All posts by Daniel Harvey

Ride Routes 23rd – 29th October

This week I want to highlight another event which has been a little in the background at SPR the past few years but is most definitely on this rise. Here is a snapshot from SPR Committee Member Carol Dowse.

Participation in the Tour de Gracetown (TdG) has simply exploded in 2021 with 61 cyclists and a support team of another 15 family and friends.

The first SPR representation in the Tour de Gracetown (TdG) was in 2018 with 27 members, inspired by Anna Lim who had participated the previous year with six women. Since then it has crept up in numbers from 28 in 2019 to 32 in 2020 and now doubled for 2021. The event is run on the Saturday with a long or short ride route option and for the first time we have a follow up social ride on the Sunday.

Many members now make this a long weekend with the focus on participation, inclusion and getting to know each other, not only the cyclists but family and friends. But don’t worry that we are getting too soft, there are serious riders wanting to better their times from last year or trying their hardest for the first time.

SPR Kit Update – Check out some more SPR goodness hitting the streets soon.

Keep you eyes peeled for SPR Specialized water bottles.

 

 

SPR Mid-week Ride – Our mid-week ride is on again, this time ably lead by Michael Barry.

Ride Route: modified shelley 30.56km spr mid-week

Frequency: Fortnightly

Time: 10am meeting

Meeting point: Coode Street car park South Perth

Average speed: Expected 20-22kmh (no drop)

This will be a no-drop ride (stopping as many times as required to meet group ability), with all styles and levels of bikes welcome. Keep in mind that they will need to be compliant to Australian standards and fitted out to meet road riding laws including lights/reflectors front and rear and bell. Helmets are mandatory for all SPR rides. Water bottle or camelback essential.

This ride is intended to build skills and confidence to any person who is unable to make our main Saturday development or transition rides and will be lead by SPR ride leader.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out via Facebook or email Carol on comdev@southperthrouleurs.com.au.

SPR Team Time Trial – This year we have changed location of the team time trial to the Shire of Jarrahdale, on a course similar to Stage One for the Tour of Margaret River.

The Perth Dauphane to the TOMR.

Entries have closed. Expect to see a few less people at coffee Saturday as we have all of our TOMR teams participating at Jarrahdale.

Read all the details here: https://entryboss.cc/races/7947

From the Ride Coordinator – OK so this week our main rides are going to look a little different. We will still be doing one of our regular ride routes (spoiler alert- one of our famous foothills climb up RidgeHill Rd) . And we will still be leaving Coode Street from 7am. Perhaps the difference you might see is the amount of riders/ride groups/ride leaders leaving. This Saturday we have the clash of two big events for the club. As well as holding our (now) annual lead up TTT to the Tour of Margaret River (~20 teams of 6) we also have a strong contingent of riders (50+) heading down south for the one day “classic” Tour of Gracetown. Good luck to all those SPR members riding in either of these events this weekend, I’m sure you’ve all done the training and the weather looks to be a cracker.

For those not participating in either event, rest assured the club will still be holding its regular Saturday and Sunday rides and we have enough trusty ride lead volunteers left to cover what will be less groups and riders leaving the car park.

Whatever cycling you choose this weekend, please enjoy it and come back safely.

Saturday 23rd October

Sunday 24th October

Monday 25th October

Tuesday 26th October

  • Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
  • Ride starts Frasers ave at 5:45am
    • Development group – interval training kings park

Wednesday 27th October

Thursday 28th October

Friday 29th October

Ride Routes 16th – 22th October

Our Women Interests Subcommittee is doing some excellent work, most recently running an afternoon session on food and nutrition – Fueling for Endurance.

Thank you to Nutritionist Lesley Burch and Passionate Foodie Mandy McEvoy who ran the session. I have it on good authority that everyone had a wonderful afternoon, walked away with plenty of healthy and cycling-relevant food ideas.

I invite all women to join our SPR Chicks Facebook Group keep in touch, and look out for upcoming events.

SPR Kit Order Arrival – This week is good news on the SPR kit front.

We have two kits orders available for pickup this Saturday at Dome after the ride.

