The State TTT is fast approaching. It will be held at Pinjarra on the 17th of October.
This is a State Titles competition, and as such entry is restricted to fully licensed CWA members. No day licenses will be available for this event. So if you want to ride get a license.
There will several categories open for our members to compete in including two masters categories as well as open mens and womens. Unfortunately we cant enter a mixed team, but the women only need to enter teams of three so we should be able to field a couple of teams.
If you would like to read about the event from last year click here, here, here and here!
There are also some awesome photos from last year here from Melvyn!
Details
Event: WA Team Time Trial Championships
Where: Williams Road, Pinjara
Cost: $35 for seniors and $25 for Juniors
Distance: A lazy 42kms
Peel Cycling Club are hosting the event this year and it would be great to get as many teams down there to support. Peel have hosted a number of races this year that our members have enjoyed.
If you are interested please put your name and preferred category in the comments below!
Bit chilly this morning, but there is the sense that spring is upoon us. The sun is up when I get to the carpark these days which is a good sign that things are getting warmer. Of course with spring comes the wind… the next excuse to stay in bed.
When we were ordered out nobody seemed to budge. I had promised myself I would try the fast group today after missing last week with hydration issues. It was a small group that ended up rolling out of the carpark. It was an odd number, 7 or 9. Not sure. Nico and I jumped on the front and took the group all the way down to Shelly. I think we were thinking the same thing. Do the first pull, then conserve on shelly. As we hit leach Nico noticed that Ryan had joined us. An ominous pink blur at the rear of the group.
Shelly got the heart pumping immediately. The group rolled through very smoothly though with no one missing a beat. We sat on around 42km/hr through Shelly. I was unsure of where the finish of shelly was, having never ridden it reverse before. But the climax was quickly signalled by a distinctive woosh woosh of carbon wheels under a distinctive pink blur.
I sat on the back down leach with Daniel in tow, and vice versa, trying to get the heart rate down before the rollers down at Freo. I’ve been popped on those rollers before, but today I felt I had a chance of making it. Managed to stay with the boys over the rollers and even took a turn or two before the turn onto Stirling.
From Stirling I just I had one thing in mind. Survive Mosman. I did, only just. Turned myself inside out through the speed bump section of mosman to stay in contact. The pink blur disappeared up the road, far enough to show us that he could.
Dalkeith/Nedlands was rather tame. The headwind has that effect. A few surges along the way but nothing too serious.
I had a blast playing cat and mouse with Ryan along Mounts Bay, tried to hamper his surpriseattack tactics, but to no avail. The pink blur took line honours, woosh woosh, a fitting end to his birthday ride.
I just wanted to put up a post to see if there are any juniors out there amongst the members families… I have a young cousin who is 10 years old and looking to do some group riding. She has been doing the Wheat-Bix triathalon stuff and wants to keep up the riding part of it. Her Mum thiks she could do about 20km at 20 km/hr. Her main concern is just how comfortable the kiddies are riding on the road.
So are there any parents out there with kids sleeping in on Saturday mornings?
And just a caveat on this post – I am not sure what needs to be done to get this off the ground. I assume a junior group would need to be chaperoned by two parents, have a stable route so people don’t get lost, and would need really cool mini-sized spr kits.
I don’t think it is a requirement to have people involved with working with children clearances, but I would assume its preferable. We may also want to have a certified coach on board in the future too. Although, again, I don’t think these are requirements, just preferences. No reason we couldn’t get started without one though.
Just a quick post to remind everyone why we have pockets on the back of our jerseys. They are there to hold everything you need to survive a ride – gels, bars, bananas, phones, cash and whatever else might be required. But…
they are also there to bring back all of your empty wrappers and rubbish!
On this mornings ride there was a little incident involving an empty gel being discarded on the side of the road. We want to make sure the club is always presented in the best way so please make sure that everything you take out with you on a ride you bring back.
First spring ride of the year! Come on warm weather…….
Fathers Day on Sunday too! Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads!
You may have already noticed the capital letters in this post, and deduced that Peter is not at the helm. El Presidente is in the jungles of Brazil looking for oil or gold or something else on which Julia would levy a tax. So I have inherited the responsibilty of posting the weekends ride routes.
Racing
Friday – Track racing is on again this Friday night. This is the second to last round of the winter season before Track Cycling WA breaks up. The summer season starts late October. So your chances to get your track fix are running out.
Saturday – PDCC graded scratch at Baldivis. 2pm start. Pancake.
Sunday – ATTA at Champion Lakes
Ride Routes
Someone mentioned Benara Rd over the weekend. Got me thinking how much I like that ride. So we will be hitting Benara Rd on Saturday. For the sake of making this easy for me I’m going to send the fast group & main 1 all down Benara Rd. This might help lure a few more people into the fast group with the promise of being picked up by the following group chasing behind.
The course is a little different. This we now turn right on Morely Drive, left on Alexander Drive which we follow down to Vincent Street. Vincent across to Loftus, down past Kings Park, through Claremont and then the normal Dalkeith and Nedlands home.
Main 2 will do the same route with a short-cut at the end. No Nedlands for you!
Look forward to seeing who steps up.
I have left all the other groups the same, thought I’d play it safe and hopefully send people down a route they remember.
