Just a reminder today is the last day to register for the PCC. See you there.

Tonight was the first Tuesday since I sent out the invite last week for people to come and join the track attack.  I’m pleased to let everyone know that we had a great turnout tonight with nine SPR crew getting out on the boards.

Tuesday nights is great for beginners.  Murray Hall introduced himself to the newbies and within a very short amount of time had them all equipped with their machines for the night.  Murray, myself and Robbie (?) the young mechanic in attendance quickly had everyone’s pedals on and seat adjusted.

I took the boys for a roll around the infield while the juniors finished off their training session. We had quick chat and everyone seemed pretty nervous about getting up on the banks.  The quickest solution I could think of to put everyone’s nerves at ease was to get them straight up there!  So as soon as the track was open I lead the line of nervous newbies up onto the blue duckboard.  After a few laps we moved up onto the track and I was really happy to see everyone following me up. 

Once you’re up – you’re hooked.

Chris took to the track like a duck to water – straight into it and up high and fast on the Dome.  Barely saw him for the rest of the night – gone!  Mark H also looked pretty comfortable out there.

There are clearly some naturals among the group.  Young Jamie is deadly keen and looks like he’s got the right stuff to me.  It’s also going to be very difficult for him to drop his chain on a fixed wheel – a big plus!

Jason took a bit longer to get the feel for the boards – but by the time we finished the night he was smashing around the place like a pro.

From memory the rouleurs in attendance where: Chris A, Jason, Mark H, Jamie, Dan B, Mike the Mountain Goat, Zak, Daryl, Oliver, Dave S and myself.  Good group – but I think I forgot someone…

After the introductory laps I handed the newbies over the Murray and Bobby who took them through the rest of the night which included plenty of laps around the top of the track and a few pretty quickly ones too!

I will let the guys comment below about how they found the evening – by the smiles I saw I think everyone loved it.

Again let me extend the invitation to anyone else out there who would like to give track a go.  Get in touch and I’ll see you all on Tuesday again.

Cheers,

Toby

0404 545 729

– an invitation from Toby

The winter track racing season will commence on the 16th of April, only a couple of weekends away. 

We have had a few SPR riders flying the colours out on the Speed Dome in recent months.  So far, Dave S (who was kind enough to re-introduce me to the track), Alistair and myself have been making incursions into the c-grade races.  I would love to encourage a few more of the crew to come out and give it a try.

Track is cool.  High speeds, fixed wheels, big banks, close and tight racing and no breaks!  What isn’t to love?

The best bit about track cycling wa is that the guys who run the show out at the Speed Dome are extremely good and introducing first timers to the boards.  Last week I took one of our newer members, Nick G, out for his first time.  Despite never even seeing a velodrome before nor having his own track bike he had a great time.

Tuesday nights are basically introductory nights and general fitness sessions.  There are three or four supervisors on hand to teach newbies the basics, and to take you out for a few very gentle laps.  I guarantee that by the end of the first night you’ll be spinning around the boards like a pro and be totally hooked!!

I will also be on hand every Tuesday night to help ease you in and introduce to the instructors and officials.

For you roadies out there who don’t think track can offer anything to your current regime let me remind you that all of our best road stars (except Cadel) come from track backgrounds – O’Grady, the Meyer brothers etc.

If you are interested let me know and I’ll be glad to take you out.  I’m sure Nick will post a commet below about how much he enjoyed it!

As for racing – its on Fridays nights – but you have to do at least two Tuesday nights before you give that a try.

The Details

Day -Tuesday Evening

Time – 6:00pm

Duration – 2 hours

Venue – Speed Dome, Midvale

Cost – $10, or $15 includes bike hire

Contacts

Toby (SPR)

0404 545 729

tobyjbrown@hotmail.com

Murray Hall (Track Cycling WA)

0408881282

trackcyclingwa@ozemail.com.au

Links

Speed Dome

Track Cycling WA

This Sunday we had the special treat of having Phil Anderson come out on a ride with SPR.  He was there with Gary from Malvern Star to promote the new range of Oppy bikes that Phil has helped design.

Phil’s star power helped drag out a few extra riders, which meant wehad over 70 bikes ready to take on the hills with the pro!

I had the pleasure of taking one of the new C6’s out for a spin.  Gary was on hand to swap over pedals, and adjust the bike to fit my measurements etc.  I was impressed with his ability to remove my left pedal – I destroyed a pedal spanner earlier in the year trying to get it off.  Could of used a mechanic back then I guess.