  1. Our most recent SPR kit order
  2. Our sponsored Tour of Margaret River 2021 kit

The regular SPR kit order will be available from R&D Speedshop Claremont from 1pm.

I would also like to offer thanks to our sponsors for nine SPR Tour of Margaret River 2021 teams. Thank you Pilbara Resource Group, Drillman, Total Marine Technology and Cathay Mortgages.

SPR Team Time Trial – This year we have changed location of the team time trial to the Shire of Jarrahdale, on a course similar to Stage One for the Tour of Margaret River.

The Perth Dauphane to the TOMR.

Teams of 6 riders (minimum 4 riders) and the 4th rider will stop the clock. Teams will be released on regular intervals of between 1 and 2 minutes.

It is a great warm-up for the Tour of Margaret River to train your team skills.

See all the details and enter here: https://entryboss.cc/races/7947

From the Ride Coordinator – So for those very long time members or perhaps those waiting in anticipation for “the call up”, you may be wondering why we haven’t seen an announcement around a call for expressions of interest in ride leading. And the reason is pretty simple, we need the time to do it justice.

We are very proud of both the history of our ride lead programme and our current crop of dedicated volunteers who help guide our weekly main rides on Saturdays and “unofficially” represent us on weekly training rides. As a club, the programme helps differentiate ourselves from other riding clubs and is a central element in the delivery of our core values of safe, inclusive, organised and social.

Given the importance of the programme we didn’t just want to “shoe horn” it in between the Tour of Margs and Christmas time. It was traditionally a tight timeline to complete, and inevitably rain affected, so we have decided to move the programme to February next year. So if you are thinking of wanting to join our band of ride lead volunteers, we will put the call out before Christmas and begin the training programme in the new year.

Saturday 16th October

Sunday 17th October

Monday 18th October

Tuesday 19th October

  • Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
  • Ride starts Frasers ave at 5:45am
    • Development group – interval training kings park

Wednesday 20th October

Thursday 21st October

Friday 22nd October

Ride Routes 9th – 15th October

I want to sent a shout out to our Tour of Margaret River Teams this week. We have a huge number of teams entered this year including 3 women’s teams and 6 men’s teams. Not to mention SPR members riding in a range of teams in and around the Perth cycling community.

For my part, our team spent last weekend in Nannup testing out our legs on the team time trial stages of TOMR 2021. See photographic evidence below. The South West of our state is beautiful this time of year. I won’t pretend to be the expert when it comes to team time trials but I can tell you that practicing with your team is worth the time spent – in particular for us adjusting the pace and power output to cater for the individual team members.

I also want to put out a call for a female rider to join the SPR Women’s 1 Team.

The team is needing one more rider due to a late change. If you are interested, we would love to have you. Please get touch via Facebook, or on either women@southperthrouleurs.com.au or race@southperthrouleurs.com.au.

PS I went looking for more photos and did not find lots… feel free to share training photos to the SPR group so I have more to choose from next time 🙂

SPR Team Time Trial – This year we have changed location of the team time trial to the Shire of Jarrahdale, on a course similar to Stage One for the Tour of Margaret River.

The Perth Dauphane to the TOMR.

Teams of 6 riders (minimum 4 riders) and the 4th rider will stop the clock. Teams will be released on regular intervals of between 1 and 2 minutes.

It is a great warm-up for the Tour of Margaret River to train your team skills.

See all the details and enter here: https://entryboss.cc/races/7947

Fuelling for Endurance – Come join Nutritionist and Executive Coach, Lesley Burch and Passionate Foodie Mandy McEvoy (both SPR Women) for an interactive afternoon in the kitchen discussing how to fuel for more than the Saturday club ride.  Recipes will be demonstrated and up for sampling, plus you’ll walk away a few little goodies designed to keep you energised whilst cycling and recovering well so you can keep turning those pedals!

See here for all the details.

From the Ride Coordinator – OK, so if you are a regular reader of this part of the blog (well done for getting down this far) your going to have a sense of deja vu in reading tonight’s post. If this is the first time that you read that the start times for all but one of the Sunday Hills rides is changing this weekend then perhaps you missed last weeks post. But because we are keen to make sure there is no confusion for anyone, and we don’t want to disappoint, we need to reiterate it again this week.

