Our Women Interests Subcommittee is doing some excellent work, most recently running an afternoon session on food and nutrition – Fueling for Endurance.
Thank you to Nutritionist Lesley Burch and Passionate Foodie Mandy McEvoy who ran the session. I have it on good authority that everyone had a wonderful afternoon, walked away with plenty of healthy and cycling-relevant food ideas.
I invite all women to join our SPR Chicks Facebook Group keep in touch, and look out for upcoming events.
SPR Kit Order Arrival – This week is good news on the SPR kit front.
We have two kits orders available for pickup this Saturday at Dome after the ride.
Our most recent SPR kit order
Our sponsored Tour of Margaret River 2021 kit
The regular SPR kit order will be available from R&D Speedshop Claremont from 1pm.
SPR Team Time Trial – This year we have changed location of the team time trial to the Shire of Jarrahdale, on a course similar to Stage One for the Tour of Margaret River.
The Perth Dauphane to the TOMR.
Teams of 6 riders (minimum 4 riders) and the 4th rider will stop the clock. Teams will be released on regular intervals of between 1 and 2 minutes.
It is a great warm-up for the Tour of Margaret River to train your team skills.
From the Ride Coordinator – So for those very long time members or perhaps those waiting in anticipation for “the call up”, you may be wondering why we haven’t seen an announcement around a call for expressions of interest in ride leading. And the reason is pretty simple, we need the time to do it justice.
We are very proud of both the history of our ride lead programme and our current crop of dedicated volunteers who help guide our weekly main rides on Saturdays and “unofficially” represent us on weekly training rides. As a club, the programme helps differentiate ourselves from other riding clubs and is a central element in the delivery of our core values of safe, inclusive, organised and social.
Given the importance of the programme we didn’t just want to “shoe horn” it in between the Tour of Margs and Christmas time. It was traditionally a tight timeline to complete, and inevitably rain affected, so we have decided to move the programme to February next year. So if you are thinking of wanting to join our band of ride lead volunteers, we will put the call out before Christmas and begin the training programme in the new year.
Saturday 16th October
Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
I want to sent a shout out to our Tour of Margaret River Teams this week. We have a huge number of teams entered this year including 3 women’s teams and 6 men’s teams. Not to mention SPR members riding in a range of teams in and around the Perth cycling community.
For my part, our team spent last weekend in Nannup testing out our legs on the team time trial stages of TOMR 2021. See photographic evidence below. The South West of our state is beautiful this time of year. I won’t pretend to be the expert when it comes to team time trials but I can tell you that practicing with your team is worth the time spent – in particular for us adjusting the pace and power output to cater for the individual team members.
I also want to put out a call for a female rider to join the SPR Women’s 1 Team.
PS I went looking for more photos and did not find lots… feel free to share training photos to the SPR group so I have more to choose from next time 🙂
SPR Team Time Trial – This year we have changed location of the team time trial to the Shire of Jarrahdale, on a course similar to Stage One for the Tour of Margaret River.
The Perth Dauphane to the TOMR.
Teams of 6 riders (minimum 4 riders) and the 4th rider will stop the clock. Teams will be released on regular intervals of between 1 and 2 minutes.
It is a great warm-up for the Tour of Margaret River to train your team skills.
Fuelling for Endurance – Come join Nutritionist and Executive Coach, Lesley Burch and Passionate Foodie Mandy McEvoy (both SPR Women) for an interactive afternoon in the kitchen discussing how to fuel for more than the Saturday club ride. Recipes will be demonstrated and up for sampling, plus you’ll walk away a few little goodies designed to keep you energised whilst cycling and recovering well so you can keep turning those pedals!
From the Ride Coordinator – OK, so if you are a regular reader of this part of the blog (well done for getting down this far) your going to have a sense of deja vu in reading tonight’s post. If this is the first time that you read that the start times for all but one of the Sunday Hills rides is changing this weekend then perhaps you missed last weeks post. But because we are keen to make sure there is no confusion for anyone, and we don’t want to disappoint, we need to reiterate it again this week.
Our start times departing the Coode Street car park for this weekends Sunday Hills are as follows:
Sunday Short Hills and Sunday Long Hills – 6am
Sunday Short Hills Social – 7am
The primary difference between Short Hills and the social variant is speed and there are more regroups in the social short hills. The new difference is the start time for Summer. All rides will revert back to a 7am start from March onwards.
