What a difference a week makes.
Last Sat around 25 turned up for the ‘T’ ride, & as predicted it soon got tricky to organise with splits at lights & subsequent re-groups due to a wide range of riding abilities slowing the whole pace down. My failed attempt to split the group halfway was foiled by a red light, and then I ended up dropping off the back to shepherd a new rider home. Thanks to Nicole and Scott who did a great job on the front with Steve looking after the tail to bring everyone home and happy.
This Sat was a different story – a near perfect T ride. Only 9 of us with regular ‘T’s joined by a couple of others wanting a ‘no pressure’ Sat ride. Everyone happy to chuff along in the low 30’s (little slower up the slopey bits) and the heady 40’s on the downhills, coupled with smooth roll throughs along Shelley and Nicholson. People worked well together, taking it in turns to join in at the front and pull the pack along. Conditions were near perfect – no rain, no wind, no aggro utes and when the fast boys slid past as we approached the Causeway & giving us plenty of room, we knew we’d put in a good time (ave speed around 29.4). Whilst Monsieur Bonner (UCI Euro racing title) eased up & did the decent thing to escort Madame B back to the Bell; first Gaz & then Emma had a crack at a bit of a sprint along Riverside D – but the old ‘maillot jaune’ sucked a wheel or two and sneaked past the pair of them. Suspect that judging by the exclaimed ‘WTF’ as the jaune flashed past Gaz – he had already sat up wondering where everyone was.
Thanks everyone for a nice safe one – time to spend the next hour or two cleaning sand of the beast. . . . . mmm thinking . . . . maybe time for some mudguards like Jono’s to magically appear in the mail.

Big group on Sat – didn’t do a head count but 20 plus for sure, with several new riders and a gratefully accepted offer from Megs to come along and share the load. A real family affair with her dad riding as a T regular and bro on a mtb joining in – she’s obviously after a discounted Club family membership rate.
Easy pace down Canning to see who was who on the ride, settling the group into pairs before the left turn into Esplanade and heading towards Mt Henry. No traffic around which makes everything really easy. Group chatting stopped at around 29 kph so held the speed at that into Leech Hwy. Skipped the bike path and stayed on the Hwy into Shelley – and that’s where the fun and errors started as we attempted the first call for a roll-through. Maybe would have been more successful if I had instigated a better pre-ride briefing, but the first attempt was pretty shabby with the usual errors of overlapping wheels, gaps forming, little communication, riders on the outside line wandering out into the centre of the road whilst other rode off the front; & even a couple of the more experienced riders committed felonious activities . Fortunately its a quiet road and apart from a couple of close calls and panicked braking, we got away without losing flesh, blood or paintwork . At the end of Shelly , time for a group ’discussion’ : Meg & I did the double act explaining what should and shouldn’t happen in a group ride, which seemed to work as the next roll through heading out to Bannister was so much smoother – and safer.
Several in the group were struggling a little on the way into Nicholson ; thanks Mike for staying back to look after them, before we decided to formally split the ride along Albany Hwy with Meg leading out the faster riders and Mike & myself protecting the back markers. It worked well and no ugly traffic or ute issues. Sad to say I missed out on the Meg vs Bro sprint challenge that was promised along Riverside Drive – I reckon that experience and cunning on a road bike will beat brawn on an Mtb most days of the week: judging by Megs quiet smile at the coffee shop , I think I’m right.

PTA is closing the underpass to replace the rail bridge steelwork this coming long weekend – from 6.00 am Friday 3 June to 6.00pm Wed 8 June – also includes closing the bike path. Affects the Public Holiday Ride and other rides that use the subway.
Info is on PTA & BWA website

