All posts by 克里斯

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Team SPR Claims Maiden Victory

Race report by Chris

...and the winner isBeing

left to fend for himself as the only entry from the bunch in the Golden Spokes Support race Michael B was treating the race as a personal test. Whilst the rest of the racers were off chasing Rouleurs points Mike reeled off a fine second place winning the mens support race. Mel Hoskins who has ridden with us on the Sunday rides in the past pulled off the overall win (and obviously first woman) after outsprinting Mike for the line.

The pair escaped at about half race distance and with no concerted effort by the bunch to chase them down extended their lead to finish 30 seconds in front of the bunch.

Another some time Rouleur, Josie Tomic, finished with a third after being heavily marked by the other ladies.

As an aside two defacto Rouleurs, Julian and Hamish, from the Barista boys raced in the Open. They were taught a couple of lessons by the big boys, not the least of which was to make sure they enter the support race when there is one. However, sounded like they enjoyed the outing, particularly the opportunity to race with the fast guys.

In the Open, I believe Luke Durbridge took out the win. He was with a breakaway bunch of 3 from the first or second lap and left them with two to go. Not bad beating home the likes of Ben King and Cam Meyer even though this was probably not a priority race for them.

Good to see Davina out and about, it seems the broken Radius isn’t holding her back too much. Check her blog for an update soon.

I went along to have a look and liked what I saw, the circuit was fast & pretty safe. The organization looked pretty solid aside from a minor hiccup with the witches hats causing a delay to the start.

One concern to my mind was the presence of tri-bars in an Open road race, not sure how they slipped passed the commissaires. As it turned out they didn’t figure in the results or I believe the accident that occured, so no harm done.

A great result for Michael and here’s hoping this event grows into something over the coming years.

Congratulations Mr B.

 

how's them apples Ryan? ;-)

Daylight Saving

3 Comments

Comment by Chris

Personally I’m not a fan, I like to train in the morning and during summer the mornings are great. Daylight saving steals away the chance to spend some time in the sun before

work and enjoy the mornings after the long cold winter.

Having idiots like this on my side doesn’t help though, even if it is very amusing.

daylightsaving

Anyway, have to go buy some new curtains to replace the ones that faded last year ’cause of all that extra daylight.

Respect

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Opinion by Chris.
So, I rode to work today, as I do four days a week. I do this for a number of reasons but the best one is that it gives me some time to clear my head both at the start and end of the day. It’s almost meditative sometimes particularly if doing some intervals or focusing on another goal for the ride.
Anyway as happens occasionally some peanut decides to test my nerves by seeing how close they can get to me as they pass me on my right shoulder. OK I figure that’s it for the day relax and enjoy the rest of the ride. But I wouldn’t be writing this if that was the case now would I?
This same or similar happens a couple of more times on the way to work and I’m starting to think there is a vendetta against me. I put it down the law of averages and think no more of

it until my ride home.
After getting cut off two more times on the way home and having a couple more nerve testers I am pretty pi$$ed.
This gets me to thinking about respect on the road and the main reason this behaviour grind my gears. These people appear to have no respect for cyclists as road users. Hopefully this will change over time but there I guess there will always be the minority.
I am sure I will continue to yell at some of these guys , particularly when I feel the actions have been premeditated or particularly uncalled for. More importantly, I will aim to earn the respect of other road users by simply obeying the road rules, as I expect them to, and hope you will do the same.
See you on the road

Team SPR @ Mt Helena and the Case of the Forgotten Shoes

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Race Report by ChrisSo another weekend and this time a hilly race was planned with the WC Masters. Bruce was keen, I needed another workout and with the weather looking good there were no real excuses.
A scheduled 9:30 start was sounding very civilised and meant I could have a proper breakfast before heading out. Ah Coco Pops, breakfast of champions.
A cool start for the day so I made sure I packed arm and knee warmers and warm shoe covers just in case. The drive out there was pleasant and I arrived with plenty of time to sign on and have a look around at some of the other toys. Young Steve Bush had come along for his first race with the oldies and quickly got shoved into B grade.
Bruce showed up eventually and we had a quick chat about strategy, sit-in was my plan. Bruce had similar ideas I think. Steve seemed a little apprehensive.
Numbers looked good for B grade and Bruce’s assessment of the course was rolling with no real climbs. Things were looking promising, I like rolling hills that rely on power to get over. Long climbs tend to bore me and so I don’t really commit to attacking them like I should.
Anyway, with ½ hour to start time I figured I’d best get organised and warm up, although there was a short neutralised section to the start I knew from previous experience that one of the guys would attack from the gun. In this case it’s always good to have done a couple of efforts so it doesn’t hurt as much.
So, back to the car to get kitted up. Out of my civvies and into the cycling kit, decided on the arm warmers but left the knee warmers in the car. Then the clincher, reached in to grab the shoes and…”sh*t, where are my shoes?”
Went through the usual looking in places I‘d never have put them in the first place but no joy. It seems I have joined the ranks of Forgetful Jones.
I was not happy! Motivated and ready to race it seems I wasn’t going

to be allowed to due to my own ineptitude.
With not a little embarrassment I went to let Bruce know I had no shoes and would not be able to race. As luck would have it to add to my shame Lorraine had come along to support a friend racing and got to hear my tragic tale.
So lesson learnt (I hope) I drove home fuming, 2 hours of driving and no riding not a happy camper. In case you were wondering, Bruce finished 13th but I have no idea about young Steve as he has not been listed on the results sheet.

