Report by Paul.

If you are into cycling, and unless you live under a rock, you would have know the Tour De Perth was on last weekend – 4 stages over 3 days showcasing some of the best cyclists from this state and country.

 
For the rest of us that aren’t up to the elite level required for the TdP, there were some support criteriums held on Sunday between Stages 3 & 4. I had never competed in a criterium before so I thought this would be a great chance to give it a go. I watched the TdP criteriums on Friday night and it was quite frightening the speeds the girls & guys were doing…especially around corners.

 
So Brettski, Daniel H. and I decided to race the Men’s Support B criterium. It was to be 30min + 1 lap. The 1.2km course used the last 300-500m on Perry Lakes Dr to the TdP finish line then loop onto a closed road internal to Alderbury Park. The internal road was rough…potholes throughout…covered in those pesky honky nuts (gumnuts for you eastern staters)…oh and there was also the added challenge of three speedbumps to negotiate at high speed 🙂

 
So after numerous warm up laps waiting for the juniors to finish, we waited at the start/finish line for our smashfe st. We were running about half an hour behind when they sent us out for a warm up lap (again). You could feel the tension in the group as we went around at about 28km/hr, I’m sure everyone was making mental notes on potholes, sharp corners, inclines…places were someone may attack.

 
My objective was very simple – stay upright and try to be with the pack on the final lap.
Due to being behind on time, our race was reduced to 25min + 1 lap. The first lap was quick and the legs were burning. As predicted as soon as the bunch got onto the smoother surface of Perry Lakes Drive the speed picked up even further, plus we had the aid of a tailwind…we were at 50+km/hr and strung out in a line. At this point my thoughts were mostly how the feck am I going to hold on for another 20 min?

 
The first attack took place on lap three (?) along Perry Lakes Drive with the rider coming from the back half of the group. The guy attacked to the right side of the road, whereas the group was on the left side. Two more riders managed to jump on quickly. I was about 4-5 riders back and after a few seconds realised that no one else was going to chase and that if I didn’t go now we would lose them. So I took off in pursuit moving over to the inside of a slight right-hand bend…trying to use the shortest distance on the bend to make up ground. It wasn’t until I managed to get within a couple of bike lengths of them that I realised I had taken the rest of the group with me, but the benefit was that next on my wheel was Daniel. This turn of chasing had pushed me into the red with my heart rate maxing out. It was at this point that I didn’t know how much longer I would last but I managed to slot back into the middle of the group and take off a few beats from my HR and recover somewhat.

 
For the remaining laps there were two places on the course that the strong guys tried to unload as many riders as possible – along Perry Lakes Drive and as we came out of the first turn over a speedbump. It was all about positioning yourself in the front half and holding. There was plenty of argie-bargie and elbows rubbing along with the usual ‘words of encouragement’ between riders but fortunately no one went down. I was relieved and nervous when the bell rang for the final lap – relieved as it was the final time I had to get around this loop with my ring hanging out, but nervous cause I knew the pace would increase once again. Daniel had pulled up next to me just before the final lap and asked how I was doing – he looked as though he had a bit left in him.

 
The final lap I was just hanging on and was out of gas. I managed to hang on to the front 8-10 riders along the final stretch to the finish but didn’t have the big kick in the sprint to match it up front. Daniel got himself into a great position and managed to hang on for 3rd…great to see SPR on the podium.

 
I really enjoyed the race and it was pretty much as I expected it would be – very fast with no let up at any point. I’m looking forward to doing some more criteriums. For those of you that are into details, the total km’s raced were 18.75km with an average of 39km/hr…my average HR was 176 bpm (85% of max) with a max of 195 bpm…literally my max!!

I now have even more respect for the elite guys who raced for 50 min + 3 laps at higher speeds.

To all of SPR

A BIG BIG BIG thankyou for your support for those who you all know and love! that were riding in the tour de perth.  I cant tell you how it felt to hear your cheers especially when your head is say WTF am I doing and this is a faaaaast crit and not Kings Park hill AGAIN!

Every corner that was turned there was a voice shouting….

There were plently of lessons and experiences learnt – my main one was reaching the food station taking another bottle of water without realising I hadnt chucked the last bottle out and I was on a hill with one bottle in my mouth (whilst trying to suck in any amount of air as possible as I WAS ON A HILL!!) one hand trying to fish around for the empty bottle to chuck out and then one hand on the handle bars trying to climb in a straight line……….. geez people underestimate the talents that cyclists need 😉

Again a big thankyou

Lisa

we recently signed a memorandum of understanding with teschner bikes to provide support for us to run a men’s and women’s elite race team for 2010.  it involves teschner providing 2 top end frames to our club to sell to raise funds to kit out the new teams. 

to provide a greater awareness of the brand within our group, we would like to sell them to current spr riders rather than just on ebay.  their current flagship frame is the SL9 and will be arriving mid december.  currently retailing for around $3,700 we would hope to provide this to a buyer from within the group for a discounted price.  also, if there are more than 2 people that want frames, we can organise a club purchase and hopefully get a better discount. 

if anyone out there is interested, send me an email and i will give you a bit more information.