Well that was our first cold one – all the external bits going numb and even our fashion-ista with matching scarf still had dead toes at the of the ride – definitely time for the colour-coordinated overboots. Ronnie sent a ‘puncture’ message through at 6.55, so instead of running with the M3’s in Shaws absence, it was instant promotion to lead out the 15 or so ‘T’s gathered at the southern end of the carpark – convenient as Gwyn was out for the ride too.
This lot is good to ride with: the regulars know what they’re doing, they stay together, pair up tidily, communicate well within the group and make it easy for any new riders to slot in. We had 3 new guys this week on their first SPR ride – a couple of them should be heading for M2 next week & good to see Tyrone back after getting his health issues finally sorted.
Rebold Hill – I do enjoy this route (much nicer than the back blocks of boganland) and no wind to speak off plus a few easy climbs to elevate the heart rate; although the freezing shady hollow of Perry Lakes prolonged the runny nose and tingling fingers a bit longer than I would have liked.
Cars up West Coast Hwy behaved themselves as we stayed tucked in and single file – makes it safe and predictable for everyone. Usual regroup at top of Swanbourne and just mentioned that a couple of guys had inadvertently wandered out into the outside lane whilst going up Oceanic without looking first – its so easy, but potentially fatal, to lose concentration on a climb and not check behind before moving out.
Back through Mossy park, past the tennis club and initiated a couple of ‘roll throughs; the new guys picked it up pretty quickly and everyone else was like clockwork. The usual ‘pick the pace up and stretch the legs’ into the final couple of lumps on Jutland Parade before the last re-group at the bottom of Steves Hill to ride along Hackett & Mounts Bay as a tight & solid pack. Sitting on the front paired up with one of the new guys, got a chuckle out of him as I explained how I slowly increase the speed until the chattering behind stops: at 33kph – it all went quiet.
Heard this morning, that just after we had been through Mts Bay Rd on Sat & at around 8.40, some poor cyclist heading west was involved in a close encounter with a car . . . . smashed bike and ambulance trip is no way to start a weekend.   I know we have had our fair share of luck – but by being aware of how to ride safely, riding as a tight pack, good signalling & deliberate (& sometimes even assertive) positioning on the road makes it easier for car drivers to understand and predict what we’re up to & the outcome is better for everyone.  For car driver that have clearly stopped to give way, its always a good investment to give them a wave back in thanks.

Any one ridden to/from Freo via Preston Point Road between Wauhop Rd. & Petra St. in the last few days?
East Freo are ‘upgrading’ this section of road and are in the process of installing central reservation concrete kerb islands before re-asphalting. Unfortunately with the resulting narrow lane width due to retention of the existing kerb line, no allowance for a bicycle lane and the new central islands, they have created an accident trap for cyclists – as I discovered at 6.30 yesterday evening.
The Road Traffic Code requires cars / trucks to give a cyclist a 1 metre clearance when overtaking. With a ‘lone’ cyclist riding at approx 400mm out from the kerb line (me) – there is just enough room for a car to physically squeeze by – which although illegal is what happened yesterday evening; I reckon the cars wing mirror would have been 200-300 mm from my right elbow / handlebar. There is a slight right hand curve in that particular traffic island, forcing the back end of the passing car to swing out to the left in front of me; if I hadn’t braked hard the car bumper would have taken out my front wheel.
Riding in a pack wouldn’t be an issue – we’d pair up to go through the new central islands and simply hold up the traffic. Riding single file either alone or in a pack will tempt cars / trucks to take the challenge of forcing their way through – particularly where the traffic island is more than a few metres long; this presents a very high safety risk to cyclists.
As cyclist we need to lobby hard to get something done about this before its all too late. Can anyone who cares, have a look for yourself and then write a letter /email to the City of East Freo; Minister of Transport and anyone else who you think might listen to exert pressure on the Council to change the design by either removing the traffic islands or installing an on road bike lane (similar to the section of Preston Point road to the east of the Petra St roundabout).

The second T group P/H ride proved even more popular that the first one we initiated at the end of Jan; a few M3’s joining in with some of the T regulars and we started off with 10 including Steve and Ivan sharing in the ‘Leaders’ role. Pace was up a little from the previous Sat ‘T’ ride heading into Shelley where we cracked he first of our roll throughs and with a few words of encouragement and a bit of fine trimming, everyone worked pretty well together.
At the end of Shelley picked up Mike & Patrick looking hot and sweaty having been deserted by the Main group. Very happy to have their company along Canning which provided the next opportunity for a team roll through – even better this time managing to set a reasonable inside speed in the low 30’s and the outside line sliding past tidily. Burke Drive and same again – funny how quickly distance seems to get covered when the pack works well together.
Up the climb into Stock & Reserve, good workout for the lungs and legs, quick rest and then off into Freo for the fast descent down to the river. Sat up waving the others through to let them have their heads and provide a wheel to a couple of stragglers, and then onto Leightons where we had to ease the pace a little to keep the back markers in touch; same again up the couple of small rises along Curtin Ave.    Swanbourne for the traditional re-group and then heading across Stirling for the usual way home.
Ave Speed at the return end of Mounts Bay was around 28.5 which was an improvement on Sats T ride (which I have to say was a little slow this week) and all in all a very comfortable & safe ride, no ‘incidents’ and everyone seemed happy with their efforts. Nice one team T.