Our start times departing the Coode Street car park for this weekends Sunday Hills are as follows:

  • Sunday Short Hills and Sunday Long Hills – 6am
  • Sunday Short Hills Social – 7am

The primary difference between Short Hills and the social variant is speed and there are more regroups in the social short hills. The new difference is the start time for Summer. All rides will revert back to a 7am start from March onwards.

If you are a regular hills rider on Sunday,  please have a chat with your fellow regulars and ask if they are aware of the change as we want to make sure everyone is informed.

Saturday 9th October

Sunday 10th October

Monday 11th October

Tuesday 12th October

  • Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
  • Ride starts Frasers ave at 5:45am
    • Development group – interval training kings park

Wednesday 13th October

Thursday 15th October

Friday 15th October

Ride Routes 2nd – 8th October

This week I wanted to highlight what it means to be part of SPR. On one hand, it provides a way to belong and to contribute to a community that has formed around cycling and healthy living – captured in the club’s core values.

Safe. Inclusive. Organised. Social.

Another way of thinking about being a part of the South Perth Rouleurs is to think about what value you as a member receive: Things like safe and organised group rides, support & assistance participating in the sport of cycling – whether just learning or competing in racing across a range of disciplines – or taking part in community events ranging from purely social through to health, nutrition and lifestyle events.

There is also some formality to being a member. SPR is an affiliated AusCycling club – the national cycling organisation – and your membership fee gets you insurance and licensing which covers your riding, training and racing (depending on the license type you choose) as well as a small contribution to the club to enable it to do all of the things that it does. We also provide avenues for those who are members of other cycling-related organisations to join the club – see here for all the details.

Rather than write lots more, I have pulled together a range of images that provide a snapshot of what being a part of SPR is all above.

Enjoy.

  • An SPR member
  • Organised and safe group rides
  • Ride leaders
  • Doing it together
  • Coffee
  • Glorious group rides
  • More group rides
  • Racing and achievement
  • Off the bike
  • Lots of group rides
  • Challenging yourself
  • Group rides, at whatever pace
  • Health and nutrition
  • The Tour of Margaret River
  • Support at events
  • Belonging to a community
  • You and your bike
  • Support and camaraderie
  • All the cool kids
  • Crits
  • Travel
  • Community events
  • More crits

SPR Team Time Trial – This year we have changed location of the team time trial to the Shire of Jarrahdale, on a course similar to Stage One for the Tour of Margaret River.

The Perth Dauphane to the TOMR.

Teams of 6 riders (minimum 4 riders) and the 4th rider will stop the clock. Teams will be released on regular intervals of between 1 and 2 minutes.

It is a great warm-up for the Tour of Margaret River to train your team skills.

See all the details and enter here: https://entryboss.cc/races/7947

Fuelling for Endurance – Come join Nutritionist and Executive Coach, Lesley Burch and Passionate Foodie Mandy McEvoy (both SPR Women) for an interactive afternoon in the kitchen discussing how to fuel for more than the Saturday club ride.  Recipes will be demonstrated and up for sampling, plus you’ll walk away a few little goodies designed to keep you energised whilst cycling and recovering well so you can keep turning those pedals!

See here for all the details.

From the Ride Coordinator – Anybody notice the light starting to creep back in on our EBRs? Anyone else  thinking that it’s not quite as cold as it use to be when you first leave the house in the morning either? Tell me you noticed those (b)easterlies blowing us back down Benara Rd last weekend! These are sure signs we are moving closer to summer riding conditions.

With that we wanted to signal an upcoming change to our Sunday Hills rides start times. So from NEXT weekend (ie Sunday 10th October) we will be changing the start of our Long and Short Hills rides to a 6am start from Coode Street. This will continue all through to the end of Summer – with our last official ride at the earlier time slot being Sunday 27th February. One exception to this will be the Sunday Short Hills Social group, who after consultation with the current regular riders are keen to leave their departure from Coode Street to 7am until well into summer itself. We will post further advice on the change to this groups start times in the future.

