All posts by peter

ride routes 16th & 17th july

7 Comments
will this be the finishline tonight???

um, sorry i couldn’t think of anything to write here tonight.  trying to do this and watch the tour at the same time just isn’t working for me.  something has to give and it will have to be the blog.

 

 ride routes – as below.  just come and ride.

saturday 16th july

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 39.81km (shelley & bannister)

fast, main 1, 2 & 3 – sspr saturday 51.36km (sth lake)

sunday 17th july

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 87.72km (kahuna & peet & patterson)

members benefits – nitelights

lorraine has managed to get us a discount on a couple of sets of nitelight products.  these guys make light sets primarily for mountain bike events, but these translate well to the pitch black 5:30am starts.

there are 2 products that they are offering discounts on.  the Illuminator 1000 Lumen and the UFO Nitelight 1400 lumen.  these products go for a recommended retail of $220 and $375 respectively.  to get a 30% discount on the illuminator use the discount code NITELIGHT1000 and to get a 40% discount on the UFO use the discount code NITELIGHT1400.

 

 

glenn parker south – the end of members benefits

Specialized BG S-Works road shoe

some of you may have heard that stuart passmore of glen parker south is moving down to albany to start up passmore cycles.  this is happening in about three weeks time and as such, the member benefits that we have through his shop will be coming to an end. 

a lot of people utilised his services for bike fittings and have benefited greatly.  he is set to be flat out over the next few weeks so no more fittings can be booked.  however, he will still be coming up to perth every month or so and said that he will still take bookings for bike fitting when he can fit them in.  alternatively, if you are down albany way, then you can drop in and see him for a bike fit.

the other members benefit through his shop were the specialized top of the range road shoe.  i recently took advantage of this offer and got myself and nice shiny new pair of shoes.  very comfortable and saved $50.  this benefit will still be available until the shop shuts (or he runs out of sizes) so if you are after some shoes, go and see him.  there are also big savings to be had on bont road shoes that he is running out.  up to 40% off.

i would also like to thank stuart for his support over the last couple of years.  he has always been very supportive of the club and other cyclists in general.  anyone that has had dealing with him (especially those getting bike fittings) has only ever had good things to say about his professionalism and service.

ride routes 9th & 10th july

15 Comments

this has been the longest week of my life.  the weekend started as per normal with the earlybird double which makes me pretty tired by evening time.  however, with the tour on, i was obliged to stay up till midnight to watch the finish (and what a good finish it was).  jump into bed for 5 hrs sleep, then the earlybird and long hills ride making up 5 hrs of riding.  unfortunately no afternoon nanna nap but up late again for the tour.  get to sleep in till 7 monday, but already feeling seedy at work due to lack of sleep.  late night mon for stage 3 and up again at 5 for the spr tuesday ride.  work suffering.  up late for stage 4, early for spr ciao ride.  no work, but brain suffering.  late for stage 5, and slept in instead of looking after the kids as i was supposed to.  oops.  late again tonight and looking forward to the rest day after stage 9 where i will be in bed at 7pm.

tipping comp – is well underway and we have raised over $450 for the belgium trip.  we have organised a few prizes already for the category winners and i need to get a couple more.  not sure what prizes will be for which category yet, as i will wait till all prizes are donated.  if you know a business that would be interested, or you yourself want to donate something (half dozen bottles of wine, etc) then let me know.  so far shaw from netplus microcomputers has donated a samsung dvd and surround speaker package, ross from canning bridge cycles has donated a limar 608 helmet and toby has organised a whole bunch of subway vouchers.

giro donne – while the tour de france is going on, the best women in the world are competing in the women’s giro in italy.  it comprises of 9 stages over some pretty big terrain at a fast pace.  our very own davina summers is over there right now riding for the women’s uci team, bizkia-durango with a couple of other aussies.  her teammate and fellow aussie, shara gillow, managed to win the second stage which put her into the pink leaders jersey.  davina has been blogging her races on her website and is trying to keep them updated between hard racing and long transfers between stages.  you can follow her progress here.

memberships – our list for the end of june showed that we had cracked the 200 member mark with 204 members.  however, there were a handful of those members that were on a recreational licence that expires at the start of july.  the race licences run till the end of the calendar year, but the recreational licences are for a rolling year depending on when you joined.  check the expiry date on your membership card and renew online here.

ride routes – the tour seems to bring people back to the bike and even though it is winter and about 2 degrees, we still had about 40 riders turn up at 5:30am on tuesday.  as there is no rain predicted for a while now, i am expecting good numbers this weekend despite the cold forecast.  and that forecast also says easterly winds.  both the transitional and main groups can take advantage of it along benara road.  a crowd favourite.  shaw and ronny are away this week, so we will need some leaders for the trans/m3 group.