If you are a regular hills rider on Sunday, please have a chat with your fellow regulars and ask if they are aware of the change as we want to make sure everyone is informed.
Saturday 9th October
Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
This week I wanted to highlight what it means to be part of SPR. On one hand, it provides a way to belong and to contribute to a community that has formed around cycling and healthy living – captured in the club’s core values.
Safe. Inclusive. Organised. Social.
Another way of thinking about being a part of the South Perth Rouleurs is to think about what value you as a member receive: Things like safe and organised group rides, support & assistance participating in the sport of cycling – whether just learning or competing in racing across a range of disciplines – or taking part in community events ranging from purely social through to health, nutrition and lifestyle events.
There is also some formality to being a member. SPR is an affiliated AusCycling club – the national cycling organisation – and your membership fee gets you insurance and licensing which covers your riding, training and racing (depending on the license type you choose) as well as a small contribution to the club to enable it to do all of the things that it does. We also provide avenues for those who are members of other cycling-related organisations to join the club – see here for all the details.
Rather than write lots more, I have pulled together a range of images that provide a snapshot of what being a part of SPR is all above.
Enjoy.
An SPR member
Organised and safe group rides
Ride leaders
Doing it together
Coffee
Glorious group rides
More group rides
Racing and achievement
Off the bike
Lots of group rides
Challenging yourself
Group rides, at whatever pace
Health and nutrition
The Tour of Margaret River
Support at events
Belonging to a community
You and your bike
Support and camaraderie
All the cool kids
Crits
Travel
Community events
More crits
SPR Team Time Trial – This year we have changed location of the team time trial to the Shire of Jarrahdale, on a course similar to Stage One for the Tour of Margaret River.
The Perth Dauphane to the TOMR.
Teams of 6 riders (minimum 4 riders) and the 4th rider will stop the clock. Teams will be released on regular intervals of between 1 and 2 minutes.
It is a great warm-up for the Tour of Margaret River to train your team skills.
Fuelling for Endurance – Come join Nutritionist and Executive Coach, Lesley Burch and Passionate Foodie Mandy McEvoy (both SPR Women) for an interactive afternoon in the kitchen discussing how to fuel for more than the Saturday club ride. Recipes will be demonstrated and up for sampling, plus you’ll walk away a few little goodies designed to keep you energised whilst cycling and recovering well so you can keep turning those pedals!
From the Ride Coordinator – Anybody notice the light starting to creep back in on our EBRs? Anyone else thinking that it’s not quite as cold as it use to be when you first leave the house in the morning either? Tell me you noticed those (b)easterlies blowing us back down Benara Rd last weekend! These are sure signs we are moving closer to summer riding conditions.
With that we wanted to signal an upcoming change to our Sunday Hills rides start times. So from NEXT weekend (ie Sunday 10th October) we will be changing the start of our Long and Short Hills rides to a 6am start from Coode Street. This will continue all through to the end of Summer – with our last official ride at the earlier time slot being Sunday 27th February. One exception to this will be the Sunday Short Hills Social group, who after consultation with the current regular riders are keen to leave their departure from Coode Street to 7am until well into summer itself. We will post further advice on the change to this groups start times in the future.
So for all you Sunday Hills fanatics, enjoy your last Saturday night out late with a mini sleep in, because it all changes next weekend. (edited)
Saturday 2nd October
Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
For those that joined us last Sunday for the Water Tower Challenge, thank you. For many, it was an opportunity to get out on a longer ride they have attempted before. If not the longest. With support and excellent company on the journey. And it turned out to be pretty much the perfect day in terms of weather.
With two options – the Imperial (170km and 1,800m of climbing) and the Metric tonne (103km and 1,300m of climbing) – there was something for everyone.
Thank you to Steve Burns and our volunteers on the day for making it a wonderful event.
SPR Team Time Trial – This year we have changed location of the team time trial to the Shire of Jarrahdale, on a course similar to Stage One for the Tour of Margaret River.
The Perth Dauphane to the TOMR.
Teams of 6 riders (minimum 4 riders) and the 4th rider will stop the clock. Teams will be released on regular intervals of between 1 and 2 minutes.
It is a great warm-up for the Tour of Margaret River to train your team skills.
From the Ride Coordinator – This long weekend SPR has a plethora of ride options for you to consider across all 3 days – both off road and on road !!