So for all you Sunday Hills fanatics, enjoy your last Saturday night out late with a mini sleep in, because it all changes next weekend.  (edited) 

Saturday 2nd October

Sunday 3rd October

Monday 4th October

Tuesday 5th October

  • Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
  • Ride starts Frasers ave at 5:45am
    • Development group – interval training kings park

Wednesday 6th October

Thursday 7th October

Friday 8th October

Ride Routes 25th September – 1st October

For those that joined us last Sunday for the Water Tower Challenge, thank you. For many, it was an opportunity to get out on a longer ride they have attempted before. If not the longest. With support and excellent company on the journey. And it turned out to be pretty much the perfect day in terms of weather.

With two options – the Imperial (170km and 1,800m of climbing) and the Metric tonne (103km and 1,300m of climbing) – there was something for everyone.

Thank you to Steve Burns and our volunteers on the day for making it a wonderful event.

SPR Team Time Trial – This year we have changed location of the team time trial to the Shire of Jarrahdale, on a course similar to Stage One for the Tour of Margaret River.

The Perth Dauphane to the TOMR.

Teams of 6 riders (minimum 4 riders) and the 4th rider will stop the clock. Teams will be released on regular intervals of between 1 and 2 minutes.

It is a great warm-up for the Tour of Margaret River to train your team skills.

See all the details and enter here: https://entryboss.cc/races/7947

From the Ride Coordinator – This long weekend SPR has a plethora of ride options for you to consider across all 3 days – both off road and on road !!

Off road I hear you ask? Well yes we cater for that with our regular Sunday monthly gravel ride scheduled up for this Sunday. And by the look of the weather forecast, this Sunday is looking “wet wet wet”. You too can feel the mud in your fingers and possibly in your toes too. For the children who never grew up – this ride is for you! Come join us at 7.30am opposite the Darlington Post Office for some wet weather fun.

But before we get to Sunday, we have the return of those “beasterlies” starting again this weekend, so we will schedule one of our favourites to finish with that wind behind us – Benara Rd! Other than the wind, Saturday is looking like it’s going to be a cracker.

And finally, if you haven’t had enough of the wind, the rain and the mud and you’ve got something left for the public holiday, then there is always the public holiday ride to try. Let’s hope we get enough of a clear window in the weather on Monday so we don’t get wet. If we do, it may be the last dry weather ride for a few days thereafter.

Whatever cycling that you do, please be safe and look after your fellow riders.

Saturday 25th September

Sunday 26th September

Monday 27th September

Tuesday 28th September

  • Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
  • Ride starts Frasers ave at 5:45am
    • Development group – interval training kings park

Wednesday 29th September

Thursday 30th September

Friday 1st October

Ride Routes 18 – 24th September

This year we have changed location of the team time trial to the Shire of Jarrahdale, on a course similar to Stage One for the Tour of Margaret River.

The Perth Dauphane to the TOMR.

Teams of 6 riders (minimum 4 riders) and the 4th rider will stop the clock. Teams will be released on regular intervals of between 1 and 2 minutes.

A little bit about the course: The time trials start initially sending riders Eastwards out along Nettleton Rd, before heading northward and downhill. The turn around is at the cnr Nettleton and Old Brickworks Rd and teams will head back with some uphill battles ahead. The course is a challenging 31km out-and-back riding over an undulating quiet rural road with total climbing over 440m.

It is a great warm-up for the Tour of Margaret River to train your team skills.

See all the details and enter here:

https://entryboss.cc/races/7947

SPR Water Tower Challenge – We are back for the SPR Water Tower Challenge 2021 Edition after a great event last year.

This Sunday, for those that have entered… enjoy!

From the Ride Coordinator – OK so it’s official if the forecast is correct that Spring will be sprung this coming week with a Wednesday forecast in the high 20s and an overnight temperature for those Wednesday SPR Stock Rd repeat die hards (you know who you are!!) of 13 degrees. Yes that’s right, 13 degrees. So if you’re training for the ToMR and Steve Burns hasn’t “burnt you bad” (see what I did there 😀) on the Tuesday training session, come join us for some more pain and no doubt a cracking sunrise that you’ll notice change every repeat. 5.30 meeting at Raffles for all those that are interested and we’ll have you back there around 6.50 or 7.20 if you stop for coffee.

