another addition to the spr family.
ronan and his wife had a little baby girl named sophie last week.
total weight of 3.2kg (without pedals) so she may be a climber.
ronan has said – “mother says that all that budget for “bike stuff” will have to go to sophie’s education fund, but we all know that she will want her own bike and accessories in no time at all.”
i know that bonds make a nice green wondersuit. with a bit of work it could look just like a spr skinsuit.
this is an awesome event that many of us have been to the last couple of years. if you have never been to the track before, this is a great opportunity to see it at a very high level of competition. get a couple of friends together and come and support this great event. tickets are available from the link below.
With A reserve tickets sold out, B reserve $35 and C reserve $25 are selling fast.
Witness firsthand the excitement and thrill of the 250 metre timber indoor Perth SpeedDome, recognised as one of the fastest velodromes in the world. Sit within an arms length of the flashing lycra of the world’s most elite cyclists chasing world ranking points for their nation.
World, Olympic, Commonwealth Champions and record holders will line up in a star studded International field at the Perth International Track Cycling Grand Prix.
Leading the charge for Australia will be West Australia’s own 2009 World Champions Cameron Meyer, Josephine Tomic, Luke Durbridge, Melissa Hoskins and Michaela Anderson. Tearing up the boards of the magnificent Speeddome will be World ranked riders from Malaysia, South Africa, Scotland, Canada, America, Poland and Japan all chasing UCI (Union Cyclist International) points in an extravaganza of speed and lycra. Complimented by the Queen of Cycling Anna Meares in the best form of her career, the Perth International Track Cycling Grand Prix is one not to miss.
Don’t forget to quote the code word TCWA when purchasing tickets online, by phone on 136 100 or at all Ticketmaster outlets.
i wandered down to langley park after the hills ride with my two boys to watch the finish of the long distance triathlon world championships. there were a few people that have ridden with us before competing so i thought i would go down to show my support. here are a couple of photos from the day. unfortunately i didn’t get to see any bike action.
another couple of glorious days are predicted for the weekend so we expect big numbers for the ride again. i was in such a hurry last week that i forgot about the novice ride. luckily carol had it all under control so the five of them headed out together. i will try to be on time this week as their numbers also go up with the nicer weather.
as we are expecting big numbers, we will split the group again to make sure we don’t hog too much of the road. one of our new riders, josh, works for the traffic operations centre as part of main roads. he said that if we get abused like the fast group did last week that we can give the licence plate number to him and they can deal with it. something to think about as we seem to be coping a lot of abuse lately.
sunday will see perth hosting the world long course triathlon championships. rachael is doing it as are a few others that i know. comprising of a 3km swim/80km ride/20km run, if you have done a tri before you will understand what pain these guys put themselves through. head down to langley park on sunday morning if you are not riding in the hills with us. if not, then avoid the freeway south bound as it will be closed between hay st and canning hwy for the bike course as will mounts bay rd and riverside drive.
the 7th of november will see the track cycling grand prix being held at the speeddome. a few of us have been to it the last couple of years and it is well worth it. there are some big names form here and overseas coming out as it sits in between the manchester track world cup event and the melbourne event. we will post some more info on it soon, but it is definitely a great night out especially if you haven’t been to the track before.
south perth rouleurs saturday ride 12 (hale rd reverse)
these routes have been updated for the hale rd ride so if you have a garmin you will need to download the new tcx file. basically the group will head out great eastern and split at ascot. this week the main group will head straight out to kalamunda rd then home via hale and welshpool while the fast group go through guilford and get onto kalamunda rd via helena valley rd. home the same way.
south perth rouleurs sunday ride 18 (chook farm & observatory & gooseberry)
for all that loved the f_ckenberg last week we have the chookenberg this week. this is the ride of the forgotten climbs, so if you haven’t done this one before expect a few different climbs. after the success of the merchant tea house last week i think that it will be our new coffee stop in kalamunda. even if there is no room, a take-away and a shady spot beats a 45 min wait any day.
ding ding ding. summer is here (well almost) and daylight savings isn’t. how awesome is it to not have to put on four layers of clothing to go riding in the morning. how awesome is it to go riding at 5:30am in daylight rather than a small patch of headlight. totally awesome. as the kung-fu panda says “there is no charge for awesomeness….or attractiveness”
also in the awesome stakes is the fact that one hd has the herald sun tour televised on the same night as each stage was run. check out the last few stages if you haven’t already. cj sutton from garmin (who has come out on sunday rides with us before) is currently leading the men’s race while davina sprinted home for third in the women’s. bec, anna and young sam are also in the women’s race.