Off road I hear you ask? Well yes we cater for that with our regular Sunday monthly gravel ride scheduled up for this Sunday. And by the look of the weather forecast, this Sunday is looking “wet wet wet”. You too can feel the mud in your fingers and possibly in your toes too. For the children who never grew up – this ride is for you! Come join us at 7.30am opposite the Darlington Post Office for some wet weather fun.
But before we get to Sunday, we have the return of those “beasterlies” starting again this weekend, so we will schedule one of our favourites to finish with that wind behind us – Benara Rd! Other than the wind, Saturday is looking like it’s going to be a cracker.
And finally, if you haven’t had enough of the wind, the rain and the mud and you’ve got something left for the public holiday, then there is always the public holiday ride to try. Let’s hope we get enough of a clear window in the weather on Monday so we don’t get wet. If we do, it may be the last dry weather ride for a few days thereafter.
Whatever cycling that you do, please be safe and look after your fellow riders.
Saturday 25th September
Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
“If you intend to drive a car for several hours, it wouldn’t make much sense to start that drive with the fuel light on. It’s going to be far more efficient for your drive to put enough petrol in the tank”. The same thinking can be applied to going on a long hills ride or taking part in a multi-day cycling event.
Come join Nutritionist and Executive Coach, Lesley Burch and Passionate Foodie Mandy McEvoy (both SPR Women) for an interactive afternoon in the kitchen discussing how to fuel for more than the Saturday club ride. Recipes will be demonstrated and up for sampling, plus you’ll walk away a few little goodies designed to keep you energised whilst cycling and recovering well so you can keep turning those pedals!
Lesley is a passionate and experienced Executive Coach, Qualified Nutritionist and Mentor focused on building women’s resilience with a deeply personal approach to restore calm and strength. Her clients incorporate nutrition, focused rest, stress cycle techniques and inner foundational work to optimise wellbeing and performance.
Growing up in a premier Perth Hospitality family, Mandy was always destined to be a Foodie. She honed her talents working in and around her family businesses and doing some catering through university but shunned Commercial cookery for Financial Markets, while he also learned about the examples of paystubs for the payments on the business. Meanwhile, she also learned about the examples of paystubs for the payments on the business, keeping a keen eye on Invest Diva reviews. Quite the diverse palette she’s developing!
Mandy describes cooking as her creative outlet and has had a long volunteering history loving her years at The Big Issue HQ in Melbourne cooking for vendors and teaching them about good nutrition. Since returning to Perth she has been active with Foodbank and Oz Harvest and has recently joined the volunteer team cooking Community Lunches at Earthwise.
Mandy firmly believes food has the ability not only to nourish but more importantly unite people and is passionate about Sustainability, including eating seasonally, using what you have (a “leftover queen”) and living a low waste, single use plastic free life.
SPR thanks these knowledgeable women for giving their time for the benefit of our members. Using online retail graphics services will allow you to push your customers closer to a sale without being pushy. Remember, with good signage, the tiniest tweaks can make all the difference.
This year we have changed location of the team time trial to the Shire of Jarrahdale, on a course similar to Stage One for the Tour of Margaret River.
The Perth Dauphane to the TOMR.
Teams of 6 riders (minimum 4 riders) and the 4th rider will stop the clock. Teams will be released on regular intervals of between 1 and 2 minutes.
A little bit about the course: The time trials start initially sending riders Eastwards out along Nettleton Rd, before heading northward and downhill. The turn around is at the cnr Nettleton and Old Brickworks Rd and teams will head back with some uphill battles ahead. The course is a challenging 31km out-and-back riding over an undulating quiet rural road with total climbing over 440m.
It is a great warm-up for the Tour of Margaret River to train your team skills.
SPR Water Tower Challenge – We are back for the SPR Water Tower Challenge 2021 Edition after a great event last year.
This Sunday, for those that have entered… enjoy!
From the Ride Coordinator – OK so it’s official if the forecast is correct that Spring will be sprung this coming week with a Wednesday forecast in the high 20s and an overnight temperature for those Wednesday SPR Stock Rd repeat die hards (you know who you are!!) of 13 degrees. Yes that’s right, 13 degrees. So if you’re training for the ToMR and Steve Burns hasn’t “burnt you bad” (see what I did there 😀) on the Tuesday training session, come join us for some more pain and no doubt a cracking sunrise that you’ll notice change every repeat. 5.30 meeting at Raffles for all those that are interested and we’ll have you back there around 6.50 or 7.20 if you stop for coffee.
