks i will be changing the format of the maps. instead of specifying a map for intermediate or advanced or traditional, i will just have routes of different distances in different directions. the groups can then be sent out on any of them rather than being specific to a group.
see. busy week for me.
saturday 20th feb- all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am
orders close tomorrow night, monday the 15th feb. click here for more information. payment details will be emailed out once the order is finalised. don’t miss out.
there has been quite a bit of discussion back and forth on the blog about rolling through and ride etiquette in the groups. i guess since we are bigger, it is harder to keep everyone happy. however, a proper roll through is all about keeping everyone happy. therefore, watch what other riders are doing, close gaps without sprinting, don’t slow or speed too much and you will all enjoy it more. if you want to smash it, come up to the advanced group.
there has also been a bit of discussion about coffee shops as some people head over to atomic after the ride. i suppose now more than ever the splitting of the groups can draw a distinct line between them. the coffee shop is a place, however, that we can all get together afterwards and continue that social aspect. i’m not about to tell anyone where they have their coffee, but there are few places that can cater for the size of our group as it is.
this is the last weekend for getting a kit order in. the closing date is monday the 15th and i will be sending it off on tuesday. for those that have been asking, once the order is in, you will get emailed a total cost and a bank account in which to deposit your money. delivery is expected to be about 4 weeks after the order is finalised.
rides are listed below. i have taken on board the feedback from the intermediate group and have extended the route to closer to 50km. i will make the changes progressively to the other routes to make sure they are all that distance.
don’t forget it is valentines day on sunday. i still expect you to be on the bike, just make sure you have arranged something to smooth the waters afterwards.
saturday – all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am
my last weekend of holidays and i will be back to work on monday. after 7 weeks off it will be a struggle to function effectively and apparently there is a bet going around work that i will hand my notice in when i get back. something i should think about. anyone want to pay me not to work??? needs to be competitive with a mining salary so i can continue to buy bike parts.
anyway, this post has taken me about 2 hrs to do now as i have to update all the new ride routes. since we now have 7 different rides each weekend, i need to make sure that they are all mapped properly.
don’t forget that this coming week is your last week to order kit. get your order in before the 15th feb if you want to look part of the group. there hasn’t been a big pick up in things like arm warmers and vests this order. remember, it will get cold and this morning was the first time i saw armwarmers out on a ride in ages. sadly, they were not on me so i shivered through the first part of the ride. info on spr kit can be found here. i will be updating the kit page with the current order, so make sure you have a look and check that i have marked you down with the correct size and style.
saturday has the novices heading out on a new course that mark has mapped out. it will give them a lot more experience at hills and heavier traffic (both bike and car). the transitional group will do a similar route, but follow the intermediates through mosman park before coming home along stirling hwy. the intermediates will do river route that we do on a tuesday morning and the advanced will be doing a totally new route along shelley and then the other direction through mosman park. there is a good chance that each group should pass by each other.
sunday will tackle greenmount with the intermediate group doing the first climb then returning via eat eastern and guilford rd. coffee will be back at the belltower, unless they want to climb kalamunda road to get a coffee up there. the advanced group will continue on through parkerville and mundaring weir.
2010 spr jersey - full length zip and no sleeve elastic
i have spoken to cannibal today and we will being doing the new jersey with a full length zip and noelastic in the sleeves. there is a slight increase in the cost, but we will absorb it this time around. therefore the jerseys will still only cost $95.
so, if you already have a jersey and want the euro look so you can tackle the hills like a schleck, you have till the 15 feb to get your orders in.
in the near future we will be moving this website over to a stand-alone spr site (rather than hanging off the back of perthcycling). when that happens we will include a forum and classifieds section for people to buy and sell bike bits. in the meantime, i have set up a page to deal with anything you want to sell. click here.
if you have some excess bike bits, then send an email though to sprclassifieds@perthcycling.com.au with all relavant info (contact details etc) and any photos you wish to add. each post will have it’s own page so people can comment on it to ask questions if they want. once the item has sold, send me an email to let me know and i can delete it from the site.