also, if you are after a jersey, knicks/bibs, skinsuit or trisuit you have till sunday night to put an order in. i will be ringing cannibal on monday to set the order in motion. this may be the only run of skinsuits/trisuits so don’t miss out…the mardi gras isn’t that far away. scroll down a couple to posts to find more info.
south perth rouleurs saturday ride 08 (benara rd)
with a strong north-easterly predicted i thought that we would tackle benara rd. as the max of +30 degrees will always see us with bumper numbers for the saturday morning, the group will split. the main group will do the normal route across at ascot and through guilford while the fast group will head out to midland and back through guilford. both groups then return the same way along benara rd but both will face a strong breeze on the way out.
south perth rouleurs sunday ride 09 (patterson & canns & urch)
well the german has returned and there is nothing he likes more than the f_ckenberg. so that is where we are headed. maxing out at 21% this little beauty will sort out the climbers from the sprinters but just don’t stop cause you may not get going again. five climbs all up so expect to be tired by the end. beautiful day predicted but not as hot as saturday. bring lots of food and water as we don’t pass any servo’s till kalamunda.
in addition to the jerseys and knicks order, we are also exploring any interest in some more specialised items of clothing.
a skinsuit is generally worn by those doing track or time trials as there is no need for pockets and a more aerodynamic fit is preferred. there are a few people that do time trials and the atta club run events pretty much all year round.
a trisuit is for those cyclists that generally like to get wet before jumping on the bike, then for some reason want to go for a run afterwards. there are some current tri-hards in the group, so those that are looking at doing a few triathlons this season, may want to do them in spr colours.
due to the smaller order amounts, both these may be one off orders. so don’t wait and see what they look like as you may have missed out by then. if you are interested, have a look at the size chart on the kit order page and send me an email here. indicative prices at the moment are $175 for the skinsuit and $155 for the trisuitbut these may be subject to change due to the small run of kit. there is also the options for a long-sleeve skinsuit for an extra $15.
these are just the designs from the price list. they will be pretty much the same as the jersey and knicks combined.
there have been quite a few new riders and a few that have wanted to race since our last kit order. as such we have needed to borrow kit off people so that our teams look the part (as best we can). with there being a few more races between now and the end of the year, we will be doing a special order of just jerseys and knicks/bibs to try to get everyone kitted out. it may be a short run so therefore the prices are not exactly known. however, i don’t expect it to be much more than what is listed on the team kit page.
so, if you are new to the group, have been racing in borrowed stuff or if you need spare stuff just in case you stack it let me know asap via email here. we will be hoping to get an order sent off by the end of next week so have a look at the team kit page and let me know what sizes you want.
a good turn out for cyclo-sportif last week and this finishes off the year for cyclo racing. there are a couple more events in the regular road season and both are pretty flat so hopefully we can see a few more people wanting to step up to have a crack at racing.
a good old saturday ride that sees the groups split nicely at risely with the main group heading to freo via leach while the fast group take south street. home via cottesloe and dalkeith so we get a tailwind before coffee.
south perth rouleurs saturday ride 09 (risley & cott)
a new route for sunday so make sure all you garmin-ites download the new file so you know where you are going. this one passes the coffeeshop twice and starts the homeward descent early before turning back up welshpool rd. it finishes with a nice surprise up gooseberry, just to make sure you know that you have been on the bike.
south perth rouleurs sunday ride 20 (kalamunda & observatory & gooseberry)
for any of you that don’t like to carry a pump around with you but rely on the co2 canisters do we have a deal for you.
there is a new guy in the group, josh, that who has a contact that imports the canisters and is about to do an order. these are the standard 16g threaded canisters that most inflators use. instead of the usual $6 each you can get them for $2.50 but have to order a min of 10 ($25).
if you want to get a box, send josh an email here before monday 12th oct, 4pm.
so, it’s october already. almost summer but the cold mornings are still with us for a bit longer. it was only 4 degrees this morning, but the sun is getting up way early and it makes a nice difference to be riding in daylight before 6am. at least there will be no damn daylight savings to banish me to the darkness again.
cyclo-sportif this sunday will see spr field 2 teams in the long distance event. a total of 17 riders will be heading down so we should have good showing again.
there is a previous post about about a “come and try” day for disabled athletes. if you are free on the 17th it would be a good opportunity for a few spr riders to head down after coffee to check it out.
the route for saturday will take us on some nice familiar roads. we will split the group once we get to south street and hope the lights don’t bunch us up too much again as this causes a bit of confusion as to who is in which group. the main group returns home via bannister and the fast group should get a good run along nicholson.
south perth rouleurs saturday ride 13 (canning vale reverse)
the kahuna plus three other climbs should see the non-cyclosportif sunday climbers well satisfied by the end of the day.
south perth rouleurs sunday ride 03 (kahuna & peet & patterson)