Saturday 4th September – all rides start at Coode St carpark at 7:00am
Fronted up for my first Cyclo Sportiff on Sunday. I was under the impression that sportiff’s were meant to be participation rides, where the aim of the game was to finish as a group and have a nice morning on the bike. Well, that was not exactly true. It turned out to be murder on the asphalt!
Our team – Ride it like you stole it – departed at 9:13 and immediately hit a strong headwind straight in the face. It was strange, none of us had noticed the wind before the start, but as soon as we started rolling we certainly did.
Surrounded by Jason, Ainsy, Jonny, Jonno, John, Davin, Gordo and Carlos – full of fire and vitriol, or just ignorant of what lay ahead, we smashed the first few kms into the wind. We caught our first team after 3 km, then another at 4km and another at 5km. It wasn’t long before we had caught the EBT team and the other SPR team too.
However, the fast start would take its toll. Carlos started to go backwards on the undulations and needed a helping hand to get over a couple. Jonny started to lose conciousness on the hills too. Dizzyness on the climbs is never a good thing.
We turned for home and with a brisk tail wind we powered along to close out our first lap. Jonny dissapeared as we went roaring past the carpark at about 50km/hr. Early day from him. Only 10 km later we would lose our second rider for the day. Jonno O’Grady Bolton got a flat and as we all quietly thanked the Lord for a quick repreive Carlos began to move a little gingerly. Turns out he started to cramp severely and oculdnt even get his leg back over the bike. We uncerimoniously stripped him of the timing tag and number and left him for dead on the side of the road. He was for the birdman.*
So down to 7 riders we pushed on again through the headwind on the second lap. It was such sweet relief to turn around into the tail wind that sighs of sweet relief probably floated on the stiff breeze to be heard at the finish line. Ahhhhhh..
With the winds on our back and the sun starting to warm us Jason and Ainsy set about lifting the tempo. We motored along in the high 40’s all the way back to the turn around. With about 20km to go I started to really hurt. I was going as hard as I could, but I think I was only putting out about 80 watts. This meant that I could sit on the group on the flats, tucked neatly out of the wind, but as soon as the road went up I was going backwards. The shame of hands on the bum as we went over the hills felt like a heavy brick in the back pocket. Without said hands gently pushing me though I would probably still be out there…
With about 15km to go one of the most unusal cycling Shleckanicals occurred. I doubt I will see this again. Just before the turnaround we noticed a strange rattle coming from Ainsy’s bike. A few people suggested his saddle bag was loose. As we crested a climb he stood up to stamp the pedals when disaster struck. His seat fell straight off the bike and bounced down the road. I will speak no more of what he had to endure to make it home. But one can imagine… Poor Chris.
After all this. We made it home. 7th fastest on the road with an average speed of 33km/hr. It was a really tought day, but I think we all enjoyed ourselves and will be back for more for sure.
photos have arrived… but im waiting for a few more..
Here is some video from a recent track training session. You will see Chris ‘Daisy’ Ainsworth, Chicago Doug and Jason… ummm…. Jason…. doing some laps. enjoy.
This has now been moved to YouTube so everyone can see it 🙂
Last Friday night saw three SPR riders hit the boards for a night of racing on the Speed Dome. Mark H and Jason stepped up for their first race meet – which is always a nervous moment in a youg cyclist life. To their credit they kept their noses clean and demonstrated some good track craft that they have been developing over the last couple of months.
The meet was a special one, not just because SPR had two new riders on the track, but also because it saw the running of the first Hall Family Wheelrace. This race has been started to commemorate the Murray Hall’s son, Daniel, who in his time was a state champ track racer and sadly passed recently.
The Hall Family wheelrace was won both fittingly and convincingly by Stevie Hall, Murray’s younger son who is in great form at the moment. I was ecstatic to finish second behind him, followed closely by Mitch Benson. The presentation was interesting as Darryl Benson tried really hard to give second to Mitch – honest mistake :). Both Stevie and Murray said a few words after the race and both spoke very well. A nice moment.
The other races were run and won, with not a lot to report. A good night out with a step learning curve for the guys – followed by a pretty awesome burger at Alfreds Kitchen after.
Also a quick mention to NDCC Nick who raced B grade this week. He rode really well and managed to avoid a couple of wobbles from me.
We had four starters down at the Peed Districts race today, Paul O, Jason, Josh and Mike doing his first race. Paul, Jason and Josh took on the B grade field. They boys rode aggressively and and split the field around halfway through the race. Josh got into the front group of 3 and stayed with them till the finish. Jason rolled through for 4th and Paul came through a little while later for 6th.
Young Mike did himself proud in his first race and finished it off by himself – just out of the placings.
Friday night track racing is on again next friday.
It would be great to get as many people as possible down to the track this week as we will be passing the helmet around to raise a few bucks for Murray Hall who sadly had a loss in the family recently. Murray has been very kind to everyone from SPR of the last few months so we would like to help him out however possible.
To show our support for Muzz we want what he always wants – which is as many bums on bikes at the track and bums in seats in the stands as possible.
There is a small but select group of SPR riders that have quietly been attending track sessions over the last few months and building their skills nicely. This is your call step up and come try some racing this week.
For everyone else if you can spare a couple of hours come down and watch Team Green on the boards.
Racing starts around 7pm and finishes at about 9pm. If anyone is keen we might head to Alfreds Kitchen after racing for a big dirty burger to round out the night.