Pete recruited Paul O and myself to look after the Intermediate group for the day.  Instructions were issues and the transitional group set off.  The Intermediate group set off shortly after, about 30 strong, and the calibre of the group was imediately elevated by the presence of the big man himself.  No, not Pete – Phil.

The first little hiccup came at the Canning lights where most of the group got through except for Phil, Pete, Paul and Dan B.  I called out for the peleton to ease up, but I was reasonably confident the pro level gruppetto wouldn’t have a big issue with closing the gap.  They didnt and we were soon back together.

After a few minutes on the Great Eastern we picked up the transitional group which almost doubled our numbers on the road.  A few more minutes along and we picked up Nicole – instantly classing up the whole scene.

The pace was relatively high through the Swan, perhaps a few guys trying to impress the big man.  It wasnt long till we farewelled the transitional group and began out climb up Darlington.

The climb starting interestingly for me.  Meg dropped her chain about 50m into the climb, which unfortunately resulted in her losing too much momentum and she gracefully landed on the bituman right in front of Ronny Phil and myself. I stopped briefly to help but Pete was already on the scene and looked to have everything under control.  So I set off again, just in time to see Phil disappear from view.

This was my first chance to give the C6 a good test.  I put my head down and started tapping out a rhythm.  The first thing I noticed about the bike was the Ultegra groupset is flawless.  As you would expect.  Changing through the cassette looking for the smallest gear was easy, even under full strain.  The standard FSA bars are nice and comfy on the top which is great for when you are chewing stem.

I started picking up a few riders on the climb.  Unfortunately the first one was Jamie who had also dropped his chain.  Probably a bit of a lesson here for the less expereienced riders – get out of the big ring before you need to.  There is nothing worse then throwing the chain off in the middle of the climb – good way to lose your nuts too!

Speaking of losing your nuts – Pete’s ride finished at the bottom of Darlington.  After stoppin to help Meg he remounted only to be met by a falling pedal stroke and a loud crunch.   Someone had done their own maintenace and not tightened up their chainring nuts properly.  When disaster struck only 1of the 5 nuts remained.  Result – damaged chainring and end of ride.  Pete is lucky to have Kate for emergency pickups.

Anyway,  I didnt stop for Jamie, Ive already put his chain on once in recent weeks, so I left him to do it himself.  I got my rhythm back and kept tapping the Oppy and picking up a few more riders.  I managed to get up to Lenny, and nearly caught Mino before the top – but alas he beat me.  There is an internal battle going between us – I think now its about 3-3.

At the top we stopped to regroup.  A few of the guys had a nature stop – including Phil.  I needed to go too, but I was afraid of getting pro-induced stage fright!  Over the top? Out the leg? How do the pro’s do it?  Too much pressure.

The Advanced group met us at the top and we sorted ourselves out.  The Intermediate group headed up to Greenmount towards the Great Eastern for the fast descent home.

This is where the Oppy C6 really started to show its class.  It was fast on the descent.  I mean really fast.  I started the descent last, threw the Ultegra into the biggest gear and started winding it up.  It wasn’t long before I started catching the riders.  I’m still think about this descent guys.  The Oppy was just so smooth and stable on the way down.  I think it’s a combination of the geometry, the over-sized bearing in the headset and the carbon soaking up the bumps.   Whatever it is, I kept spinning the machine all the way down easily catching and passing everybody before the bottom of the climb.  I was disappointed I didnt have a computer on board – I think I would have set a personal max speed record. Maybe 90km/hr.

A quick regroup  in Midland and we set off for home.  It was a quick return home down Guilford Rd.  The guys turned it up on the undulations and we dropped a few people as a result.  By the time we got back to the foreshore there was around 8 of us left.  The normal coffee places where full so a few of us had a coffee at the Boatshed at the Coode Street car park – had to kill some time before handing the bike back to Gary.

So thoughts on the bike….

Well to start with this was the Malvern Start Oppy C6 with Ultegra 6700 and Mavic Ksyrium Equipe wheelset.

The frame whole rig weighs in at 7.8kg. The C7 with Durace and a better wheelset trims another kilo off that.

The things I liked about this bike was the responsiveness of the machine when you stood on the pedals.  It was nice and snappy under power and seemed to love being thrown from side to side when sprinting.  It was also comfortable when cruising and performed well on the climb.

What I loved about the bike though was how it performed on the descent.  It was seriously that good.  Stable, fast and just felt extremely well balanced.  Exactly what ‘s needed when breaking the speed limit on the downhills.