sunday 13th april – peter clark memorial part 01

peter clark memorial
race report by chriswith much cajoling several of us had agreed to enter this race, our loose “team” went in with good intentions. things weren’t looking to great; with bruce’s recent form not really up to much due to the little annabelle, peter complaining of flu symptoms, stuart thinking the course wouldn’t suit him and my heavy legs and a sleepless night, ryan was never really going to get much support from us lot. anyway with a nice field of 65 riders there was going to be plenty of places for the rest of us to hide.

so my aim was to complete the race with the bunch and if at all possible give ryan a hand for the finish. i completed the race but was of no real help to ryan unfortunately.

peter was far too professional, warming up on his rollers. i like most of the others would rely on the tried and proven method of using the first 10-15km or so to warm up. my experience in perth has shown me that typically the bunch takes the first lap reasonably steadily and then the fun begins.

things went according to the script and unfortunately for me this usually means i suffer from about a third of the way into the race until the continued surging abates. today it was impressive to see the bunch strung out as we chased breaks, 65 guys hammering along at 50km/h stretched over 100metres.
anyway my legs came good after about the fourth lap when peter made an attack to get onto the back of a couple of guys. he didn’t stay there for long rejoining the bunch a little while later. i maintained my position in the rear of the bunch and figured i’d see how things went on the last couple of laps.

the work done on the front, including a fair portion by our own pool boy, brought the break back. i had already told him don’t go near the front and to save himself for the sprint but i guess he wanted to do a bit of work before we got to that point. after several attempts to get around the bunch but getting foiled each time by the pace of the bunch or the double white lines, i gave up.

i was expecting the pace to pick up on the last lap, particularly over the last climb at the south of the circuit. i prepared my self for one last push with the aim of getting closer to the front of the bunch. mission accomplished i settled in to hear guys crying out that some guy was going to stay away.

at this stage with one corner to go and an uphill sprint finish i didn’t think my position or legs would allow me to accomplish anything flash. as usual though

there were the usual bunch of guys who thought they had something but didn’t have anything. so the last 200m were littered with guys rolling for the line. i still had some gas in the tank and like peter had to find a path to the line. i was pretty happy that i had managed to look after myself and have the legs for the sprint. a quick head count of riders in front of me over the line had me in the top 15. no money, but i hadn’t expected to finish.

whilst peter got back on the rollers to spin his legs out i shot the shit with michael and bruce whilst we all enjoyed a coke and a sausage in a bun.
a great event put on by the ndcc and lets hope the numbers continue to improve.

next week, the b grade trophy race.

friday 21st mar – good friday

ride report by chrisit seems fear of the pool boy and tennis coach were not enough to stop some of the guys from turning up for the ride today. a group of 16 was a reasonable turnout for a good friday ride.

after the last public holiday becoming a bit of a smash session this one was a lot more controlled. we only managed to drop two or three and dr paul “ninja” was able to get to the belltower ahead of us. how does he pull that off?
major disappointment for the day was the usual coffee haunt wasn’t open so we had to settle another location. i can’t comment on the quality of the coffee as i didn’t have one.

anyway, the ride was the usual public holiday lap of the river going clockwise via shelley following the river to freo, north along the beach and then back to the city along the river. a little longer than the usual weekend ride but when done at a sensible pace complete in under a couple of hours.

the usual shenanigans ensued along the riverton stretch but thankfully everyone had listened to my request to regroup along the leach hwy. a little detour around the roadworks at the applecross gave us the chance to admire homes i know i’ll never be able to afford. this wasn’t without incident though as stu dropped his chain , needless to say it wasn’t terminal and we continued on.

shockingly things were reasonably well controlled all the way to pt walter where the pressure put on by a couple of the guys meant the group split up a little. however it seemed the group had listened to the pre-ride briefing as another regroup at freo meant we were all back together. except for the ninja, who at this point used his mastery to do whatever ninja’s do.

so a steady roll along the beach allowed a suffering lennie (complete with secret weapon) to catch back on, not for long though as she decided to make a solo run for home.

from here on in things warmed up a little along the northern river foreshore. i set a steady pace on the front and things were strung out single file for a while at least. it has to be said, the speed along here wasn’t quite what it is on the saturday rides.

the group slowly got back together along by steve’s but not without incident. john went down after a moments inattention led him to touch the wheel of a bike in front. a little blood and a bruised ego was the only damage done thankfully.

all that remained was the finish along mounts bay rd. now by this stage my legs were pretty shot so i decided to tactically drop down the back and have a bit of a rest before the inevitable sprint finish. i knew the flying fynn was behind me somewhere as we headed towards the brewery and thought i’d find out where he was so swung out to go find him. sure enough, there he was sitting at last wheel. ready to kick hard as he usually does. well a thought came into my head; i could spoil his sprint if i boxed him in. at least someone else might get a chance at the “win”.

as the speed picked up

i was suffering sitting out in the breeze keeping ryan boxed in, anyhow my cunning plan was foiled and the two chaps who managed to get a break were mown down by ryan and others.

so, a good solid ride and several of us hung about afterwards for the usual bench racing and some tasteful jokes from the ninja. nice.