So to the immediate task at hand, the routes for this weekend. Sunday will see the return of some of our newest but more popular hills rides up the ZigZag and beyond. Weather forecast is improving as the week goes on so hopefully there will be little moisture left by the time we get to Sunday.

Due to the northwesterly on Saturday, we will circumnavigate one of Perth”s greatest parklands – Reabold Park. It’s a beautiful ride if you’re not staring at the wheels in front of you for the entire time and Hay Street has now opened both lanes of traffic so hopefully there won’t be any holdups through Subi. At this point it’s looking like the weather window might stay open long enough for us to not get too wet.

Early heads up, the Grand Final long weekend is the following weekend and in addition to the public holiday ride on the Monday, we will also be holding the monthly gravel ride on the Sunday. But more about that next week.

Saturday 18th September

Sunday 19th September

Monday 20th September

Tuesday 21st September

  • Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
  • Ride starts Frasers ave at 5:45am
    • Development group – interval training kings park

Wednesday 22nd September

Thursday 23rd September

Friday 24th September

Ride Routes 11 – 17th September

Newspaper clipping from Arthur Riddle’s collection

Many who have been part of the club for a few years now will remember the club’s association with the town of Beverley, and the historic Beverley Race that dates back over a century. In particular, club member Toby H ran The Beverley Heroic for 7 years and the club running a re-invention of the classic race in the town each October.

For a range of reasons in the current climate we have been unable to continue with these events (SPR is this year running a team time trial closer to home in Jarrahdale in October) but still love to maintain a link with this history.

So a little closer to home, and in commemoration of the finish of the classic race, the WA Historical Cycle Club is holding an exhibition celebrating this part of the rich history or cycling in Western Australia.

A little history on the race:

Tom Griffith’s scrapbooks, Cycling related newspaper clippings and photographs from the 1930’s

Western Australia’s premier one day endurance race, first ridden in 1897, was contemporary with the Liège–Bastogne–Liège Classic (1892) and the Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic (1895). Originating on roads made for horse drawn carts, ‘The Beverley’ was founded by WA cycling legend Percy Armstrong. The 185km (116 mile) route followed the Avon Valley between Beverley and Toodyay before encountering the punishing hills and washed out culverts of the Darling Ranges, finishing more than 30 times at the historic Peninsular Hotel in Maylands.

Credit: WA Historical Cycle Club

Check out all the details on Facebook and on the historical society’s web page.

It will be worth visiting.

SPR Water Tower Challenge – We are back for the SPR Water Tower Challenge 2021 Edition after a great event last year.

Ride against the clock in teams of 3, through the Perth suburbs in search of water towers. You will likely find water towers that you never knew existed and visit suburbs you do not usually ride through.

And remembering that water towers are built on the top of hills, you will have the opportunity to do some climbing as well 😀 – choose either the Imperial (170km and 1,800m of climbing) or the Metric tonne (103km and 1,300m of climbing).

This is a fundraiser for the club and helps support the Rider Leaders Programme that both members and non-members enjoy 365 days a year.

The event is open members and non-members.

All of the details are on the EntryBoss event page, which is where you sign up!

Find a team and get involved. 

From the Ride Coordinator – Wasn’t it great to feel that sunshine last weekend and judging by the turn out of numbers in the car park on Saturday and Sunday it looks like quite a few of those who prefer to hibernate during the the cold have awoken from their winter slumber. We had great numbers across all groups and even had 3 main 2 groups last weekend. We also had quite a number of riders identify themselves as new riders and we hope they enjoyed themselves to give it another crack this weekend.

So it’s probably a good time for everyone to (re)familiarise themselves with the clubs expectations around riding etiquette which can be found here. Doesn’t matter if you are new to the club or been with us since the start, it’s always good to give this article a read as it sets out the expectations of riding on the club rides and reminds us all of things like good bike preparation, signalling and calling, not to half wheel whilst riding etc. Well worth another read and essential if you’ve never read it before. Ultimately it sets expectations  on each rider who wants to ride with SPR not only for safety but also your enjoyment.