Haven’t written up a Transition Ride report for a few weeks, but after reading exploits of record breaking hill climbs and 400 klms in a week – a 40 klm ride through Perry Lakes, Reabold and along the coast at an average speed of 27 kph seems all a bit tame . . . . but hey we enjoyed it anyway.
Saturday was hot and we’re very happy to be heading towards the coast and not inland for a change. 18 starters this week including Jens and Nicole back on their first group rides, and 6 ‘guides’ with Jono, Ronny, Steve, Garry & Leon joining in.
Started out at a nice steady pace with J & R sitting up front along Mounts Bay and up into Subi until R left for work and J split off on his way to Claremont. This ride route doesn’t really have many opportunities for rolling through and the group was a bit strung out at times – particularly up the rises, but it didn’t really matter as the high proportion of ‘guides’ meant there was always a couple of guys sitting back and looking after any stragglers.
Led out a nice single file run up West Coast Hwy with Jens, Nicole and couple of others tucking in – until the intersection at the top of the hill . . . . A car was sitting at the lights facing us & waiting to turn right . . . waiting . . .waiting (thought that was good of her) and just as I was accelerating up to 35 to head through the intersection, she took off and cut straight in front of us. Locking my back wheel in panic and pulling as hard as I could on the front brake – missed the back end of her fast accelerating car by not very much. There’s no excuse as I had eye contact with her & she was looking straight at me and my bright fluro jersey. Bizarre. Very lucky that Aron or Jens didn’t collect me from behind.
Heart back in chest, pulse settling down as we collected at the usual re-group point in Swanbourne. We stayed together for most of the ride home & paired back up around the tennis courts until heading into Crawley sitting up front with Aron, Jens came around and gave me the nod and a grin – the three of us picked up the pace and then it was on.   Aron was keen to come around casino online but I signalled for him to sit on J’s wheel for a bit and save his legs for the end.  As the pace headed into the mid 40’s, up & over the final rise before the drop down and back up to the ‘Steves’ turnoff, then Aron was up and gone & heading for line honours.  J sat up, and I chased and only passing A when he sat up too early; he’s learnt quickly from last week & I reckon that’s the last time I’ll get anywhere near him on that stretch – unless of course I’m mean and make him lead out . . . . I guess that Aron and a couple of others will be heading for M3 next week.
At Mounts Bay we re-grouped again; bit of a headwind so a couple of us sat on the front and we remained packed up nicely as the back end kept talking to the middle and the middle controlled the pace at the front – good communication guys.
Nice safe ride and big thanks again to Steve Leon and Garry for supporting the tail.

Next weekend has a Monday Public Holiday Ride – if any T”s want to have a Transition group PH ride – let El Prez know on Sat and we can organise it.

Just thought I would share this . . . . some time ago I came across a great booklet on cycling techniques called “29 Pro Cycling Secrets for Roadies” produced by RoadBikeRider.com (a weekly email roadie magazine) which provides great insight on riding skills and training techniques and would be very beneficial to anyone at Beginners / Transitional or Intermediate levels. (I particularly recommend the section on countersteering cornering techniques).
The RoadBikeRider site itself seems to be very focussed on educating people to ride as safely and as skillfully as possible and has many free articles and information including under ‘Advanced Skills’ an article on How to Ride in a Paceline (group riding for those not into cycling jargon).

Aware that a few of the regular Trans wouldn’t even attempt a normal SPR P-H ride seeing its reputation is at a pace close to the Sat Main 1 ride plus the extra 10 klms thrown in for fun; and having recently been personally “shelled” on Shelley, “backdoored” on Burke and “lost” on Leightons (on the post Boxing day PH ride) I offered via the blog, to lead a T group pace P-H ride as an alternative to the official Club ride.
No feedback on the site apart from Jason, so a bit of uncertainty when I rocked up at the Angelo St carpark & wasn’t sure if there would any takers apart from Patrick . . . . hhhmm a two person P-H group ride would surely only have a limited appeal . . . .

Arriving to see around 30 lycras straddling their bikes in the carpark – very happy to see a few expectant faces looking in my direction. A quick walk around and chat with 6 or 7 confirmed T-groupers including Kat, Shaw, Owen & Scottie nodding their heads in the affirmative – so at least we would have a quorum. Kat mountain biked back to the toilets on the promise that we would wait, as El Prez lead the others out onto the road, leaving 12 of us back in the car park. Yeah instant perfect sized “T” group.

As Kat reappeared over the hill looking a kilo or two lighter, Scott & I lead out with the pack settling down in the high 20’s warming up the legs along Douglas and into Hayman. Onto Shelley and Shaw looked across expecting the nod for a big hit out, but shook my head and started the roll through instead. This settled down instantly with the inside line sitting around 32 as Paul and Matt from Joondalup quickly working out what was going on and joined in. We rolled through like clockwork all the way to Leach hwy – now if only more of the Sat T2’s could have been there just to see how well it can work.

Paul and I paired up again along Canning, and we snuck the pace up into the mid 30’s – before starting the roll through again, the inside line running at an easy 35, and whilst a couple sat back, the rest were packed up nicely and looking good. Great start with the promise of a good ride to finish off.