By Dr Ronny

I thought I would write this up as I haven’t seen a ride report from the Novice group for a while and I was pleasantly impressed with the ride this morning.  Firstly, I must apologise for not knowing everybody’s names but I will try harder next week. That is, I intend to actually make the briefing to introduce myself. Anyway, after arriving at the carpark just as the main groups were leaving, we (Emma and I) caught the Novice Riders and set off.

Not more than 2 minutes into the ride it began to drizzle and I began wishing that I had gone East with the main group where the weather looked a lot brighter. Fortunately, the “rain” stopped and before long the drops on my stem and handlebars were gone.

The ride down the freeway bike path was easy going with the tailwind. We turned off at the Canning Bridge and I was informed that we would skip the one “hill” today and head straight for Shelley as we had a newbie in the group (sorry, name unknown). By now, it was turning into a beautiful morning and once we got to Shelley, we began our roll through. It was pretty good (at least, better than I expected and certainly not the worst I have seen) and we made good time to get to the end of Shelley. We had a quick stop and decided to head back with a similar roll-through. As expected, the roll-through with a cross-headwind was a little less pretty and there we often gaps and riders going at different speeds within the same paceline. I began pointing out the gaps and trying to get a more constant speed in each line going. This seemed to work well and the ladies were fast to pick up on any tips. By the end of this short section, the roll-through looked much better till we got to the slight uprise before the finish and we split up a little. It was at this time that Emma told me her bike wouldn’t shift down. At the regroup I tightened the rear derailleur cable and we headed off only to find that I had made it worse. We stopped briefly to loosen it a quarter turn and headed off after the group which were now 75 metres ahead. Once again, no luck with the shifting so I sprinted across the gap and gingerly asked the others to pull over for a second.

It took about 2 minutes to sought it out and I’m pleased to say that the shifting was fine after that. We got back onto the bike path to find a strong crosswind and as a result, rode steadily back. I was especially pleased with the sensible riding of the ladies when we got near the Mill St onramp to find an ambulance helping a man who had fallen off and cut his face and elbow. We stopped for a second (enough time to see that a trainee radiologist and paediatrician were of absolutely no help) and then headed for coffee.

Thanks to all the ladies for the great ride. Not as much “juicy” gossip as I would like but I will be sure to join you again for another outing. The relaxed pace is a nice change for anyone who wants to join.

by jonny

Well after a quick look at the blog I have noticed that nobody has taken up Pete’s offer to write up the adventures of the fast group, so here goes. Nobody wants to be reminded about all those light again so I will start from where the fast and main group split. Actually I think the title Fast groups may be more appropriate. I am not certain but I think we must have set a record between the fast and main group splitting and the fast group splitting from itself !

As we turned into Ewan St I’m sure I wasn’t the only one surprised by the climb ahead. Somehow I had not yet had the pleasure of discovering this climb but Pete seems to have a talent for finding them and this one did not disappoint. I actually climbed quite well and over the top I was 5th behind Ryan, Julian, Jerry, and Frank from Adelaide. Frank had actually checked out the blog while in Adelaide and decided to join us next time he was in Perth. At the top I looked back down to see a lot of carnage and a very split up bunch.

Once over the top there was a bit of confusion as to which way to go. Where are all the Garmins when you need them ? We did though find our way back onto West Coast Hwy and a small group got through the lights to form a breakaway. Now I know it may be a bit controversial that we kept going but out of the six of us away; four of us were at the front over the first climb and I’m sure Daniel and Chris who joined is in the break wouldn’t have been too far away over the top. Once we decided to go we actually went quite hard and rolled through at high speed. We all worked well together but when we got to the Boulevard it was more a case of work when you can and recover when you can. Climbing back up Oceanic Dr we lost Daniel who had been working hard beforehand and couldn’t quite stay with us. There was a bit of a headwind up the hill and when the elastic goes it’s hard getting back.

Back onto West Coast Hwy again I was actually starting to enjoy myself. It’s a great feeling when you are riding hard close to the limit but know you still have gas left in the tank if you need it. Again everyone worked well and if they couldn’t help on the uphills would help on the flats and downhills. As we turned off WCH I looked back for the first time and noticed Steve had got across. I did not see anyone else but I did hear the chasing groups did have us in sight and we were not home and dry.

The rest of the ride was pretty un-eventful with us sticking together and nobody trying to attack or break up the bunch. As we entered Mounts Bay Rd I decided to be the domestique and led. At this point I knew I wasn’t going to win the sprint plus after working together since Scarborough it was nice to all finish together. Ryan took off up the road to pass the sign post first.