Saturday 11th September

Sunday 12th September

Monday 13th September

Tuesday 14th September

  • Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
  • Ride starts Frasers ave at 5:45am
    • Development group – interval training kings park

Wednesday 15th September

Thursday 16th September

Friday 17th September

Ride Routes 4 – 10th September

As we foreshadowed last week, I am pleased to announce our new mid-week ride which allows you to sleep in 🙂

I’m not sure I understand the concept, but I hear tell that some of our members are keen to head out on a ride that does not start in the dark!

Here are the details:

Ride Route: modified shelley 30.56km spr mid-week

Frequency: Second Wednesday of the month, starting 8 September

Time: 10am meeting

Meeting point: Coode Street car park South Perth

Average speed: Expected 20-22kmh (no drop)

This will be a no-drop ride (stopping as many times as required to meet group ability), with all styles and levels of bikes welcome. Keep in mind that they will need to be compliant to Australian standards and fitted out to meet road riding laws including lights/reflectors front and rear and bell. Helmets are mandatory for all SPR rides. Water bottle or camelback essential.

This ride is intended to build skills and confidence to any person who is unable to make our main Saturday development or transition rides and will be lead by SPR ride leader.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out via Facebook or email Carol on comdev@southperthrouleurs.com.au.

SPR La Vuelta 2021 Dinner – The inaugural SPR dinner to mark the La Vuelta, last of the professional grand cycling tours in Europe was held at The Spaniard in Perth city. Twenty-five cyclists and partners attended with chorizos, tapas, paella and churros the fare for the night lubricated with Sangrias, craft beer and cocktails.

If you missed out on this event watch out for it next year.

SPR Water Tower Challenge – We are back for the SPR Water Tower Challenge 2021 Edition after a great event last year.

Ride against the clock in teams of 3, through the Perth suburbs in search of water towers. You will likely find water towers that you never knew existed and visit suburbs you do not usually ride through.

And remembering that water towers are built on the top of hills, you will have the opportunity to do some climbing as well 😀 – choose either the Imperial (170km and 1,800m of climbing) or the Metric tonne (103km and 1,300m of climbing).

This is a fundraiser for the club and helps support the Rider Leaders Programme that both members and non-members enjoy 365 days a year.

The event is open members and non-members.

All of the details are on the EntryBoss event page, which is where you sign up!

Find a team and get involved. 

From the Ride Coordinator – Well here we are at the start of spring time and finally it looks to be a nice weekend to ride across both days of the weekend (WooHoo!!), albeit with chilly starts of 5 and 7 respectively. Time to layer up to get out there because as the mornings progress we are looking at a bit of fun in the sun.

With the better weather, usually comes swelling numbers so for those that have been riding regularly throughout winter, expect to see a few more numbers lining up in the carpark. Our ride leaders will be keeping an eye on group sizes in the coming months. Ideal numbers for each group are around 13-17. Anything over 20 can be difficult to manage and can lead to frustrations around ride speed, being split at lights, poor communications, lousy roll throughs etc. So please work with the leaders if they ask you to split into different groups according to group size as they aren’t doing it to displease you, they will be doing it so the group dynamic can be optimized so it’s more enjoyable.

So to this weeks ride route, it’s Stock Shelley, one of our newer and more popular ride routes. Winds will hopefully be lightish from the East so enjoy the Shelley roll throughs in the sunshine for a change (for those that ride Friday’s – you’ll know what I mean).

Whatever riding that you do this weekend enjoy it but make sure you do it safely.

Saturday 4th September

Sunday 5th September

Monday 6th September

Tuesday 7th September

  • Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
  • Ride starts Frasers ave at 5:45am
    • Development group – interval training kings park

Wednesday 8th September

Thursday 9th September

Friday 10th September

Ride Routes 21st – 27th August

With things to write but running out of time to write them, I will hold off and use this week’s blog to announce SPR’s La Vuelta 2021 Dinner at the Spaniard and wish racers all the best for the 96th Collie to Donnybrook Cycling Classic being held this weekend.

For those of you keeping score, you will know that we had so much fun celebrating the Giro and the Tour that we decided to do it all again for the Vuelta.

To this end, SPR Community Development Committee Member Carol set about a research mission to find the most appropriate atmosphere and cuisine. We think you will be pleased with the result.