There was only two small things I didnt like about it.  The first was the bars.  Although they are great on top, I found the drops to be a bit too shallow for my liking.  The other thing was the rear bottle cage.  I kept hitting it with my right calve, which was annoying.  Both of these problems could be really easily sorted with a couple of aftermarket changes.  The problem with the cage was probably my fault and due to my massive awesome calves.

Overall, for the price the bike is going to be pretty hard to beat.  Malvern Star and Phil have done a good job, and after just 60km I’m giving it some serious consideration myself.  I’m told that TBE in Belmont are doing it for just under $3000 which is good value in my book. 

I also like the fact that this is an Aussie bike.  That definately goes in my pro column.

If anyone has questions about it I would be happy to answer them.  See you on the road.

I thought this was pretty funny. Toby.

Video

The Pemberton Classic for 2010 is fast approaching.  SPR is sending an army of green rouleurs down to take on the challenging course in some of the most beautiful country in WA.  If you havent registered there is still some time – registration closes on the 24th of Feb – thats Wednesday next week.

Here is the link for registration:

Registration

If you are still on the hunt for accommodation you might want to try here:

Accommodation

There may still be some rooms at the Best Western too.

* I have mapped the road race route for those who are riding*

Map

Now here is the important bit – we have a casino pa natet number of SPR riders coming down who don”t have their kit yet – so hopefully for the last time before the new kit order arrives – we are putting the call out for kit donations.  I estimate we will need around 6 jerseys.  A couple of large and a couple medium would be great.  So if you arent coming to Pemberton please help us fly the flag by lending your spare jerseys to a rouleur in need.

Thanks!!

Toby

The Tuesday Transitional Ride will be on again this week. Scott and myself will be out there to help as required.
Make sure your loose items, such as lights and water bottles are well secured to prevent any bits and bobs from falling off en-route.

Time: 0530
Location: Under the Narrows Bridge, cityside

Toby

Map

Report by Toby.

If you have ever considered making the trip over to Adelaide for the Tour Down Under, then let me tell you that you stop thinking about it and start planning for 2011!

I’ve been to a couple of TDU’s, including the inagural one way back in the late 90’s – being the good South Australian boy that I am – but this years edition was definately the best ever.  Since it’s now UCI pro event and moreso since the big Mr. Armstrong has been showing up, the whole event has exploded.  This year estimates are that nearly a million people lined the streets of Adelaide and beyond to cheer on the pros.

I won’t retell the story of how the race unfolded, as I am sure you’ve all been following SBS’s crappy coverage, but I will tell you what my personal highlights were:

1) Hill top finish Stage 3 at Stirling.  Thanks to Mino, Dan and Tyson we managed to get a great spot on top of the hill, just 20m up from the finishing line.  The riders came through three times in total giving us lots of photo ops.  After the finish Mr. Armstrong cut a 90 degree turn and disappeared straight into his trailer.  I got a video. Sweet.

2) Mutual Community Ride.  Wow – what an event.  Officially there were 8099 riders taking past.  I did the full 160km with my cousin, departing Norwood at 6:30am.  Stupid SA has daylight savings so we were in darkness for the first couple of hours in Norwood.  Gorge Road is a s&#t of a hill and finishes off with some nice 12% sections.  After that it was full blast all the way through to Strathalbyn.  We were flying up until this point, but then the wind picked up.  And boy did it pick up.  At one point we had done a 10km stretch of road at about 13km/hr.  Ouch.  It was also hot.  I went through about 10 bottles.  There were plenty of drink stations along the way with water, Powerade and bananas on hand for exhusted riders.  Despite the well catered event though plenty of people cracked.  After about 120km we started counting the people on the side of the road calling the SAG wagon – we lost count – there were lots.  There were also a heap of punctures and a couple of little bingles along the way aswell – nothing that you wouldnt expect.  In summary it was long, hot, windy, hard and bloody awesome.  Sign me up for next year.

3) Willunga Hill Stage 5.  Its great to see the pros earning their money.  I was on the inside rail about 600m from the top of the KOM.  They were so close you could touch them.  Preferring not to touch them I cheered and took photos.  I just about lost my shit when Cadel came through solo off the front.  Great to see the rainbow flying like that.

I have put some photos below, but Mino was there with some serious hardware so I might add some of his photos later.

In summary – if you havent’ been you have to go.  It would be great to get a group over there next year – so book the annual leave now.