So to the immediate task at hand, the routes for this weekend. Sunday will see the return of some of our newest but more popular hills rides up the ZigZag and beyond. Weather forecast is improving as the week goes on so hopefully there will be little moisture left by the time we get to Sunday.
Due to the northwesterly on Saturday, we will circumnavigate one of Perth”s greatest parklands – Reabold Park. It’s a beautiful ride if you’re not staring at the wheels in front of you for the entire time and Hay Street has now opened both lanes of traffic so hopefully there won’t be any holdups through Subi. At this point it’s looking like the weather window might stay open long enough for us to not get too wet.
Early heads up, the Grand Final long weekend is the following weekend and in addition to the public holiday ride on the Monday, we will also be holding the monthly gravel ride on the Sunday. But more about that next week.
Saturday 18th September
Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
Newspaper clipping from Arthur Riddle’s collection
Many who have been part of the club for a few years now will remember the club’s association with the town of Beverley, and the historic Beverley Race that dates back over a century. In particular, club member Toby H ran The Beverley Heroic for 7 years and the club running a re-invention of the classic race in the town each October.
For a range of reasons in the current climate we have been unable to continue with these events (SPR is this year running a team time trial closer to home in Jarrahdale in October) but still love to maintain a link with this history.
So a little closer to home, and in commemoration of the finish of the classic race, the WA Historical Cycle Club is holding an exhibition celebrating this part of the rich history or cycling in Western Australia.
A little history on the race:
Tom Griffith’s scrapbooks,
Cycling related newspaper clippings and photographs from the 1930’s
Western Australia’s premier one day endurance race, first ridden in 1897, was contemporary with the Liège–Bastogne–Liège Classic (1892) and the Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic (1895). Originating on roads made for horse drawn carts, ‘The Beverley’ was founded by WA cycling legend Percy Armstrong. The 185km (116 mile) route followed the Avon Valley between Beverley and Toodyay before encountering the punishing hills and washed out culverts of the Darling Ranges, finishing more than 30 times at the historic Peninsular Hotel in Maylands.
SPR Water Tower Challenge – We are back for the SPR Water Tower Challenge 2021 Edition after a great event last year.
Ride against the clock in teams of 3, through the Perth suburbs in search of water towers. You will likely find water towers that you never knew existed and visit suburbs you do not usually ride through.
And remembering that water towers are built on the top of hills, you will have the opportunity to do some climbing as well – choose either the Imperial (170km and 1,800m of climbing) or the Metric tonne (103km and 1,300m of climbing).
This is a fundraiser for the club and helps support the Rider Leaders Programme that both members and non-members enjoy 365 days a year.
The event is open members and non-members.
All of the details are on the EntryBoss event page, which is where you sign up!
Find a team and get involved.
From the Ride Coordinator – Wasn’t it great to feel that sunshine last weekend and judging by the turn out of numbers in the car park on Saturday and Sunday it looks like quite a few of those who prefer to hibernate during the the cold have awoken from their winter slumber. We had great numbers across all groups and even had 3 main 2 groups last weekend. We also had quite a number of riders identify themselves as new riders and we hope they enjoyed themselves to give it another crack this weekend.
So it’s probably a good time for everyone to (re)familiarise themselves with the clubs expectations around riding etiquette which can be found here. Doesn’t matter if you are new to the club or been with us since the start, it’s always good to give this article a read as it sets out the expectations of riding on the club rides and reminds us all of things like good bike preparation, signalling and calling, not to half wheel whilst riding etc. Well worth another read and essential if you’ve never read it before. Ultimately it sets expectations on each rider who wants to ride with SPR not only for safety but also your enjoyment.
Saturday 11th September
Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
Frequency: Second Wednesday of the month, starting 8 September
Time: 10am meeting
Meeting point: Coode Street car park South Perth
Average speed: Expected 20-22kmh (no drop)
This will be a no-drop ride (stopping as many times as required to meet group ability), with all styles and levels of bikes welcome. Keep in mind that they will need to be compliant to Australian standards and fitted out to meet road riding laws including lights/reflectors front and rear and bell. Helmets are mandatory for all SPR rides. Water bottle or camelback essential.