saturday 9th july

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 39.04km (benara rd)

fast, main 1, 2 & 3 – spr saturday 50.98km (benara rd)

sunday 10th july

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 82.79km (brookton & weir rd)

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

tour tipping update

3 Comments

well the tour is underway and there have been some exciting finishes already.  as far as the tipping comp goes, team globalbean is topping the leaderboard across all categories after tipping 2 out of 3 stages.

we also have the first of our category prizes donated by shaw at netplus microcomputers.  a samsung ht-c330 dvd player with home theatre speakers.

i am going to try to organise a few more prizes so each category winner will receive a prize.

this is a fund raiser, however, and since we got 24 players, we have raised $480 towards the belgium trip.

a few housekeeping issues for the comp though.  just remember you cannot tip the same rider within the week (between rest days).  this means if you tipped cav for stage 3 you cannot tip him till stage 10.

also, there has been an issue with the comments not closing out at 6pm.  it seemed to work for the first few stages, but not now (am looking into it).  i will accept the tips for stage 04 that came in late, but you notice that they have a date/time stamp on them.  from now on, even if the comments don’t close out, i will not accept a tip after 6pm.  you have had all day, don’t complain that you didn’t have time.

ride routes 2nd & 3rd july

11 Comments

so it looks like it is basically going to rain from about midnight tonight, through to sometime sunday.  for those of you that are relatively new to cycling, welcome to winter bike riding.  it is wet, cold-ish, uncomfortable and you know that if you don’t do it, you will get fat.  the saving grace is that the rain will stop next week, but this means the return of the 3 deg mornings.  buckle up, summer has gone away for a while.

tour de france – welcome to three weeks of grumpy cyclists.  the one good thing about being 2 hrs behind the east coast is that our live telecast of the tour finishes at midnight rather than 2am.  this means that you can quickly jump into bed, get 5 hrs sleep then up again to go for a ride.  family, work colleagues and non-cycling friends watch out.  sbs has live telecast from 8:30/9:30 every night, plus the usual recap at 6pm if you fall asleep accidentally.

tour de france tipping comp – as we do every year, there will be a tour tipping comp.  this year it will be a fundraiser to help the spr guys heading over to belgium.  for those that haven’t done it before, it is a great way to follow the tour as you agonise over every sprint even for 6th place as you know that there are points on the line.  join up by heading to the tipping page here and registering your team.  first stage is saturday night so get on board and help support our club members.

ride routes – like last week, we will play saturday morning by ear as far as groups are concerned.  the impending rain will generally keep people away but there will always be the committed/hardcore/crazy few that will ride regardless.  to keep you warm, i have scheduled in ewen st.  some people ask how i decide on which rides we do on saturday.  well basically the wind will be wsw so it will mean a tailwind if we come home via dalkeith.  we will do these type of routes while we can.  once winter finishes, we will be back to easterlys and home via guilford or welshpool rds.  sunday, is pretty basic.  the short course will need to decide on either kalamunda rd or the goose on the day.

saturday 2nd july

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 40.86km (rebold hill)

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

sunday 3rd july

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 67.96km (greenmount & zig-zig) (do kalamunda or gooseberry instead of zig-zag)

long – spr sunday 95.04km (greenmount & parkerville & mundaring weir)

tour de france tipping comp

the spr tour tipping comp is up and running again and this year it will be a fund raiser for those heading over to belgium.  it will be run in the same format as previous years where you must choose a different rider every day.  the tour tipping home page can be found through the menu at the top and it should take you here.

entry is via the link on the page and this will take you through to paypal for actual payment.  we will organise some prizes for the category winners in lieu of cash.

basically, this is the outline.  you enter the comp via the online shop. you go to each stage page and add you tip to the comments section.  tips must be in by 6pm the day of the stage to be eligible.  you cannot tip the same rider within the one tour week (i.e. between rest days).  time, sprint and mountain poitns are accumulated for your team.

for those that haven’t done this before, it is a great way to make the tour more interesting as you can chase time, points or stage wins.  and remember this is a fundraiser for our club so get involved.

good luck.

ride routes 25th & 26th june

19 Comments

according to strava, we had the fastest thursday ride ever.  i managed to hang on till the last hill, rolled in a couple of minutes later and still made it in under an hour.  the pace was definitely on but that was about the peak of my day.  rolled home all ready for the work day and managed to twinge my back getting off my bike.  a day on the couch with a heat pack was the result for me.  funny how you tend to take your health for granted.  make the most of it while you can.