Join us at The Spaniard on Wednesday the 1st September for the SPR La Vuelta 2021 Dinner.

See the SPR shop for the menu and all the details.

Tickets available now in the SPR Shop here. Numbers are limited, so if you are keen don’t delay.

For all of those fortunate enough to make it onto the start list for the 96th Collie to Donnybrook Cycling Classic – it seemed to fill up very quickly! – do well and enjoy the race.

I know that a number of club members have a long history and lots of amazing memories connected to this race.

Enjoy!

Don’t forget that the club kit shop is open. It will close again on 22 August to allow a bit of extra time for shipping so that kit arrives in time for the Tour of Margaret River 2021 Edition.

Head to the club’s kit order page on the Mayeur website.

From the Ride Coordinator – Starting this week with a quick shout out to all those SPR members who won’t be with us for our main ride on Saturday but instead will be heading down for the annual Collie Donnybrook cycle classic. Good luck to all those in green who are participating. Hope the day is an enjoyable one for you all.

For me, the timing of this event as well as the Vuelta a Espagna signals we are coming to the end of winter so spring is almost upon us. For many of us, the training for ToMR starts to really ramp up and the club has a few events planned in between to assist you in that training (Watertower and TT here we come).

Hopefully also on the change is our lousy winter weather. Although we may just have to wait another week for something similar to last weekend (which was an absolute Jatz Cracker) with light showers predicted overnight and into Saturday morning.  Hopefully the moisture stays away long enough for us to get to the top of Cresswell and back for a coffee. At the very least the forecast for Sunday looks better by the day.

Whatever cycling you choose make it enjoyable and safe one.

Saturday 21st August

Sunday 22nd August

Monday 23rd August

Tuesday 24th August

  • Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
  • Ride starts Frasers ave at 5:45am
    • Development group – interval training kings park

Wednesday 25th August

Thursday 26th August

Friday 27th August

Ride Routes 14 – 20th August

For those of you who watch Channel 7, you will have been privileged to see SPR’s very own “From the Ride Coordinator” Mr Greg Jones!

The topic is a close one for Greg, who had a close call several years ago suffering a heart attack whilst riding, receiving CPR from a fellow club member – likely saving his life – and thankfully has since made a full recovery.

The story in the news highlights the important of heart health – even for healthy cyclists who are very fit. It features Dr Richard Alcock, cyclist and Interventional Cardiologist, who has worked hard in recent years to educate people about this important aspect of heart health. Earlier this year we advertised a seminar he ran, “Cycling to extremes: Heart health and the athlete” – if the opportunity comes again I encourage you to participate, particularly those like me who are north of 45 🙂

At present, the story is only on tonights 7 News on the app, but we will post a separate link as soon as it is available.

Thanks to everyone who attended last week’s belated SPR Tour de France Dinner.

We had a ball.

And keep your eyes peeled for the La Vuelta event we are planning!

From the Ride Coordinator – Mixed bag reactions to the reintroduction of last week’s ride route from the coffee crowd. Personally, after the frustration of some slow/unresponsive light changes early on, the route itself is one with the least amount of lights and fairy flat so you can really get the flow going in a good group. It’s great that we have such diversity of opinion on our rides so keep that coming as it leads to better outcomes for everyone. That’s what the club is all about. 

So for this week we will head south again to enjoy a push home from a light south easterly on the way home. We haven’t been out Maddington Way for a while and last time we would have done it, I’m pretty sure we headed straight into a howling East or South Easterly wind so this time we hope we can at least look up and enjoy the scenery.

As for that pesky weather, well looks to me like overnight showers clearing early enough for us to get out on Saturday. Let’s just hope they aren’t delayed or even don’t come at all. Whatever riding you choose to do, enjoy but keep an eye out on safety and looking after your fellow riders. If the showers do come in, might be some slippery conditions that may need to be navigated so please keep an eye out and be ready to call the hazards.

Saturday 14th August

Sunday 15th August

Monday 16th August

Tuesday 17th August

  • Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
  • Ride starts Frasers ave at 5:45am
    • Development group – interval training kings park

Wednesday 18th August

Thursday 19th August

Friday 20th August