This ride is intended to build skills and confidence to any person who is unable to make our main Saturday development or transition rides and will be lead by SPR ride leader.
SPR La Vuelta 2021 Dinner – The inaugural SPR dinner to mark the La Vuelta, last of the professional grand cycling tours in Europe was held at The Spaniard in Perth city. Twenty-five cyclists and partners attended with chorizos, tapas, paella and churros the fare for the night lubricated with Sangrias, craft beer and cocktails.
If you missed out on this event watch out for it next year.
SPR Water Tower Challenge – We are back for the SPR Water Tower Challenge 2021 Edition after a great event last year.
Ride against the clock in teams of 3, through the Perth suburbs in search of water towers. You will likely find water towers that you never knew existed and visit suburbs you do not usually ride through.
And remembering that water towers are built on the top of hills, you will have the opportunity to do some climbing as well – choose either the Imperial (170km and 1,800m of climbing) or the Metric tonne (103km and 1,300m of climbing).
This is a fundraiser for the club and helps support the Rider Leaders Programme that both members and non-members enjoy 365 days a year.
The event is open members and non-members.
All of the details are on the EntryBoss event page, which is where you sign up!
Find a team and get involved.
From the Ride Coordinator – Well here we are at the start of spring time and finally it looks to be a nice weekend to ride across both days of the weekend (WooHoo!!), albeit with chilly starts of 5 and 7 respectively. Time to layer up to get out there because as the mornings progress we are looking at a bit of fun in the sun.
With the better weather, usually comes swelling numbers so for those that have been riding regularly throughout winter, expect to see a few more numbers lining up in the carpark. Our ride leaders will be keeping an eye on group sizes in the coming months. Ideal numbers for each group are around 13-17. Anything over 20 can be difficult to manage and can lead to frustrations around ride speed, being split at lights, poor communications, lousy roll throughs etc. So please work with the leaders if they ask you to split into different groups according to group size as they aren’t doing it to displease you, they will be doing it so the group dynamic can be optimized so it’s more enjoyable.
So to this weeks ride route, it’s Stock Shelley, one of our newer and more popular ride routes. Winds will hopefully be lightish from the East so enjoy the Shelley roll throughs in the sunshine for a change (for those that ride Friday’s – you’ll know what I mean).
Whatever riding that you do this weekend enjoy it but make sure you do it safely.
Saturday 4th September
Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
We see today a return of the classic Mr Greg “Mo” Murray race report. With a huge turnout by SPR it was a huge weekend just gone of racing for the club, from first time racers through to our most experienced. Handing over to the Mo…
96th Collie-Donnybrook Return Handicap. A slightly embellished tale.
It’s time to properly celebrate the SPR Womens’ achievements in one of the oldest and most prestigious races in the country, this being the 96th running of the event. Booyah.
So, in case you missed it, SPR Chicks took first and second place in the Collie-Donnybrook on Saturday! SPOILERS..
Well, hello Old Friend. Opening scene: At 70km in, dropped from the group but pulling a bunch of others for no particular reason, I wondered to myself – why? Never gave myself a good answer. But how did we get here……. as with any of Tarantino’s decent pics (Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs) let’s take some license with timelines
It’s a curious thing – the handicapping for a Handicap event. Some are done well (like PDCC races, anyone?). SPR did the Beverley, it wasn’t too hard. Saturday left a lot of unanswered questions. Like why was an SPR D grade bloke was given a start in the 10-minute group? Indeed a fair question.
Questionable handicapping aside, there was a big list of proper hitters out this year. With a veritable army of SPR Chicks off from the Limit starters, this year’s ToMR Squad members were well represented setting off early – The Treas., Liz, Jane, Nicki.
The Silver Fox was starting off 27 minutes (aka the Silver Sandbagger), followed by Hanno at 22 min, Bex at 20, The Librarian, Paperback Writer, Ex-Prez and the Sooth-Efrican Connection at 18, Mo off a ridiculous 14 minutes. Further up the speeds, Bonner V2.0 and the Italian Stallion were set off with more Sandbagging A graders (favours for mates). Waaay up the list were JP, Richard Kimble, LagerBoy Braybrook, and Patrick Tractor-Williams. Hilariously Crofty was given a 10 min handicap, up amongst the A graders. Did we mention the handicapping? It was also great to see to the Original 2016 Beverley Handicap’s Golden Boy, Col Tierney!
