it is starting to get light during the morning ride now.  it changes the whole complexion of the earlybird ride when you can actually see what is going on around you.  the group seems to relax a bit more and we don’t seem to ride in quite a “white knuckle” way.  however, this seems to mean that we go faster which is not always the best thing for everyone.  be aware of who is on your ride and make sure you keep an eye out on any stragglers.  our training rides are a group ride so we must be aware of the whole group.  certain rides (sat fast, thurs fast) are designated fast rides, so if you turn up make sure you can hang on.  other rides just be aware.  the wednesday ride this week was also a bit down on numbers.  it is fairly fast, but it is flat, so people can generally hang on.  it also starts 1/2 hour later, so you get a “sleep-in”.  see you there.

belgium riders – well the raffle has been drawn (see previous post) and the winners and redraw winners will receive their prizes soon.  the raffle was a pretty good success even in a short time frame we managed to sell 228 tickets.  combined with the tour tipping money we managed to raise over $2000 for the belgium boys.  they are heading off on saturday so we wish them all the best and hope their race goes well.  if they can bring home a rainbow jersey or two, even better.

road racing – there are a couple of important road races coming up on the 11th & 18th sept.  the first is the dardanup open and the second is the state road championships.  we will post more information about each of these races, but i will briefly explain why they are both important.  the state road champs is pretty obvious as this is the state title.  there is an open, masters and u19 section for both men and women.  masters is for the over 35’s so it is a good chance for those of us that don’t want to race against 20 yr olds.  the dardanup open has an “a”, “b” and “c” grade event for a mixed field.  why this event is important to spr is that it is run by our sister club, south west.  we have a very good relationship with south west and we need to support their events as much as we can.  to make this a little more exciting the two clubs have agreed on this being the “inter-club championships”.  what this means is that in each of the grades, there will be a trophy for the first south perth or south west rider that crosses the line.  this will be a perpetual trophy and will be handed over to the winner the following year.  after the “c” grade pinjarra race, there has been a little bit of healthy competition between the two clubs and we think that a bit of rivalry will be good for us.  so, get on your bike, support south west for organising the event, but also, support spr by kicking the south west riders butts. 

spr t-shirt – the design winner was decided on during the week and it will soon be up on the website so we can take orders.  just finalising costs and delivery dates, so keep an eye out on the blog for more info.

ride routes – the forecast says that the rain will have passed by saturday morning, so hopefully we get a nice turn out.  ewen st for the main ride.  i know you love it.

saturday 3rd sept

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – spr earlybird ride

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional 1 – spr saturday 40.72km (mosman park)

fast, main 1, 2 & 3 – spr saturday 50.23km (ewen st)

sunday 4th sept

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – spr earlybird ride

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

short – spr sunday 61.14km (welshpool & weir rd)

long – spr sunday 90.23km (welshpool & observatory & kalamunda rd)

so a last minute raffle draw to raise some funds for the belgium boys has yielded some great results.  in about a week, we managed to sell 228 tickets between the online sales, coffee shop sales and jason just hassling everyone he knows.  the raffle was drawn tonight using our tried and true technique of getting two young kids who can’t read to pick the tickets out of a container.  this way they can’t cheat as they don’t know who they are getting.  the eleven winners are listed below and we will soon be in contact with you so that you can claim your prizes.  the link to the video footage can be seen below, for verification of the process.

• a set of dura-ace 7850-SL wheels – Peow Lim
• a set of Illuminator 1000 Lumen valued at $170 from nitelight. – Shun Fong
• a 1 night stay at Boshack valued at $250 in one of the ‘Glampers’ – Glamourous Camping – Tom Barratt
• a Limar 650 bike helmet (size L) valued at $80 from Canning Bridge Cycles – Kevin Cheong
• a front and back frog strobe light set valued at $46 from knog – David Wilding
• a pair of goat skin gloves with f… off on them (size S) valued at $47 from knog – Ant Hollib
• a cycling cap valued at $20 and t-shirt (ladies size XXL) valued at $20 from knog – Shun Fong
• a football signed by david wirrpanda courtesy of the west australian newspaper – Shun Fong
• a carboshotz nutrition pack (gels, bars and tablets) and bottle from carboshotz – Laurie Crock
• a set of porno patches and stickers of indiscriminate value from knog – Greg Bargmann
• a set of porno patches and stickers of indiscriminate value from knog – Richard Williams

but wait there was a redraw.  a quick phone call to Peow to congratulate him and he said that he only runs campag and he is willing to donate the wheels back in for a redraw.  this can be seen below on the video footage, but our very deserving winner was none other than Mr Bonner himself.  after his incident with the cat last week, he was in need of some new wheels and these will fit the bill. 

• a set of dura-ace 7850-SL wheels – Mike Bonner

i would just like to again thank all our generous sponsors for their support and also Peow for his generosity in allowing us to redraw the wheels.  through this and the tour tipping comp we managed to raise over $2000 to help our guys get over to belgium.  all three are flying on thursday, so we wish them good luck.