Onto Burke Drive and the deviation via Stoneham with Shaw and Sandy battling a sprint up the rise at the end . . . . I was happy to see them burn their legs now as clearly they were not aware of the impending climb up Stock Road. Onto the real climb and Sandy and Shaw set off with Paul looking relaxed and in control on Shaw’s wheel; soon reeled them in as I found a nice rhythm sitting on 23 until 50 metres from the top when my legs said hallo ‘jelly’ & speed instantly down to 18 as Paul and Matt closed the gap. Not really sure who got the KOM but Joondalup cycles had 2 in the first 3 and SPR only 1. I had a suspicion that both Paul and Matt were ‘being polite’ – either that or they didn’t know the way and were following my lead. Kat did really well on her mountain bike – she’s going to be a giant killer when she finally gets her roadie.
Sitting at the top waiting for the stragglers and despite the short rest my legs were still talking jelly – thinks  . . . . have to do more hills .

Down into East Freo with casino spiele Patrick doing a fair bit of work into the wind – must find out what brand of EPO he’s been using. Across the bridge into Leightons, I love this road, particularly with a slight tail wind; sitting paired up on the front with Paul at 35, then 38 and finally 42 as we singled out to overtake a few riders out for a cruise. Scottie came up to the front and proposed the Cottesloe route – something to do with his head cam, beaches and thongs – whilst the remainder of us would run straight up the mild undulations of Curtin. At the top of the first rise on Curtin, looked back & a couple of guys had fallen off so Shaw and I sat up and offered our wheels to tow them back to the split group ahead.  Right off Curtin, and I tried but couldn’t shake Patrick up the short rise into Swanbourne, where we sat up and waited for Scottie and his 5 ‘beach’ viewing companions to arrive.

Usual ride home along Jutland Parade – Paul again joined me on the front for the first section before I rolled back into the middle of the pack, for a relax and a chat. Shaw, Sandy and a couple others had an early sprint leading up one of the last rises, so I just tucked in and waited to see what would happen – well a big nothing as they all sat up after a few 100 metres and that was my chance; a quick nod to Paul, and we were up to the mid 40’s on the final ramp down the end of Waratah and held it through to the turn off down to Steves. That felt really good.

Nice steady 33 along Riverside Drive – Ronnie would have been proud as we stayed tightly paired and packed up, and then onto the Bell for coffee.

Very pleasant with 11 of the 13 riders sitting around in a circle on the decking sharing a coffee. This is what club ‘coffee shop’ riding is all about – a really great ride with an ave speed at 29.4; legs glowing & saying yes we’ve done some work; perfect weather, and a nice bunch of guys all with smiles on their faces. Has to be the best T ride I have been on for a long time.
Suspect that if Paul and Matt come along for another SPR P-H ride, they’ll be well positioned in the middle of the main group pack – but we really appreciated their company and effort out there with us today.

Cheers Mark _S

Another large group of Transitioners this morning, so I hived off the ten T2 starters including Gwyn who’s had a few weeks off, and Jono’s sister Sarah back from Melbourne. A quick chat about the focus of the ride being to stay and work together as a group, rather than working on pace and performance and with that in mind we headed out last from the carpark and close onto the wheels of Tracy’s Developer’s group.

Good thing about Shelley at the front end of a ride, is that it’s a great opportunity to practise rolling through; down side of Shelley on a Sat morning is that ‘racing’ packs come hammering through 4 abreast and expect everyone to get out of the way. Fortunately I was sitting on the front outside of our nicely paired up pack and moved them out as a large fast and impatient pack came through from behind; copped a bit of abuse about getting out of their way but maybe next week they’ll learn to give space to the guy in the fluro yellow shirt!

Today’s T2 ride roll throughs were very scrappy and didn’t really improve much by the end of Shelley . . . .so we had another couple of go’s and maybe a marginal improvement, but still a bit of work to do before it could be considered OK. Part of the reason is that we had a fair range in ability and one or two of the stronger guys hadn’t quite worked how much ease up is required after rolling over at the front onto the inside.

For most of the ride we had paired up pretty well and held a steady 28-32 kph with Jason doing a great job looking after the tail end, and every time we had a traffic light split there was always a convenient bus stop lay-by available to pull in and re-group.

We copped a bit of verbal and agro behaviour from the utes on Albany Hwy, a couple seeing how close they could skim past the tail end of our group but fortunately no contact or mishaps. What is it about some Perth drivers and where is this attitude coming from? There certainly seems to be an increasing cultural acceptance amongst a specific group that its cool to scare the shit out of cyclists at every opportunity.

I am happy to take the T2’s again next week and do exactly the same ride as a one off, and if the same people turn up we can use it as an opportunity improve our collective group riding skills.

Cheers
Mark_S