Off we went, out towards the Ferguson Valley. Hanno made a much more positive start this year, managing to make the first sign posted, traffic managed, fully visible first right-hand corner 250m from the start and go the correct direction. It’s a big improvement on previous years. The Limit and early groups splintered and small bunches were across the course. Bec’s group, like a washing machine full of stinky kit and disorganisation (too many dudes searching for clues?) converged with Paperback’s group on Mumby Rd.
Meanwhile, the 14-ers suffered a virulent strain of won’t-work-itis and fell apart before the first hill, picked up by the pursuing group of V2.0 in no time and dispatching a Mo like the 1st December. 35km of solo headwind ensued. Character building, apparently. Mo met up with Crofty for a stint, before a rampaging 10 min group ate us up, like Kimberley reef sharks in a feeding frenzy. Which was then followed by Scratch – at the 38km mark. Handicapping, anyone? Scratch ripped the bunch apart like a space/time continuum rift in Dr Who, space shrapnel strewn everywhere. From there, it was every wheel for themselves. The sky wept with drizzling rain at the state of affairs. Why, oh why.
Meanwhile, up the road, Hanno, Ex-Prez, Paperback, The Librarian and Bec were still ahead of Cyclone Scratch, but not for long. By the turnaround, all was done – Scratch had the race lead.
Mo held place in a comet dust group blown off by Scratch, knowing SPR Chicks were still at the head of The Women’s race, however….. And. It. Was. On.
V2.0 was hanging with the fast boiz (hanging, dying – sometimes it’s hard to see the line between) and well and truly leading. Behind though, Paperback, The Librarian and Bec for SPR were in there with a Loner Dome-r, Chaotic blues and possibly some dark horses – who knew.
The Ex-Prez (Obama?) had been working with Bec and Paperback, using the tailwind that was so hard fought oppositely and was charging. Mo saw Obama, Paperback and Bec ahead. With one last, desperate, Beverley Heroic breath he screamed “BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCC!!!! GET OOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!” (picture this in dramatic slow motion for full effect….). Bec jumped from 30-odd to 50-odd km/hr, caught the wheel and was on board with Mr. Briefly.
Like Rose and Jack after the sinking of Titanic, there was only room for one on board. And so, Mo was cut adrift, left to gently fade off the back into the distance. And the heavens opened again. The gentle creep of wet made its way from the top of the sock, to the ankle, and slowly into the shoe as a final, damp cold insult to my feet. But Bec wasn’t perturbed by any sentiments. Mo time was followed by Go time.
Bec held the bunch for a solid 15km at bum-clenching speeds, along the way picking up The Sooth-Efrican Connection. But the rubber band was strained, and just like the elastic in Dad’s old faded Y-fronts, it let go (reminder: Fathers Day around the corner too. New jocks for the Old Boy please). Ploughing on, The Sooth-Efrican Connection morphed to the Hermann-ator and picked up Superhero duties, winding up the pace and coordinating the remainders into a working unit.
Mo had been collected and dispatched by several smaller groups, all in the box, all questioning life choices as the drizzle came and went. It may have been the changing of days, months, seasons for the way it felt. Wahoo says it was 20 minutes. Despite being abandoned (…Near, far, wherever you are, I believe that the heart does go on…..), it was hoped (thoughts and prays, Y’all) that Bec would stay away. But the Chaotic blues were chasing, and caught Mo on the Mumby rolls.
With the Mumby pub looming (hand ups, anyone? Anyone? Purleeese!) the group was organised and travelling at a good pace. Would they make the catch……
The ramps that make up Heartbreak Hill on the return, true to the moniker, made hard work of a arvo ride in the country. As far as one could see a head and behind was nothing but solo riders. And more drizzle. Bec had managed to get another smaller group working together for the homebound rollers. Some big units, all wanting to get home ASAP. And so they worked, and worked, and worked……
The win on the day went to Former National Road Race Champion Michael Freiberg taking the fastest time record. At 2:16:45. A little faster than us… just a smidge.
The aftermath
Results? Well.
V2.0 took an absolute barnstorming win in the Women’s, having started with a crazy fast bunch. Bias aside, Bec rode a cracking race. Forced to perform solidly and “work” in the teamwork with familiar and very unfamiliar bunches, SPR dug deep once the early madness settled to make a difference on the day. V2.0 was last seen inhaling Macca’s in the car park. Bec – well she blew the prize cash with Red 36 on the Roulette table. Vices, eh? Oh, and Patrick Tractor-Williams grabbed 15th overall.