Some of you may remember me, back in the day I actually used to ride that thing that has two wheels and a frame and goes fast, forgot what it’s called…
Anyway, whilst my cycling participation is dubious at the moment, being a member of South Perth Cycle Club gives me certain privileges in being able to appeal to the masses for help. But first, a bit of back-story…

Nearing three months ago I approached our esteemed President Pete asking for permission to post on the website details of my school’s charity fundraising project in an attempt to see whether anyone was interested in donating. I will admit that it has taken me more than enough time to finally get around to this moment, but in the past few months I’ve spent more time out of the state than in it! However, as a general guide, each year my school runs what is known as the “20/20 Kids Helping Kids Challenge” organized by the student council, run by the student council, and aimed at raising $20,000 worth of help for a worthy cause of our choice. This year we have decided to help build new ablutions blocks and a new set of classrooms at an underprivileged school called “Centro Shalom” (which, quite literally means, “centre of peace” I’m told). And as a result of being head boy and subsequently involved in leading the student council (really I’m just a lackey, the head girl has everything worked out…), I have been heavily involved in coordinating this fundraising effort. However, at the beginning of the year both the head girl and myself decided that we would like to go the extra mile on this program, and have for the first time in the history of the school instigated what we have dubbed the “20/20 Corporate Challenge”. This, in its simplest form, is an effort to raise extra money towards the student’s contribution, and has already been relatively successful.

Let me point out (proudly if I do say so myself) that the school has already achieved its target of raising $20,000 towards helping the school in East Timor. In addition to that, at the time of writing we have raised nearly an extra $2500 in external sponsorship, all generously donated by companies willing to rise to our challenge. We have had donations in all shapes and sizes, ranging from $50 to $1000, and a number in between. This of course, is then why I come to you, on the back of casting our net even wider in the search for corporate sponsorship. I appreciate of course that there is distinct likelihood that I will get absolutely no response to this post! However, without trying in the first place I can guarantee that we would not already be an extra $2500 up from our initial target, and so I invite anyone interested to contact me for further details. Even if you are an employee of a company that you believe may be interested in sponsoring I would encourage you to let me know so I can organize to send out one of the sponsorship packages we have put together for interested companies.

Once again thank you for your time and I hope the post hasn’t been taken too much time that you could be out riding in this pretty damn good change of weather!
My Mobile: 0439 252 803
Email: nico_matic@hotmail.com

Thanks!
Northern Nic

a very interesting morning on the bike today.  typical thursday morning fast group.  5:30am start, dark, little wind and fast.  we were coming through dalkeith at +45km/hr and just making the final slight downhill before the drag up to christchurch when suddenly BAM.  there is a thud of rider on road, a screech of brakes as the group hits the anchors and a general spreading out to avoid hitting each other.  the smell of rubber is the first thing you notice as people really locked it up.  i was on the back of the group and i still had trouble stopping in time as the road was nice and smooth and my tyres just slid.  only one casualty and not the one you want to hear about so close to belgium.  bonner was on the deck with some claret oozing from a scrape on his hip and elbow.  the group quickly rallied and we had him off the road and his bike checked out.  his front wheel was buckled and beyond riding, so he had to make a 5:45am call to michelle to pick him up.  i wasn’t sure what had happened so i assumed that there was a touch of wheels.  not so, i was informed.  mike was on the front leading the charge when a cat jumped out in front of the group.  it didn’t get t-boned, it actually tried to jump through his front wheel like some type of circus trick.  it did run off, but presumably to go and die somewhere as it must have taken quite a beating.  that particular stretch of road through dalkeith has claimed a couple of casualties.  john is now known as snuggles after hitting a gumnut (snuggle-pot and cuddle-pie) so maybe we need a feline based nickname for mr bonner.

belgium wheel raffle – wheel raffle…wh-affle…belgium waffle.  we have combined the 2 raffles together so that the prizes cascade down if you don’t win the wheels.  2 current $5 tickets will be combined to give a single $10 ticket.  if you have bought an odd number, i will be in contact with you to discuss your options.  the boys are off next week so we will draw the raffle on thursday evening.  support bonner, ainsy and jason in their trip to the cycling world tour champs.  info and tickets can be found here.  we will be selling tickets at the coffeeshop after the saturday ride as well.  $10 each, so bring your wallets.

wacf special general meeting – as per the previous post, there is a special general meeting to vote on adopting a new constitution.  this is the culmination of a number of meetings with the relevant stakeholders and hopefully covered all the concerns.  we are still looking for a proxy to help out south west cycle club, so if you want to see what goes on behind the scenes, here is your chance.  i will be there representing south perth, so you won’t be on your own.  let me know if you can help out.

ironhorse clothing – voting on the new spr t-shirt closes after this weekend.  have your say in which design we go with.  it is pretty close with only a few votes between the top three.  initial indications are that they will cost about $35 but we will need to order a minimum of 100.  i’m sure we can cover that.  vote here.

wild west bike tour – an interesting concept and something that can cater for all levels of cycling.  check out the previous post for more information.

200km challenge – delayed while i try to find a free weekend.  still intending to have it though.

ride routes – a nice weekend predicted (weather-wise) so i am expecting a good turn out this weekend.  city to surf is on sunday, so avoid the city and come riding instead.  the hills are calling.  the sunday earlybird may need to resort to some bike paths as mounts bay road will have some closures.

saturday 27th august

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – spr earlybird ride

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional 1 – spr saturday 41.18km (reverse river ride)

fast, main 1, 2 & 3 – spr saturday 50.47km (south st)

sunday 28th august

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – spr earlybird ride

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

short – spr sunday 70.93km (kahuna)

long – spr sunday 97.99km (carradine & peet & observatory)