festival of cycling –cyclo-sportif and track cycling wa get together every year and put on this event.  we have 3 teams ridingin the cyclo in the morning and hopefully a couple of people to cheer along on the track.  we will have an spr tent set up as part of the festival to try to promote our club a bit more.  there will be a couple of us manning the tent so if you are either cyclo-ing or comingto watch the track racing, drop in to say hello.  there are a couple of cyclo riders that do not have a current spr jersey.  if you are coming down, can you please bring any spare jerseys you have.  put your name in it as toby’s went walkabout last year and we never saw it again.

fundraisers – we are looking at running a few fundraisers to help the spr riders that qualified to go to belgium through the perth uci race in april.  so far bonner, ainsey and jason (90%) are looking at heading over.  stu, dianne and claire also qualified but won’t be making the trip this year.  anyway, keep an eye on the blog as we will have a few events coming up to support these guys as they fly the flag for spr.

tour de france tipping – as we do every year, we will be running a tipping comp for the tour de france.  same rules as previous years where you have to nominate a ride every day as they accumulate time and points.  this year, however, we will be usingthe tipping comp as the first of our fundraisiers.  we will get some donated prizes (any volunteers let me know) for the winners of the comp, but all the cash will be put into the spr belgium fund.  as such we will make the entry $20 this year.  if you have done it before, you know that it is a lot of fun and this year will also give something back to the club.  keep an eye on the blog for more details.

ride routes – a couple of things this week.  firstly we don’t have a novice leader as both carol and vicky are away as well as we will be missing mark for the tranny group.  let me know if you can help.  the transitional ride route this week does use part of the preston point road the we have been discussing.  i cannot think of an alternative route that will not have it’s own risks.  we will use it (begrudgingly) for now, but just be aware.  also, i have limited ride routes for the tranny group.  if you have any ideas, let me know and we can map them for you.  a bit of variation helps keep it going.  on sunday, the usual ride leaders will be possibility doingother things.  the ride will still be on, but make sure you all know the route, as you may be called on to step up and take care of business.

saturday 25th june

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 saturday41.18km (reverse river ride)

fast, main 1, 2 & 3 – spr saturday 48.67km (cresswell & herdsman)

sunday 26th june

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 87.72km (kahuna & peet & patterson)

NCAS CycleSkill Coach Course

7 Comments

in order to increase the safety and develop the skills of the riders in spr, we would like to offer to send some people on a cycle skills course.  this is a level 0 coaching course and is the prerequiste if you want to go on to develop as a cycling coach.  the club is willing to pay for the course and so we are looking at who is interested. 

however, this isn’t a free lunch and if the club pays for your course, you are expected to give something back in return.  in this case it means putting some of those skills to good use by being a ride leader.  for those that are already ride leaders, then we would encourage you to sign up.  in fact, preference will be given to those people that are already ride leaders.  as we don’t have any “club coaches” at the moment, this is the first step in getting the required skills to allow the club to develop fully.

details are below, and add your name to the comments. (if your login is a nickname, then real name will be needed)

 

2011 CYCLING WA NCAS Cycleskill coach course:
Saturday 16th July 2011, 8.00 am – 5.00pm
Department of Sport and Recreation, Vincent Street, Leederville.

Training Room, enter from North side.

NCAS CycleSkill Coach Course is specifically targeted at the coach who desires to assist novice cyclists in the areas of bicycle skills, road worthiness, the correct choice and fitment of cycling equipment and optimising bicycle set up using existing equipment.
Topics covered include: Coaching Philosophy; Coaches roles and responsibilities; Elements of a training Session; Managing risk; Athlete development; Bike road worthiness and safety; Cycle Skills Evaluation.

More information about the Cycling WA and Cycling Australia coach accreditation is available here: http://www.cycling.org.au/?ID=20154
Cost $170, Cycling Australia membership required
Registration Form and payment due Monday 4th July 2011 with payment. Limit to 14 places first in first served, minimum 8.

The Telethon Adventurers

2 Comments

I don’t know if you are aware but I am going to France ( Chamonix Mont Blanc, my home) with the Telethon Adventurers in a few weeks.  We are attempting to climb the Mont Blanc (highest mountain of Europe at 4810m) from the 22 to the 30th of July.  We are raising money for childhood cancer research and the team is led by Rick Parish.  His son passed away of cancer this year at 4 years old of brain and spinal cancer.  I have decided to join the fight by donating my time for the adventure as having a 3 year old myself, I find it hard to express the feeling of losing a child.  We have a great website that is worth checking out and of course make a donation if possible.  I have just managed to get Hugh Jackman and Colleen Hewett on board as supporters of the cause.  I am sure as many of the SPR members could relate to the cause and you would do anything in your power to save your child.

www.theadventurers.com.au

To make a donation, just click on donate/our adventurers/christophe borrel ducroz and follow the instructions.  It is fully tax deductible and we have receipt available as well as a wrist band for every donations over $5.00 (life is a gift)

Thanks for your help,

Christophe