With an odd split across start groups, the SPR A and B grade Chicks absolutely excelled. The less regular racer SPR Chicks turned up to what has been roundly talked up by the regulars as one of the hardest of Collie-Donnybrooks in memory. We came, we saw, we raced the Collie-Donnybrook.
SPR La Vuelta 2021 Dinner – Join us at The Spaniard on Wednesday the 1st September for the SPR La Vuelta 2021 Dinner.
See the SPR shop for the menu and all the details.
Tickets available now in the SPR Shop here. Numbers are limited, so if you are keen don’t delay.
Don’t forget the club’s monthly chicks coffee ride tomorrow. It departs from the Narrows North Side for 6.00am & finishes at Botanicals Cafe in Kings for 7.00am.
Come join us for a cruise or later for a cuppa if you’re free.
From the Ride Coordinator – Thought to take the time this week to reflect on just how lucky we are to be riding restriction free and sharing the experiences with our fellow riders at the coffee shop afterwards. Thoughts go out to friends and family interstate who are doing it a lot tougher than we are.
In the midst of it all, SPR is working really hard to introduce new initiatives for our members to cover the “broad church” we have in our membership base and beyond. Thanks to a recommendation from our motivated SPR Chicks crew, we are about to launch a new mid week, mid morning intro ride that will be lead by a ride leader once a month. Also this weekend we have our second instalment (first for many due to weather last time) of our monthly Sunday Gravel ride along the Heritage Trail with the optional extension out to Chidlow. On our short hills ride, we also have a regular ride group who call themselves “the happy hills riders” who ride the short hills route but at a slower pace than the group. Off the bike, we’ve introduced a Vuelta dinner/tapas which is in next week. We now have all the grand tours of Europe covered at the dinner table.
Which takes me back to the first point made. How lucky are we to be riding in groups and being able to mingle with fellow riders and friends. Let’s make the most of it whilst we can in these extraordinary times.
Saturday 28th August
Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
With things to write but running out of time to write them, I will hold off and use this week’s blog to announce SPR’s La Vuelta 2021 Dinner at the Spaniard and wish racers all the best for the 96th Collie to Donnybrook Cycling Classic being held this weekend.
For those of you keeping score, you will know that we had so much fun celebrating the Giro and the Tour that we decided to do it all again for the Vuelta.
To this end, SPR Community Development Committee Member Carol set about a research mission to find the most appropriate atmosphere and cuisine. We think you will be pleased with the result.
Join us at The Spaniard on Wednesday the 1st September for the SPR La Vuelta 2021 Dinner.
See the SPR shop for the menu and all the details.
Tickets available now in the SPR Shop here. Numbers are limited, so if you are keen don’t delay.
For all of those fortunate enough to make it onto the start list for the 96th Collie to Donnybrook Cycling Classic – it seemed to fill up very quickly! – do well and enjoy the race.
I know that a number of club members have a long history and lots of amazing memories connected to this race.
Enjoy!
Don’t forget that the club kit shop is open. It will close again on 22 August to allow a bit of extra time for shipping so that kit arrives in time for the Tour of Margaret River 2021 Edition.
Head to the club’s kit order page on the Mayeur website.
From the Ride Coordinator – Starting this week with a quick shout out to all those SPR members who won’t be with us for our main ride on Saturday but instead will be heading down for the annual Collie Donnybrook cycle classic. Good luck to all those in green who are participating. Hope the day is an enjoyable one for you all.
For me, the timing of this event as well as the Vuelta a Espagna signals we are coming to the end of winter so spring is almost upon us. For many of us, the training for ToMR starts to really ramp up and the club has a few events planned in between to assist you in that training (Watertower and TT here we come).
Hopefully also on the change is our lousy winter weather. Although we may just have to wait another week for something similar to last weekend (which was an absolute Jatz Cracker) with light showers predicted overnight and into Saturday morning. Hopefully the moisture stays away long enough for us to get to the top of Cresswell and back for a coffee. At the very least the forecast for Sunday looks better by the day.
Whatever cycling you choose make it enjoyable and safe one.
Saturday 21st August
Ride starts under the Narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
– choose either the Imperial (170km and 1,800m of climbing) or the Metric tonne (103km and 1,300m of climbing).
